w h pugmire esq
Well-Known Member
Although I first encounter'd H. P. Lovecraft from listening to his fiction as it was recorded by Roddy McDowall and David McCallum, and then I read his fiction while serving as a Mormon missionary in Northern Ireland in 1972, it wasn't until I return'd to ye States, discover'd Arkham House, and order'd ye first three volumes of Selected Letters that I fell under ye spell of Lovecraft's personality. Lovecraft the man comes fully alive in his correspondence, and this remains as true to-day as it was over 40 years ago. The effect of those letters on my own persona is with me still; because in ye early '70s I began to date all correspondence 1772 &c, and I began to ape certain eccentricities found in Grandpa's missives, in spelling, ye constant use of "ye", and so forth.
We have enter'd a wonderful era of knowledge concerning the life & time of H. P. Lovecraft, and this is largely on account of the knowledge we glean of him through the publication of his private letters. There is so much chatter online, in various groups or forums, by people who have no understanding of Lovecraft. This is especially obvious when some of these critics dismiss Lovecraft as a "hack" writer. From reading Lovecraft's correspondence, we learn that he consider'd the writing of quality weird fiction an art form, & he clearly saw himself as an artist. Writing for Weird Tales may have alter'd his aesthetics slightly, making him consider the idea of a market for his work; but he almoft always approached the writing of fiction as a serious and artistic endeavor--even in the case of his first market-oriented works, "Herbert West--Reanimator" and "The Lurking Fear".
Hippocampus Press has taken over the task of bringing out edition of Lovecraft's letters; and they do so with editions that publish the full correspondence (as it exists) of Lovecraft's letters to an individual correspondent: thus we have single volume editions of Letters to Alfred Galpin and Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner, &c. Ye newest edition from Hippocampus Press is Letters to Robert Bloch and Others. Hippocampus has also publish'd remarkable joint-correspondence editions, with Essential Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, and A Means of Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Long delay's is ye forthcoming single volume (it will be one huge book) of the combined correspondence between HPL and Clark Ashton Smith. A charming, eccentrically-edited volume is Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters, from Ohio University Press. And moft recently, that magnificent body of Lovecraftians, The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, has publish'd The Spirit of Revision: Lovecraft's Letters to Zealia Brown Reed Bishop.
I would like patrons to use this thread to discuss any number of topics, such as the idea of publishing the private letters of deceas'd individuals, what you have learn'd about H. P. Lovecraft from perusing his correspondence, how Lovecraft presents himself to various individuals in his selected letters, how the publication of Lovecraft's letters have affected his world-wide reputation (for example, his racism, his professionalism as a writer vs his amateurishness as such, &c &c).
We have enter'd a wonderful era of knowledge concerning the life & time of H. P. Lovecraft, and this is largely on account of the knowledge we glean of him through the publication of his private letters. There is so much chatter online, in various groups or forums, by people who have no understanding of Lovecraft. This is especially obvious when some of these critics dismiss Lovecraft as a "hack" writer. From reading Lovecraft's correspondence, we learn that he consider'd the writing of quality weird fiction an art form, & he clearly saw himself as an artist. Writing for Weird Tales may have alter'd his aesthetics slightly, making him consider the idea of a market for his work; but he almoft always approached the writing of fiction as a serious and artistic endeavor--even in the case of his first market-oriented works, "Herbert West--Reanimator" and "The Lurking Fear".
Hippocampus Press has taken over the task of bringing out edition of Lovecraft's letters; and they do so with editions that publish the full correspondence (as it exists) of Lovecraft's letters to an individual correspondent: thus we have single volume editions of Letters to Alfred Galpin and Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner, &c. Ye newest edition from Hippocampus Press is Letters to Robert Bloch and Others. Hippocampus has also publish'd remarkable joint-correspondence editions, with Essential Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, and A Means of Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Long delay's is ye forthcoming single volume (it will be one huge book) of the combined correspondence between HPL and Clark Ashton Smith. A charming, eccentrically-edited volume is Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters, from Ohio University Press. And moft recently, that magnificent body of Lovecraftians, The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, has publish'd The Spirit of Revision: Lovecraft's Letters to Zealia Brown Reed Bishop.
I would like patrons to use this thread to discuss any number of topics, such as the idea of publishing the private letters of deceas'd individuals, what you have learn'd about H. P. Lovecraft from perusing his correspondence, how Lovecraft presents himself to various individuals in his selected letters, how the publication of Lovecraft's letters have affected his world-wide reputation (for example, his racism, his professionalism as a writer vs his amateurishness as such, &c &c).