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Mysteries of Time and Spirit: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei
Mysteries of Time and Spirit is a collection of all the correspondence between Lovecraft and future Arkham-House co-founder Donald Wandrei.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
- GenresLovecraftian
439 pages, Hardcover
First published October 30, 2002
1 person is currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,207 books19.4k followersHoward Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 28, 2011
H.P. Lovecraft is best known today for creating what came to be known as the “Cthulhu Mythos,” a background of cosmic horror used by many other writers since then and slowly becoming absorbed into the popular culture. His weird tales have become a common fixture of American horror and the man behind the Cthulhu Mythos has become a bit of a myth himself. During his lifetime, however, Lovecraft spent more time writing letters, keeping detailed correspondences with his many friends and acquaintances across the country, becoming one of the most copious letter writers of 20th century American fiction. This compilation collects one of Lovecraft’s most complete correspondences with the young St. Paul writer Donald Wandrei, written between 1926 and 1936.
These letters provide a fascinating look at Lovecraft as a person, warts and all. While his deeply racist views come to be evident in his bitter feelings toward New York, his passion for history, architecture, and travel also shine; I particularly liked his occasional and endearing sketches of the Providence skyline or the lovely colonial home he had the opportunity to share with his aunts. Most interesting were Lovecraft’s views upon literature and the writing process as he and Wandrei shared recommendations and reviews of various literature and passed manuscripts back and forth for revision. It was interesting seeing the young U of M student’s views change as his writing matured during his correspondence, and I particularly enjoyed the fascinating glimpse at the Twin Cities during the late ‘20s and early ‘30s. In any case, these collections of letters provide a great way to view the humanity of these writers and the times that they lived in, seeing the similarities and differences to correspondences today. It is interesting to think that, while the medium may have shifted from paper to the Internet, correspondence between writers remains a part of writing culture, and one can’t help but wonder about a hypothetical modern day Lovecraft and his blog. I am definitely interested in reading more of Lovecraft's published correspondences.
These letters provide a fascinating look at Lovecraft as a person, warts and all. While his deeply racist views come to be evident in his bitter feelings toward New York, his passion for history, architecture, and travel also shine; I particularly liked his occasional and endearing sketches of the Providence skyline or the lovely colonial home he had the opportunity to share with his aunts. Most interesting were Lovecraft’s views upon literature and the writing process as he and Wandrei shared recommendations and reviews of various literature and passed manuscripts back and forth for revision. It was interesting seeing the young U of M student’s views change as his writing matured during his correspondence, and I particularly enjoyed the fascinating glimpse at the Twin Cities during the late ‘20s and early ‘30s. In any case, these collections of letters provide a great way to view the humanity of these writers and the times that they lived in, seeing the similarities and differences to correspondences today. It is interesting to think that, while the medium may have shifted from paper to the Internet, correspondence between writers remains a part of writing culture, and one can’t help but wonder about a hypothetical modern day Lovecraft and his blog. I am definitely interested in reading more of Lovecraft's published correspondences.
April 10, 2020
It is well known that HPL wrote a reputed 100,000 letters, with some correspondents receiving years worth of cards, postcards and letters - some over 70 pages in length; having completed my second 'set' (having previously read the complete letters to August Derleth in 2 volumes) it is a sheer wonder that within all of this he could react in such an individual way with each recipient, and yet these letters are completely different to the Derleth collection.
Whereas the Derleth letters are focussed heavily on writing, weird fiction and the publishing world, the Wandrei letters are alive with tales of travel and life, once again destroying every misconceived representation of HPL in modern culture. The passing reader may see him as a loner, scraping a pittance on revision work whilst creating his 'Mythos' and harbouring 'difficult' views...what these letters give us is the window into two 'Melmoths' - wanderers and travellers, exploring, learning and appreciating. This Lovecraft travels to Florida, Carolina, Tennessee, Quebec and Nantucket; he goes to watch TS Eliot give a reading of the 'Wasteland' and curses his misfortune as he misses 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' at the cinema; he goes to a recreation of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and glimpses FDR on his campaign trail and wishes him a landslide. He eats ice cream like a champion and even sports a suntan...and as for the obsessive writer - you will come across no greater critic of his own work and accepts each rejection as evidence that he simply isn't good enough.
The relationship itself with DW peaks very quickly in the first two years and you can certainly sense HPL's irritation at how DW lapses in his responses and begins to slip in and out of 'the gang'; although every opportunity to meet up is taken with great affection. It is deeply sad, but not unwholly unexpected, that the final letter in the volume starts with an apology from DW over his tardiness in not having written for 3 months - dated two days after HPL's passing.
And here we have one of the issues that I am going to have to face as I work through the collected letters - knowing that the old gent will die at the end and the difficulty in the final month's of correspondence as he knew his fate was upon him. Perhaps I will be spared as I consider the two volume Robert E Howard collection, as REH committed suicide in 1936, an event which clearly shook HPL deeply, as demonstrated in this collection.
In many ways I agree with the old gent on a large chunk of his work, but when he was good there is no-one that can touch him; however, should I never read one of his stories again I could live with that, as long as I had his letters. I have read so many, and am so thankful there are so many more to read...
Whereas the Derleth letters are focussed heavily on writing, weird fiction and the publishing world, the Wandrei letters are alive with tales of travel and life, once again destroying every misconceived representation of HPL in modern culture. The passing reader may see him as a loner, scraping a pittance on revision work whilst creating his 'Mythos' and harbouring 'difficult' views...what these letters give us is the window into two 'Melmoths' - wanderers and travellers, exploring, learning and appreciating. This Lovecraft travels to Florida, Carolina, Tennessee, Quebec and Nantucket; he goes to watch TS Eliot give a reading of the 'Wasteland' and curses his misfortune as he misses 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' at the cinema; he goes to a recreation of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and glimpses FDR on his campaign trail and wishes him a landslide. He eats ice cream like a champion and even sports a suntan...and as for the obsessive writer - you will come across no greater critic of his own work and accepts each rejection as evidence that he simply isn't good enough.
The relationship itself with DW peaks very quickly in the first two years and you can certainly sense HPL's irritation at how DW lapses in his responses and begins to slip in and out of 'the gang'; although every opportunity to meet up is taken with great affection. It is deeply sad, but not unwholly unexpected, that the final letter in the volume starts with an apology from DW over his tardiness in not having written for 3 months - dated two days after HPL's passing.
And here we have one of the issues that I am going to have to face as I work through the collected letters - knowing that the old gent will die at the end and the difficulty in the final month's of correspondence as he knew his fate was upon him. Perhaps I will be spared as I consider the two volume Robert E Howard collection, as REH committed suicide in 1936, an event which clearly shook HPL deeply, as demonstrated in this collection.
In many ways I agree with the old gent on a large chunk of his work, but when he was good there is no-one that can touch him; however, should I never read one of his stories again I could live with that, as long as I had his letters. I have read so many, and am so thankful there are so many more to read...
September 17, 2013
An amazing collection.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews