Following the spottings of Hippocampus's latest CAS releases, has anyone received the two-volume edition of the letters between HPL and August Derleth?

Mike

No, not yet. The announcement at the Hippocampus Press website is a bit premature, AFAIK (as was the announcement of the CAS poetry); according to a reliable source of mine, the volumes were expected from the printer in "about 3 weeks" from July 19, so we probably won't see the HPL/AWD letters for a couple of weeks yet.

Does anybody know why Hippocampus (which I love) isn't doing an affordable paperback version of these? I would dearly love to have 'em, but given today's (and my) economic situation, I can't justify a $100 expenditure. Any inside info on this? I would think only a few libraries and well-heeled fans could afford this steep price.

Well, I'm just guessing here, but we may have a situation similar to that of Night Shade Books. Night Shade books released Mysteries of Time and Spirit: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei in both hc and tpb, and then they released Lovecraft's Letters from New York in hc only. The reason given was that the tpb of Mysteries of Time and Spirit didn't sell well enough.

On the other hand, you never know -- Hippocampus Press did a tpb of Dunsany's Pleasures of a Futuroscope two years after the hc that I don't think was planned from the beginning.

BTW, The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard has just been announced. AFAIK, the plan is to publish all available letters of Lovecraft.

Thanks for your thoughts, Martinus. I may have to save my $$$ and spring for the set in case it doesn't come out in trade paper.

I'm hoping somebody, presumably Hippocampus, will indeed issue the unexpurgated letters of HPL. I've always treasured Arkham's 5-vol. series, reading them repeatedly over the years and taking great pleasure in Lovecraft's incredible intellect, charm, and wit. But those little ellipses all over the place have really bugged me, and I'm hoping Joshi and the gang can redo these in full. I imagine we'll get a fuller portrait of HPL and his circle, though perhaps not quite as flattering.

Garymorris is right about the 5 volumes set of Lovecraft's letters--wonderful, but those ellipses...

Still, after spending hundreds of dollars on those, it's a little frustrating to basically have to buy them all over again. Frustrating, but probably not so much that I will be able to resist the temptation. I already have the Letters From New York book, the Letters to Wandrei, as well as the new "Fortunate Floridian." But what about the Derleth letters? Are there really enough new ones to justify buying this set for $100.00? Derleth's letters are pretty well represented in the five volume set, so I wonder if there is a substantial new batch, or just a handful. If the latter, I don't know that that justifies the expenditure even for the serious devotee.

Dexterward Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Garymorris is right about the 5 volumes set of
> Lovecraft's letters--wonderful, but those
> ellipses...
>
> Still, after spending hundreds of dollars on
> those, it's a little frustrating to basically have
> to buy them all over again. Frustrating, but
> probably not so much that I will be able to resist
> the temptation. I already have the Letters From
> New York book, the Letters to Wandrei, as well as
> the new "Fortunate Floridian." But what about the
> Derleth letters? Are there really enough new ones
> to justify buying this set for $100.00? Derleth's
> letters are pretty well represented in the five
> volume set, so I wonder if there is a substantial
> new batch, or just a handful. If the latter, I
> don't know that that justifies the expenditure
> even for the serious devotee.

Actually, as I recall the number of letters to Derleth included in the Arkham collections were surprisingly sparse, considering the two corresponded on, iirc, nearly a weekly basis. And going from the citations in Joshi's biography, an enormous amount of material was left out; what we have there is, to use a hackneyed phrase, barely the tip of the iceberg. Then there's the fact that we don't have any of Derleth's own letters, so we're missing an entire side of the conversation to begin with.

I've seen excerpts elsewhere from that correspondence in various articles as well, and (unless one of those close to the project has contrary information) I think you'll find these will be substantial volumes indeed....

According to An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, Lovecraft wrote more than 380 letters to Derleth, and this may be the greatest number surviving letters to a single correspondent. In Selected Letters, there are 59 letters to Derleth, all of them more or less abridged.

Essential Solitude will have all those 380+ HPL letters, plus the surviving 40-ish (?) AWD letters. I'd say that yes, there will be plenty of new material (as hintedby the fact that there are two volumes).

It was particularly wonderful to receive the two-volume set on my birthday. :-) Haven't had a chance to get deeply into it, but there's a lot to explore: 880 pages, with an extensive index. (Many entries on CAS, as one would expect.)

Mike

So this two-volume collection is available? It's out? That's good news, if so. :)

Oooooooooooooooooh, sweet!!

It'll probably be at least a couple of weeks before the books reach me, since they're going to Gavin Smith for bundling with other stuff. But I'm sure they're worth waiting for! :-)

I was seriously considering buying these books - it's a delicious prospect, and since I don't own a book exclusively dedicated to Lovecraft's letters (although there must be a considerable portion of them strewn across the various volumes of criticism I've got) it seems a financially canny one as well.
The only other book I own comparable to this is the Humphrey Carpenter collection of Tolkien's letters, and that volume contained only the letters of sufficient import to make the final cut; the reservation I have with this two-volume set is whether the bulk of it will be composed of mere banalities -- or do the letters all deal with worthwhile topics? Or is it the case that a good deal of them make pretty dry reading? After all, these presumably private letters were not intended to be placed in the public domain. The reason I ask is that I cannot find a review anywhere (trustworthy or otherwise), and the thing costs a fairly hefty £50 (I live in Great Britain). I don't really fancy wading through notes scribbled on the backs of postcards, or small conventional, conversational scrawls to get to oases of philosophical depth.
I would also like to know the calibre of the accompanying annotations, and how much space they occupy - Joshi’s books are usually very well edited, and I’m more or less certain they’ll be informative and entertaining.
Crucially, though, I am more concerned with the quality of the letters; so if anybody yet owns these very tempting volumes, please give an honest account of their worth!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 17 Aug 08 | 09:57AM by LurkerintheDark.

LurkerintheDark Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was seriously considering buying these books -
> it's a delicious prospect, and since I don't own a
> book exclusively dedicated to Lovecraft's letters
> (although there must be a considerable portion of
> them strewn across the various volumes of
> criticism I've got) it seems a financially canny
> one as well.
> The only other book I own comparable to this is
> the Humphrey Carpenter collection of Tolkien's
> letters, and that volume contained only the
> letters of sufficient import to make the final
> cut; the reservation I have with this two-volume
> set is whether the bulk of it will be composed of
> mere banalities -- or do the letters all deal with
> worthwhile topics? Or is it the case that a good
> deal of them make pretty dry reading? After all,
> these presumably private letters were not intended
> to be placed in the public domain.

Of course, since this is a complete volume, there WILL be plenty of postcards and whatnots. But from what I've read, Derleth and Lovecraft discussed literature to a great extent, and Lovecraft of course criticised Derleth's work for him. There will also be discussions of Lovecraft's philosophy, from what I recall of the letters in Selected Letters.

> The reason I
> ask is that I cannot find a review anywhere
> (trustworthy or otherwise), and the thing costs a
> fairly hefty £50 (I live in Great Britain).

Try Dead Reckonings #3.

> I
> don't really fancy wading through notes scribbled
> on the backs of postcards, or small conventional,
> conversational scrawls to get to oases of
> philosophical depth.
> I would also like to know the calibre of the
> accompanying annotations, and how much space they
> occupy - Joshi’s books are usually very well
> edited, and I’m more or less certain they’ll
> be informative and entertaining.

I'm sure there will be plenty of those.

> Crucially, though, I am more concerned with the
> quality of the letters; so if anybody yet owns
> these very tempting volumes, please give an honest
> account of their worth!

The only review I've seen seemed to hint that Lovecraft's letters to Barlow were more profound, in spite of Barlow's youth. But since Derleth was the one who published Lovecraft posthumously, and created the Cthulhu Mythos as a marketing gimmick, I'm sure there will be plenty of interest here.

>I was seriously considering buying these books - it's a delicious prospect, and
>since I don't own a book exclusively dedicated to Lovecraft's letters (although
>there must be a considerable portion of them strewn across the various volumes of
>criticism I've got) it seems a financially canny one as well.

If you don't own any other editions of Lovecraft's letters, you might also wish to consider the cheaper Letters to Alfred Galpin (http://www.hippocampuspress.com/lovecraft/letters_to_alfred_galpin.html) and/or Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner (http://www.hippocampuspress.com/lovecraft/lovecraft_letters_to_rheinhart_kleiner.html) -- for starters, anyway. These are mainly by the younger HPL, though (but which much substance). Or get that #3 issue of Dead Reckonings (which is cheap) and make your decision based on the review.

Juha-Matti

walrus Wrote:

> If you don't own any other editions of Lovecraft's
> letters, you might also wish to consider the
> cheaper Letters to Alfred Galpin
> (http://www.hippocampuspress.com/lovecraft/letters
> _to_alfred_galpin.html) and/or Letters to
> Rheinhart Kleiner
> (http://www.hippocampuspress.com/lovecraft/lovecra
> ft_letters_to_rheinhart_kleiner.html) -- for
> starters, anyway. These are mainly by the younger
> HPL, though (but which much substance). Or get
> that #3 issue of Dead Reckonings (which is cheap)[u][/u]
> and make your decision based on the review.
>
> Juha-Matti

The problem is though that that magazine could take a month to arrive (since I'm British), which is a bit long to wait for one review. Also, since that journal appears to be edited by Mr. Joshi, he's hardly going to have criticisms of his own book published in his own magazine -- or is it the case that the reviewer (whoever he may be) is impartial?
Doesn't anybody here own a copy of the book, and if so, can't he give his general opinion on it? It would be very welcome. I wouldn't call myself a 'general reader' when it comes to Lovecraftiana, my interest is far deeper. However, as I said in my previous post, I'm not keen on reading diary-like descriptions of Lovecraft's day to day life. I'm much more interested in the things promised on Hipocampus Press's webpage (http://www.hippocampuspress.com/lovecraft/letters-h-p-lovecraft-august-derleth.html); the history of weird fiction, spiritulism, occultism and werid fiction in general. What is the ratio of these sorts of topics to the mundane? -- if the latter exceeds the former, or comes remotely close to doing so, I may give it a miss!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 19 Aug 08 | 05:51AM by LurkerintheDark.