Complete collection?

[fifteenjugglers]

I'm new to Lovecraft and was just wondering if there is a collection of his complete works available. Would be nice to have all of his stories in the one place...

 

[j d worthington]

No, no single book collects together all his stories, though they can be found on the net (except for a few slighter things and some of the revisions -- which were frequently entirely by HPL, but were ghost-written for someone else). However, Penguin in tpb has brought out really nice editions of all his work except for the revisions, and they are easily available. For everything, you'd need to go to Arkham House, and there's a 4-volume set that collects all of his fiction save for his prose-poems and some scattered non-weird work, which is collected in his Miscellaneous Writings. But, if you wish to read his work, here's a site that you might want to look at:

the Complete works of H. P. Lovecraft

And, just in case you're interested in pursuing the ones mentioned above:

Penguin:

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories

Arkham House:

Dagon and Other Macabre Tales
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels
The Dunwich Horror and Others
The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions

These use the authoritative texts (earlier editions often had very corrupt texts), and are edited by S. T. Joshi, the leading Lovecraftian scholar.

 

[Nesacat]

Del Rey put all his stories together recently with lovely artwork on the covers. They are oversized paperbacks and very wellbound so they fall open well and are a pleasure to read.

The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness
Dreams of Terror and Death: The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: the Best of H. P. Lovecraft

 

[fifteenjugglers]

Thanks for the suggestions and the link to the complete works (is that legal?) - I'll read a few online and then perhaps buy a book or two based on what I think.

 

[j d worthington]

I believe it is... Quite a few of HPL's works are in public domain, and have been for some time (at least the things published before 1924 ... the others have a tangled legal history).

Give yourself time to acclimate to his style, as he follows much older models, and can be a bit stodgy to some (though I've always been completely enchanted by it, myself).

Hope you enjoy!

 

[that old guy]

That dagonbook sight is giving a 403 'forbidden' message.

Gutenberg Australia has just about all his stuff, though. Here:

gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600031h.html

But since I'm not allowed to do links, c&p it into your browser.

I'm not sure if there's some sort of copyright violation for non-Australians to look at it? I know their laws are not as strict as US/UK rules. But I'm American, and so far homeland security hasn't shown up on my doorstep for reading some of the stories.

 

[j d worthington]

There is also this site:

The H. P. Lovecraft Library

which includes some quite obscure things, and a fair amount of poetry, essays, etc. However, I note that the Eddy estate has requested the removal of the collaborations/revisions HPL did with him, "Ashes", "The Ghost-Eater", "The Loved Dead" and "Deaf, Dumb, and Blind"; and there's an error in the letters listed: the letter that holds the origin of "The Statement of Randolph Carter" was not to Derleth (whom he did not begin corresponding with until much later), but to The Gallomo (a correspondence circle made up of Alfred Galpin, Maurice Winter Moe, and HPL).

However, this site is also useful for those who'd like a look at his Supernatural Horror in Literature and some of the source material, for it provides links to quite a few of the works Lovecraft discusses in that monumental treatise. As far as I know, nearly all of Lovecraft's work (save for his letters, etc.) is in public domain now; so I'm not sure what's happened with the other site. Also, I believe all of the stories linked on this site are also now in public domain, so there shouldn't be any problem with that.

However, I strongly urge the purchase of the Penguin or Arkham House or Hippocampus Press volumes, because this encourages them to continue publishing hitherto-unseen work by HPL, as well as the wonderful annotated editions and associated material that has proven so valuable to gradually building Lovecraft's reputation with the larger literary community (and helping to insure his work remaining in print).

 

[Ningauble]

I'm new to Lovecraft and was just wondering if there is a collection of his complete works available. Would be nice to have all of his stories in the one place...

I once wrote an article on gathering the complete Lovecraft collection (in terms of text); unfortunately it's in Swedish, but I can summarise it here:

First of all the fiction. The recent Penguin volumes are supposed to correct some errors that managed to sneak into the corrected Arkham House volumes of the 80s; however, the Penguins also introduce lots and lots of new errors (trust me, I've compared them side by side, and once I've had confirmed from Higer Up that what I've found is indeed errors, then I'll post the errata lists here and there on the web). Therefore, I'll recommend the Arkham House texts anyway:

* The Dunwich Horror and Others (Arkham House, 1984)
* At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels (Arkham House, 1985)
* Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (Arkham House, 1986)
* The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (Arkham House, 1990)
* Miscellaneous Writings (Arkham House, 1995)

In addition to these you may want:

* Nameless Cults (Chaosium, 2001) -- this volume contains the complete text of the round-robin "The Challenge from Beyond", whereas Miscellaneous Writings has only Lovecraft's contribution to the story
* Eyes of the God: The Weird Fiction and Poetry of R. H. Barlow (Hippocampus Press, 2002) -- this volume has the rare revisions "The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast" and "The Slaying of the Monster" (of interest mostly to the completist) plus the original version, based on the original manuscript, of "The Night Ocean". The version of "The Battle That Ended the Century" also has a couple of extra sentences, written by Barlow, that were probably later deleted by Lovecraft himself and therefore not included in Miscellaneous Writings (for some reasons I can't italicise that title now).
* The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories (Penguin, 2004) -- has the original versions of "Hypnos" and "The Shadow Out of Time"; however, with the customary new Penguin errors.


For the poetry, The Ancient Track (Night Shade Books, 2001)
For the essays, Collected Essays vols. 1-5 (Hippocampus Press, 2004-2007)

For the letters... That's the trickiest part, because they have been published all over the place -- Arkham House, Night Shade Books, Necronomicon Press, Hippocampus Press, Wildside Press, Ohio University Press, and soon University of Tampa Press. I'll get back to them at some later date.

 

[j d worthington]

Good to see another dyed-in-the-wool Lovecraftian on the boards! Welcome!

 

[ghyle]

G'day Ningauble!

I know who you are from that post; you'll know me as well, of course, from the EOD and SSWFT.

Glad to see you, as always!

 

[Ningauble]

I can add that Gollancz in the UK are going to publish The Necronomicon, a collection that's supposed to be "the complete stories of H. P. Lovecraft".

However, I'm sceptical, since it's going to be a mix of WT and early Arkham House texts. No corrections here, so you'll most likely see "the sailor Lopex" and "the seven cryptical books of earth".

But I'll most likely get it anyway, since I don't own a copy of the old versions anyway, and it's probably going to be a very good-looking book.

 

[j d worthington]

Thanks for word on that, Ning. I'll have to see if I can't scrape together my pennies for this one.... I've got some older versions in the old Ballantine/Beagle editions (which is how I first discovered HPL, and which for which I have considerable sentimental attachment), but I'd like to see what they do with this one... though how they'll fit all the stories into a single volume... this I'll have to see to believe!

 

[Ningauble]

Thanks for word on that, Ning. I'll have to see if I can't scrape together my pennies for this one.... I've got some older versions in the old Ballantine/Beagle editions (which is how I first discovered HPL, and which for which I have considerable sentimental attachment), but I'd like to see what they do with this one... though how they'll fit all the stories into a single volume... this I'll have to see to believe!

I used to have the butt-ugly British Omnibus editions, until I discovered how terribly misprinted they are. For example, in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, two chapters start with the same line, and I've found the same error in a later Ballantine edition (you had better check yours too!). I later sold them to a friend who is less picky than I am. But now I should perhaps get this edition, as a curiosity.

It's supposed to be about 950 pages, so there's certainly space for a lot of text. And IIRC, it's going to be both hc and tp, with a fake-leather-looking cover (much the same as the rather good-looking Conan omnibus that Gollancz put out a while back).

 

[mogora]

Centipede Press is putting out a 2 volume collection later thiis summer that should be quite lovely. I don't know which texts they're going to use, though.

 

[j d worthington]

Mogora -- Am I misreading that? I thought it said that this was the second volume of their "Masters of Horror", not a 2-volume edition; the first was devoted to Blackwood. Still, that price is going to put it far, far beyond my reach -- or the reach of most, I'm afraid. It's like that 3-volume set of The Compleat Jules de Grandin, by Seabury Quinn... those who would be interested are not likely to be able to afford it....

Ning: Yes, even the older Beagle edition of Ward (from 1971) has that. That would be parts 2 and 3 of Chapter 2: "An Antecedent and a Horror", which reads: "By the autumn of 1770 Weeden decided that the time was...", which properly belongs only to section 3. However, as I said, I have a strong sentimental attachment to these volumes, as they were (with the exception of the Arkham At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, which I read during the same period) my introduction to HPL -- I also quite like the odd cover art ... and, I'll admit, I love the wonderful smell of those old paperbacks, which I've had for 35+ years now.....

 

[Ningauble]

Ning: Yes, even the older Beagle edition of Ward (from 1971) has that. That would be parts 2 and 3 of Chapter 2: "An Antecedent and a Horror", which reads: "By the autumn of 1770 Weeden decided that the time was...", which properly belongs only to section 3.

*sigh* I suspected as much. I think this phenomenon is called "encrustation", when a misprint is introduced in an early edition and then carried over to later editions. Hence my scepticism toward the Gollancz Necronomicon -- and that Centipede Press edition.

Same thing with Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter -- all modern editions have a serious misprint (part of sentence missing, replaced by part of another sentence from a couple of lines up) in Chapter XXI (IIRC). I've traced it as far back as the Ballantine edition (1969).

However, as I said, I have a strong sentimental attachment to these volumes, as they were (with the exception of the Arkham At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, which I read during the same period) my introduction to HPL -- I also quite like the odd cover art ... and, I'll admit, I love the wonderful smell of those old paperbacks, which I've had for 35+ years now.....

Was it the Whelan covers as far back as that? If so, they definitely are very cool. And yes, old Ballantines have a wonderful smell.

 

[mogora]

JD, it appears to be the second volume of the series and will be presented in two volumes. It's a shame it's so expensive, though I'm still curious as to which texts they'll use.

 

[j d worthington]

*sigh* I suspected as much. I think this phenomenon is called "encrustation", when a misprint is introduced in an early edition and then carried over to later editions. Hence my scepticism toward the Gollancz Necronomicon -- and that Centipede Press edition.

This makes me think of a story I once came across concerning the "Masterworks" series by Bradbury. As the story goes, he was going over the stories preparatory to this, in order to have an authoritative text, and in looking over several of the paperback printings of his books, was driven to say "I didn't write that!" -- meaning, there had been so many mistakes, editorial alterations, and such, that the feel and sometimes the thrust of the story was seriously changed. Whether this is a true story or not, I don't know; but it wouldn't terribly surprise me....

Same thing with Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter -- all modern editions have a serious misprint (part of sentence missing, replaced by part of another sentence from a couple of lines up) in Chapter XXI (IIRC). I've traced it as far back as the Ballantine edition (1969).

That one is dismaying... especially that it hasn't been corrected in any edition so far, considering there have been a few....

Was it the Whelan covers as far back as that? If so, they definitely are very cool. And yes, old Ballantines have a wonderful smell.

No, the Whelan covers didn't come around until the 1980s, as I recall, when Ballantine reissued four of the Beagle/Ballantine books, along with the two that had been part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series (edited by Lin Carter); and then the Best of volume (which dropped a fairly long passage from "The Colour out of Space", as I recall.....) Actually, I'm not sure who did the covers for the Beagle edition... but they vary. The ones I'm fondest of (as far as artwork is concerned) are the later volumes -- even those are not chiefly HPL; they include the 2-volume pb of Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, as well as the two Derleth collections, and The Lurker at the Threshold by Derleth -- the only true HPL in those later volumes is Ward, and a collection of nine of his revisions from The Horror in the Museum. The earlier volumes (which were by HPL), the artwork was rather forgettable. However, the artists are not given credit in the books or on the cover, nor does Joshi note who did them in his bibliography. If there is anyone out there who can provide the name for the artists of the Beagle books (matching artist by particular title) I'd appreciate it.

Later, most of these (except for The Mask of Cthulhu, The Trail of Cthulhu, Lurker, and Ward) were reissued by Ballantine with covers by John Holmes.

For a look at the covers I'm talking about, this link reproduces them, and asks the same question....

Cthulhu Mythos: Beagle Boxer Covers

 

[Dexter]

While I'm sure the original poster has already found a collection to read, I thought it might be useful to include a wonderful volume for people new to Lovecraft.

It is published by the Library of America and titled Tales.
$35.00 Hardcover (I found it online for around $24).
ISBN: 1-931082-72-3.
838 pages.
Includes the following 22 stories:
The Statement of Randolf Carter
The Outsider
The Music of Erich Zann
Herbert West - Reanimator
The Lurking Fear
The Rats in the Walls
The Shunned House
The Horror at Red Hook
He
Cool Air
The Call of Cthulhu
Pickman's Model
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Colour Out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Shadow Out of Time
The Haunter of the Dark

The stories were picked by Peter Straub and edited by S.T. Joshi as a 'Best of' sort of collection.

Edit: Hitting spacebar can abruptly post the...um...post. Doh!

 

[Ningauble]

Yes, it is a decent volume, but textually speaking it introduces as many errors as the two Dell volumes.