H. P. Lovecraft collection?

[Legomancer]

Okay, after having read all kinds of stuff ripping off Lovecraft, I've decided to go straight to the source. (This is related to my Verne and Wells thread elsewhere.) Problem is, there's a LOT of source. I'd like to get a good paperback collection of Lovecraft, focusing mostly on the elder gods stuff, less on the generic horror stuff, though I'll probably get to that eventually. And I don't really want other peoples' contributions - I just want Lovecraft at the moment. There's a ton of collections out there, so I was wondering if people had a favorite to recommend.

And, as a bonus for reading this thread, here's a preview of an upcoming thread:

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"...I know there's a lot of stuff out there, but I'm betting a lot of it is pretty bad, since it seems like something that's easy to do poorly. So are there good collections of worthwhile S---- H---- stories?"
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[C K Dexter Haven]

Try The Annotated Lovecraft with annotations by S.T. Joshti... it's a great collection of stories, and helpful comments.

[Ukulele Ike]

The two annotated volumes are good, but I'm a sucker for annotated books.

But the best thing to do is buy the updated, re-edited Arkham House 1980s editions of THE DUNWICH HORROR, THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, and DAGON.

Lovecraft scholar/editor S.T. Joshi went back to the original holograph manuscripts in the Brown University collection and put everything back the way HPL supposedly wanted it. Earlier editions (the 1930s-40s Arkham originals THE OUTSIDER AND OTHERS and BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP, and the 1960s first editions of the three collections cited above) reprint text from WEIRD TALES magazine, and probably have August Derleth's grimy editorial fingerprints all over the stories as well.

(Joshi is the guy behind the annotations too, BTW)

[dropzone]

Originally posted by Ukulele Ike
Lovecraft scholar/editor S.T. Joshi went back to the original holograph manuscripts in the Brown University collectionYou mean they aren't at Miskatonic?

[CalMeacham]

I also have a separate, slim edition of The Annotated Shadow over Innsmouth with annotations by Joshi. The story doesn't appear in his two annotated collections.


If you can't find the annotated editions, I believe there's an omnibus edition entitled "The Best of H.P. Lovecraft", put out by Del Rey.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345350804/qid=1017329477/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_67_1/102-2838165-0200122

Go look through used book shops.

One of my personal favorites, which you won;t find in any of these collections, is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward


In all cases, avoid the works of August Derleth, unless you're really desperate for a fix.

[Michael Ellis]

Originally posted by CalMeacham
One of my personal favorites, which you won;t find in any of these collections, is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

That's in [u]The Thing on the Doorstep and other weird stories[/b] from Penguin. It also has the Joshi annotations.

[Michael Ellis]

Originally posted by Michael Ellis


That's in [u]The Thing on the Doorstep and other weird stories from Penguin. It also has the Joshi annotations. [/B]

Yog-Sothoth made me balls up that coding, I swear!

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by CalMeacham
One of my personal favorites, which you won;t find in any of these collections, is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward


Yeah, it is. It's in the Arkham AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, along with all the other short novels.



I swear to god I'm not following you around

[Cliffy]

It's interesting that this question came up today, as I spent a good 40 minutes at the bookstore looking at Lovecraft yesterday afternoon. According to Joshi's endnotes, the "definitive" editions are the ones from Arkham press from the 80's mentioned above by Ukuelele Ike. (Actually, Joshi lists four volumes.) However, the more widely available volumes are the two annotated volumes plus two other Penguin volumes, "The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories" and "The Call fo Cthulu and Other Weird Stories." So without doing an extensive comparison of the Tables of Contents, it appears that Joshi has recollected (and annotated) the stories from the four Arkham editions into the two annotated volumes and the two Penguin volumes.

--Cliffy

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by Cliffy
(Actually, Joshi lists four volumes.)

The fourth volume is THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM, which is made up of HPL's "revisions." Stories that were ostensibly written by Hazel Heald, Zealia Bishop, Wilfred Blanch Talman, C.M. Eddy, Jr., and others, but which were heavily revised, re-written, or, in some cases, almost COMPLETELY composed by HPL himself.

Some of 'em are pretty good, particularly "The Mound" and the exquisitely sicko "The Loved Dead." But it's a book for the completist, not for someone who just wants a ramble through the Lovecraft garden of evil flowers.

The main appeal of the original 1970 edition is the very nifty jacket art by Gahan Wilson.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally posted by dropzone
You mean they aren't at Miskatonic?

MISKATONIC! MISKATONIC! RAH-RAH-RAH! MISKATONIC! MISKATONIC! GGGooooOOooO PODS!

It had to be said. :D

[Michael Ellis]

A word of warning, don't view any of the films "based on" Lovecraft stories before reading said stories. The films just don't work.

[CalMeacham]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by CalMeacham
One of my personal favorites, which you won;t find in any of these collections, is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
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Yeah, it is. It's in the Arkham AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, along with all the other short novels.



I swear to god I'm not following you around

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by CalMeacham
One of my personal favorites, which you won;t find in any of these collections, is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



That's in [u]The Thing on the Doorstep and other weird stories[/b] from Penguin. It also has the Joshi annotations.


You folks misunderstand. I meant that it's not in the two Del Rey-published "Annotated Lovecraft" volumes annotated by Joshi.

Interesting. I didn't realize Joshi's notes werre in a Penguin edition.

[dropzone]

Originally posted by Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor
MISKATONIC! MISKATONIC! RAH-RAH-RAH! MISKATONIC! MISKATONIC! GGGooooOOooO PODS!
My daughter is a junior in high school and the mailbox is overflowing with invitations from colleges, but I forwarded a link to their site. If things work out and she stays a virgin I may only have to pay for the first semester.

<sniff!> It makes a father proud when his daughter considers going to his alma mater.


Let's see how long it takes for her to figure out it's fake. I knew it was but still almost got taken in by their website. It's .net now, but I recall at one time it was a .edu site.

[Michael Ellis]

Originally posted by CalMeacham
You folks misunderstand. I meant that it's not in the two Del Rey-published "Annotated Lovecraft" volumes annotated by Joshi.


Oh. Carry on.

[Legomancer]

Wow...this is all very helpful indeed, thanks!

So if you were to only recommend one text, for starters, which would it be?

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by Legomancer
So if you were to only recommend one text, for starters, which would it be?


Well, lessee...ANNOTATED No. ONE includes

"The Rats in the Walls"
"The Colour Out of Space"
"The Dunwich Horror"
"At the Mountains of Madness" (short novel)

ANNOTATED No. TWO has

"The Picture in the House"
"Herbert West -- Reanimator"
"The Hound"
"The Shunned House"
"The Horror at Red Hook"
"Cool Air"
"The Call of Cthulhu"
"Pickman's Model"
"The Thing on the Doorstep"
"The Haunter of the Dark"


Tough call. Neither one has "The Whisperer in Darkness" or "The Shadow over Innsmouth," two of my particular favorites...but of the two I'd opt for number two.

If you want to cough up a few bucks more and go for the Arkham House hardcover, THE DUNWICH HORROR includes

"In the Vault"
"Pickman's Model"
"The Rats in the Walls"
"The Outsider"
"The Colour Out of Space"
"The Music of Erich Zann"
"The Haunter of the Dark"
"The Picture in the House"
"The Call of Cthulhu"
"The Dunwich Horror"
"Cool Air"
"The Whisperer in Darkness"
"The Terrible Old Man"
"The Thing on the Doorstep"
"The Shadow Over Innsmouth"
"The Shadow Out of Time"

[dropzone]

I found a bunch of his stuff in TXT form online and everything I've looked at so far had a copyright before 1927. Are these stories really out of copyright or did the later publishers keep the copyright alive? Can it live that long or would the copyright only apply to the addenda and annotations the new publisher added?

[Semp]

Originally posted by Legomancer
Wow...this is all very helpful indeed, thanks!

So if you were to only recommend one text, for starters, which would it be?

I'm rather keen on "The Temple," about a German officer on a doomed WWI U-boat. It's like Das Boot on acid.

And while it isn't horror, I also like "The White Ship," which is loaded to the gills with symbolism. It's also really short, so it can be read in a very short time.

[Ukulele Ike]

Oh, I'm sorry, I read that as "Which collection?" not "Which story?"

I'd go for "The Colour Out of Space," which most critics think is his single best tale. It was also chosen by Edward J. O'Brien for reprint in Best Short Stories of 1928, the highest literary honor HPL enjoyed during his lifetime.

[Michael Ellis]

Originally posted by Ukulele Ike
I'd go for "The Colour Out of Space," which most critics think is his single best tale.

I don't know. Reading At The Mountains of Madness after reading The Dunwich Horror scarred me stiff. I really don't want to explain, better to let you figure it out.

Although, if you want a single story suggestion, I'd go with Shadow Out of Time.

[DrFidelius]

I don't have anything to add, except :

Go Fighting Cephalopods!

[ResIpsaLoquitor]

Slight hijack:

I find it hysterical that, as I post, this thread is immediately under "Books you read when you were young that absolutely shocked/disturbed you."

[Mephisto]

I don't know what you think about reading short stories on your computer, but there's a pretty good collection of Lovecraft stuff here. (http://www.gizmology.net/lovecraft/)

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Try Dunsany.

He was Lovecraft's inspiration, & had a powerful influence on his writing style.

[Badtz Maru]

http://www.gizmology.net/lovecraft/works/index.htm

This site has several of Lovecrafts stories online.

[Cliffy]

Originally posted by dropzone
I found a bunch of his stuff in TXT form online and everything I've looked at so far had a copyright before 1927. Are these stories really out of copyright or did the later publishers keep the copyright alive? Can it live that long or would the copyright only apply to the addenda and annotations the new publisher added?

Everthing from the early 20's and earlier is pretty much in the public domain by now. Although if you fair to renew your copyright you can lose protection, nothing you can do can extend your protection past the regular time. (Well, except lobby Congress to extend the statutory copyright period, which actually has been pretty effective.) Anything later than the early 20's may depend on how long the author lived and so is harder to calculate.

--Cliffy

[Captain Amazing]

It's not horror, but I've always liked "The Tree". I also like "The Doom that Came to Sarnath".

[dropzone]

Originally posted by Cliffy
Everthing from the early 20's and earlier is pretty much in the public domain by now.
Thanks. I noted that in the ZIP file one (so far) has a release from DelRey.

If you want a cheap "ebook" you can do what I did: bought a tablet computer on eBay. Mine is a Toshiba Dynapad. Good battery life, good screen.

[tanstaafl]

Another good on-line source is http://www.ech-pi-el.com/lovecraft/works/index.htm