The Lovecraft Chronicles

by Peter H. Cannon, Jason C. Eckhardt (Illustrator)

An alternative history in the form of memoirs looks at the life of H.P. Lovecraft from the viewpoints of three people.

Genres: The United States Of America

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

An affectionate portrait, The Lovecraft Chronicles imagines the biography of an idealized alternate history H.P. Lovecraft in which he survives to the ripe old age of 80. In the universe described here, a few chance meetings and a little well taken advice saved Lovecraft from dying in obscurity in 1937, becoming instead a successful author and even Hollywood actor. Framed as a collection of memoirs from those who knew Lovecraft, two women who worked as his secretaries in 1930s Providence and England and a young fan in the 1960s, the work focuses on this imagined Lovecraft’s relationships with women. In each case, the narrators insert themselves into the “old gentleman's” life whether he wants them to or not, improving his circumstances in a flurry of feminine good sense (or, in the case of his best friend Frank Belknap Long’s insufferable new wife, Lyda, um, killing him).

This is the Lovecraft of much fan imagination, a genteel eccentric whose more unfortunate attitudes are mere quirks, easily remedied. Those antisemitic and racist sentiments he held in his youth are quickly challenged by this series of vivacious young women, leading to a much changed man. He even opts to volunteer to fight for the Republicans in Spain with George Orwell! Only the embittered Samuel Loveman is there to remind everyone what a racist he was, ruining the party.

All in all, an amusing but light work of friend fiction full of fun details, but has little critical to say about either Lovecraft’s works or his complicated legacy.

I write about other works that use Lovecraft as a fictional character in my article Lovecraft Reanimated at Fandom Fanatics.

[Karl]

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