E. Hoffman Price

[GOLLUM]

I don't know much about E. Hoffman Price, other than he collaborated with Lovecraft on Through The Gates Of The Silver Key and was a pulp writer in his own right.

Can someone tell me what they consider his best work or collection to be? You can suggest overall or by Category, preferably with Fantasy or Horror.

Of course if you don't rate him much, then please say so, although the fact the Old Gent collaborated with him must indicate some literary skill I would have thought.

Below is a summary of Hoffman's main works (I presume) courtesy of Wiki.

Thanks in advance.....

Science fiction

• Operation Misfit (1980)
• Operation Longlife (1983)
• Operation Exile (1985)
• Operation Isis (1986)

Fantasy

• The Devil Wives of Li Fong (1979)
• The Jade Enchantress (1982)

Collections

• Strange Gateways (1967)
• Far Lands, Other Days (1975)
• Three Cliff Cragin Stories (1987)
• Satan's Daughter and Other Tales from the Pulps (2004)

Nonfiction

• The Weird Tales Story (1999)
• Book of the Dead: Friends of Yesteryear, Fictioneers and Others (2001)

 

[j d worthington]

Price began well and quickly became a pulp hack. That's pretty much the long and the short of it. His primary interest soon became just the paycheck, and it shows. His work became predictable, hackneyed, stereotyped, flat, riddled with pulp conventions of the worst sort, and just generally forgettable. I never read his final works written toward the end of his life, though I have heard from some that they are actually a return to his earlier level of writing, which would make them worth seeking out if true.

As for that earlier work -- there isn't much of it, but what there was had a distinct magic to it, and was often very well written; it was this which drew HPL to him as a writer, but it was Price's personality which kept them corresponding for the remainder of Lovecraft's life. They enjoyed each other's company, and Price's accounts of visits with Lovecraft are (if you'll pardon the pun) priceless. They are absolutely charming, and give a great deal of insight into both men. (Incidentally, his account of REH, whom he also met, is also a very warm insight into the two-fisted writer of adventure tales.)

For his fiction: some of his best early work (as well as a fair amount of mediocre or sub-mediocre work) is included in Strange Gateways, but that one is a bit pricey. Best to go for a library copy if you can before making up your mind.

Far Lands, Other Days is one of the Carcosa imprint, and is a massive selection of Price's work good, bad, and indifferent... but it is a lovely book in many ways, and an excellent selection if you really want to have Price on your shelves. As you can see from the link below, it still goes for quite moderate prices, so that would be your best bet.

As for his nonfiction: The Book of the Dead is something any lover of the pulps or the classic popular writers of that period should have. While stylistically it is often a nightmare, Price's memories of these figures, all of whom he knew personally and was often good friends with, are among the best that have been recorded; for all its faults, this is a rare gem of a book, and I highly recommend it.

As for the collaboration between HPL and Price... Price pretty much badgered HPL into that one. He resisted for a very long time, and though he finally gave way, he was never happy at all about the whole thing. And, having read Price's original (titled "The Lord of Illusion"), knowing what Price contributed and what HPL added speaks volumes about Lovecraft's gentlemanly attitude and his conscientiousness in pursuing such a task once it has been initiated.... That said, it must be added that some of the best concepts and a few of the best portions of writing in that piece are by Price....

 

[GOLLUM]

Thanks for that frank appraisal.

I guessed as much that Price wasn't exactly in the Pantheon of Pulp Writers from the sheer fact so little of him has been mentioned on these forums or that I've seen being published but you never know; hence this post to a large extent.

I didn't realise that Lovecraft worked with him to some extent under sufferance; that's certainly an interesting insight into Lovecraft's "gentlemanly" tolerance.

Book Of The Dead sounds interesting. However, I fancy the question below is more pertinent to whether I in fact purchase.

Here's another question; who in fact was Lovecraft most close to or to put it another way perhaps; what do you regard as the single greatest account/reflection on Lovecraft made by his contemporaries? It can be a single or more pieces or a book compilation.

Cheers...

 

[j d worthington]

Closest to? Probably (outside of his aunts) Frank Belknap Long. After that, it would vary depending on period. Some of his closest would be CAS, Rheinhart Kleiner, Alfred Galpin, Maurice Winter Moe, James Ferdinand Morton, and the like.

Accounts? My suggestion would be to go for Lovecraft Remembered, by Peter H. Cannon, which collects together some of the best memoirs of HPL ever written, including what is perhaps the single best, W. Paul Cook's "In Memoriam: Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Recollections, Appreciations, Estimates", a delightful, charming, and moving account by one of Lovecraft's long-term associates and friends. It also includes an account by his wife (though the full version of that one, The Private Life of H. P. Lovecraft, has only been made available, I believe, as a publication of Necronomicon Press some time back, more's the pity....)

However, Price's book covers not only Lovecraft, but Howard, Seabury Quinn, Clark Ashton Smith, W. Kirk Mashburn, Henry Kuttner, and many others....

Here are links to these two volumes of reminiscences, memoirs, and estimations:

Lovecraft Remembered - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Dead_(memoir)

By the way, I forgot to include that link above, so:

E. Hoffmann Price - Far Lands Other Days - AbeBooks

And, actually, looking up Strange Gateways, it isn't going for all that much, either:

E. Hoffmann Price - Strange Gateways - AbeBooks

 

[GOLLUM]

Thanks!

I'll definitely chase up those "remembrances" concerning Lovecraft.

 

[j d worthington]

I don't think you'll be disappointed; they make for fascinating reading....

 

[GOLLUM]

C'mon....your recommendations are never a disappointment....

 

[j d worthington]

C'mon....your recommendations are never a disappointment....

Not even Varney....?

No, wait... I didn't recommend that one, did I....?

On a related note to the Price... have you read Hugh B. Cave's Murgunstrumm and Others (also originally a Carcosa book)? I think you might find that one of interest.... And yes, they are related, as they were part of the same circle, and both were "pulp hounds" in the truest sense of that term; and both saw a resurgence of interest in their work later in life....

 

[GOLLUM]

Well I certainly knew about Hugh B Cave AND in the process, funnily enough, of obtaining a copy of that.

As to Varney, our supplier still hasn't stocked the Wordsworth edn. of Varney (unusual, perhaps they had a crisis of conscience... )...so I'm hopping mad as I want to perform a comparative read with his best mate Wagner....

Actually I do want to perform a comparison all jokes aside....in order to decide which penny is the most dreadful...sorry couldn't help it...

 

[w h pugmire esq]

I corresponded briefly with Ed, but I fear I found him rather a bore. True, I was an obsessed young Lovecraftian and by that time I think he was pretty tired of fans seeking him only to discuss HPL. I had his Arkham House collection and Far Lands, Other Days -- but the fiction simply didn't do anything for me. I'm slowly rebuilding my Arkham House library, but I won't be bothering to buy Strange Gateways. The book of his I love is Book of the Dead (where, scandalously, his middle name is misspelled "Hoffman" -- a common error, but in an Arkham book unforgivable), and I think he was an extremely important chronologist of the Weird Tales gang. I love how he writes of Seabury Quinn and others. He was utterly unique as a human being and utterly prosaic as a writer -- of the stuff I've read; & that, admittedly, hasn't been much.

 

[j d worthington]

On the whole I'd agree with you. However, there are a few of his tales in Strange Gateways you may find of interest:

"The Stranger from Kurdistan"
"The Rajah's Gift"
"The Girl from Samarcand"
"Tarbis of the Lake"

These all have a higher imaginative quality, and a poetic sensibility which, to me, represents Price at his fictional best....