I’m pleased to see that some previously unavailable collaborations and ghostwritten stories by H.P. Lovecraft are now available in audiobook. H. P. Lovecraft – The Complete Fiction Omnibus Collection – Collaborations and Ghostwriting (April 2018).
The reader John Finn sounds fine, judging by YouTube clips. He’s not the gravelly Wayne June, but he still has a very suitable voice for the task. If you want an extended audition, he has a free five-hour extract from his Complete Conan readings (though the three Trantor ‘complete Conan’ recordings are well worth paying more for: start with their The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, then Bloody Crown, then Conquering Sword).
For everything Lovecraft that’s worth having in audio, as of today you’d want this new ‘collaborations and ghostwriting’ collection, plus…
* all of Wayne June’s excellent and definitive readings of the main Lovecraft. Usually branded as ‘The Dark Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft’, not all of which are available on Audible in the UK. (The early ones are on YouTube, albeit only in MP3 audio quality: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; and Vol. 3).
* The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft for $20 on a USB-stick from The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. For the minor and other items that Wayne June hasn’t read. A recording of Supernatural Horror in Literature is apparently also available to bona fide purchasers, as a free download.
* the audio for Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany, again for the minor items not covered by either Wayne June or the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society (includes some dire juvenilia and does not include the essay “Lovecraft in Britain”, the latter being in the print version only);
* and the new reading of Fungi from Yuggoth and Other Poems to top it off.
Eventually someone will also add readings of the best of the essays, journalism and travel writing. It would be ridiculous to try a single selection of ‘the best of the letters’, even in a 48 hour reading. But one might produce some topographical place-based audiobooks by using descriptive sections from letters (‘Old Providence and its Cats’; ‘Lovecraft’s childhood in Providence’; ‘Exploring the graveyards, slums and marshland of New York City’; ‘Visions of Salem and Marblehead’ etc). Perhaps also one on his ‘Small Pleasures’, to feature an alternating mix of the whimsical and the macabre — cats, caves, candy and ice-cream parlors, used book stores, roller-coasters and fun-fairs, star-gazing, walking canes, conversation, extreme heat, ancient rooftops, bright lads, fountain pens, coffee, hoary old graveyards. Apparently the venerable S.T. Joshi is already planning the H. P. Lovecraft Cat Book which may be some kind of cat anthology. Though that’s unlikely to be an audiobook unless it becomes an unexpected bestseller.
As for Collaborations and Ghostwriting, in the UK £24 gets you 29 stories in 26 hours. Sadly there’s no contents list even in the Kindle ebook preview sample, but I think I know why that is and if so then it’s a valid reason.
Be aware that, as with the earlier Eldritch Tales collection, there are some real turkeys here (no, that’s not the reason why I think there’s no contents list). Stories done by Lovecraft when he was age 10, or as a quick favour or teaching-aid for friends, and never meant for publication under his name. The best are done as a ghost-writer, often in exchange for typing services (he hated typing, but the pulp magazines demanded double-spaced typing for submissions) or as a genuine collaboration. Yet there are also some really excellent stories such as the almost novel-length The Mound, almost as good as his main solo stories, and these have been previously unavailable in audio from a suitable reader.
