Who was “The Marvellous A. Merritt”? And why was he quite so popular among the cognoscenti in Lovecraft’s time? Sam Moskovitz investigated in 1960, in a detailed survey and appraisal which found its way into a British magazine…

Lovecraft met the famous author in January 1934 in New York, and proffered a copy of his “The Rats in The Walls” for consideration. In a letter to Barlow of 10th? February 1934, Lovecraft told Barlow he had found Merritt “genial and interesting … sincerely and deeply interested in the weirdness he portrays”. He later wrote to Galpin…

Among other new people I met was the fairly famous fantastic magazine writer A. Merritt, whose “Moon Pool” I have admired ever since its appearance in 1918.” — letter to Galpin, 28th April 1934.

The February letter to Barlow reveals that he had not yet read Merritt’s novel The Metal Monster (first version, 1920), since Lovecraft mentions it and implies he had not yet read it. At that point Barlow was offering to send him either The Metal Monster or the later version The Metal Emperor.

The Metal Monster had been left unread until that time, because Lovecraft had been told in 1920 that it was dull…

… The Metal Monster, which I had never read before because Eddy told me it was dull. The damn’d fool! (nephew — not our late bibliophilick friend [‘Uncle’ Eddy, the Providence bookseller]). Actually, the book contains the most remarkable presentation of the utterly alien and non-human that I have ever seen. I don’t wonder that Merritt calls it his “best and worst” production. The human characters are commonplace and wooden – just pulp hokum – but the scenes and phaenomena… oh, boy!” — letter to Morton, 6th March 1934.

Incidentally, Lovecraft’s mention above of “our late bibliophilick friend” is another confirmation for Uncle Eddy of Providence, and faintly implies Uncle Eddy was not just a sour dealer in but also a lover of books.

Comparing the dating of this and the Barlow letter suggests that Lovecraft probably read the novel around the end of February 1934. Which version did Lovecraft read? He could have been sent the yellowing 1920 magazine pages by Barlow, but there was also a 1927-28 version that might have arrived instead…

“The Metal Monster” was serialized a second time in a Gernsback magazine, Science and Invention, from October 1927 to August 1928. (There were eleven parts in all.) The story was revised somewhat and re-titled “The Metal Emperor.”

This matters because “the first two chapters [are] missing in later prints”. Thus if one doesn’t have the 1920 magazine version, it’s a different beast. A very different beast, since…

“for [1927-28] Science & Invention magazine, Merritt really tore into the body of text, creating an entirely new version … This version focused on the sciency stuff, with Merritt backing-off the purple prose for which he is renowned.”

This strongly suggests that Barlow would have sent Lovecraft the original 1920 version, probably as tear-sheets. Barlow was likely savvy enough about such things to prefer The Metal Monster over The Metal Emperor. [Update: Yes, a 1934 postcard from Lovecraft reveals “The Metal Monster” was sent and read February 1934].

The original 1920 magazines containing “The Metal Monster” are not on Archive.org, but you may be pleased to learn that the original can now be had for $15 from Hippocampus Press.

Later in 1934, an August letter to Barlow reveals that Merritt had been given up as “hopeless”, in terms of a Lovecraft-Merritt correspondence. At the January meeting Lovecraft had given Merritt a copy of his “The Rats in the Walls”, but in August was still waiting for the tale to spark a letter and thus a possible correspondence between the two masters.