Customer Reviews

Marginalia

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I bought a copy of this book for $80 some few decades ago; & then I became unemploy'd & hungry and so sold it. Alas. It has a special charm for me nigh because, in October of 1707, I spent four days in Providence, staying at The Old Court, a B&B directly across ye street from ye Shunn'd House -- which is so atmospherically depicted by the remarkably artist, Virgil Finlay, on ye dust jacket.
YE CONTENTS OF YE TOME:
Foreword, by August Derleth & Donald Wandrei
"Imprisoned with the Pharaohs," revision written "with" the magician Harry Houdini
"Medusa's Coil," revision written with Zelia Brown (Reed) Bishop
"Winged Death," revision penned with Hazel Heald
"The Man of Stone," revision written with Hazel Heald
"Some Notes on the Writing of Weird Fiction"
"Some Notes on Interplanetary Fiction"
"Lord Dunsany and His Work"
"Heritage of Modernism: Common Sense in Art Forms"
"Some Backgrounds of Fairyland"
"Some Causes of Self-Immolation"
"A Guide to Charleston, South Carolina"
"Observations on Several Parts of North America"
"The Beast in the Cave"
"The Transition of Juan Romero"
"Azathoth"
"The Book"
"The Descendant"
"The Very Old Folk"
"The Thing in the Moonlight" [by J. Chapman Miske, based on a dream of HPL's]
"Two Comments"
"His Own Most Fantastic Creation," by Winfield Townley Scott
"Some Random Memories of H. P. L.," by Frank Belknap Long
"H. P. Lovecraft: An Appreciation," by T. O. Mabbott
"The Wind That Is in the Grass: A Memoir of H. P. Lovecraft in Florida," by R. H. Barlow
"Lovecraft and Science," by Kenneth Sterling
"Lovecraft as a Formative Influence," by August Derleth
"The Dweller in Darkness," by Donald Wandrei
"To Howard Phillips Lovecraft," by Clark Ashton Smith
"H. P. L.," by Henry Kuttner
"Lost Dream," by Emil Petaja
"To Howard Phillips Lovecraft," by Francis Flagg
"H. P. Lovecaft," by Frank Belknap Long
"Elegy: In Providence the Spring . . .," by August Derleth
"For the Outsider: H. P. Lovecraft," by Charles E. White
"In Memoriam: H. P. Lovecraft," by Richard Ely Morse.

The book also reproduces photographs, illustrations, drawings by H. P. Lovecraft, etc. Writes S. T. Joshi, in his "Notes" for SIXTY YEARS OF ARKHAM HOUSE:

"This volume contains several 'revisions,' lesser stories, and essays by Lovecraft, but one item not by Lovecraft (or entirely by him) is inadvertently included. As David E. Schultz has explained, 'The Thing in the Moonlight" is a spurious 'fragment' stitched together by the fan writer J. Chapman Miske, who added opening and closing paragraphs of his own around a letter by Lovecraft to Donald Wandrei and included it in his fanzine, BIZARRE (January 1941). After MARGINALIA appeared, Miske explained the situation to Derleth, but Derleth evidently forgot the matter, for he continued to reprint the 'fragment' in other collections of Lovecraft's work.
"In addition, MARGINALIA contains a number of important articles and memoirs about Lovecraft--an innovation that has proved tremendously fertile and resulted in a significant addition to our knowledge of the Providence writer. Of these articles, the best are perhaps those by Scott (the first biographical essay on Lovecraft), Mabbott (the leading Poe scholar of his generation), and Barlow. The last eight items are poems on Lovecraft, far and away the best of which is Smith's moving elegy."

Whatever may be said about Derleth as an editor and publisher of Lovecraft's texts, it cannot be denied that, with books of this sort, he did far much more than just save Lovecraft's fiction from obscurity -- which in itself was a magnificent achievement. Unless I am much mistaken, a number of these essays were commission'd by Derleth exclusively for this book, and he supplied the implement by which others could find their way into print within a handsome hardcover edition that would find its ideal audience through Arkham House. Really, the creation of Arkham House was fantastic for we who love the weird fiction genre, and I for one am extremely hopeful that its current editors can restore the House to its former glory.

Whatever may be said of "The Thing in the Moonlight," that portion of it that was penn'd by HPL is one of his most evocative pieces, and it has inspir'd a number of sequels. It contains within its fragment a perfect and excellent expression of that which constitutes pure Lovecraftian horror. The fragment is now excluded from all modern editions of Lovecraft's Works.

I believe this is the first printing of Derleth's alter'd ending of "Medusa's Coil." As it is printed here, the final paragraph reads:

"It would be too hideous if they knew that the one-time heiress of Riverside--the accursed gorgon or lamia whose hateful crinkly coil of serpent-hair must even now be brooding and twining vampirically around an artist's skeleton in a lime-packed grave beneath a charred foundation--was faintly, subtly, yet unmistakably the scion of Zimbabwe's most primal grovelers. No wonder she owned a link with the old witchwoman Sophonisba--for, though in deceitfully slight proportion, Marceline was a loathsome, destial thing, and her forebears had come from Africa."

H. P. Lovecraft's actual ending, first publish'd in S. T. Joshi's Correct Text edition of THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM (Arkham House 1989), was: "No wonder she owned a link with that old witch-woman Sophonisba--for, though in deceitfully slight proportion, Marceline was a negress." Apparently. Derleth alter'd the line in an attempt to conceal his friend's racism; yet, to be honest, I find his description
far more offensive in relating the origin of a black woman's race. [When I wrote my weird tale, "Your Metamorphic Moan," which appears in my book, THE FUNGAL STAIN AND OTHER DREAMS, I used the word "vampirically," but my editor, S. T. Joshi, made me change it. "What is that supposed to mean? Like a vampire?" I think I have now located the root of his dislike of the word!]

Some of the photographs are other illustrations are quite marvelous. We havee that wonderful photo of Barlow, looking so dreamy and fey and queer, a photo I have always loved. We have drawings by Lovecraft to illustrate a letter he wrote on the antiquities of Chareston. We have the music for Alfred Galpin's "Lament for H.P.L" piano solo that he compos'd in memory of his friend. We have the delightful letter that HPL wrote to Bloch. Here is its description in this book:

"Robert Bloch, having proposed to have a little weird fun at Lovecraft's expense, wrote asking permission to annihilate him in a story entitled 'The Shambler from the Stars.' Lovecraft's fine sense of humor brought forth permission not only signed by Lovecraft, but also by his prime creation, the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, and by others of the Cthulhu Mythos--von Junzt, du Nord, and the Tcho-Tcho Lama of Leng."

And that front cover! It is my favorite depiction of "The Shunned House" on Benifit Street, superbly render'd by that magnificent artist, Virgil Finlay. Yah, what atmosphere! I have a special feeling for that house, for during my four-day stay in Providence, October 1707, my friends and I stay'd at a bed & breakfast, The Old Court, on Benefit Street -- directly across from ye Shunn'd House! Gawd, I couldn't believe it! I went up to it and touch'd my hand to its lower portion, feeling the full magick of that spell which is being an obsess'd Lovecraftian. The house is still painted yellow, & it has a wonderful aura to this day (although its current inhabitants frown at ye Lovecraftians who come to gawk at their private home). This is an excellent book, a rare treasure in the history of Arkham House and H. P. Lovecraft. If you can buy it for under $200, grab it!