STJ and Larry Roberts: New Mythos Venture

From S. T. Joshi's blog:

January 29, 2011

I'm excited to announce that Larry Roberts of Bloodletting Press and I are teaming up to launch a new series, the Modern Mythos Library, to be issued by one of Larry's sub-imprints, Arcane Wisdom. This series will publish vital and significant contemporary works of Cthulhu Mythos fiction by leading authors. Our first two selections have been chosen: Rick Dakan's splendid novel The Cult of Cthulhu and Jonathan Thomas's novel The Color over Occam. The latter is a loose sequel to "The Colour out of Space" and is one of the finest supernatural novels I have read in many years. I don't know the schedule of publication for these titles, but I hope they can appear this year.

My work on the Modern Mythos Library coincides with my withdrawal from the New Millennium Mythos published by Perilous Press. I hope that Perilous continues this worthy series.

You can read the full blog post by clicking here.

http://www.stjoshi.org/news.html

Carnage Hall #4 (1993)

CARNAGE HALL #4 INTERVIEW S.T. JOSHI

3 · Editorial · David Griffin · ed Carnage Hall #3 ’92
9 · Timebomb Square · The Readers · lt
14 · Bloodletting · Kim Antieau · ss
19 · My Own Big Fat Important Opinion · Vaul Tsomas · ar
23 · Death Benumbs Her · Jean Williams · mr
27 · Dance; Aw, Nuts! · David Griffin · ar
32 · All the Kings Horses · Joanne... · pm
36 · Interview: S.T. Joshi · David Griffin · iv [S. T. Joshi]
46 · Book Review: Broken Silence · David Griffin · br
52 · Art Review: And a Smile on the Face of the Spider · Lee Sutherland · ar
55 · Media Review: Necro Wafers · Melli Morrison · ar

S T Joshi's (Real) Web Site

Chrispy is sorry, but he posted the OLD web site, not the new one a few days ago. Let's try this again !

The link is: http://stjoshi.org/ (or click on the title above).




... This site offers a comprehensive view of S. T. Joshi, including an autobiography, a full bibliography of his published writings, photographs of Joshi and his family, discussions of Joshi's works in progress, and links to publishers and related sites. ...

S T Joshi Site Revived !

A must for every Lovecraftian!

Click title above or here is the link:
http://stjoshi.net/

Science versus Charlatanry (1979)

_____
Kind of a different book. This tends to show the energy Mr. Joshi was putting into scholarly and reference work for Lovecraft in the late 1970's and onward.
_____
Science versus Charlatanry
Essays on Astrology by H.P. Lovecraft & J.F. Hartmann
edited by S.T. Joshi & Scott Connors
The Strange Co.

Science versus Charlatanry: edited by S.T. Joshi & Scott Connors. The Strange Co., 1979, Paperback, 53 pages. Limited to 200 copies, this is copy 119. UNREAD, clean covers & pages, very tight square binding, no previous owner bookplates or signatures. Contains essays on astrology by H.P. Lovecraft & J.F. Hartmann (see list below). Scarce.

“Recently a quack named Hartmann, a devotee of the pseudo-science of Astrology, commenced to disseminate the usual pernicious fallacies of that occult art through the columns of The News, so that in the interest of true Astronomy I was forced into a campaign of invective and satire. I began seriously, with Science versus Charlatanry, which I followed up with The Falsity of Astrology, but eventually the stupid persistence of the modern Nostradamus forced me to adopt ridicule as my weapon. I thereupon went back to my beloved age of Queen Anne for a precedent, and decided to emulate Dean Swift’s famous attacks on the astrologer Partridge, conducted under the nom de plume of Isaac Bickerstaffe (or Bickerstaff—I have seen it spelled both ways). Accordingly I published a satirical article wherein I gave with an air of solemn gravity the most nonsensical collection of wild prophecies that my brain could conceive; the whole entitled Astrology and the Future, and signed ‘Isaac Bickerstaffe, Jr.’ I there ‘predicted’ the end of the world by an explosion of internal gases in the year 4954. Hartmann scarce knew whether or not to take me seriously, and kept up his mountebank performances, so I prepared another Bickerstaffe paper whose ridicule should become more open toward the end. In this final effort, Delavan’s Comet and Astrology, I explained how the human race shall be preserved after the destruction of the earth, by transportation to the planet Venus! Even the obtuse intellect of the charlatan must have discovered the sarcastic nature of this ponderous prophecy, for he has now quietly ceased to inflict his false notions on a gullible public.” (to Maurice W. Moe, 8 December 1914)

Science versus Charlatanry includes:
Introduction - Scott Connors & S.T. Joshi
Astrology and the European War - J.F. Hartmann
Science versus Charlantanry - H.P. Lovecraft
(Letter to the Editor) - J.F. Hartmann
The Falsity of Astrology - H.P. Lovecraft
Astrology and the Future - Isaac Bickerstaffe, Jr.
The Science of Astrology - J.F. Hartmann
Delavan's Comet and Astrology - Isaac Bickerstaffe, Jr.
A Defense of Astrology -J.F. Hartmann
The Fall of Astrology - H.P. Lovecraft
(Isaac Bickerstaffe's reply) - Isaac Bickerstaffe, Jr.

Lovecraft and Music

Here is a representation of Lovecraft's Legacy - and his circle of colleagues - roughly 40 years after his decease.
_____
Seller's Notes: Up for auction are three issues of "The Romantist" an annual publication of the F. Marion Crawford Memorial Society. The editors are John C. Moran, Don Herron and Steve Eng. The issues present are #1, #2, & #4-5. These were published between 1977-1981. The print run of each issue of this beautiful 8 1/2" x 11" perfect bound fanzine was only 300 copies. All copies have been hand numbered. This 'zine' ran from 75 to over 100 pages. Contributors include, as well as the editors, H. Warner Munn, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Charles K. Wolfe, Kenneth W. Faig, Dirk W. Mosig and others. Issue #4-5 was devoted to the now deceased, Munn, but also included an article on Sheridan Le Fanu, composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold (think Robin Hood & The Sea Hawk...), and a Lovecraft article, "Lovecraft and Music" by August Derleth and S.T. Joshi and much, much more. A great publication. Condition varies from VG/VG+. All issues are still square but the Munn issue (#4-5) has a cover corner bump and some binding wrinkles on the spine. Issue #2 has 2'' frayed edge on the spine and #1 is a little soiled on the lower left front cover. Overall the issues are pretty nice. See pictures. This is now an uncommon publication and here is a chance to pick them up cheap.

Lovecraft Scholarship

H.P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West by S.T. Joshi
Starmont House, 1990. ISBN 1557422087. Beige pictorial wrappers.
Starmont Studies in Literary Criticism no. 37
The seller states: A rare first edition of this seminal Joshi work. Please note this is the ORIGINAL hardcover print from Starmont press (very rare), NOT the Wildside Press reprint. Joshi expands on a fascinating chapter from his Weird Tales book and delves into the philosophy of Lovecraft - first analyzing themes in Lovecraft's voluminous letters, then examining those same trends as they emerge in his fiction. A very different approach to Lovecraft than what had been done before in the field of Lovecraft studies.

More on Brundage's Art & HPL's Opinion of Her Weird Tales Covers.

{Hey, Dear Readers. You really should join the Google Group. A lot of conversation goes on there that I have to transpose back here sometimes. I just can't do post all, though. The antiquarian thread at Horror Mall is pretty cool, too.}

***

Jeff found the information and posted it at Google Groups. Then, my pal, Jimster, found more information in his Etchings and Oddyseys # 2 (see below).

***

Jeff:

No problem, Chris! I'm happy I can contribute to the conversation.

I found the reference I was looking for, concerning Lovecraft and the Weird Tales covers. In his book, H.P. LOVECRAFT: A LIFE, S.T. Joshi quotes from a letter that Lovecraft wrote to Willis Conover on September 1, 1936:

About WT covers -- they really are too trivial to get angry about. If they weren't totally irrelevant and unrepresentative nudes, they'd probably be something equally awkward and trivial, even though less irrelevant....I have no objection to the nude in art -- in fact the human figure is as worth a type of subject-matter as any other object of beauty in the visible world. But I don't see what the hell Mrs. Brundage's undressed ladies have to do with weird fiction.
After this quote, Joshi writes:

A quotation like this should help to dispel the silly rumour that Lovecraft habitually tore off the covers of Weird Tales because he was either outraged or embarrassed by the nude covers; although the real proof of the falsity of this rumour comes from a consultation of his own complete file of the magazine, sitting perfectly intact at the John Hay Library of Brown University.

And if you want to read the Margaret Brundage interview I mentioned, go to this website:

http://members.aol.com/weirdtales/brundage.htm

***
Jimster:

Chris ... You really do learn new things every day!

... From Etchings & Odysseys / 2:

E&O: What models did you use for these nudes - your imagination?Brundage: Mostly my imagination, yep. Once in a while, I would get - have a friend pose for me. But...mostly it was out of my head. And, for the male figures, I would pick my husband to pose for a while. But to hire models, no, I'm afraid I didn't. But I did give them the impression that I did hire models. But I never came right out and said "I hired a model." But if they thought I had a live model, it would cause me less trouble with anatomical problems.

Now, I knew anatomy - I don't know whether I know it that well now - but I taught it for a couple of years, so that I really knew my anatomy. Like all inexperienced people with art, they would find a flaw that isn't really a flaw - you know what I mean? - something about the picture that bothered them. And they'll pick out something - and probably the thing they pick out is perfect, but something else is really wrong. And they make you correct the one thing. And it worsens the picture really. The artist could have told them what was wrong, well, this happens all the time in comercial art. The person buying will find something wrong with it nine times out of ten. But that's not really what's wrong.

In the interview, she also makes mention of her son (no other children). One very interesting (and classy) lady, even if HPL had his doubts about her talent. She appartently went to school in the same class as Walt Disney!

Jim

H.P. LOVECRAFT: FOUR DECADES OF CRITICISM edited by S.T. Joshi (Signed by Robert Bloch)

This is up for sale - and it's signed by Robert Bloch. (Sorry, no image of the signature.) Horror Mall wants $149.00. Not bad, but I've decoded it's too rich for me, and not a good fit for me to acquire. :( But enjoy the pic !

This anthology, spanning nearly forty years of criticism, embodies the wide range of opinions evoked by the writings of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Originally published in pulp magazines, which in the early part of this century were the only market for fantasy fiction, H.P. Lovecraft’s works were not recognized by the literary world in his lifetime. After Lovecraft’s death, associates and fans published his work in book form, thus beginning his slow rise from obscurity. Since that time, critical acceptance of Lovecraft’s works has fluctuated greatly, from those who feel that his work is juvenile and undeserving of serious study to those who consider him to be another Poe.
In addition to representing the ambivalent critical responses to Lovecraft’s writings, this volume also examines the literary influences that affected him, his poetry and essays, his work as a regional and local-color writer, and the evolution of his vast pseudo-mythology in both his writings and the writings of others, as well as his reactions to the political and economic development of his time.
Above all, this volume is designed to present Lovecraft to the academic world which has virtually ignored him for forty years, capping his metamorphosis from a forgotten pulp writer to a brilliant fantaisiste with a worldwide following.
Contents
Preface by S.T. Joshi
H.P. Lovecraft: His Life and Work
Kenneth W. Faig, Jr. and S.T. Joshi
Lovecraft Criticism: A Study
S.T. Joshi
A Chronology of Selected Works by H.P. Lovecraft
S.T. Joshi
H.P. Lovecraft: An Appreciation
T. O. Mabbott
Tales of the Marvellous and the Ridiculous
Edmund Wilson
A Literary Copernicus
Fritz Leiber, Jr.
From The Supernatural in Fiction
Peter Penzoldt
The Cthulhu Mythos: A Study
George T. Wetzel
Some Notes on Cthulhuian Pseudobiblia
Edward Lauterbach
H.P. Lovecraft: Myth-Maker
Dirk W. Mosig
On the Literary Influences Which Shaped Lovecraft’s Works
J. Vernon Shea
Through Hyperspace with Brown Jenkin: Lovecraft’s Contribution to Speculative Fiction
Fritz Leiber, Jr.
The Influence of Vathek on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
Peter Cannon
Poe and Lovecraft
Robert Bloch
H.P. Lovecraft in Hawthornian Perspective
Peter Cannon
Facts in the Case of H.P. Lovecraft
Barton L. St. Armand
"The White Ship": A Psychological Odyssey
Dirk W. Mosig
Lovecraft and the Cosmic Quality in Fiction
Richard L. Tierney
Dystopia as Utopia: Howard Phillips Lovecraft and the Unknown Content of American Horror Literature
Paul Buhle
A Parenthesis on Lovecraft as Poet
Winfield Townley Scott
A Lovecraftian Nightmare
R. Boerem
The Continuity of the Fungi from Yuggoth
R. Boerem
To Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Clark Ashton Smith
Bibliographic Information

H.P. LOVECRAFT: FOUR DECADES OF CRITICISM edited by S.T. Joshi (Signed by Robert Bloch)

Recently surfaced copy signed by Robert Bloch ! $159.00.

Robert Bloch, S.T. Joshi, Fritz Leiber

Ohio State University Press


This anthology, spanning nearly forty years of criticism, embodies the wide range of opinions evoked by the writings of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Originally published in pulp magazines, which in the early part of this century were the only market for fantasy fiction, H.P. Lovecraft’s works were not recognized by the literary world in his lifetime. After Lovecraft’s death, associates and fans published his work in book form, thus beginning his slow rise from obscurity. Since that time, critical acceptance of Lovecraft’s works has fluctuated greatly, from those who feel that his work is juvenile and undeserving of serious study to those who consider him to be another Poe.

In addition to representing the ambivalent critical responses to Lovecraft’s writings, this volume also examines the literary influences that affected him, his poetry and essays, his work as a regional and local-color writer, and the evolution of his vast pseudo-mythology in both his writings and the writings of others, as well as his reactions to the political and economic development of his time.

Above all, this volume is designed to present Lovecraft to the academic world which has virtually ignored him for forty years, capping his metamorphosis from a forgotten pulp writer to a brilliant fantaisiste with a worldwide following.

Contents

Preface by S.T. Joshi

H.P. Lovecraft: His Life and Work Kenneth W. Faig, Jr. and S.T. Joshi

Lovecraft Criticism: A Study S.T. Joshi

A Chronology of Selected Works by H.P. Lovecraft S.T. Joshi

H.P. Lovecraft: An Appreciation T. O. Mabbott

Tales of the Marvellous and the Ridiculous Edmund Wilson

A Literary Copernicus Fritz Leiber, Jr.

From The Supernatural in Fiction Peter Penzoldt

The Cthulhu Mythos: A Study George T. Wetzel

Some Notes on Cthulhuian Pseudobiblia Edward Lauterbach

H.P. Lovecraft: Myth-Maker Dirk W. Mosig

On the Literary Influences Which Shaped Lovecraft’s Works J. Vernon Shea

Through Hyperspace with Brown Jenkin: Lovecraft’s Contribution to Speculative Fiction Fritz Leiber, Jr.

The Influence of Vathek on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath Peter Cannon

Poe and Lovecraft Robert Bloch

H.P. Lovecraft in Hawthornian Perspective Peter Cannon

Facts in the Case of H.P. Lovecraft Barton L. St. Armand

"The White Ship": A Psychological Odyssey Dirk W. Mosig

Lovecraft and the Cosmic Quality in Fiction Richard L. Tierney

Dystopia as Utopia: Howard Phillips Lovecraft and the Unknown Content of American Horror Literature Paul Buhle

A Parenthesis on Lovecraft as Poet Winfield Townley Scott

A Lovecraftian Nightmare R. Boerem

The Continuity of the Fungi from Yuggoth R. Boerem

To Howard Phillips Lovecraft Clark Ashton Smith

Call of Cthulhu in 1929's Deware After Dark

Here are a few anecdotes about this book. First up, the Brown University Library Shows this information:

The Howard P. Lovecraft Collection
Macaulay Company Publishers
Macaulay Company Publishers to Lovecraft, Howard P 1929 Aug 14 Box: 25 accession Number: A32500 [2h] 1 p.
Enclosing $15.00 check for publishing "The Call of Cthulhu" in Beware after Dark. On verso of HPL Fiction: The Whisperer in Darkness (ADfS), 22.

***

Then there's this:

Letter to Lester Anderson From Clark Ashton Smith
Auburn, Cal.July 31st, 1934

...I must confess that I failed to overenthuse over that yarn myself. After reading Creeps by Night, I came to the conclusion that my literary tastes were almost directly opposite to those of Dashiell Hammett. Harre's Beware after Dark is still unapproached in my opinion, as an anthology of weirds.

Cordially,
[s] Clark Ashton Smith

***

When it appeared in Weird Tales, "The Call of Cthulhu" impressed many of that magazine's readers, including Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, who was moved to write to "The Eyrie," the Weird Tales letters column: "Mr. Lovecraft's latest story, 'The Call of Cthulhu,' is indeed a masterpiece, which I am sure will live as one of the highest achievements of literature. Mr. Lovecraft holds a unique position in the literary world; he has grasped, to all intents, the worlds outside our paltry ken. His scope is unlimited, and his range is cosmic."The tale also attracted the attention of an anthologist, T. Everett Harré, who reprinted it in a volume entitled Beware After Dark! (1929). (The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, S T Joshi)

***

Finally, as seen on ebay: "BEWARE AFTER DARK!", PUBLISHED by MACAULAY COMPANY, FIRST EDITION, 1929 - One of the scarcest and most frequently overlooked of early horror anthologies, this lovely 460+ page hardcover was edited by T. Everett Harre, popular author of 'Behold the Woman' and 'One Hour - And Forever'. With a wonderful subtitle - "The World's Most Stupendous Tales of Mystery, Horror, Thrills and Terror" - it was the first major American publisher to anthologize H.P. Lovecraft, featuring 'The Call of Cthulhu'. Also included is Edmond Hamilton's first story, 'The Monster-God of Mamurth', as well as stories from E. F. Benson, Gouverneur Morris, Cynthia Stockley, Irvin S. Cobb, Lafcadio Hearn, Ellen Glasgow, Edward Lucas White, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Leonid Andreyeff, S. Carleton, Arthur Machen, Bassett Morgan, Robert Louis Stevenson, George W. Bayly, E. Philllips Oppenheim, Beatrice Grimshaw, M.P. Shiel, John Fleming Wilson and Gertrude Atherton. Eclectic and fascinating lineup. The book is complete; binding is solid, paper quality remains good; very minor spine lean; wear at extreme top/bottom of spine/cover corners; thin strip of shadowing along extreme right side of front of cover. Some nicks to page edges; overall light wear. Not mint, but quite solid - and very difficult to find. (Starting Bid $19.99)

Lovecraft's Legacy: 2007

Dead Reckonings, No.1, Spring 2007

Donald R. Burleson reviews Lovecraft’s collected essays. Hippocampus has put out a marvelous set for research in 5 volumes. Even today, many fans have read few of HPL’s letters. The corpus of his letters, essays, and newspaper articles dwarf his fiction. Some estimate he may have written (or scribbled!) 70,000 missives and some of them to more that 40 pages in cramped handwriting.

S.T. Joshi has mastered this corpus and placed them thematically into Amateur Journalism, Literary Criticism, Science, Travel, and Philosophy (autobiography and miscellany).
In total, Burleson lets us know that the full Lovecraft emerges here from recluse to expansive thoughts on the materialist universe and beyond.

More.

New Clue: Could HPL Have Ever Been a Spy?

The answer apparently is yes. However, not between 1923 and 1926 with Houdini (we are still searching for THAT smoking gun) but in 1917 !!

Faig (1) reports in his 1999 essay that a 1948 memoir by Michael White (d. 1960) entitled "Fond Memories that Linger On" (The Fossil, January 1948) states Lovecraft collaborated with a paid British agent to exacerbate an Irish enclave of activists. Lovecraft presented the United Amateur Press Association at a Boston literary club in 1917 to which White was in attendance. White states that he knew of Demarest Loyd, a dandy-dressed English sympathizer was paid to out Irish (IRA) sympathizers. He enlisted Lovecraft's help - or they at least stumbled into one another's arms.

As usual, HPL was inconsistent in his vehemence, though. He adored Lord Dunsany, and probably did not know he was an IRA sympathizer. He attacked (2), though a series of published letters, John T. Dunn - a freind - and some of HPL's vitriolic spume spilled into the pages of The Conservative. White, himself, was a sympathizer. White was a close friend to Edith Miniter after HPL introduced the two of them. (Miniter once fancied by Lovecraft - see blog entry). Miniter's mother was keen on writing verse in Irish fashion.

This tantalizing bit of "historicical" gossip shows that Lovecraft was quite capable of espionage leanings. He was never shy about berating those he keenly felt were wrong-headed and dangerous to his personal belief systems.

Loyd had a Kentucky connection, having been stationed at Camp Zachary taylor in Oct 1918. He was born in Chicago in 1883 making him older than HPL - always a plus, since Lovecraft gravitated to older men. Both of his degrees were from Harvard making him a Boston mainstay. Lovecraft's Uncle lived in Boston. Loyd's British airs probably (?) reminded him of HPL's father.

1. Kenneth W Faig, Jr, The Unknown Lovecraft I: Political Operative, Crypt of Cthulhu 103, Vol. 19, No.,1, 1999
2. S T Joshi, "H P Lovecraft: Letters to John T Dunn", Books at Brown, Vol. 38&39, 1991-1992, published 1995, Providence, RI.

The Tryout

One of Lovecraft's early friends was Charles Smith. Lovecraft visited "Tryout Smith" in 1919 in Haverhill, MA. Lovecraft had already adopted his "old man" personna and often enjoyed the company of older men - for instance Jonathan Hoag. Smith was 69 at this time.





Joshi declares that the Tryout was one of the most pathetic and misprinted journals in the history of amateur journalism. However it was regular as clockwork - 300 issues between 1914 to 1948. Smith, as editor, set the type by hand in a shed behind his house at 408 Groveland Street. (*)

Now you can judge. Here are some rare glimpses.








(*) Text from p. 258 of Joshi's H P Lovecraft: A Life.

The ebay offering of this states:

(1) THE TRYOUT Feb., 1918 A WINTER WISH, 1ST APPEARANCE, An unusually early appearance by H. P. Lovecraft under his own name and pseudonym Ames Dorrance Rowley for the poem "Laeta: A Lament". Paper just toned, with a few small chips in the cover; not brittle like old Pulp paper! A rare opportunity to acquire a very early piece and add that special uniqueness to your collection, published five years before his 1st appearance in Weird Tales!

(2) THE TRYOUT Oct., 1918, THE EIDOLON, 1ST APPEARANCE, An unusually early appearance by H. P. Lovecraft under his own name, "The Eidolon" a four-page poem. Paper is just dark paper, not stained or browned, it is just a darker paper that printer C. W. Smith used. A rare opportunity to acquire a very early piece and add that special uniqueness to your collection, published five years before his 1st appearance in Weird Tales! Note the date misprinted as 1819!