Wednesday, September 30, 2009

1920 Providence Catalog

This really has little to do with Lovecraft, other than being locted in Providence. However, if you do role playing in Lovecraft's contemporary era, it might give you a feel for the visuals of the time.










Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Cthulhu Baby Blanket!

Thanks Jim Java!




Link:
http://www.neatorama.com/2009/09/29/cthulhu-baby-blanket/


created by Craftster ...

Fanged Frogs Found! And More ...




A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never before been recorded by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world.

The discoveries are being seen as fresh evidence of the richness of the world's rainforests and the explorers hope their finds will add weight to calls for international action to prevent the demise of similar ecosystems. They said Papua New Guinea's rainforest is currently being destroyed at the rate of 3.5% a year.

"It was mind-blowing to be there and it is clearly time we pulled our finger out and decided these habitats are worth us saving," said Dr George McGavin who headed the expedition.

The team of biologists included experts from Oxford University, the London Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution and are believed to be the first scientists to enter the mountainous Bosavi crater. They were joined by members of the BBC Natural History Unit which filmed the expedition for a three-part documentary which starts tomorrow night.

They found the three-kilometre wide crater populated by spectacular birds of paradise and in the absence of big cats and monkeys, which are found in the remote jungles of the Amazon and Sumatra, the main predators are giant monitor lizards while kangaroos have evolved to live in trees. New species include a camouflaged gecko, a fanged frog and a fish called the Henamo grunter, named because it makes grunting noises from its swim bladder.

"These discoveries are really significant," said Steve Backshall, a climber and naturalist who became so friendly with the never-before seen Bosavi silky cuscus, a marsupial that lives up trees and feeds on fruits and leaves, that it sat on his shoulder.

"The world is getting an awful lot smaller and it is getting very hard to find places that are so far off the beaten track."

Monday, September 28, 2009

Lovecraft Manuscripts for sale (1947)


Fantasy Advertiser, LA. Digest Wraps. Book Condition:FINE condition. Vol. 1, No.6. Cover by Ralph Rayburn Phillips. Includes a Prozine checklist for 1946 full page advertisement for "RHODE ISLAND ON LOVECRAFT" and a full page ad by Charles Hornig selling five LOVECRAFT MANUSCRIPTS and other items. A wonderful magazine.

FANTASY ADVERTISER#6 JAN 1947 RHODE ISLAND ON LOVECRAFT

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Scientists Catch Giant Squid Off Louisiana Coast

Thanks, Jim Java!



The squid was caught during a research cruise funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service, according to a news release.

More ... here...

J Vernon Shea articles (1984)



Fantasy Empire Presents H.P. Lovecraft

New Media Publishing, Tampa, FL, 1984. Magazine. Book Condition: Solid Fine. First Edition. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. 50-page semi-pro mag devoted entirely to the great HPL. Includes two articles by J. Vernon Shea, "An Introduction to the Cthulhu Mythos" and "H.P. Lovecraft: The House of Shadows". There's also two comic book versions of HPL stories, "The Festival"art by Bruce Mccorkindale and "The Hound".art by JAXON It closes with a Hannes Bok portfolio.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

FANTASY COMMENTATOR #18



FANTASY COMMENTATOR #18 HANNES BOK COPY LOVECRAFT ISSUE

A Langley Searles, 1948. Binding is paperback. 1st edition. vg+ semi proxine,
One of the premier issues of this fine prozine this devoted to LOVECRAFT has "CLOUDS" by HPL, pictures of Lovecrafts family CLASSIC articles by MOSKOWITZ, ONDERDONK, F. Lee Baldwin. Plus this was Hannes BOK's copy as shown by his impressive stamp on the front cover.(see photo). All in all a fantastic issue.

.
C O N T E N T S
EDITORIAL: ~ This·'n'·-That JA. Langley Sesrles 185

ARTICLES: ` ‘
John Buchan: a Possible Influence on Lovecraft Sam Moskowitz 187
Charon--—in Reverse Matthew H. Onderdonk 193
H.P.L. on Imaginative Fiction Darrell G. Richardson 203
The Immortal Storm (part ll) Sam Moskowitz 207
Some Lovecraft Sidelights F. Lee Baldwin 219

VERSE and PICTORIAL:
Clouds H. P. Lovecraft 190
"Erich Zann Was o Genius of Wild Power" Joseph Krucher 191
Photographs of the Lovecraft-Phillips Family 192

REGULAR FEATURES:
book Reviews:
Serviss’s Edison's Conquest Of Mars Sam Moskowitz 197
Keller's Life Everlasting/ Charles Peter Brady ’
Taine's Forbidden Garden /' Richard Witter 204
Tips on Tales Thyril L. Ladd

Friday, September 25, 2009

CHARLES DEXTER WARD: LOVECRAFT SCREEN ADAPTION (1984)


CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD: LOVECRAFT SCREEN ADAPTION
JOHN STRYSIK AND ROBERT ROTHMAN 1984
CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD: LOVECRAFT SCREEN ADAPTION: JOHN STRYSIK AND ROBERT ROTHMAN 1984 tHIS IS AN UNPUBLISHED? SCREEN ADAPTION OF H.P. LOVECRAFTS STORY STRYSIK AND ROTHMEN WENT ON TO "THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN" USA (Columbia College, Chicago) 1980. 17 minutes Dir/Scr: John Strysik Prod: John Strysik & Robert Rothman Starring: Robert Ruevain, Robert Alexander, Darryl Warren, Barbara Snapp A 17 minute amateur version of the Lovecraft short story. Despite the limitations of a college production it has a feel for the genre . ---- This story revolves around a student of metaphysics, Charles Dexter Ward who befriends Erich Zann an aging violinist who lives on the floor above him. Charles is fascinated and then drawn to Zann's sinister yet wonderful music that he hears late at night drifting down from above. He, of course, discovers more than he bargained for when he peers at what beckons from beyond that strange curtained window in Zann's room.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Westminster Street looking east



So, you're young Howard and walking through the bustle of Providence in ealry 1900 - say 1904. A teenager, wide-eyed, but beginning to imagine the greater cosmicism of the universe. Already he's thought, "Hmm, Providence is a wonderful and great place, but it's so small compared to the vastness between the planets in our solar system. So small compared to the great distances between the stars I see in the telescope at Brown University when Dr. Upton lets me look through it. We're so small as a species, but still, isn't Providence terrific?"

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

What Did Lovecraft See?

Here are several newspaper clippings of the Providence Journal November 1916. It was an ordinary month, with a car show, movies, burlesque, war news, and more.

It would be as if Edward Lee, Brian Keene, or Ray Garton picked up yesterday's newspaper. And like those writers, Lovecraft glanced through the news and views of the day, and then set it aside, drank coffee, and ... imagined the fantastic.

How does this happen? What makes the ordinary seem extraordinary through the eyes of the weird writer?








Sunday, September 20, 2009

Fungi not from Yuggoth: Tennesee Writer Has Invasion



Thomma Lyn Grindstaff, Novelist shows off his mushrooms. Link to read more!



_____

And for a bonus (and has virtually nothing to do with Lovecraft, sorry) here's a Chrispy story for you.

Tales From the Dark Side of Produce:
The Horrors of the Haunted House of Vegetables




Deep in the recesses of the old Victorian house, something wicked shambled in the shadows.



"Did you hear something?" Sarah Lentil asked.



"I sure smell something, and it's a bad smell," said Charlie Lentil.



"I'm scared," said Little Billy Lentil.



The dust was thick, and the weight of the years were upon the old house. Suddenly, a gust of night wind whistled through the broken windows of the old place. The ancient dust in the old house puffed about in clouds that made it look like ghosts dancing a jig in front of the Lentil's flashlights. Then ... more unholy noises - soft, wet, squishy sounds - came from the shadows. Sarah Lentil swung her light in their direction, but the flashlights only caught glimpses of odd, dark shapes before they ducked behind some cloth covered furniture.



Without warning, lightning flashed accompanied by legume-jarring thunder. Immediately, rain exploded out of the sky and within moments, the roof began to drip, then a few moments more and it sprang leaks, until torrents of water began to soak the Lentils.



"The roof is leaking like sieve," Sarah exclaimed.



"I've never seen it rain so hard," said Charlie.



"I don't like being wet. It makes me swell, and it hurts my skin," weeped Little Billy.



The three Lentils ran for cover, but there was none to be found. Everything was wet, and the soaking torrent from above was getting worse. They found no rescue in the parlor, nor the antique bedrooms. The upper stairwell was ruined, but it must have been even more wet up there. Then they came upon a door that led to the basement stairs. Their flashlights shone into the darkness below.



"It's looks dry down there," said Sarah.



"But it's so dark down there," said Charlie.



"I don't like the dark," said Little Billy, "but I hate the wet more."



They went down the stairs. Before they could think, they realized there was something moving about in the basement. Something that squished in the bleak darkness, something like spongy spectres.



The lightning flashed though a musty old opening in the basement where a coal chute once was, and Sarah Lintil screamed. There, in the brief illumination, were round, phallic-hooded, faceless things.


Sarah grabbed tight her little Lentil, Billy. She yelled, "Charlie!", but too late. The mushrooms surged forward and seized the Lentils.


When the mushrooms were done, they left unspeakable foulness on Sarah, and Little Billy was covered in spores. Sarah was in a mind-numbed swoon, besmeared with mushroom stink, and had no fight left as the 'shrooms carried her and Little Billy up the stairs - to the kitchen.


In the kitchen was horrible graffiti writ in large smears of phosphorescence. The symbols showed decapitated carrots, split peas, and worse. Before Sarah could even contemplate what horrid cult that had seized her, the 'shrooms somehow engaged a light that gave off a ghastly greenish glow. Sarah saw before her a pot, steam boiling out of it. As she was thrust closer to the sight by a filthy handed mushroom, she gasped, "Oh, no! Poor Charlie."


In the pot, was Charlie's sodden and swollen body. His corpse's skin had already burst asunder. Boiled alive!


Sarah looked at the phallic-hooded shapes but only saw faceless, white fungus things with no expression, no emotion. The only sound was wheezing as their flutes and gills expanded and breathed and occasionally a crinkling sound in anticipation of yet more horror to come. The white things shoved Sarah and Little Billy closer to the stove, and the last thing Sarah Lentil heard was the cry of Little Billy saying, "There's two more pots!"



Chris Perridas

POSTCARD 1907 PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND MARKET SQUARE




POSTCARD 1907 PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND MARKET SQUARE
Lovecraft would have been 17.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Sidney S Rider, antiquarian (circa 1865)


From the Seller's notes:
From the shop of Sidney S. Rider & Bros. of Providence Rhode Island to a individual who is asking about Drayton's Poems in folio that they happen to have from the library of J. H. Markland, esq, the last surviving member of the celebrated Roxbury (?SP?) Club and that is for sale for $20. Sidney S. Rider (1833-1917) donated one of the largest collections of works regarding the State of Rhode Island in the revolutionary war and was an 'amateur' historian. He published a bi-weekly rag starting in 1883 called Book Notes, that discussed the issues of Rhode Island and it's people during the revolutionary war.

"The doctor was a bachelor; a white-haired, clean-shaven, old-fashioned gentleman, and a local historian of note, who had often broken a lance with such controversial guardians of tradition as Sidney S. Rider and Thomas W. Bicknell. "
- Shunned House, HPL

_____

1865 Sidney S. Rider Providence Book Dealer Drayton's


Friday, September 18, 2009

Mention of Sidney S Rider


____

Civil War History of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment RI
A Narrative of the Campaign of the First Rhode Island Regiment
In the Spring and Summer of 1861
by Augustus Woodbury

Originally published by Sidney S. Rider, Providence, RI in 1862

267 pages

Richard Tierney

A recent article on Richard Tierney mentioning Lovecraft.
_____

MASON CITY — Richard Tierney’s prolific writings have attracted fans from Europe to Australia, but the soft-spoken Mason City man is a relative unknown at home.

“There is a limited audience for my work,” he said with a smile at his Mason City home.

An author, poet and scholar of cosmic horror-science fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, Tierney, 73, has written numerous short stories, books and poems, published worldwide starting in 1975.

He receives royalties for his books, “but it isn’t like Stephen King,” he said.

As a boy growing up in Mason City, he was influenced by the work of Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard — author of “Conan the Barbarian” — and Tarzan creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs.

“It’s been kind of an obsession with me,” Tierney said. “Back when I was a kid, they were considered trash. Now the pulps are some of the biggest names in movies and fiction.”

He appreciated how the so-called “weird fiction,” which has its roots in 19th century gothic novels, emphasized the atmosphere of the story, “not the blood and guts.”

“The important thing was to set the mood and draw the reader into it,” Tierney said. “They kept bringing in new revelations that caused goose bumps for their implications.”

Some of the words used in his writings were coined by earlier pulp fiction writers and have no meaning to the uninitiated reader. “I suspect that most readers wouldn’t make sense of it,” he said.

A 1961 graduate of Iowa State University, Tierney has a degree in entomology and worked for years for the U.S. Forest Service, primarily in the western United States and Alaska.

In 1972, he moved to Minneapolis to take up writing as a vocation. He and a friend collaborated on a series of “Red Sonia” novels, a female super-heroine warring against the Turks in 17th century Eastern Europe.

They were paid $1,000 per book to set the Red Sonia heroine in the era of Conan the Barbarian, 15,000 years ago.

In 1981, he returned to Mason City to take care of his mother, Margaret, now deceased. “I figured I could write here just as well as Minneapolis and I didn’t have to pay rent,” he reasoned.

His first book, “The Winds of Zarr,” was published in 1975.

His most recent novel, “The Drums of Chaos,” came out in 2008 and is set in the First Century Roman Empire. It is about “swords and sorcery” and has an element of the time-traveler in it, too, he said.

Another book, “The House of the Toad” (1993), is set in modern-day Iowa along the Mississippi River.

His short stories have appeared in various magazines. Several of his poems were published in “The Twilight Zone” magazine.

Australian publisher Charles “Danny” Lovecraft, who renamed himself for H. P. Lovecraft, has documented Tierney’s work and is publishing a book of Tierney’s poems, “Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror.”

“He (Tierney) has written at least 170 pieces of dark and mystical poetry and weird fantasy verse, his favored and most gifted form of expression,” Lovecraft wrote.

“Acclaimed editor and critic of supernatural fiction and verse S. T. Joshi was brought to remark (in 2008) that ‘the progression of weird poetry over the centuries might be significantly aided with a comprehensive anthology containing work ranging from Homer to Richard L. Tierney.’

“Our man from Mason City has come far indeed,” Lovecraft said.

Link.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

New York Times Columnist Speaks of Lovecraft

This is an excerpt from a columnist: John Williams. Link. It represents a continuing mainstream response to Lovecraft - the media desire to frequently repeat facts about Lovecraft. In this case, the element of Lovecraft's racism. The group is the Mountain Goats.
_____

Lovecraft in Brooklyn, the Mountain Goats. The horror writer H. P. Lovecraft moved to Brooklyn in 1924. Soon after, broke and alone (his fairly new bride had fled the city to find work in the Midwest), Lovecraft became even more than usually hateful and paranoid about the people around him. In his story “The Horror at Red Hook,” he describes the neighborhood where he lived as “a maze of hybrid squalor” and “the polyglot abyss of New York’s underworld” and “a babel of sound and filth.” He didn’t like it there.

And as you can probably tell, his complaints were of a distinctly racist variety. (If you need it clinched, read the whole story. A Grand Wizard might find the floridly demeaning descriptions of immigrants a bit much.) This song’s style complements its substance. It sounds paranoid, both musically and vocally. It begins with a lyric any New Yorker can identify with: “It’s gonna be too hot to breathe today / But everybody is out here on the streets.” Toward the end, the agitated narrator goes to a pawn shop to look for a switchblade: “Someday something’s coming / From way out beyond the stars / To kill us while we stand here / It will store our brains in mason jars / And then the girl behind the counter / She asks me how I feel today / I feel like Lovecraft in Brooklyn.”

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A Horror Lovecraft Might Have Dreamed

... or Giger? I nearly spit my coffee out when I saw this one...



The article's text:

When Nature Is Freakier Than Sci-Fi
By Brent Richards
September 14, 2009

Next time your kids ask you if monsters are real, you might have to fib a little if you say “no.” Some recent discoveries in the animal kingdom would be right at home in an H.P. Lovecraft story.

Fishermen off the northern coast of France have found a large parasitic isopod (a relative of the louse) that has evolved a rather hideous method for survival in its host: It gets into the fish’s mouth and then devours its tongue. It then attaches itself at the back of the fish’s throat where it presumably feeds of whatever the fish normally eats. The really bizarre part is that the fish doesn’t seem to suffer any ill effects other than the loss of its tongue.

Lovecraft in a recent popular business book

In the book Spent, by Geoffrey Miller (2009) I found a Lovecraft quote (p. 265), after a fashion. It shows how permeated our society is now by Lovecraft.

“Consumerism’s Cthulhu-like tentacles have, of course, reached right into runaway consumption domains in their own right.”

Miller’s thesis is that Western marketing techniques need to be reexamined and altered to properly align with sociological characteristics such as personality, openness to ne ideas, intelligence, and other preferences. This has to do with evolutionary sociology, a relatively new biological science.

The point is that in a dissertation like this, Lovecraft’s mythology is used as an analogy assuming that most people are now vaguely aware of it. That’s quite a milestone for Western, and an English speaking society.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Lillibridge

Recently, George noted that in one of my posts of a 1906 Hope High School year book, that "....marjorie lillibridge...." was listed. It reminded him that, "So THAT's where HPL got the name for the unfortunate newspaper reporter in THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK! // Sincerely, // George".

Thank you George.

Coincidentlally (?) as early as 1912, and as late as 1917, I've been able to find in the Providence City Directory (search google books) that at Beacon Avenue Primary School, Providence there was a Marjorie V. Lillibridge Assistant.

Chrispy hasn't examined the year book, however, if in 1906 "Marjorie" graduated, it seems a quick path of advancement to be an assistant at a Primary School in a mere 6 years or less. Just don't know.

Also, as to Edwin M Lillibridge, there is another odd coincidence:
# 11043859 LILLIBRIDGE EDWIN M
PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND (1 Dec 1942)
Private Air Corps RHODE ISLAND Army of the United States
Kent County RI
Archives Military Records

If the original Edwin was a real person, and Lovecraft accurately reported that an "Edwin M Lillibridge" did disappear, and IF thta Edwin was releated to some Marjorie, younger or older, then this Edwin would probably be a grandchild? Someone with more genealogical experience than Chrispy might have to decipher this, if you like "jig saw" puzzles.

Anyone have access to Ancestry.com?

FROM BEYOND THE DARK GATEWAY 1





Silver Scarab Publications, USA, 1972. Saddle-stapled Softcover. Book Condition: FINE AS NEW . 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Binding is tight, April/May 1972, Vol. 1, No. 1 . 40 pages.(Only 4 issues done.) 1 of a print run of only 200 copies.

EDITOR: EDWARD P. BERGLUND
PUBLISHER/ART EDITOR:=HARRY O. MORRIS, ]R.
The Keys to the Gateway (Editorial) ............ . ................. Z ....... E.P. Berglund
The Rynlaerth Megaliths............. (novella — 4000 words) 3 ....... John ]Jacob
The Outpost: ...................... (novella — 4900 words) ......... 8 . ..... J.J. Koblas
From the Sea: ....... ..........,.. (novella — 4900 words) .. lf} ...... Walter C. DeBill, Jr.
Trail of The Necronomicon: .... (novella -4500 words) .......21. ..... Gordon Matthews
(Revised and Reprinted from Phantasia, Winter 1970, Number l)
The Song of Rhin ............. (short—story — 1600 words) ..... 27 ...... Graham Pryor
The Dark Stairway ..........,..... (novella ~ 6400 words) .... . .... 29 ...... E.P. Berglund & R.E. Weinberg
Revised and Reprinted from Morgan Smith, (N0 Date) 1971, No. 5
A Sense of Movement .............. (short-story — 3400 words) .... 36 ...... David Riley
Notes on Our Contributors .... , . ..... . .............. . ............ 40. ..... E.P. Berglund

ART CREDITS
Front cover; Steve Riley
Inside front: Steve Riley _
Back cover: Andrew Smith & Gordon Matthews
ARTISTS ILLUSTRATING THE STORIES
Steve Riley: "The Rynlaerth Megaliths"
Mike Scott: "The Outpost" (2 illustrations)
Tim Kirk: "From the Sea"
Randall Spurgin: "The Trail of 'The Necronomicon"
Denis Tiani: "The Song of Rhin" `
Mark Gelotte: "The Dark Stairway" (2 illustrations)
Harry Morris: "A Sense of Movement"


Bergland is the creator of THE READERS GUIDE TO THE CTHULHU MYTHOS.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Wilum Interviewed



Mr. Pugmire has recently turned his creative output towards a prolific Youtube channel in which he analyzes popular culture and seeks to help promote the upcoming HPL Film Festival. We asked him a few questions about his life, his work, and the festival. He was generous enough to respond to us with a multi-segmented video interview.

... more ...

Derleth's 100th (a bit late, but good)


Garland shares spotlight with another author this year

By MICHAEL MARTIN | mike.martin@lee.net

.
Those who’ve attended Garland Days in the past have become used to seeing the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hamlin Garland — in the person of West Salem Historical Society President Errol Kindschy in period costume.

This year, another famous Wisconsin author who was a younger contemporary of Garland will make an appearance at Garland Days, speaking to the historical society at its annual meeting at 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13.

August Derleth, who would have been 100 years old last February, remains the most prolific author in Wisconsin history. He wrote more than 150 books, including novels, short stories, essays, poetry, biographies, horror stories and children’s books.

David Schweitzer, who will give a talk as Derleth, is not certain the two men ever met. Garland, who died in 1940, was nearly 50 when Derleth was born in 1909. Still, the two would certainly have been aware of each other’s work.

“I know that Garland lectured on Derleth in a series of talks he did on Wisconsin authors,” Schweitzer said.

A resident of Milwaukee, Schweitzer first got interested in portraying Derleth through two of his passions —Wisconsin history and the theater.

Driving through Sauk City one day, he noticed a historical marker about Derleth. “I didn’t know much about him at the time, but I like to explore local cemeteries,” Schweitzer recalled.

Derleth’s gravestone is a bit unusual in that it is actually a bench. “He wanted people to enjoy the beautiful view of the countryside,” Schweitzer said.

As a child Schweitzer hadn’t been much of a reader but as a grade schooler he’d read a book by Derleth called “The Ghost of Black Hawk Island.”

“I loved that book and can still remember the character names,” Schweitzer said.

Years later, Schweitzer was told by a Sauk City local that there was an annual festival in Derleth’s honor, and he decided to go. After that, he became even more intrigued.

“They were performing skits about him, and I volunteered to help,” Schweitzer said. He did such a good job that he was approached about playing the author at other functions throughout the state.

Eventually, the Wisconsin Humanities Council agreed to sponsor his appearances as Derleth. “I consider myself very lucky to do bookings all over Wisconsin,” Schweitzer said.

What is it about Derleth that resonated most strongly with Schweitzer? “It’s hard to put in a nutshell,” Schweitzer said, “but I guess I like his nature writing the best.”

Derleth did three books on Henry David Thoreau (author of “Walden”), and Schweitzer said that after returning to the Milwaukee area after his Navy discharge and seeing so much urban sprawl, those books “hit home for me. Derleth had some anger in his later books about what had happened to the landscape.”

For Schweitzer, one of the biggest rewards for portraying Derleth came early on. “One of the first audiences I had was in Sauk City and afterwards people who knew Derleth complimented me — that was very gratifying.”

Schweitzer has been told he looks like Derleth and photos of the two suggest more than a passing resemblance in their facial features. There is one area, however, where Schweitzer doesn’t quite measure up.

“I’m told he had a humongous barrel chest, so I wear extra padding in the chest and shoulders when I perform,” Schweitzer said.

This will be Schweitzer’s first visit to Garland Days, and he said he’s looking forward to the event.

He has, however, been to the area before, giving a talk at the La Crosse Public Library on a snowy night a few years ago.

It turned out to be one of his favorite bookings ever. “It was a gathering of librarians from all over the county and they turned out to be a wonderful audience,” Schweitzer recalled.

FROM BEYOND THE DARK GATEWAY 2




Silver Scarab Publications, USA, 1972. Saddle-stapled Softcover. Book Condition: FINE AS NEW . 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Binding is tight, Dec. 1972, Vol. 1, No. 2 . 71 pages Large .(Only 4 issues done.) 1 of a print run of only 200 copies!.

The Keys To The Gateway (editorial). .... . ........... . ........ E.P. Berglund. ........ 2
.Quest of the Neconomicon (novelette — 8700 words) ......................... ].]. Koblas `
Our Flesh and Blood Has Grown So Vile (short story · 2300 words) 19 ........ William Scott Home `
The Dream (A Fable of the Ultimate) (short short — 1000 words) ...... 22 ........ Richard L. Tierney
The Summons Of Hastur Novelette · 10, 700 worse) ....... 24 ........ Alan D. Gullette
The Recital (vignette - 500 words). ................. . ............. 41 ........ J.], Koblas
The Lure Of Leng Short story — 2800 words) .......... 44 ........ Walter C. DeBill, jr.
Events at Poroth Farm (short novel — 17, 000 words) ........... 47 ........ T.E.D. Klein
To The Gateway (letters) ............... . ........ . ................. 69 ..... . . .the Readers `
Notes On Our Contributors ....................... ................. 23 ........ E.P. Berglund

ART CREDITS ,
Front cover: (`Thing of the Yellow Mask` from Summons of Hastur' Oscar Crand
Inside front; Steve Riley
Back cover: ("The Events at Poroth Farm') Tim Kirk
page 5: ("Quest of the Necronomicon) Joseph A. West
page 14 ("Quest of the Necronomicon`) Joseph A. West
page 18 ("Our Flesh and Blood Is Grown So Vile`) Steve Riley
page 42 ("The Recital) Harry Morris, Jr. `
page 43. ("The Lure of Leng") Randall Spurgin


Bergland is the creator of THE READERS GUIDE TO THE CTHULHU MYTHOS.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

FROM BEYOND THE DARK GATEWAY 3



Silver Scarab Publications, USA, 1974. Saddle-stapled Softcover. Book Condition: FINE. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Binding is tight, Apr. 1974, Vol. 1, No. 3 . 36 pages.(Only 4 issues done.) 1 of a print run of only 550 copies.

The Keys To The Gateway (editorial). .... . ........... . ........ E.P. Berglund. ........ 2
The Crier in the Vault ............ . (novella - 4000 words) ...... Ted Pons ............. 3
The Bells ....... . .......... . . . . (short-short—l900 words) .... Graham Pryor. ........ 9
Mushroom ...................... (short -short - 2100 words) .... John Jacob ............ 12
(Reprinted from Comic Courier, Jan. 1970, No. 3)
Poison Pen. .................... .(short - short — 950 words) .... George Wetzel ......... 14
From Beyond the Dark Gateway . (novella - 4300 words) Warren Scott Miller ..... 15
True History of the Great Race (pseudo—factual article)... Drs. Eric von Komienberg
and Pierre de Hammais. ....... 20
The Case of Charles Dexter Weird (short-short-1500 words) .... J.J. Koblas....... 21
The Nev. Subscriber. .......... . (short-short- 1100 words). . . .Douglas Roome .,...... 22
.A Special Purpose ..... . . . . (short-short -1000 words) .... Darrell Schweitzer ...... 23
Translations from the Book of Yng .......... . . . . ............. F.C. Adams .... . ..... 24
1. The Debt of the Summoner ..... (vignette — 450 words)
H. The Punishment of Igharta ..... (vignette — 550 words)
HI. The Fleece of Yaggar . . .... . .(vignette - 750 words)
Perilous Legacy..,........... .(novel's — 6900 words). ..... Walter C. DeBi11, ]r .... 29
The Discipheles of Cthulhu I ........... (article) .......... . ..... Walter C. DeBill, ]r .... 34
The Black Bear Bites.. . ...... (novella — 5200 words). ..... Robert E, Howard ,..... 35
Notes On Our Contributors ....... . ....... . ................ E.P. Berglund. ........ 2
The Gateway ........... . ...... ( letters) ....... . ....... The Readers ...... . . . . 38

ART CREDITS
Front cover ...................... Steve Riley
Inside front ...... . ......... . ..... Steve Riley
Back cover .......... . . .... . . . . . . A.B. Cox
Jim Faulkenberg ........ ... ....... 25, 26, 27
Jim Garrison. . . ................. 3, 6, 8
Jay A. Peters. . . . . . . ............. 16
Steve Riley. ............... . . .... 12
Randall Spurgin. .................. 33
Adrian St.Clair ..... . ....... . ...... 10

POETRY
MAGUS IMPERITUS ............... . ...... . ............. L . Sprague de Camp,. . . . 28
THE FIRST CIRCLE ............. . ............. . ........ M. K. Sheffield .... . . . . 28

Bergland is the creator of THE READERS GUIDE TO THE CTHULHU MYTHOS.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Hubble Images Enhance Lovecraft's Words

One afternoon there was a discussion of possible freakish curvatures in space, and of theoretical points of approach or even contact between our part of the cosmos and various other regions as distant as the farthest stars or the transgalactic gulfs themselves - or even as fabulously remote as the tentatively conceivable cosmic units beyond the whole Einsteinian space-time continuum. - The Dreams in the Witch-House, HPL



Gravitational Lensing in Galaxy Cluster Abell 370

The Hubble Space Telescope’s newly repaired Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has peered nearly 5 billion light years away to resolve intricate details in the galaxy cluster Abell 370. /// Abell 370 is one of the very first galaxy clusters where astronomers observed the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, where the warping of space by the cluster’s gravitational field distorts the light from galaxies lying far behind it. This is manifested as arcs and streaks in the picture, which are the stretched images of background galaxies. /// Gravitational lensing proves a vital tool for astronomers when measuring the dark matter distribution in massive clusters, since the mass distribution can be reconstructed from its gravitational effects.




Colorful Stars Galore Inside Globular Star Cluster Omega Centauri

Hubble snapped this panoramic view of a colorful assortment of 100,000 stars residing in the crowded core of a giant star cluster. /// The image reveals a small region inside the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri, which boasts nearly 10 million stars. Globular clusters, ancient swarms of stars united by gravity, are the homesteaders of our Milky Way. The stars in Omega Centauri are between 10 billion and 12 billion years old. The cluster lies about 16,000 light-years from Earth.

Ah, 1967! Lovecraft Goes Psychedelic



Yow, no wonder the Lovecraft band was inspired. Check out that maddening cover!

1967 H. P. Lovecraft - THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE
Published by Lancer. 1st Lancer printing, 1967.

It looks like a simple photo overlay, of a skull with flames, and some odd lighting.



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