Hi all,

In the spirit of celebrating _The Collected Letters of CAS_, I'm transcribing the one letter I own written by HPL to CAS, on April 4, 1932. Only the final paragraph of this lengthy letter (although short by HPL's standards!) was included in the Arkham edition of his letters. HPL's handwriting is at times hard to make out, so I may inadvertently have introduced typos, but on the whole it's a fairly clear hand; all the really ambiguous words I've indicated with [?]. As far as I know, this is the first full publication of this letter. I hope I am not violating any copyright restrictions; I'm transcribing the letter in the spirit of shared research that this website represents. From my perspective, the most interesting passage is HPL's discussion of Gernsback -- not the unfortunate antisemitic remark, which is not unexpected from HPL, but the positive valuation he gives to Gernsback and his publications.

Best,
Mike
***

Yoth-Tlagggon -- At the Crimson Spring. Hour of the Amorphous Reflection.

Dear Klarkash-Ton: -
No -- the snowy blizzard happily escaped us, although March was on the whole a very inclement month. Yesterday was almost summer-like, but I am too worn out with a siege of dentistry to appreciate anything in the way of climate. I don't know how many more appointments I'll have to endure -- but fear there will be enought to spoil all my usual travelling plans both chronologically and financially.

By this time I presume you have my letter expressing enthusiastic admiration for "The Double Shadow." Truly, it is a great piece of work -- & Wright's rejection of it fills me with disgust & discouragement. Obviously, his standards are getting worse & worse -- as witness the current issue, in which only two stories, your's and Howard's, are really worh reading. I hope Bates-Clayton will take the "Shadow" -- though I fear the prospects are not very promising. Long is getting worried about his two submitted Clayton tales -- one of which has been held 11 weeks & the other 7 weeks. He intends to make an inquiry, though I told him that the delay is a favourable sign. Hope your [Machram Loo?] will take with King Pharnaces [?] in its ammended form.

I didn't know your Immortals of Mercury was going to be a separate booklet. Congratulations! I surely hope to see a copy. Glad the Invisible City is due in the near future, & that Gernsback has some appreciation of what he is offering. It's odd, but in spite of that damn'd kike's financial remissness & sharp dealings, I really think he offers a better & more vital range of scientifiction than either of his two competitors. He is not quite so rigid, in his demand for the commonplace & the stereotyped. I'll await the Plutonian Drug with the keenest interest -- as will others on the circulation list. As soon as I get the nerve to type the Witch House you shall see it. There's another story I want to write, but I don't believe I can till this tooth businbess is over.

Your Easter expedition to the canon dug by pre-human [undecipherable] in search of the lost [undecipherable]-metal must surely have been picturesque and memorable. I envy you the spectacle -- petrified tree, subterrane river, fall. Did I tell you that I saw the outlet of an underground river in Florida? It was somewhat north of Dunedin [?], & an unlighted aqueas crypt stretched sightlessly down & away from the visible basin where [queer? green?] froth disported. I had to keep watching it in fascination -- wondering the while whether some bloated, eyeless, albino _thing_ would float loasthsomely & unexpected up from the nether abysses.

Yes -- that [Tsatthoggean Eibon ?] could have come from nowhere save archaic & immemorial [Commardom ?] Which would be inferred by collating that Thing with the existing passages of the Book of Eibon.

Maybe -- since it was probably doomed from the start -- it is just as well that the Swanson venture perished when it did. By the way -- have you heard of a new magazine called _Weird Whispers_, published by the W. & Thompson Co of N.Y.? Someone has just told me about it, although I never heard of it before. Probably it doesn't amount to much, but it might be worth investigating.

[The final paragraph of the letter is reprinted in _Selected Letters, v. IV, p.37. Interestingly, the excerpt included is not preceded by ".....", which was the editors' way of indicating that earlier portions of the letter had been excised.]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11 Jan 04 | 02:32PM by .

Sorry about all the multiple emails of the letter; only the final email contains the whole things. I would hit the "Shift" and "Tab" keys to mark a new paragraph, but it seems these led to the posting of the message. Or I probably did something else that led to the message being sent before I was finsihed transcribing.

Mike

Mike et al,

the top post in this thread is the fill and correct one. For security reasons there are only a limited number of formatting options available to posters, and tabs are not one of them (at least for now).

Thanks you very much for the letter, I cringed at reading about HPL's dental work -tis bad enough now but in 1932 i shudder to think.

I presume you will not mind me putting a copy in the letters to CAS section for the Feb update.

B.

Please feel free to include the letter in the February update, Boyd. As to dental problems -- come to think of it, there aren't many photos of HPL grinning, are there? Perhaps the lantern jaw hid tallow teeth...

Mike

Trivia: As one who grew up in Florida, I can attest that "Dunedin" is the correct spelling of the town mentioned in line 22 of the letter.

Thanks Mike, for sharing this important letter. Here are a few guesses at some of the questionable words [?]
At the end of the second paragraph "Machram Loo" could be "Mohaun Los" which tale is mentioned in a previous letter. "King Pharnaces" is probably "King Pharnabazus" which is a reference to Farnsworth Wright coined by HPL.
The fifth paragraph refers to a "Tsatthoggean Eibon" could this be "Tsathogguan eikon" a reference to the curious rock specimen from crater ridge that CAS sent to HPL and which was often referred to as the "nameless eikon"? At any rate "Commardom" is certainly "Commoriom" which is of course the early capital of Hyperborea whose destruction is detailed in "The Testament of Athammaus."
Fascinating stuff!!
-Ron

The complete extant correspondence between CAS and HPL will be publish'd next year (probably) in two volumes by Hippocampus Press. The editors are extremely excited about the publication of these volumes, having found this correspondence of intense interest.

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

I just hope to Hell they're affordable.

Not likely, considering the 2-volume letters to Derleth and Howard were priced at $100. However, since the HPL/REH letters set has been reprinted in softcover, it is likely that the same will happen to the CAS/HPL correspondence eventually.

I also hope they spend more effort on the cover design, to make it representative and worthy of the contents.

The very plain lettering on the front of A MEANS TO FREEDOM I find painfully ugly. How could they leave it at that?!

Publishing such expensive books, is not only all about the effort of making the letters available; it is also about book design. It should be. Sorry to sound fussy, but I don't want to spend $100 on a set of books just to get the contents, if the books aren't in the least attractive.

Personally I'd like to see the colouring of the Lovercaft/CAS volume in black and green prehaps, for the right mood. Something like this book. But that's discussable. Bright may be more suitable for collected letters, to reflect their enlightenment. In any case, I prefer the more subdued quietly tasteful book design of the past, over today's roaring out.

I wholly agree with you, Knygatin. Despite the popular saying, I nearly always 'judge a book by its cover'--but never solely, of course. But still, attractive covers are important! Especially if you're going to be forking over the money. I never do feel quite right about buying a book with a cover that doesn't sit right with me. I mean, I'm going to have to stare at the book for years...it better be easy on the eyes. Ideally, it should keep me going back for another appreciative glance.

Black and green is an eerie combination--often used to great effect on the covers of collections of ghost stories (I own several like this). It is the color of death, and the supernatual--but I'm not sure it's quite right for a book of HPL-CAS correspendence (still, it would not offend me in the least). A sort of 'fantastical' purple, like that utilized for the cover of "The Emperor of Dreams" in the Fantasy Masterworks series, could be cool. Or, an all black cover, perhaps depicting both of them writing by candlelight, or something to that effect, with a title in gold lettering would look good. Or black with purple lettering?--or silver lettering? Whatever they chose, prey they get it right!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 17 Aug 11 | 01:42PM by K_A_Opperman.

K_A_Opperman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Or, an all black cover, perhaps depicting
> both of them writing by candlelight

It seems to me an all black cover could only be a depiction of them writing in utter darkness. Or, for that matter, whatever you like taking place in utter darkness.

Of course, I meant an all black backdrop, with black and white photos of the two of them, perhaps dissolving spectrally at the borders into the darkness.

Or, they could do something similar involving eerie images of Cthulhu and Tsathoggua...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 17 Aug 11 | 03:16PM by K_A_Opperman.

It is important to be very, very precise, as when I am faced with several possible interpretations, I always choose the most absurd one.

K_A_Opperman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Black and green is an eerie combination--often
> used to great effect on the covers of collections
> of ghost stories (I own several like this). It is
> the color of death, and the supernatual--but I'm
> not sure it's quite right for a book of HPL-CAS
> correspendence (still, it would not offend me in
> the least). A sort of 'fantastical' purple, like
> that utilized for the cover of "The Emperor of
> Dreams" in the Fantasy Masterworks series, could
> be cool. Or, an all black cover, perhaps depicting
> both of them writing by candlelight, or something
> to that effect, with a title in gold lettering
> would look good. Or black with purple
> lettering?--or silver lettering? Whatever they
> chose, prey they get it right!


Yeah, you understand what it's all about. Good to be among people who have a feel for essences. That's why I keep coming back to this forum.