H.P. LOVECRAFT'S FAVOURITE HORROR STORIES, Volumes One and Two. Edited by S.T. Joshi.
Seattle: Sarnath Press2025. Two volumes. Octavo, original pictorial wrappers (trade paperback format). 273 + 281 pp. Cover art by Allen Koszowski. Introductions by S.T. Joshi. Print-on-demand paperbacks, as are all Sarnath Press books. A fine set. Item #314644
¶ H. P. Lovecraft was one of the most well-read writers in the history of weird fiction. Throughout his life he sought out the best examples of supernatural fiction written before and during his lifetime. Some authors and works were close to his heart and influenced his own writing, such as the fantasies of Lord Dunsany, exemplified by the dream-tale “Idle Days on the Yann.” Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” and Arthur Machen’s “Novel of the White Powder” influenced “Cool Air,” while Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Journal of a Solitary Man” was a key source for “The Outsider.” Elsewhere, Lovecraft found supreme merit in works by Fiona Macleod (“The Sin-Eater”), M. P. Shiel (“The House of Sounds”), Edward Lucas White (“Lukundoo”). “The Call of Cthulhu” owes something to A. Merritt’s “The Moon Pool” and Guy de Maupassant’s “The Horla”; “The Colour out of Space” may have drawn upon Ambrose Bierce’s “The Damned Thing”; “The Dunwich Horror” borrows elements from Anthony M. Rud’s “Ooze”; “The Shadow over Innsmouth” has antecedents in tales by Irvin S. Cobb, Robert W. Chambers, and Algernon Blackwood. These and other classic stories of weird fiction included shed light on Lovecraft’s own creative processes and his wide appreciation of the greatest works of horror fiction written up to his own day.
Price (CAD): $45.00