Selected Letters V: 1934-1937

Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft #5

by H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth (Editor), James Turner (Editor)

The selected letters of Howard Phillips Lovecraft comprise the most varied and extensive group of writings conceived by this renowned American fantasist. Lovecraft was a brilliant epistolarian whose effortlessly erudite correspondence created lasting friendships among many individuals whom he would never meet in person, including August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, C.L. Moore, and countless others. The unlimited extent of Lovecraft's intellectual curiosity is accurately preserved in this illustrated edition, in letters dealing with details of autobiography, fantastic literature, philosophical speculation, dreams and fancies, social commentary, and innumerable other subjects, ranging from the history and vestiges of colonial New England to the outermost abysses of the universe, beyond known space and conjectured time. Cosmic mythmaker, antiquarian recluse, philosophic materialist -- here are the most memorable epistolary writings by this extraordinary gentleman from Providence, who in the years since his death has become a legend.

Genres: Lovecraftian, Nonfiction, Biography, Horror

436 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1976

About the author

Howard 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

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy is copyrite 1965

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

lovecraft was as singularly bizarre an individual as was his creative output, although not in the way you'd think...
banality and hyper-erudition are really the two words that sum him up most...the above collection of letters is actually volume III...volumes I and II comprise letters from earlier periods...
i don't think they've ever been re-printed outside Arkham House, but if you can find them, i would highly encourage reading them...
extraordinary stuff...

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just got a copy of this for my birthday,and it's a fun read,although sad at times to realize the poverty that Lovecraft lived in at the later parts of his life.

[Jack Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something strangely loveable about H. P. Lovecraft. If you list his characteristics and prejudices objectively - racist, intolerant of novelty, reclusive, snobby - he sounds horrible. But when you read his letters en masse you begin to see the genuinely warm - and actually funny - personality which lay underneath.

As you get to know him better, too, you begin to realise how often he was joking, how many of his letters spiral off into absurd monologues designed to provoke his correspondents to spluttering laughter in the midst of their indignation.

I've always liked the extravagance of his fictional work, but reading the whole series of the Selected Letters has brought him to life for me in a quite unexpected way.