Lovecraft’s 131st birthday round-up – part two

21 Saturday Aug 2021

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Another round-up of items for H.P. Lovecraft’s 131st birthday. Most likely there are more to be found, when the search-engines catch up, and there may be a ‘part three’.

“Astrophobos 1917” has been released by the band Dreams in the Witch House…

In celebration of Lovecraft’s birthday on August 20th, 1890, the “Dreams in the Witch House” team presents this dynamic take on Lovecraft’s poem written in 1917.

Seemingly announced on the birthday, or else only just now picked up by the search-engines, The Shadow Over Innsmouth Vinyl LP Box Set from quality vinyl purveyors Psilowave Records, set to ship for Halloween. Possibly already sold out, judging by the ‘last one available’ flag I see.

A modestly-discounted clearance sale at the HPLHS store, until 23rd August 2021.

Several long birthday streaming podcasts on YouTube. Alongside the usual daily tidal-wave of readings, which is nothing unusual.

A nice H.P. Lovecraft, the Man of Madness ‘speedtoon’ for the birthday, in which AniMio Studios shows how exactly how to draw and fill-paint a toon Lovecraft. He’s got to work on squaring off the jaw, but it’s otherwise a rather pleasing little art tutorial.

And finally, leftists also chose the day to desecrate Lovecraft’s gravestone with some crude scrawling. Best ignored, I’d suggest.

Lovecraft’s 131st birthday round-up – part one

20 Friday Aug 2021

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It’s just gone noon here in the UK, so I’ll make a first pass at a 131st Birthday round-up. The search-engines have evidently not yet caught up with indexing the Italian, German, South American etc Web content, so there will likely be another ‘part two’ post.

As previously noted the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival returns to Providence on the birthday weekend, 20th-22nd August 2021. Many shorts and movies will debut at the lavish and historical venue.

Film-maker Ferran Brooks ushers the master into a tentacular rejuvenation chamber on YouTube. Impressive visuals. Italian Lovecraftian Andrea Bonazzi also has an animated birthday card somewhere on Twitter. Unmentionable horror trigger-warning: Lovecraft is made to smile in both.

The scholarly Lovecraft Annual No. 15, 2021 was announced with a table-of-contents. No cover-colour this year — transparent cellulose, perhaps?

The Mexican Lovecraftians have what appears to be a birthday symposium in Mexico City.

Dark Adventure Radio Theatre chose the day to ship the digital deliveries on their new “The Horror in the Museum” production. CDs will be shipping by the end of the month.

BitGolem has released a free Dagon in VR game for the birthday.

On ArtStation illustrator Andrea Guardino has a fine birthday Cthulhu painting.

I released a free index for Lovecraft’s poetry, as found in the second edition of The Ancient Track.

I also updated my “Lovecraft for beginners” guide/FAQ page, and Bobby Derie has what appears to be a new FAQ page for Lovecraft.

Lovecraft Annual No. 15, 2021

20 Friday Aug 2021

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Announced for Lovecraft’s birthday, the scholarly Lovecraft Annual No. 15, 2021. 270 pages including, among others, at least four topographical pieces…

* The Acolyte of the Abyss: or, In the Long Shadow of the House at 454 Angell Street.

* Following The Ancient Track.

* The Promise of Cosmic Revelations: How the Landscape of Vermont Transforms “The Whisperer in Darkness”.

* The Church That Inspired “The Horror at Red Hook” and the Fall of the House of Suydam.

On Lovecraft’s 131st birthday – an index for his poetry

20 Friday Aug 2021

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On H.P Lovecraft’s 131st birthday, I’m pleased to present my offering to the Master. An Index for the book The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H.P. Lovecraft (second revised edition). I had often felt the lack of a ‘topic, imagery, place and name’ index for this 600-page volume, so I made one.

Download (PDF). Version 1.1, August 2021.

It’s 3,000 words as a 32-page PDF file, and as such it should be feasible to print as a little imposition-software booklet and slip between card covers. Or upload it to a POD booklet printer. Note that it’s not under Creative Commons and is not for re-sale, please.

I suspect that the Guild of Indexers will not be sending me a gilt-edged invitation card to their annual Christmas Ball, on seeing this. I did it my way, without poring over weighty manuals on indexing, but it should be perfectly serviceable for Lovecraftian look-ups. There are no line-numbers though, as that would have added far too much extra work. Thus you will need to skim down the page to find the item being searched for.

Weird Tales, March 1939

19 Thursday Aug 2021

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Posted slightly ahead Lovecraft’s birthday, an edition of Weird Tales which appears to have been unavailable on Archive.org until now, nicely scanned and uploaded. Weird Tales for March 1939, containing the first news-stand appearance of Lovecraft’s “The Quest of Iranon” (1921).

“Wright [the 1920s editor of Weird Tales, has] just rejected The Quest of Iranon with high disdain…” (H.P. Lovecraft, December 1927).

There are of course other maintained sources online for Weird Tales, dependent on goodwill and ongoing hosting fees, but it’s good to see another being uploaded in perpetuity to Archive.org.

Lovecraft for beginners, updated

19 Thursday Aug 2021

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I’ve updated my “Lovecraft for beginners” guide/FAQ page, ready for Lovecraft’s birthday tomorrow. Newly added, among others…

i. “On the searchability/indexing of the letters) “A unified index to the collected volumes of Letters is underway, but may not appear for a while yet.”

ii. (on finding a poetry index). “a full index to the second edition of The Ancient Track is forthcoming and is set to be released for Lovecraft’s Birthday on 20th August 2021.”

iii. (New section for ‘Philosophy’ added). “Introductory studies of Lovecraft’s philosophy and thought, which is considerable, can be found in the books H.P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West; The Philosophy of H.P. Lovecraft (New Studies in Aesthetics series); and Ideology and Scientific Thought in H.P. Lovecraft.”

iv. (Commenting on the nature of the encyclopedias available). “Note that these encyclopaedias do not cover Lovecraft’s intellectual ideas and his engagement with the ideas/science of his time, and a hypothetical title such as An Intellectual Encyclopaedia for H.P. Lovecraft is a book that remains to be written.”

I see that Bobby Derie also has what appears to be a new-this-week FAQ page answering common questions posed about Lovecraft.

“… gold and ivory and strange crystals sent as tribute”

17 Tuesday Aug 2021

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At the HPLHS Store and new to me, a line of Lovecraftian Netsuke…

Also said to be set for the store (seemingly coming soon, perhaps for the Birthday on the 20th?) a toothsome faux carved whale-tooth from Innsmouth…

Lovecraft on carving…

“That [new] theory of rock carvings 150,000 years old is certainly fascinating in the extreme – even though it presupposes the evolution of man to have begun at a period somewhat earlier than is normally assumed.”

“The prevalence and depth of the mediaeval horror-spirit in Europe, intensified by the dark despair which waves of pestilence brought, may be fairly gauged by the grotesque carvings slyly introduced into much of the finest later Gothic ecclesiastical work of the time”.

“I am truly of an opinion, that [eighteenth century] carvings are just as genuine poesy as anything ever writ in lines and rhymes.”

New documentary: ‘Exegesis: Lovecraft’

17 Tuesday Aug 2021

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S.T. Joshi’s blog has updated. He notes the release of the new paperback edition of…

Ramsey Campbell’s second essay collection, Ramsey Campbell, Certainly [has] a substantial section of essays on Lovecraft, including a fairly recent piece, “Lovecraft Analysed” (2013), that is one of the most perspicacious pieces on Lovecraft written of late.

He also anticipates seeing the new two-hour Lovecraft documentary Exegesis: Lovecraft at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival (the one set for Portland at the start of October 2021).