Studi Lovecraftiani No.1

The Italian Lovecraftians have reprinted the scholarly journal Studi Lovecraftiani No. 1 (Dagon Press, new edition 2013, in Italian). My translation of the contents list…

Editorial
Introduction to Lovecraftian Studies, S.T. Joshi.
Guide to reading Lovecraft, Fabrizio Claudio Marcon.
The “Copernican revolution” of the dreamer from Providence, Massimo Berruti.
H.P. Lovecraft In Italy: a special dossier.
The disciples of Erich Zann: Lovecraft and the music of Bruno Gargano, Elvezio Sciallis and Andrea Bonazzi.
[The Theosophist] Scott-Elliott : Inspiring Lovecraft, by Gianluca Formwork.
The Library of R’lyeh : a review of literature.
Necronomibooks : a review of news and overview of new Lovecraftian developments.

“This is a reprint, re-edited and corrected, the no. 1 of SL, released in small editions [60 copies] in 2005 and immediately sold out. In addition to new graphics, new material is added to the original content.”

Strange fearful & true newes

What exactly was the providence that gave Lovecraft’s Providence its name? There’s a book on that, Providence in Early Modern England — which has a chapter on mysterious signs and portents associated with providence… “‘Tongues of Heaven’: Prodigies, Portents, and Prophets”.

Update: it was a free chapter when I linked it, but now seems to be paywalled! Sorry about that. But it’s mostly available free on Google Books: search “Prodigies, Portents, and Prophets”.

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The first fanzine for weird tales? Strange fearful & true newes, London 1606.

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They loved their weird giant tentacle monsters, even way back. The discription of a rare or rather most monstrous fishe, London 1566.

Lovecraft and the Northern Gothic Tongue

There’s a new article from Roger Lockhurst at the Oxford Dictionaries, ahead of the Oxford University Press edition of Lovecraft, on “H.P. Lovecraft and the Northern Gothic Tongue”

“There is a very specific language of Gothic and horror literature that has its roots buried deep in the history of English: doom has been around since Old English; dread carries over from Middle English; eerie, that sense of vague superstitious uneasiness, enters Middle English through Scottish. The adjectives are harsh and guttural: moons are always gibbous, the trees eldritch.”