“Sour Persimmons Are Not The Only Fruit”, by Daphne Duck
“A Movable Fast: Karen Carpenter in Paris”
“In Search Of Lost Time: Quality Control At The Strobe Light Factory”
“Canadian Raising: My New Brunswick Vacation”, by Ed Gein
There was a “game” among H. P. Lovecraft and his fellow writers in the KaLeM club and elsewhere to make up new books for their shared “Universe”.
The Necronomicon (Al Azif) is obviously the most famous of these, invented by Lovecraft. Others include:
The Book of Eibon, created by Clark Ashton Smith
The Book of Iod, crerated by Henry Kuttner
The Celaeno Fragments, made up by August Derleth
Cultes des Ghouls of Robert Bloch
De Vermis Mysteriis, also from Bloch
The Dhol Chants from Lovecrafdt and Hazel Heald
Pnakotic Manuscripts, created by Lovecraft
Unaussprechlichen Kulten, created by Robert E. Howard as Unspeakable Cults, but titl;e translated (not quite correctly) into German by Lovecraft.
Lovecraft also adopted into his universe Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, mentioned in the story collection of that name back in 1895.
Lovecraft paid homage to his fellow writers by citing these works in his stories (and sometimes the authors’ names as well, as when he referred to the ancient Atlantean priest “Klakash-Ton” (Clark Ashton Smith), and they often returned the favor, as Howard, Derleth, and Kuttner certainly did. After Lovercraft’s death, other writers like Lin Carter and Brian Lumley added their own contributions to the list:
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The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture * by Sherlock Holmes
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On polishing off the canonical hours * (40 vols.) by Master Greedyguts
On Pirates is proof positive the allegedly fictional poet William Ashbless is still alive and writing!
It is, of course, unavailable.
I have a copy!
When Jurgen argues before Grandfather Satan, he refers to Livonius, Rudigernus, and Zantipher Magnus. He does not mention the exact titles of the works, but his references are unanswerable.
The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern
THE BOOK:
French War Heros
The novel The Club Dumas (by Arturo Perez-Reverte) centers on a fictional book called De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis ("Of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows"), purportedly written by one Aristide Torchia.
In the movie version, The Ninth Gate, the book is called The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows (again, by Torchia).
I’m a li’l confused about your OP, Derleth. Are you asking about:
(1) completely made-up fictional books, like “Amana’s Handbook on How to Sell Refrigerators to Inuits”?
or
(2) “real” fictional books, like the Necronomicon or Chicago Mobs of the Twenties (Nice one, Ancient Humanoid!) – i.e., books that don’t actually exist, that appear in other sources?
The First Encyclopedia of Tlön is my favorite. And History of the Land Called Uqbar.
Also, the innumerable books of sheer gibberish in the Library of Babel. axaxaxas mlö
Austen Park by Janye Mansfield.
Shakespeare’s Richard the IVth, the Snakes of Iceland, and The Life of Pope Boniface X.
And all the books I’ve written. Dammit.
Xpjkrtqylly (anonymous)
I’m a simple, humor-impaired guy.
The Last-Richard Stark
Canned Nuts-Donald E. Westlake
The fictional book “The Bone Collector” in “The Bone Collector.” :rolleyes:
Neither, really, but 1 is closest. It was mostly just a joke, but a joke with a more literary bent, so I thought it belonged here.
In which case, the Book of Sand is your absolute must-read. And Pierre Ménard’s Don Quixote would be worthwhile.
Hercule Poirot’s *magnum opus *discussing detective writers (referred to in Third Girl by Agatha Christie).
The twelve volume philosophical encyclopedia Life, by Unspiek, Baron Bodissey, provides epigraphs (of often dubious relevance) to many chapters in Jack Vance’s novels.
Rhodomontade and piffle!
(Another Jack Vance fan.)
In the same vein, the whole of Howard Alan Treesong’s “The Book of Dreams.” (Yeah, I know: there are probably thousands of them, in junior-high-school kids dresser drawers.)
(My Kindle e-reader is named “The Book of Dreams.”)
(Oops; have I just opened myself up to hacking?)