The Necronomicon Files: The Truth Behind Lovecraft's Legend

by Daniel Harms, John Wisdom Gonce

What if a book existed that gave answers to everything you've ever wondered about? What would you do to learn its secrets? Tales of such books have been abounded for millennia and are legend in occult history. One of the most pervasive modern iterations is that of the Necronomicon, said to be a genuine occult text from the 8th century. The Necronomicon really is the creation of science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft (1891-"1937), in whose books the magic volume first appears in print. In The Necronomicon Files two occult authorities explore all aspects of the Necronomicon, from its first appearance in Lovecraft's fiction to its ongoing pervasive appearance in cult and occult circles. The Necronomicon Files reveals the hoax of the Necronomicon. Harms and Gonce show that the apocryphal history of the Necronomicon was concocted by Lovecraft to lend it verisimilitude in his fiction. The magical text was transformed into an icon among Lovecraft's literary circle, who added to the book's legend by referring to it in their own writing. People became convinced that it was a real book and its references in literature and film continue to grow. The book also examines what people have undergone to find the Necronomicon and the cottage industry that has arisen over the past three decades to supply the continuing demand for a book that does not exist.Scholarly yet accessible, humorous and intriguing, The Necronomicon Files illuminates the depth of the creative process and the transformations of modern myth, while still managing to preserve much of the romance and fascination that surrounds the Necronomicon in our culture. "Explores the legends and rumors surrounding one of the most famous literaryhoaxes of the twentieth century. "Tremendous word-of-mouth in the occult community--"Night Shade Books published a limited print run which is no longer available.

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction, Occult, Lovecraftian, Cthulhu Mythos

342 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Daniel Harms is a writer, author and librarian living in upstate New York.

Harms is best known for the books The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana: A Guide to Lovecraftian Horror (which won an Origins Special Achievement Award), The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia, The Necronomicon Files (co-authored with John Wisdom Gonce III), and The Long-Lost Friend: A 19th Century American Grimoire.

Harms work has appeared in publications such as The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, Abraxas, Fortean Times, Paranoia, and The Unspeakable Oath. He is the originator of The Shadow Over Usenet, a detailed online discussion of the works of H. P. Lovecraft. He is a lecturer on Lovecraft Circle literature and occult films and history, and his blog Papers Falling from an Attic Window provides commentary on these and other topics.

Reviews

[Timothy Mayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

To go into the history of the Necronomicon would take up more space than I care to use. Besides, the authors of The Necronomicon Files, Daniel Harms and John Gonce, have done a far better job than I could ever dream. Suffice it to say that the Necronomicon was a book of ancient magick which the writer HP Lovecraft used as a theme in many of his horror stories which he wrote in the 1920's and 30's. Although it never existed in material form, Lovecraft referred to it often enough that many people believed it to be a real book. And in 1979, Avon Books came out with a paperback edition.
I remember seeing the paperback edition because all I could think of was "WTF!?!". I did manage to buy the book, but later got rid of it, having no interest in ceremonial magick. I also considered the book a cheap fraud and a poor way to make money. A number of other people have also bought it. Enough to keep this edition of the Necronomicon in print.
NF is divided into a series of essays concerning this forbidden text. It consists of three parts: Literature, Occultism, and Entertainment. The literary section is authored by Harms. Gonce manages the occult and entrainment ones. Harms lists himself as a Lovecraft scholar, whereas Gonce is a practice occultist. The sections do reflect the interests of the authors.
The first section discusses the Necronomicon's place in literature. Naturally, this is mostly about the Cuthulu Mythos stories which Lovecraft wrote for Weird Tales and other magazines of the pulp era. Harms is mostly interested in the tales of lost grimories and other books which may have influenced Lovecraft on his creation. There's also a lot of biographical information on Lovecraft in this part.
Part two places the Necronomicon as part of the western occult tradition. Gonce has little time for people who want to believe in the actual, physical presence of a historical Necronomicon. He takes great pains to show how the likelihood of such a book existing is low. He also rips into the 1979 "Simon" Necronomicon, the one which Avon published and still publishes. This book he finds to be a bastardization of Sumerian religious beliefs. Gonce has more sympathy for writer Kenneth Grant's concept of an "astral" Necronomicon which would exist in a spiritual void.
The final section, on entrainment, is a lengthy discussion of all the places the Necronomicon has appeared in TV and film. This section would make a book in itself. Gonce has seen plenty of Lovecraftian film adaptations.
So where did this "Simon" Necronimicon originate? The authors feel it was money-making scheme cooked up by several people associated with a New York occult store. Known as The Magical Childe, this place was owned and run by Herman Slater until his death in the 1990's. The authors theorize that several people decided to take the whole Necronomicon idea of a lost book with infinite power and run with it. I wish the authors had spent more time following the clues here. Too much of their theory on the origin of the book is based on secondary sources or speculation. No smoking guns or wands.
Still, a very extensive book and worth reading.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you mean the Necronomicon is not real?! But I bought one bound in Human Flesh on Ebay... F#*$^@k.

[Richard Hands · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange hotch-potch of a book, which betrays the fact that the two writers appear to have wildly differing ideas and interests. Daniel Harms provides a potted history of the Necronomicon, its creation and gestation by Lovecraft and his writing circle, and how it has been received down through the years. John Gonce is of a different ilk altogether - a practicing magician himself and apparently (I mean I didn't check up, but he sounded convincing) knowledgable about Sumerian culture, he spends a lot of time discussing/dissecting the 'Simon' Necronomicon and its influence on occultists in detail that will make anyone not intimately involved in modern occultism glaze over (I have some reasonable occult knowledge myself and it was pretty abstruse even for me).

They seem quite keen to disprove the notion that the Necronomicon is a real book. I was surprised that there was anyone with any sense who thought otherwise, but maybe they have just spent too long on the wilder fringes of the internet. Even so, I was a bit disappointed that neither author apparently realised that the 'Hay' Necronomicon was basically written by British sci-fi author Dave Langford (they mention the fake cover story about a "computer programmer" called 'David Langford', but apparently never Googled him). According to his website, he still gets royalty cheques for the book.

I'm a Lovecraft nerd and sometime occultist, and yet the book still had plenty of stuff that I didn't know, and for that reason it gets four stars, but there were sections that I basically skimmed. An interesting curio, but unless you're an occultist the Gonce parts (about two thirds of the book) are going to be as dull as ditchwater.

[Brian Hollingsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and annotated, Necronomicon Files is an odd little book I read over a cold winter's week in a haunted dormitory over Christmas Break at the turn of the Millenium. It mainly explores the pop cultural effect of Lovecraft's body of weird tales. It consists of a series of essays discussing such things as the phantom history of Lovecraft's Necronimcon, its effects on the magical community, hoaxes of its existence and speculation as to the source of Lovecraft's inspiration for the fearful tome.

[Sylri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy crapola this one took a looooooooong time for me to get through.

And that’s because for a lot of co-author John Wisdom Gonce III’s stuff…. I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

Now, that probably sounds kind of harsh. I hate for it to be, because I found some of his chapters and content interesting and educational (for a person with casual interest but not much knowledge in occult matters). But there are whole chapters devoted to him picking apart the minutiae of how the historical info in the Simon Necronomicon is incorrect or going into every little detail about how the rituals won’t work. He goes over some of the other books that have a potential working magical system, but a majority of the time is spent with the Simon book. (It is the most popular and infamous, so this makes some sense.)

His reviews about movies and tv shows that either name drop or feature the Necronomicon were good in that they exposed me to a couple of things I may want to view, but overall those also go into far too much detail. But then again, Daniel Harms probably spent as much if not more time on the various published Necronicons on the market so that may betray my bias in interest somewhat.

So I have to agree with a lot of other reviewers that John’s parts aren’t going to be very interesting for those that aren’t practicing occultists. He goes into quite a bit of detail that isn’t going to much excite those who are only casually interested.

I should have realized this was probably going to be the case when Daniel Harms, which was the name that helped bring this book to my attention in the first place, only wrote 3/11 chapters.

Now, misgivings aside, I still think this is a worthwhile book for those who are interested in the Necronomicon as a pop culture phenomenon. It does a very admirable job tracing all of the various books that have claimed to be the Necronomicon over the years, and how it has infiltrated the media in a way that it’s taken on a life of its own beyond Lovecraft’s original intentions (would he be amused or dismayed?).

The two authors went into this project with the preconceived notion that there is no authentic/ancient Necronomicon, but tried to keep an open mind as they chased various published efforts and rumors around the occult community.

Daniel’s chapters start with Lovecraft’s initial writings that featured the Necronomicon and how it then spread out to his circle of writer friends before detailing the various faux Necronomicons that are or have been on the market. This info is probably what most people imagine will be making up the bulk of this book (not quite).

John’s chapters deal with the occult side of the Necro-phenomenon. I enjoyed his intro to occult history and the various odd connections people have tried to make between Lovecraft and Crowley. But alas, I think he spent way too much time picking apart the Simon Necronomicon. I do get that since it’s the most commonly found and read one, that it would need to have a good bit of the page count devoted to it, but I feel like it was given a little too much emphasis.

I find it kind of funny that Donald Tyson wrote an intro for this book, and shortly afterwards he wrote his own version of the Necronomicon (one that I quite enjoyed and spooked me out as a little kid). Did he maybe get the inspiration from this book?

I would still recommend this book for an examination of the Necronomicon in Western pop culture, but if you don’t care for in depth step-by-step analyses of magic rituals, then maybe skim some of John’s Simon chapters.

[Old-Barbarossa · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnbYcB...

"Only vistas eh?"
Not as good as I thought it would be.
Spends way too long on the "Simon" and not enough on anything else, even the Mythos stuff isn't covered in the depth I wanted.
The title should replace the word "Lovecraft" with "Simon" and you'd have a more honest text.
Also, the blurb says this is a scholarly look at the Necronomicon...eh?
Not really.
While some chapters are very well ref'd others have a list repeating personal email/conversation as the point of ref. Now I thought the point of providing refs was to enable peers to review them, if this can't be done there's no point in providing them.
It also suffers from the jarring in shift of style between the authors, Harms being easier than the, at times, frat boy stylings of Gonce.

[Mark Singer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-researched dissertation on how H. P. Lovecraft invented the Necronomicon, and more importantly, how the legend of this fictional work has spread both during and after his life. A good antidote to those who claim that the book is "real".

[Shadow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and insightful work regarding the Necronomicon and it's origins and appearance in different forms of entertainment and as a grimoire (book of magic), interesting example of how an idea that starts as a lie or fiction can become an established "truth" thru word of mouth, repetition of concept (that becomes a constructed ideal in the minds of people) and the lack of research by the individual buying the ideal, can lead to acceptance of a popular ideal accepted by the masses that doesn't have any fact or fundamental base to sustain it's validity.

[Arthur B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sceptical half of this book is fairly solid; the "I'm a practicing occultist and This Is Why This Made-Up Grimoire Is Doing It Wrong" bit is less convincing - and, if anything, could be counter-productive in terms of ascribing real dangers to this nonsense. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Wayne Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harms and Gonce have put together one of the best researched tomes on the Necronomicon that I have found. It covers the Cthulu inspired mythos from H.P. Lovecraft to its uses by Aleister Crowley and other occultists.

It digs into the many frauds (e.g. the "Simon" Necronomicon) their creation, propogation and impact. The book is peppered with dry yet witty comments from the authors that at times border on hysterical. The material covers not only the Necronomicon but deconstructs appearances in the movies, books, television, and other media. A must for any fan of Lovecraft and the researcher who wants to understand how the various "Necronomicons" materialized from the original Lovecraft fiction.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look, folks, the Necronomicon is not real. Get over it. It does not exist locked behind the doors of secret collections in the world's most elite research libraries. It does not exist as an ethereal, mystic, akashic library. And this book sets the record straight by tracking down the origins of several of the texts that purport to be the Real Necronomicon.

It was the product of Lovecraft's imagination.

[Tom Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

quite good, very informative, slightly out-of-date. very MST3K'ish at times, and intentionally so.