Customer Reviews

Selected Letters 1934-1937 (Vol. 5)

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Fritz Leiber aptly dubbed H. P. Lovecraft "a literary Copernicus," for his liberating of Weird Literature from the thrall of hackneyed superstition. But Lovecraft clearly spent most of his time not writing fiction, or ghostwriting fiction for others, but rather corresponding with a huge list of faithful correspondents. Many of these correspondents would drop Lovecraft a letter consisting of three paragraphs and receive in reply thirty pages, written single-spaced front and back in a tiny, cramped handwriting! It was in his letters that Lovecraft poured out his personality, his opinions, and his (not always reliable) erudition. The total number of letters he wrote during his lifetime is almost impossible to estimate, and alas only a tiny fraction survive, but that tiny fraction would apparently fill around 20 volumes the size of this one, if published unabridged! If you love Lovecraft, you need to read these letters. I'd recommend beginning with the final volume, containing letters for the last few years up to his death (1937) and then delving into the earlier letters, going back to his amateur press days. It's in these letters that you see the "real" Lovecraft, warts and all... and these letters also somewhat paradoxically contain some of his best writing on any topic or theme.

Despite the strangeness of H.P. Lovecraft's imaginative fiction, and his nearly as strange personal life, he was a lucid and engaging letter writer. His observations on matters worldly, personal, and literary illuminate his life and times. Fortunately for us his many correspondents cherished and preserved his letters