The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft [Paperback]

S. T. Joshi (Author), H. P. Lovecraft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

"The Ancient Track" collects, for the first time, the complete poetry of H. P. Lovecraft. This massive undertaking was completed by renowned Lovecraft Scholar S. T. Joshi, and features an extensive index of both titles and first lines. This collection will appeal to both the casual fan of Lovecraft, as well as the committed Lovecraft collector. This volume will be made available in an affordable trade paperback edition as well as a Library quality hardcover edition catering to each category of fan. This is the definitive collection of poetry by one of the 20th century's most popular, yet enigmatic writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Several Lovecraft poetry volumes have appeared over the years, notably Arkham House's Collected Poems (1963), but here at last is an attractive, scholarly edition that collects every known scrap of verse from the cosmic Yankee's pen. Joshi, author of the definitive biography, Lovecraft: A Life (1996), and editor of the corrected texts of HPL's fiction, has sensibly divided the book thematically: juvenilia, fantasy and horror (a relatively small portion of the whole), occasional verse, satire, seasonal and topographical, amateur affairs, politics and society, and personal. Since Lovecraft's models date no later than his beloved 18th century, his poetry as such (the bulk of it written in his amateur journalist phase, before he hit his stride as a horror writer) contributes nothing to the advancement of the form. With their archaic diction and references to obscure colleagues, some poems are well-nigh unreadable (here Joshi's notes are especially helpful), but Lovecraft's sense of humor (virtually absent in his fiction) surfaces in many lighter poems that require no annotation, while his more serious verse reveals much about his Anglophilic and conservative social and political attitudes as a young man. Also included are Alfredo; A Tragedy, HPL's one play, and a section of fragments, along with a chronology and an index of titles and of first lines. This is an essential tome for every self-respecting Lovecraftian, if for few others.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 557 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books; 1st edition (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892389169
• ISBN-13: 978-1892389169
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,147,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars IA!! Lovecraft master of the bizzare!!! Chutulu Ftagn!!, July 7, 2002

By 

J. J. Olson "cthulhu" (Brainerd, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft (Paperback)

Absolutely amazing! I had no Idea Lovecraft had written so much poetry! 557 pages in length. Divided into 10 parts. juvenillia(poetry written as achild or just getting started in poetry),fantasy and horror(my favorite),occasional verse,satire,seasonal and topographical,amateur affairs,politics and society,personal,alfredo a tragedy( a play by lovecraft),and fragments. Very thorough. A must for the Lovecraft purist and collector.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For Better or Verse..., January 8, 2002

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft (Paperback)

The three titans of WEIRD TALES, Clarke Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard, all wrote verse but only Ashton Smith was taken seriously as a poet by the contemporary literary establishment. Howard's manly Kiplingesque verse was written largely for his own amusement, and HPL's was almost entirely confined to his days of activity in the Amateur Press movement (1914-22).

Most of HPL's verse is in an archaic, highly artifical late 18th Century or "Georgian" mode, which he had come to love from the books he found in his grandfather's library as a child. He sometimes writes in the manner of Poe, but almost always to parody. Actually, his most effective verse, like "Fungi from Yuggoth," is in the sonnet form--- a form he rarely used. Editor Joshi says this is "complete," and he means it, down to birthday card inscriptions and one or two line fragments found among HPL's papers. But this almost guarantees a low average of literary quality and interest. Most educated men in the early 19th Century composed verses on occasion. I have seen a photo of Einstein playing violin with a father and son on piano and violin. Einstein inscribed the photo (in German), "Here's to the father and his lad. Our music was--- not bad!" Imagine someone collecting all such Einsteinian greetings and publishing them as THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF EINSTEIN. Einstein would be horrified, and so should you be. Should we be equally horrified by this book, which is not so different? I think not, because HPL is an important literary figure, and after all some of the material collected herein is seriously intended--- but not much.

A lot of the verse consists of gentle kidding of friends in the AP movement, particularly HPL's teenage buddy Alfred Galpin. There is even a mock-Elizabethan blank verse play in which Galpin and other figures of the AP have prominent roles, including HPL himself. One of the most astonishing of these works is "Medusa: A Portrait," several pages of inventive vituperation aimed at a female enemy of HPL's.

Most readers will spend most of their time with HPL's "Fantasy and Horror" verse, which takes up about 60 pages of this mammoth 557-page time. Given the interest many rock musicians take in HPL it is surprising more of this material has not been set to music. A quick search of the Internet did reveal some posted MP3s of precisely such--- I didn't sample them but did notice the titles chosen were often the ones I'd also have chosen for that purpose.

This is a book to keep by the side of the bed and read a few pages in every time cats get you up to be let in or out, or a loud jalopy going by jolts you awake. I think that's about the only way to get through it.