"The Unknown Lovecraft"

[rkukan]

Someone (Pablo, I think) was asking for specific information about the contents of this newly-released collection of essays by Kenneth Faig. Well, here is a complete list:

Lovecraft: Artist or Poseur?
Quae Amamus Tuemur: Ancestors in Lovecraft's Life and Fiction
Whipple V. Phillips and the Owyhee Land and Irrigation Company
Lovecraft's Parental Heritage
The Friendship of Louise Imogen Guiney and Sarah Susan Phillips
The Unknown Lovecraft I: Political Operative
The Unknown Lovecraft II: Reluctant Laureate
Lovecraft's "He"
"The Silver Key" and Lovecraft's Childhood
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
Lovecraft's Unknown Friend: Dudley Charles Newton
R.H. Barlow
Robert H. Barlow as Lovecraft's Literary Executor: An Appreciation
Some Final Thoughts for Readers of This Collection

The publisher, of course, is Hippocampus Press.

 

[j d worthington]

Thank you. Haven't yet received my copy (though I should be getting a shipment from them soon), and it looks like it's worth the wait....

 

[rkukan]

. . . it looks like it's worth the wait....

Indeed it is! The book came in today's mail and I've only had a chance to glance at it, but the "Silver Key" and "Louise Imogen Guiney" essays plainly offer fascinating insights into HPL's childhood. Really, no one can touch Faig on that subject.

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, I've got a copy of the "Silver Key" essay (it is included in A Century Less a Dream: Selected Criticism on H. P. Lovecraft, ed. by Scott Connors. Fascinating isn't the word for it... It is both thoroughly absorbing, enlightening, and well-written to boot.... I've also got the article on Ms. Guiney and Susie, which is also quite interesting (not to say tantalizing); it's in a late issue of Crypt of Cthulhu (#100, iirc).

Nonetheless, I look forward to this one with great anticipation, as I've long been very impressed with Faig's work, and wished to see as much of it as possible brought together and reprinted....

Incidentally, I heartily suggest the anthology of criticism mentioned above; it holds an enormous amount of fascinating material, and is still in print, I believe. My only complaint is the lack of an index at the rear of the volume, which would come in very handy indeed....

 

[rkukan]

. . . Incidentally, I heartily suggest the anthology of criticism mentioned above; it holds an enormous amount of fascinating material, and is still in print, I believe. My only complaint is the lack of an index at the rear of the volume, which would come in very handy indeed....

Thanks for the advice! I will add the Connors anthology to my list. I've previously shied away from it because of its relatively modest dimensions and somewhat hefty price tag ($60 Canadian). I must learn not to be such a cheapskate. . . (he says, eyeing Joshi & Dziemianowicz's "Supernatural Literature of the World").

 

[j d worthington]

Thanks for the advice! I will add the Connors anthology to my list. I've previously shied away from it because of its relatively modest dimensions and somewhat hefty price tag ($60 Canadian). I must learn not to be such a cheapskate. . . (he says, eyeing Joshi & Dziemianowicz's "Supernatural Literature of the World").

LOL. Yes, that last had me hesitating for quite a while there, too... finally took the plunge, and it has come in quite handy so far.

Before you go spending the money on that one, however, I'd ask if you have a complete file of Lovecraft Studies and the like, as several of the articles are reprinted from such journals. If not, then it's definitely worth the investment if you are interested in good, rigorous, and thoughtful studies of the kind. Below you'll find a link to the entry for it at the H. P. Lovecraft Archive, giving the contents:

HPLA - A Century Less a Dream: Selected Criticism on H.P. Lovecraft

 

[rkukan]

. . . Below you'll find a link to the entry for it at the H. P. Lovecraft Archive, giving the contents. . . .

Thanks once again--I had seen a contents list at amazon, but having the source publications listed as well is very helpful.

I rather wish a similar list had been included in "The Unknown Lovecraft". Not having the original publication dates makes it difficult to tell when Faig is offering us his final judgement on certain subjects: for example, the two Barlow essays differ on the year in which he ceased to be in touch with Mrs. Gamwell. One can gain some idea of when the essays first appeared by scanning the publication dates of the sources he cites in his notes, but even there matters are none too clear: I suspect some of the citations were introduced when the essays were lightly revised prior to this reprinting.

 

[w h pugmire esq]

I've just read Ken's amazing essay on "He," and I don't remember seeing it in its original publication; & it seems to me almoft radical in its praise of the story, which has long beguiled me. What the best of essays on Lovecraft's fiction do for me is to help me see the Works in a new and fascinating light, and it always returns me to Lovecraft, and I reread the stories as one who is ever on the hunt for inspiration from the Works to spill into mine own Lovecraftian tales. Ken's essay on "He" got me so excited that I decided I had to combine aspect's of "He" in the new story I am outlining concerning Nyarlathotep appearing in Innsmouth in search of rare metal objects with which to construct nameless cosmic gadgets. I love these kinds of essays. Perhaps my favourite essayist on Lovecraft is Robert H. Waugh, whose The Monster in the Mirror is my all-time favourite study of Lovecraft's Works. Hippocampus is preparing to issue a second volume of Waugh's essays. I wish that Ken would write en entire book of commentary on Lovecraft's oeuvre, it would be wonderful and informative. I will finally be able to meet him at MythosCon! I'll be taking me copy of The Unknown Lovecraft for him to sign!