03 Wednesday Jul 2019
Posted in Scholarly works
The S. T. Joshi Endowed Research Fellowship in H. P. Lovecraft page has been refreshed for 2020/21. Application deadline: 13th March 2020. “Residence at the John Hay Library to be completed by 30th June 2021.”
29 Saturday Jun 2019
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
Brumal, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2019), the special issue on “The fantastic universe of H.P. Lovecraft”. Public open access, and online now in full. Only the paper “H.P. Lovecraft on Screen” is in English. The editors’s introduction doesn’t (on translation) appear to be a summary of the papers, but on clicking through you’ll find that each paper’s record page has an English abstract.
24 Monday Jun 2019
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
There was an “Armitage Handout on Lovecraftian Arthuriana” at the scholarly symposium at NecronomiCon 2017. Basically, a preliminary but useful list of King Arthur work which elides in some way with Lovecraft.
This has now been revised and updated as “Mergers of the Matter of Britain and Lovecraft’s Cthulhuan Mythos: A Preliminary Bibliography (Revised)” (May 2019), which is online and public.
Picture: Merlin, by a young Howard Pyle.
23 Sunday Jun 2019
Posted in Scholarly works
New England Regional Fellowship Consortium offers grants for new archival and museum research into areas including… “literature, history and art history, anthropology, oceanography”. Lovecraft research could potentially work across several such areas.
Are you working on a specialized topic that requires a depth of resources such as only New England can provide? The New England Regional Fellowship Consortium (NERFC), a collaboration of 27 major cultural agencies, will offer at least two dozen awards in 2019–2020.
This year’s deadline of 1st February 2019 has been and gone, but it’s annual so presumably a 2020-21 deadline will be rolling around in February 2020. By that time the Boston Public Library will be open again for applications to host a Research Fellow.
22 Saturday Jun 2019
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
S.T. Joshi and Sarnath Press have released a new expanded edition of Joshi’s book The Modern Weird Tale: A Critique of Horror Fiction. As he writes on his blog…
This is a substantial expansion of my Modern Weird Tale (2001), restoring the cuts — specifically, the chapters on Les Daniels, Dennis Etchison (whose own passing occurred only a few weeks ago), and David J. Schow, along with introductory passages to sections II, IV, and V — that my publisher, McFarland, required me to make.
The new expanded version is titled Weird Fiction in the Later 20th Century and is available as low-cost Kindle ebook as well as in paperback.
18 Tuesday Jun 2019
Posted in Podcasts etc., REH, Scholarly works
More new videos from Howard Days 2019, kindly made and posted by Ben Friberg.
“Carney and Emmelhainz talking about their new role as editors of The Dark Man, the journal of Robert E. Howard studies” and new developments. The journal is being put on a regular schedule, and will be expanded in range to include papers on other Howard-era pulp topics. After this presentation there’s some news about the circa 2020 (affordable paperback) publication of Howard letters and poems, with all the known poems in perhaps three volumes. Then the session ends with an update on the ongoing Conan commercialisations, such as comics and games, in which the audience learns that Conan has now joined Marvel’s Avengers team of superheroes.
2. “The History of Project Pride”, on the locally-led and increasingly successful 30-year project to preserve Howard’s legacy in Cross Plains. A great listen, and you’ll learn a whole lot about the town and its spirit.
The Glenn Lord Symposium videos are also being posted, short presentations from scholars from the symposium element of the Days, but I’ll do a linking post on those once they’re all up.
The trailer, keynote speech and a major panel were all posted a few days ago.
17 Monday Jun 2019
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
Newly added to my Open Lovecraft page, of public open access scholarship:
* G. Parkinson, “We Are Property: The ‘Great Invisibles’ Considered Alongside ‘Weird’ and Science Fiction in America, 1919–1943”, The Space Between: Literature and Culture, 1914-1945, Vol. 14, 2018. (Discusses the early reception of H.P. Lovecraft in France via VVV during 1942-43, and the possible influence on Andre Breton. Also the wider reception of U.S. pulp writers and Charles Fort in continental Europe).
* From The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis: An Important and Valuable Collection of Books by Clark Ashton Smith, Thompson Rare Books, Catalogue No. 50, Fall 2018. (Illustrated scholarly bookseller catalogue for a collection of CAS rarities).
* A.M. McGee, “Haitian Vodou and Voodoo: Imagined Religion and Popular Culture”, Studies in Religion, Vol. 41, 2012. (Opens with a very brief discussion of Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu and sees… “his work as a prototype for many later presentations of voodoo”. Appears to be unaware of Henry S. Whitehead’s influence on the pulp idea of voodoo).
14 Friday Jun 2019
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
Newly listed at Hippocampus, Lovecraftian Proceedings No. 3 (June 2019). This is the book of some of the many papers given at the Armitage Symposium at NecromiCon 2017.
Looking interesting to me, after filtering the table-of-contents past the 2017 abstracts book, are…
* Ian Fetters, “Lovecraft’s Dark Continent: At the Mountains of Madness and Antarctic Literature”.
* Heather Poirier, “H. P. Lovecraft and the Dynamics of Detective Fiction”.
* Nathaniel R. Wallace, “The Cosmic Drone of Azathoth: Adapting Literature into Sound”.
12 Wednesday Jun 2019
Posted in Scholarly works
Call for Papers for the Inaugural Session of the Monsters and the Monstrous Area at the 2019 Conference of the Northeast Popular & American Culture Association (November 2019). Proposals due by: 15th June 2019.
“the Monsters and the Monstrous Area is also especially interested in celebrating both the New England Gothic tradition and the life, works, and legacy of H. P. Lovecraft, a leading proponent of Weird Fiction and an immense influence on contemporary popular culture.”
12 Wednesday Jun 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings, Scholarly works
S.T. Joshi’s Liberation newspaper interview, in French: “Lovecraft admettait lui-meme que les relations humaines ne l’interessaient pas”. Now online and public, and with no paywall that I can see, but it may be one of those “the first view is free” newspapers.
Via Google Translate:
Q: Could you have written more with more [source] material, and are you planning a new version?
A: The biography is largely based on Lovecraft’s letters, an incredible source that often represents an almost daily chronicle of his life. This raw material does not interest everyone, and it needs to be interpreted to make it fit a coherent narrative frame. I could add more details to my biography, but it would not serve much purpose. Although in the last ten years we have learned new facts, and facts about Lovecraft. But I think I have already said a lot.
11 Tuesday Jun 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings, Scholarly works
Wormwoodiana has news of an Arthur Machen Essay Competition, with Cash Prizes. Deadline “by early September”.
The Friends of Arthur Machen have announced a competition for essays on Machen … £200 prize for the best essay, and two runner-up prizes of £100 each. … 4,000 words [or more] … open to non-members”.
Worth having. Unfortunately I don’t know what hasn’t yet been discovered about Machen, or I’d unleash the Tentaclii Towers truffle-pigs on the online archives.
11 Tuesday Jun 2019
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
The review journal Dead Reckonings #25 has been published in paper. The issue’s Web page says “Spring 2018”, but the cover says “Spring 2019” and the journal’s catalogue page has an eta for arrival of “June”. So I’m guessing the Web page should read “June 2019”.
Of Lovecraftian interest, among the contents:
* “A Look Behind “The Challenge from Beyond””, by Michael D. Miller.
* “Weird Fiction and Decadence”, the S. T. Joshi review of the important new mainstream academic book Weird Fiction in Britain 1880–1939.
* “Sesqua Valley’s Weirdest Inhabitant, Wilum Pugmire”, by David Barker.
* “Weird Fiction in the 21st Century: A Conversation with S. T. Joshi”, by Alex Houstoun.
* “Some Notes on Call of Cthulhu and Other Lovecraftian Video Games” by Geza A. G. Reilly.
Possibly the journal is also on Amazon. But they annoyingly mix books titled “Dead Reckoning” into results for a specific search for “Dead Reckonings”. Meaning that I’m not inclined to trawl through the resulting stew of dross to discover if the journal is listed there.