Added to Open Lovecraft

22 Wednesday Jul 2020

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* K. Dimitrios, “Evolution or Degeneration? Darwin’s Influence on R.L. Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth”” (Masters dissertation for the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, February 2020).

* K. Kwong, “On Xenophanes’ theology and Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos”, Kerberos, Summer 2020. (Can be had via search on Google Scholar as the complete issue in PDF, where it is also known to Scholar by the title “An Alternative Site for Troy on Imbros Gokceada”, which is the title of the first article in the issue).

* D. Balodis, “Iedomu valodas: H.F. Lavkrafta gramatas ‘Kthulhu aicinajums’ un tas Latviska tulkojuma analize” (‘Fictional languages: an analysis of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” in its Latvian translation’. A dissertation for the University of Latvia, 2020).

The pageant of Benefit Street down through the years (1945)

21 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by in Astronomy, Historical context

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Some years ago I linked to the book While Benefit Street was young (1943), and I noted that another book by the same author was not yet online. The other book has now appeared at Archive.org. The Pageant of Benefit Street down through the years (1945) was written by someone who had lived on the street as a child, being then a few years older than Lovecraft.

Lovecraft almost ended up living on that street in 1933, his choice then being between 66 College Street with his aunt or a lone room in the Seagrave Mansion on Benefit Street. An astronomy newspaper column by Lovecraft (Sept 1914) suggests a reason for the second possible choice…

Mr. Seagrave, who is connected with the astronomical department of Harvard University, and who is one of the foremost astronomers of the present time, formerly had an observatory on Benefit Street in this city.

… the implication being that there was still some connection between Seagrave and Lovecraft via astronomy. Frank Evens Seagrave (1860 – August 1934) was still alive at that point and aged 74. Although a letter from Lovecraft, considering his options, implies the old man had by then moved out…

the old Seagrave mansion where the noted astronomer F. E. Seagrave dwelt & had his private observatory until 1914

Given that Lovecraft had the offer of a room there, we might plausibly assume that Mr. Seagrave was letting rooms in his old place to suitably refined but impoverished old gents of Providence. And especially so if they had a connection with Brown or astronomy.

New book: Savage Sword of Conan reprint #3 ships, #4 dated

20 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by in New books

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The third volume of the sumptuous Savage Sword of Conan reprints is now shipping in the USA, including a 160-page Conan the Buccaneer adaptation that is effectively a graphic novel. No sign of the book on the UK Amazon, though. Update: now listed in the UK. Volume 4 is announced in the USA for November 2020, adding another 900+ pages of reprints.

Not to be confused with Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus. Savage Sword was the oversized b&w magazine edition, aimed at older readers than those browsing the spinner-racks of the monthly colour Marvel superhero comics.

New book: Who’s Who In New Pulp

19 Sunday Jul 2020

Posted by in Historical context, New books

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Rather usefully for some, there’s now a biographical-survey directory to Who’s Who In New Pulp, published by Airship 27 Productions at £4 in Kindle. The book includes artists, editors and publishers as well as writers. In its first edition it appears to be a working Who’s Who directory for the field, rather than a survey of the tales, themes and ideas. Probably also of interest to early-bird collectors.

The book has been compiled and edited by veteran comics writer Ron Fortier, now turned neo-pulpster. Ron also has a My Life in Comics (a Memoir) ebook available.

One of the pulp genres looking increasingly lively is the Weird Western, and historians are also taking an interest. Dark Worlds Quarterly also has a short but useful new historical survey of Weird Westerns and Lee Winters.

Probably the longest running series of Weird Westerns is the Lee Winters stories of Lon Thomas Williams. (1890-1978). Williams’ Deputy Marshall encounters all kinds of strange ghosts and less explained phenomena out in the desert.

In games I hear that there’s also a substantial action-RPG videogame with the same theme, Weird West. The isometric view and turn-based combat doesn’t make it look very appealing, but I guess I might have once thought the same about the superb Titan Quest. There’s a trailer, but no release date beyond “2021”.

Lovecraft’s birthday – coming soon

18 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by in Odd scratchings

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Just to remind keen readers know that H.P. Lovecraft’s birthday is now only a month away, 20th August 2020. If you were thinking of preparing special artwork or a text for the occasion, or an audio reading, or planning a trip and photos, now is likely the time to make a start.

If you’re not able to produce anything this year, you might still help out another old gent. Robert M. Price’s kitchen repairs fund still has a way to go to hit the needed target.

Call: Shadows Over Avalon

17 Friday Jul 2020

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I don’t normally feature calls from anthology editors, but I’ll make an exception for one that’s both historical and British-flavoured. Shadows Over Avalon seeks stories arising from a short passage in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward…

They were the pointed Saxon minuscules [scribal handwriting] of the eighth or ninth century A.D., and brought with them memories of an uncouth time when under a fresh Christian veneer ancient faiths and ancient rites stirred stealthily, and the pale moon of Britain looked sometimes on strange deeds in the Roman ruins of Caerleon and Hexham, and by the towers along Hadrian’s crumbling wall.

One of Lovecraft’s ancestral roots went back to Hexham and its district, and he had made an intensive study of the area via maps and books.

The remains of the Ancient Roman frontier wall at Hexham.

What’s wanted for the new book? The editors seek… “Cthulhu Mythos stories set in the Arthurian world”. Deadline: 1st October 2020.

Here’s Bartholemew’s 1910 map of the Arthurian Regions, to help you along, though doubtless the Arthurians now have better. Chester as Caerleon is very dodgy, and presumably the likes of Wolverhampton are only there for orientation.

And two evocative pictures from Hexham…

In the Saxon crypt at Hexham Abbey.

Ancient Roman memorial stone to a soldier, later found and set up in Hexham Abbey.

H. P. Lovecraft’s Odd Couples

16 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, Odd scratchings

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The Gay & Lesbian Review surveys “H. P. Lovecraft’s Odd Couples”, as part of the July-August 2020 issue. This issue is on the ‘Fantastics’ and appears to be a special on fantasy writers and artists. Available now at a modest $3.99 for a digital copy. Surprisingly it’s not also sold via Amazon, or else I’d have had a one-click copy downloading to my Kindle.

Barlow’s correspondence with receiving libraries

16 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by in Historical context, REH

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Bobbie Derie delves into letters arising from Barlow’s deposits of letter-caches with receiving libraries, in the late 1930s. The focus is on the whereabouts of the Robert E. Howard letters, but the article also throws a little light on the possible disposition of some of Lovecraft’s rarer books after his death…

Later, Mrs. Gamwell [Lovecraft’s aunt] may want someone to look over Howard’s [Lovecraft’s] books for possible library donations, I believe there is not much for the Harris Collection, but other departments might find material.

So the assumption that it was all trucked down to the hill to the Dana bookstore may not be the whole story. Before that happened there may have been some ‘picking’ of certain choice volumes by Brown academics, as well as by his aunt and a few members of his circle.

The Dark Man journal – new issue

15 Wednesday Jul 2020

Posted by in New books, REH, Scholarly works

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I see that Amazon now lists a June 2020 edition of The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies. At the journal’s website there’s also a new call for papers with a deadline of 16th August 2020.

Thanks to GreyIrish who has provided the TOCs for the latest issue of The Dark Man…

* Editorial by Jason Ray Carney and Nicole Emmelhainz-Carney.
* Willard M. Oliver, “Robert E. Howard and Jack London’s Martin Eden: analyzing the influence of Martin Eden on Howard and his semi-autobiography”.
* Todd Vick, “The Kid, Two-Gun, and history”.
* Karen Kahoutek, “More Than Meets the Eye: the women protagonists of the Conan stories”.
* Ralph Norris, “The Coming of Kull”.
* Luke F. Dodd, “The Sword and Sorcery Themes of The Sword’s Age of Winters, Gods of the Earth, and Warp Riders. (Album reviews).
* The Dark Man interview with The Cromcast [podcast]. (Interview).

There’s also now a table of contents for last summer’s issue. I learn it had an essay on Lovecraft, “Heredity and Madness in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls””.

Also of note is a forthcoming book by a 2020 Dark Man contributor, Todd Vick, titled Renegades and Rogues: The Life and Legacy of Robert E. Howard. It’s set to appear from the University of Texas Press. It sounds to me like a ‘Howard 101’ book aimed at academics who need a quick primer…

You may not know the name Robert E. Howard, but you probably know his work. His most famous creation, Conan the Barbarian, is an icon of popular culture.

Set for publication in November 2020 or January 2021, the dating varies.