Lovecraft in the 21st Century: A View

Below are three non-consecutive paragraphs from Davis' interesting blog-excerpt and from the book, Darklore Volume 5. Hopefully, you will be tempted to read it in its entirety.

Calling Cthulhu
by Erik Davis

For Lovecraft, it is not the sleep of reason that breeds monsters, but reason with its eyes agog. By fusing cutting-edge science with archaic material, Lovecraft creates a twisted materialism in which scientific “progress” returns us to the atavistic abyss, and hard-nosed research revives the factual basis of forgotten and discarded myths.

Lovecraft’s fiction expresses a “future primitivism” that finds its most intense esoteric expression in Chaos magic, an eclectic contemporary style of darkside occultism that draws from Thelema, Satanism, Austin Osman Spare, and Eastern metaphysics to construct a thoroughly postmodern magic.

Lovecraft’s father was a traveling salesman who died in a madhouse when Lovecraft was eight, and vague rumors that he was an initiate in some Masonic order or other were exploited in the Necronomicon cobbled together by George Hay, Colin Wilson, and Robert Turner. Others have tried to track Lovecraft’s occult know-how, especially his familiarity with Aleister Crowley and the Golden Dawn. In an Internet document relating the history of the “real” Necronomicon, Colin Low argues that Crowley befriended Sonia Greene in New York a few years before the woman married Lovecraft.

more --- click!

Stuart Morton Boland in Acolyte 11

Here are those images I mentioned.
www.fanac.org/fanzines/Acolyte/

Boland mentions his remembrance of Lovecraft's letter(s), and presumably still had them as he seems to quote at length. It appears, circumstantially, that Barlow ended up with Boland's letters to HPL. They are not spoken of anymore in extant communication after 1 Ocober - that I've seen.

Stuart Morton Boland and the Necronomicon

Back in 2007, I listed an article from the old Acolyte as a Lovecraftian curiosity. Now that the Derleth Letters have been published, more info is available - from HPL's side.

[24 Oct 1936] "Speaking of the bizarre - I had an interesting note the other day from an apparently scholarly chap in San Francisco - by name, Stuart Morton Boland - who announces himself as a librarian who has been all over the world studying esoteric elder parchments like the Necronomicon in various places sch as Budapest, Madras, Bombay, &c. He thinks there may be some substratum of truth behind my references to the Necro, & will accordingly be disappointed when he finds that Grandpa is a callous materialist. But I'm being very curteous in my disillusionment; since he seems to be an extremely pleasant sage, & has promised to send me some mysterious objects which he obtained at the cryptic pre-Nahuan Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan during a recent trip to Mexico. The latter will surely be welcome, since my private "museum" already contains 5 Central-American items - 2 early Mayan images, an earthen Aztec image, an Aztec bowl, & an earthen Aztec calendar-stone."

The only other reference I can find right now is:

[To Barlow, 16 September 1936] "...correspondence hammering on all sides ... I owe 7 letters now ... {on envelope} ... Just had an esoteric-looking communication from an occultly inclined nut in San Francisco who seems to be a sort of educated Bill Lumley. I'll enclose it in my next for your edification."

It's true that Boland was "scholarly" as can be seen with his article in THE ISLAMIC REVIEW of JANUARY 1951: Arab Contributions to World Civilizationby Stuart Morton Boland. Also here: click.

We also know from this journal that Boland was a graduate of University of California, Librarian of the Ocean View Branch of San Francisco.

Now, my original posts are below with some images ...

http://chrisperridas.blogspot.com/2007/12/lovecrafts-legacy-rare-acolyte-1945.html
http://chrisperridas.blogspot.com/2007/12/lovecrafts-legacy-1945-acolyte.html

... which refer to the ACOLYTE #11, Summer 1945. Of Lovecraftian interest is an article, "Interlude with Lovecraft" by Stuart Morton Boland. I have located, on line, copies of these pages!

I'll post the images later, which are from
http://www.fanac.org/fanzines/Acolyte/Acolyte11-15.html if you want to get a head start reading these pages.

I checked Wandrei's letters with no mention of Boland.

Necronomicon

If you have facebook, Pavel's blog might be inriguing for you. The link is here.

This section is a short summary of some of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s major ideas relating to the Necronomicon and its associated Myths. and more...

Necronomicon Letter

A portion of the "History of the Necronomicon" found reproduced on the internet.

Crypt of Cthulhu 58

"CRYPT OF CTHULHU" - #58 , Vol. 7, No. 8
A Critical Commentary on the Necronomicon
Edited by Robert M. Price
This issue of "COC" devotes its entirety to an exhaustive study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's most infamous creation, his "Necronomicon" by the mad Arabic author, Abdul Alhazred. This issue is entirely written by Dr./Reverend Price and contains extensive footnoting and bibliography.

Lovecraft's Legacy: 1971 (Tom Collins)

The Seller States: IS #4 October 1971. Fanzine published by Tom Collins, who was a major force in Lovecraft fandom in the '70s. This is a special tribute issue to AUGUST DERLETH, who had just died. It contains original articles by RAY BRADBURY, ROBERT BLOCH, FRITZ LEIBER, AVRAM DAVIDSON, LIN CARTER, FRANK BELKNAP LONG, ROBERT A.W. LOWNDES, JOSEPH PAYNE BRENNAN, EMIL PETAJA, PETER RUBER, A.E. VAN VOGT, MARK SCHORER, COLIN WILSON, GAHAN WILSON, MANLY WADE WELLMAN and a couple others. Also, a short, satirical piece, "The Last Necronomicon" by LARRY NIVEN. Nice portrait of Derleth by Tim Kirk. Quite good condition. This is offset-printed, on good quality paper. Minor wear to the covers.

Lovecraft's Legacy: 1970 (Mirage 9)

MIRAGE #9 1970. 42 page hectographed fanzine published by Jack L. Chalker, who later founded Mirage Press and somewhat even later became a popular science fiction author in his own right. Nonfiction includes “Prolegomenon to a Constitution for the Planet Mongo” by John Boardman (a detailed article on Flash Gordon’s adopted world), a checklist of the unpublished works of David H. Keller by Paul Spencer and “The Necronomicon: A Bibliography” by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings.

Lovecraft's Legacy: 1970 (Mirage #9)

MIRAGE #9 1970. 42 page hectographed fanzine published by Jack L. Chalker, who later founded Mirage Press and somewhat even later became a popular science fiction author in his own right. Nonfiction includes “Prolegomenon to a Constitution for the Planet Mongo” by John Boardman (a detailed article on Flash Gordon’s adopted world), a checklist of the unpublished works of David H. Keller by Paul Spencer and “The Necronomicon: A Bibliography” by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings. (Back cover detached but present, otherwise a Very Good copy. )

Hath The Lair of the Old Ones Been Found?

"The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. "*** "Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread."


H.P. Lovecraft, Quoting from the Necronomicon in The Dunwich Horror

(Aug. 24) - Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe which has no stray stars, no galaxies, no black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years of nothing - a giant expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness. Holes in the universe probably occur when the gravity from areas with bigger mass pull matter from less dense areas - after 13 billion years.

History of the Necronomicon

Here are images of the rare commemorative of 1938.

This, seen for auction, is allegedly the original "History of the Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft" published by Wilson Shepherd of the Rebel Press, Oakman, Alabama, (1938). Limited Memorial Edition.

This piece is described as a single sheet folded to make four pages.

Only 80 copies were printed. (It is #I-A-13-a in the S.T. Joshi Lovecraft biblio. )

Below, is an image of the Necronomicon Press facsimile edition of "A History...", 1st printing, July 1980.

The text of this piece will be entered in comment below.

Commentary on The Hound Part 3

Holland not only refers to the Dutch Reformed Church in Flatbush, but also van Helsing of Dracula.

"Dr. Van Helsing must be a good man as well as a clever one if he is Arthur's friend and Dr. Seward's, and if they brought him all the way from Holland to look after Lucy. "

The Hound is notable because this is the first mention of Necronomicon and it is referred to as written by Abdul Alhazred. Both Greek and Arabic are aberrations of etymology and construct - as pointed out often by Mr. Joshi, but we like them!