New on Librivox, The Weird Fiction of The Fantasy Fan. Including R.H. Barlow’s complete ‘Annals of the Jinns’ series. Also Lovecraft’s possible 1934 revision of a short tale by the emerging young Rimel, “The Sorcery of Aphlar”…

“Very glad to see the new tale [Sorcery of Aphlar] — which reminds me somewhat of Dunsany. I’m returning it with a few changes which I think would help somewhat. … [also] I’ve taken the liberty of changing the name of the hero …” (23rd July 1934)

Which could be Lovecraft-ese for ‘I’ve ripped it to shreds and re-written it’, or perhaps he did make only a few tweaks. We don’t know. The first two thirds often reads like a Lovecraft tale of the Dreamlands. However, we do know from the letters that Lovecraft finds Rimel’s next tale much better, and therefore he only gives it a light revision…

“The Jewels of Sharlotte” … marks a vast amount of progress … Good work! … as you may see I haven’t made a single major change. Just a few re-arrangements and substitutions, & it stands as originally written.” (23d August 1934, Lovecraft’s emphasis).

This might be taken to mean that the previous and lesser tale had had major changes and re-writing to make it fit for publication. The same letter reveals no quibbles from Rimel about the revision, but celebrates in passing that “Sorcery of Aphlar” had just “landed with Hornig” in The Fantasy Fan.

The tale adds a new and very minor Tolkien/Lovecraft comparison. Both managed to anthropomorphise a snail in fiction, though it was probably Rimel’s idea to do so here.