The Variorum Lovecraft

[w h pugmire esq]

In some of our YouTube vlogs together, S. T. Joshi has bewail'd that he is known primarily as "the Lovecraft guy." Well, this year shews why that it so to an exceptional degree. Centipede Press has just published S. T.'s new edition of Lovecraft in their Library of the Weird Tale series, and Hippocampus Press will soon publish a hardcover collection of all of S. T.'s essays on HPL, LOVECRAFT AND A WORLD IN TRANSITION, a book of 645 pages. PS Publishing will soon begin to issue their nine volumes of LOVECRAFT ILLUSTRATED, each volume containing a new essay by S. T.; and in October Joshi's Corrected Text of Lovecraft's fiction will be published in THE NEW ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT.

October may also see the publication of THE VARIORUM LOVECRAFT in three volumes from Hippocampus Press. HP wants to bring the volume out in celebration of Lovecraft's 125th birthday (August 21, 2014). What will this edition feature?

"In the multi-volume edition of THE VARIORUM LOVECRAFT, which will be published in celebration of the 125th anniversary of H. P. Lovecraft's birth, editor S. T. Joshi presents all the relevant textual variants from all the stories that Lovecraft wrote over his short literary career. One phase of that project includes the printing of passages from handwritten or typed manuscripts (chiefly the former) that were excised, either as Lovecraft was writing the story or as he performed a subsequent revision of it."

The books will initially be published in handsome hardcover editions. It would be sad if they will have to compete with Leslie S. Klinger's NEW ANNOTATED HPL in the same month, both of which I see as essential additions to one's personal Lovecraft library.

Then, probably next year, the Lovecraft Letters project continues with a mammoth one-volume edition of the dual correspondence between H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. I fear it may be a long while yet before S. T. can escape his hard-won reputation as "the Lovecraft guy."

 

[pablo]

That Variorum edition sounds interesting!

 

[JoanDrake]

I doubt if he really wants to. That is a something of a characteristic of Lovecraft. He made a lot more money for other writers than he ever did for himself. It's too bad they didn't have an Internet back then. He'd have made a fortune.

 

[j d worthington]

I doubt if he really wants to. That is a something of a characteristic of Lovecraft. He made a lot more money for other writers than he ever did for himself. It's too bad they didn't have an Internet back then. He'd have made a fortune.

He did indeed. I'm not sure how he'd have taken to the internet, given his ambiguous feelings toward machinery....


I'd rather not see them as in competition, but rather complementary to each other. And yes, the variorum edition is going to be invaluable to scholars such as myself, as well as the "devout" Lovecraft fan. I just wish someone would issue a volume (or series of volumes) with facsimile reproductions of all his stories... that is, facsimiles of their original printings (where available), with some annotations indicating alterations in later printings. (The text of "Under the Pyramids", for instance, differs from the later reprinting which went under the title "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs", and the original of "The Picture in the House", if I recall correctly, had a rather unfortunately explicit passage in it which was later modified to avoid giving away too much.) Such an edition would be a tremendous boon to those of us involved in such researches, and also of interest to many a fan....

 

[pablo]

I would very much love a comprehensive volume or volumes tracing all of the collaborations.

 

[Ningauble]

I would very much love a comprehensive volume or volumes tracing all of the collaborations.

Alas, since there are manuscripts for very few of these, a volume like that is close to impossible. But it would be possible to do it for at least the Barlow collaborations.

 

[Ningauble]

Apparently there will be three volumes of the Variorum Lovecraft, with the revisions following in two additional volumes next year.

 

[pablo]

Apparently there will be three volumes of the Variorum Lovecraft, with the revisions following in two additional volumes next year.

That's really exciting! I would think these would be the ultimate editions of the revisions (collaborations), right?

 

[Ningauble]

That's really exciting! I would think these would be the ultimate editions of the revisions (collaborations), right?

I should think so -- but it all depends on whether they'll get permission to use the HPL/Eddy stories. Remember, those were excluded from the Arcane Wisdom set for copyright reasons. If not, then you'll still need a separate book containing these books (for example The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions, but the overlap will be terrible.

 

[Ningauble]

The set is now available for preorder: http://www.hippocampuspress.com/h.p-lovecraft/fiction/variorum-lovecraft

 

[pablo]

Got mine in.

The first three volumes, available in November 2014 exclusively as a set, collect all of Lovecraft's canonical tales. A fourth volume, H. P. Lovecraft's Revisions and Collaborations: A Variorum Edition, is scheduled to appear in 2015 and will be offered for sale individually.

That's really exciting. Hopefully it's complete.

 

[w h pugmire esq]

The jacket for volume one has been postedat ye Hippocampus Press page at Facebook. Great Yuggoth, it's awesome!

 

[Ningauble]

The jacket for volume one has been postedat ye Hippocampus Press page at Facebook. Great Yuggoth, it's awesome!

Indeed it is! A shame that the publication has been pushed back to January 2015, but that just gives us more time to save money for it.
In the meantime, I think I'll get the Klinger edition.

 

[w h pugmire esq]

You will love the Klinger edition, Ningauble, although some of ye annotations are very odd and some few are actually misleading in regard to factual information. But it is a beautiful book, and it's fabulous to have Lovecraft's texts so handsomely presented, in large typeface on folio-size pages.

Now that I am doing all my writing in my dining room, I have moved a wee bookcase to the area, in which I keep my Arkham House editions of Lovecraft's fiction, the five volumes of Selected Letters, Collected Essays, I Am Providence, Lovecraft and a World in Transition, &c. I have left room on ye top shelf for ye four volumes of The Variorum Lovecraft. S. T. sent me ye pdf for two of the volumes of The Collected Fiction, and I was extremely impress'd. O, how my palms itch to hold these hardcover editions!!!

 

[Ningauble]

Folio-size? I don't think I have seen any photos that show this book to scale, but it sounds as if I need to make room on my lower shelves.

 

[pablo]

Any update on this? I did see a new cover image I think:

 

[w h pugmire esq]

I love the jacket art. My favourite is for Volume III. I have just been sent the first volume and will begin my proofreading of it just as soon as I've finish'd a new story for a forthcoming Mythos anthology. I have read Volumes II and III, and the entire project has me excited indeed. We are doing all we can to ensure that the volumes are as error-free as possible, although I doubt that all errors can be caught, no matter how many of us are checking the texts. The actual publication date seems to be in a state of flux, and I think we may not see the publish'd volumes until late this year or early next. This is extremely frustrating, but it will be well worth ye wait.

 

[Ningauble]

The actual publication date seems to be in a state of flux, and I think we may not see the publish'd volumes until late this year or early next.

THAT late? Ouch. The US$ and the UK$ have both been skyrocketing compared to the Swedish SEK since Christmas, and buying books is becoming more expensive by the day. There's no sign of this abating either. (It is good for my retirement fund, which is currently mostly invested in the US, but a big OUCH for my book budget. I anticipate a raise of at least 25% in my book expenses this year.)

 

[Ningauble]

From S. T.'s latest blog entry:

I am delighted to say that work on Lovecraft’s Collected Fiction: A Variorum Edition is now all but complete. Derrick Hussey, the publisher of Hippocampus Press, has been incredibly diligent and meticulous in going over all the texts (as well as my own textual notes) and has saved me from countless errors. It appears that my own records of textual variants were not at all as accurate or coherent as they should have been (but remember that I started doing this work as a callow eighteen-year-old freshman in 1976!). But now the work is done, and all that remains is to look over the final proofs before sending them to the printer. Derrick vows that this will be done on or before June 1, which means that the three-volume edition should be ready by mid-July. I am a bit mortified that we first announced the edition as appearing in late 2014—but the long delay is well worth it, trust me!

 

[j d worthington]

I, for one, don't mind the delay, given the scope of the project. I'd rather see it come as close to being accurate on all fronts as possible, as this is going to be a genuine landmark in Lovecraftian publications, one which is likely to remain unsurpassed in our lifetimes.

At any rate, I look forward to it with great anticipation....