Hello everyone, I just thought I'd let all those CAS or Lovecraft inspired writer's know that Hippocampus Press is coming out with a new journal called Spectral Realms and as far as I know still accepting submissions. Even if you're not a writer and are an avid reader, I'd probably be really excited about this. I got 3 poems accepted for the first issue which is supposed to come out in July, and I am pretty excited. The editor is S.T. Joshi, he may be familiar to many of you.

[www.hippocampuspress.com]

Here is an insert about it by Joshi on his website:

"I am not sure there has been an official announcement about this, but Hippocampus Press has decided to publish a biannual journal devoted to weird poetry, entitled Spectral Realms. I have already notified the poets of my acquaintance about the project, and have received splendid contributions by Richard L. Tierney, Ann K. Schwader, Wade German, Michael Fantina, Leigh Blackmore, Phillip A. Ellis, and perhaps others. The journal will also include select reprints of obscure “classic” weird verse, reviews and articles on the subject, and perhaps other matter. We hope to have the first issue ready by July. So if any weird poets out there wish to contribute, by all means send me your work!"

[www.stjoshi.org]

I've been so busy writing my new novel inspir'd by Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" that I haven't had time to even think of submitting to this new poetry anthology. I'm very happy to see it come into existence. S. T. has just pleased me enormously by suggesting to the gents working on PS Publishing's series of LOVECRAFT ILLUSTRATED volumes that I write an essay on "The Colour out of Space," one of Lovecraft's most poetic tales. My essay was accepted for publication this morning. Thanks S. T.!!

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

Congrats! Sounds like a fascinating read! :)

I am really looking forward to THE VARIORUM LOVECRAFT, which I mistakenly thought was to be publish'd this summer--it will be out next summer as part of the celebration of Lovecraft's 125th birthday. I am rereading LOVECRAFT REMEMBERED, and I just came across this in an essay by Alfred Gaplin: "It was during this stage of our correspondence, unless my memory betrays me, that Howard had a dream which he expressed in the story (published in 1925), 'The Music of Erich Zann,' set in the 'Rue d'Auseil,' a most grim and squalid street. I seem to recall that Howard wrote me, telling me how my letters had influenced his revision of the story prior to its publication in WEIRD TALES." The story was written in December 1921 and first publish'd in an amateur journal March 1922. No letters from Lovecraft to Galpin during 1925-26 seem to have survived--none are in ye Hippocampus Press edition--and I have found no other mention of the Galpin-influenced revision of the tale. It's such a wonderful coincidence that E'ch-Pi-El wrote the story, and then Galpin went to Paris years later to study music.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

S. T. now hopes that THE VARIORUM LOVECRAFT will be publish'd in October in time for WFC. He needs help: "If anyone has the issue of FANTASY MAGAZINE (June 1934) containing 'Cigarette Characterizations,' I'd be grateful to receive a copy or scan of the one-paragraph contribution by Lovecraft." I have no clue what this is, but hopefully someone here does.

For CAS fans, there is a (slim) chance that the HPL/CAS correspondence will see publication late this year. Originally planned as two volumes, Derrick has now decided to publish it as one thick volume in hardcover. Whether it will then see print in soft cover I don't know. I am especially interested in studying it so as to ascertain the degree by which Lovecraft and Smith inspired aspects of each other's fiction. Reading the Penguin Clark Ashton Smith collection reminded me again of the unique nature of Smith's weird/fantasy fiction, so unlike Lovecraft's usual thing. Last night I reread Colin Wilson's "The Return of the Lloigor" in TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, and then I went and reread the Smith tales in that volume, and it got me thinking about influence. I see no real influence from Lovecraft in anything that Smith wrote, and certainly none of Smith's influence in Lovecraft's fiction. I see mentions of Abdul and Necronomicon in Smith, and mention of Smith's art in Lovecraft--that is all. I've been wondering if Smith's science fiction tales could have influenced Lovecraft's bringing more sf elements into his fiction; but I think, rather, that Lovecraft may have been influenced mostly by the growing publications in the sf genre, and his mild interest in trying to write fiction for them. I am hoping a close study of their joint correspondence will clue me in to the matter.

Another book that will explore aspects of Clark Ashton Smith's work will be SEX AND THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, publish'd late this year by Hippocampus Press. The book is by Bobby Derie. S. T. describes it as "...a serious and very perspicacious study of this subject. Derie, a young British critic, has analysed not only Lovecraft's life and work for its sexual overtones and implications, but also the work of Lovecraft's contempoaries (Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, etc.) and successors (August Derleth, Brian McNaughton, W. H. Pugmire, Caitlin R. Kiernan)--and has done so in a way that is far from sensationalist or exploitative as can be imagined. And yet, it is not a dry and academic treatise, but a lively and informative account of this topic. This book should appear later this year from Hippocampus Press, possibly enlivened with some (tasteful) illustrations relevant to the subject." Illustrations!!! The CAS tales should inspire quite a lengthy chapter, one wou'd think. I never thought of REH's fiction as containing erotic touches, but I have read so few of his Conan-type tales, having no interest if S&S fiction. Sexuality in Lovecraft should inspire a very potent chapter, and that will be fascinating reading. Who is the actual father of Wilbur Whateley, and why does the monstrous twin have "Oh, oh, my Gawd, that haff face--that haff face on top of it...that face with the red eyes an crinkly albino hair, an' no chin, like the Whateley's...It was a octopus, centipede, spider kind o thing, but they was a haff-shaped man's face on top of it, an' it looked like Wizard Whateley's, only it was yards an' yards acrost..."?

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 6 May 14 | 04:13PM by wilum pugmire.

Wilum, "Cigarette Characterizations" was a novelty feature in Fantasy Magazine (I assume this is one of the early SF fanzines). I've only read the second half of the article, which is reprinted in Wizard's Isle: The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Vol. III. This appears in the July 1934 issue, so HPL's contribution must have been in Part One.

Part Two consists of 6 short passages (most are only a single paragraph long) by the following writers: R. F. Starzl, Donald Wandrei, Frank Belknap Long, P. Schuyler Miller, Jack Williamson, and Arthur J. Burks. The subject matter is, naturally, a cigarette. The game is for the reader to try to match up the style in the anonymously presented passages with the corresponding writer. (I didn't get any of them right). For my money, the most successful one was Donald Wandrei's.

Since the six writers in Part Two are all SF writers (at least, they all had written some Science Fiction), I am assuming that the six writers in Part One were from the field of Fantasy (and/or Horror). It never occurred to me that Lovecraft contributed to this--imagine, a "lost" bit of HPL prose! But it's quite possible--after all, Lovecraft contributed to the round-robin story The Challenge from Beyond, which appeared in the Sept. 1935 issue of Fantasy Magazine.

My mind is salivating!

Hey Ken, according to the online Lovecraft bibliography that I found, Lovecraft's portion also included writers David H. Keller, Clark Ashton Smith (!), Hal Vincent, E. E. Smith, Otis Adelbert Kline, and Stanton A. Coblentz.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

I can't believe no-one has reprinted this before, especially as seemingly every bit of Lovecraft's prose that is extant has been. Are any copies of this fanzine still in existence? Surely Necronomicon Press would have if one had been at hand--after all, they reprinted both versions of The Challenge From Beyond.

Amazing to think what ephemera may be crumbling away in an attic somewhere, patiently awaiting discovery.

I have no idea about this, having never seen Fantasy Magazine--and apparently S. T. hasn't seen it since he's asking for someone to supply a scan of it. I don't suppose copies are selling on Amazon, or if they are they are affordable.

I may have to readjust my thinking re: Lovecraft's influence on CAS. I am reading CLARK ASHTON SMITH--A CRITICAL GUIDE TO THE MAN AND HIS WORK, by Steve Behrends, and he implies that the HPL influence might have been extensive. "The tales of horror which utilize a contemporary setting are by their nature Smith's most conventional productions, and and a result, they show the greatest influence of other writers. He acknowledged that several tales were directly inspired by well-known works: Arthur Machen's 'The Great God Pan' provided the germinal seed for 'The Nameless Offspring', Lovecraft's 'The Statement of Randolph Carter' brought about 'The Epiphany of Death' (which after Lovecraft's death Smith dedicated to him), while 'Pickman's Model', also by Lovecraft, begat 'The Hunters from Beyond.'" Behrends also suggests that Smith's setting some weird tales into modern time and settings may have been a Lovecraftian influence--but it could also have been suggested to him by some of the pulp editors, such as Wright.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

Steve Behrends included Lovecraft's contribution to "Cigarette Characterizations" as a footnote to Smith's in STRANGE SHADOWS:

"The oddly unnatural face disclosed by the match's glow gave even this common cigarette an indefinable strangeness. Its newly-lit point pulsed in a feverish rhythm curiously unlike the puffs on the normal smoker, and when it blazed brightest one could see the whole white cylinder protruding like a fungoid excrescence from the thin, pallid lips. The smoke, when glimpsed, seemed to weave fantastic designs; and a long ash appeared with anomalous rapidity." Footnote 84, p. 264.

Thank ye, Jim!! I'll send it to S. T. immediately.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

You are welcome, Wilum. I am sure S. T. has probably already seen it in this source, and would prefer access to the original text. I have always wondered whether that **on** in **unlike the puffs on the normal smoker,** was supposed to be an **of**.

Thank you, Jim! Now my mind can relax.

You are welcome, Ken.

Wilum, I would be very eager to read a novel by you inspired by Kadath. I think you have just the right phantasmagorical style to really make something deliciously twisted of such a project. When I first read Kadath I found it a bit difficult to get into--yet strangely intriguing; something of its dim meaderings through marmoreal dream-worlds and ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber spoke unto my heart like the rot-tongued whispers of a moon-wraith. Black Kadath, I found, loomed on the horizon of my dreams as well; and I was loth to remain in waking lands, when such alluringly tenebrous dream-ways awaited mortal tread....

I am rather surprised that none of your work will appear in Spectral Realms. I myself have 3 poems accepted for publication therein, which I am hoping will serve as advertisement for my forthcoming verse collection, THE CRIMSON TOME, which, as noted in another recent post, will be available from Hippocampus in the not too distant future....

K.A. Opperman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> I am rather surprised that none of your work will
> appear in Spectral Realms. I myself have 3 poems
> accepted for publication therein, which I am
> hoping will serve as advertisement for my
> forthcoming verse collection, THE CRIMSON TOME,
> which, as noted in another recent post, will be
> available from Hippocampus in the not too distant
> future....

David Barker and I have had a poem accepted for SPECTRAL REALMS #1. I then began writing my new sonnet sequence, SONNETS OF AN ELDRITCH BENT, meaning for them to see first publication in my forthcoming collection from Centipede Press, but S. T. fell in love with the first sonnet and insisted it appear in SPECTRAL REALMS as well. Amusingly, the sonnet is based on a story that S. T. does not care for, H. P. Lovecraft's "The Hound." As for my dreamland novel, I got bored with it after 9,000 words, but I sent it to my collaborator, David, and he is going to expand and finish it as a long novelette. I really LOVED setting a new thing in the dreamlands, but I was trying to turn a novelette idea into a novel, and that was a mistake. Writing in the dreamlands actually makes one want to write in a very poetic prose, I found, and one can really explore the wonders of imagery and such, because in the dreamlands anything can exist that is ye stuff o' dreams. There are no limitations. This is another facet of Lovecraft's genius, that in exploring fictional themes he used not only the horror genre but science fiction and pure fantasy as well.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11 May 14 | 09:46AM by wilum pugmire.

Wilum, I'm very glad you will appear in SPECTRAL REALMS after all. It will be an honor to have my work appear beside yours. Sonnet cycle, did you say?--my ears always perk up at those 2 words! I never can resist the allure of a weird sonnet cycle. I have found the allure so strong that I have written one myself--it is the first item in my forthcoming collection. It is titled The Land of Darkest Dreams, and is of a somewhat Lovecraftian flavor. The narrator, an inhabitant of the lost, decadent, autumn-cursed town Yorehaven, embarks on a mad quest into the nighted forest, spurred on by half-imagined whispers, and the sheer primal allure of the night (which I have always felt strongly). Any thought of turning back is foiled--for he soon finds himself lost. Ere long, he finds he has crossed into some shadowy, phantasmal dreamland. He goes on, in pursuit of something called The Crimson Tome (about which he has heard whispers by absinthe-drunk dreamers in the local tavern), all the while being haunted by a strange spectral woman in black--The Nightmare Muse--who leads him deeper and deeper into the realms of night and dream.... The cycle numbers 20 sonnets, written in a 15-line sonnet form of my own invention, which is more challenging (and therefore, in my opinion, more fun) to write than other traditional forms.

I am just beginning volume three of ye Variorum Lovecraft, whut begins with AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. I have read this work so many times, but each time I return to it I become instantly & absolutely captivated. 'm doing a very careful, slow reading of ye text, and reading aloud, so as to catch any misprints (we want these Variorum editions to be as free of typos as possible); have already found two misprints in MOUNTAINS, word repetition.

Of course, ye Hippocampus edition I am REALLY hot to handle will be David Schultz's THE ANNOTATED FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH, and this is going to be a huge volume, complete with 40 illustrations by Jason C. Eckhardt. This is going to be an amazing work, on which David has been working for more than three decades. Ye Fungi, of course, inspired me to write SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT, and I am delighted to say that the entire sonnet sequence will be included, as a kind of appendix, in my new book from Hippocampus, MONSTROUS AFTERMATH (the title is taken from FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH), following directly after the new revised/expanded version of "Some Unknown Gulf of Night" that will be in that book. (It is to be a good year for ye FUNGI, as some of the sonnets will also appear in ye forthcoming PS Publishing volume that will publish all of Lovecraft's poems that appear'd in WEIRD TALES.)

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

wilum pugmire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am just beginning volume three of ye Variorum
> Lovecraft, whut begins with AT THE MOUNTAINS OF
> MADNESS. I have read this work so many times, but
> each time I return to it I become instantly &
> absolutely captivated. 'm doing a very careful,
> slow reading of ye text, and reading aloud, so as
> to catch any misprints (we want these Variorum
> editions to be as free of typos as possible); have
> already found two misprints in MOUNTAINS, word
> repetition.
>

It's good to hear that these books are being double-checked by at least one third party for spelling errors. Am curious, is a similar double-check also being performed to ensure that the published edition matches Joshi's original?

I know that two others are checking the volumes. We are trying for an error-free three-volume set--but it has been my experience that no matter how many people proof a book, some errors still remain undetected. I was happy, however, to see that the trade paperback edition of BLACK WINGS OF CTHULHU III corrected the MANY errors of ye hardcover original.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

wilum pugmire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know that two others are checking the volumes.
> We are trying for an error-free three-volume
> set--but it has been my experience that no matter
> how many people proof a book, some errors still
> remain undetected. I was happy, however, to see
> that the trade paperback edition of BLACK WINGS OF
> CTHULHU III corrected the MANY errors of ye
> hardcover original.

Agree, it is virtually impossible to ensure a completely error-free text. But it is good to know that there are at least 3 people proofing this. Thanks much for the information. Sorry for my late response.

Those wishing to see how difficult it is to rid a text of errors might be interested in checking out the textual history of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. A good place to start is at the Too Many Books and Never Enough Blog

Just got some new books from Hippocampus Press, ye moft delightful of which is Lovecraft's LETTERS TO ROBERT BLOCH AND OTHERS. I was also sent ye ARC for THE ANNOTATED FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH, whut will be publish'd as limited edition hardcover, probably early next year. Great Yuggoth, it's a wonderful looking book! Ye Contents includes ye entire poem, with a new illustration by Jason C. Eckhardt for each sonnet; photos of Lovecraft's entire handwritten ms (& oy is it a mess!); "The Book", Lovecraft's attempt to write ye Fungi in prose form; and pages and pages of Commentary, which touch on all aspects of Lovecraft's writing the poem and what was going on in his life as he penned it. This hardcover edition will hopefully be publish'd early next year, then to be follow'd in 2017 by a hardcover edition of THE ANNOTATED COMMONPLACE BOOK, again with David E. Schultz as editor/annotator.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

Really looking forward to the ANNOTATED FUNGI, and you make me even more eager to read it, Wilum.

I had heard of the upcoming publication of Fungi, and was extremely excited... but hearing that the Schultz's edition of the Commonplace Book (updated), something I've been trying to get my hands on for well over a decade, is also coming out soon (at least so it seems)... well, "excited" scarcely does it justice. This is wonderful news indeed. Sounds as if the next year or two are going to be exceptionally good for Lovecraftian publications....

If you haven't yet, please check out my poetry collection, The Crimson Tome, available now from Hippocampus Press.

"I believe I can state unequivocally, and on whatever authority may cling to the fact of being Smith’s last living close personal friend, that the torch has been passed to a new generation. No mere clone, Mr. Opperman brings a freshness to this esoteric genre that burns with a freshened fire."

--Dr. W. C. Farmer (Rest in peace, sir), from the Preface

"A native Californian, he claims prominence as one of the few authors who have deliberately followed in the poetic footsteps of such Californians as Ambrose Bierce, George Sterling, and Clark Ashton Smith. As a Golden State Phantastik, K. A. Opperman in this volume becomes another original figure in the line or lineage of those unique California Romantics."

--Donald Sidney-Fryer, from the Introduction

[www.hippocampuspress.com]

[www.amazon.com]