# H.P. Lovecraft and the Necronomicon **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 5, 2000, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621 "2000-05-05T00:19:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/21 "2000-05-05T19:13:20Z")
If I understand correctly Lovecraft didn’t write anything call the Necronomicon, but fans of his wrote one based on his writings. Another 80 years and they’d all be speaking Klingon. -Trion (who has no right calling anyone else a geek) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2000, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/22 "2000-05-06T00:10:10Z")
Re Dragon60–I reiterate: read Dunsany. Lovecraft once wrote that he could not have created the Mythos without it. The rarest version of _The Necronomicon_ is the Classics Comics edition. #666 in the series, if I recall rightly. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/23 "2000-05-07T15:15:20Z")
Are there any other types of Necronomicons commercially available, other than those written by Simon? It seems that all of the ones I have seen on the Net and in stores are the edition by him. Anyone have suggestions on making my own copy of the Necronomicon? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/24 "2000-05-07T15:27:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > [Miskatonic University](http://www.miskatonic.net/) is now accepting applications. > \*\* Fantastic! Now I can finish my MBA program on-line (Master of the Black Arts). ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/25 "2000-05-07T21:01:36Z")
Hmmm…this site seems to claim that the _Necronomicon_ is a real book: [Necronomicon Anti-FAQ](http://www.digital-brilliance.com/necron/necron.htm#Where) It even drags Aleister Crowley, the Kabbalah, and Norse Mythology into the mix. It seems factual, but that’s probably because many of the facts cannot be verified. -David ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/26 "2000-05-07T21:05:03Z")
Damn quotation marks. [Necronomicon Anti-FAQ](http://www.digital-brilliance.com/necron/necron.htm#Where) ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/27 "2000-05-08T00:31:45Z")
If you’re interested in Lovecraft’s writings, I strongly suggest _The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft_ and _More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft_, with annotations by S.T. Joshi. The first mention of Miskatonic University is in the story “Herbert West–Reanimator”, although Miskatonic Valley was sited in an earlier tale. Joshi notes the name Miskatonic “is probably an adaptation of several Indian place-names in New England, most notably Housatonic, a river in western Massachusetts and Connecticut. Of the name, Lovecraft remarks that it ‘is simply a jumble of Algonquin roots’[_Selected Letters III,432_]” The first mention of the Necronomicon is in the story “The Hound”, elaborated on in later tales, notable “The Dunwich Horror.” Abdul Alhazred, the supposed mad Arab who wrote the Necronomicon, is first mentioned in “The Nameless City” (1921). Lovecraft claimed he invented the name Abdul Alhazred after reading Lang’s _Arabian Nights_ as a child. ---
**Author:** ![JDeMobray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@JDeMobray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JDeMobray)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/28 "2000-05-08T05:14:52Z")
The only actual book ever mentioned in a Lovecraft story was Margaret Mead’s “The Witch Cult In Western Europe”. Mind you, that book has about as much factual information to impart as Red Dragon’s copy of the Necronomicon. ---
**Author:** ![PublicBlast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/779978/32.png) [@PublicBlast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PublicBlast)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/29 "2000-05-08T06:17:36Z")
H.P. Lovecraft spent a good deal of his writing career living in Providence, Rhode Island, down the street (literally) from Brown University. Although he places Miskatonic U. in the fictional town Arkham, Mass., I’d like to think that he was really referring to Brown. Of course, in real life the only scary things here at Brown are 1) the sky-high tuition, surely planned by He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named, and 2) the friggin’ liberals and pinko youth communists. 😛 Akash J. (Brown Class of '00) Ashamed Future Alumnus ---
**Author:** ![PublicBlast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/779978/32.png) [@PublicBlast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PublicBlast)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/30 "2000-05-08T06:26:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Of course, in real life the only scary things here at Brown are 1) the sky-high tuition, surely planned by > He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named, and 2) the friggin’ liberals and pinko youth communists. Well, we DO have something scary: an anatomy book actually bound in human skin! Not the _Necronomicon_ but it will have to do. Check out the info here: [Article from Brown Daily Herald](http://www.theherald.org/herald/issues/g022098/notjust.f.html) Akash J. ---
**Author:** ![Grendel69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7bcc69/32.png) [@Grendel69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grendel69)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/31 "2000-05-08T06:31:46Z")
Wow…here I am procrastinating and what do I find, but another Brown person. HP’s grave is down the street I think. Maybe we should grab a copy of the ol’ black book and try some of the stuff down there… ---
**Author:** ![Sake\_Samurai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sake\_Samurai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sake_Samurai)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/32 "2000-05-08T19:42:32Z")
A few posters towards the top of this page indicate that Lovecraft wrote the Necronomicon. He most certainly did not. He did something much more insidious and powerful: he created a word and left everything else up to our imagination. Others seized the opportunity and cheapened his vision, making concrete that which we know could not be written. Lord Dunsany was most certainly the inspiration behind most of Lovecraft - the rich atmosphere, intoxicating vocabulary and disturbing imagery are present in the Brit’s writings. He was a VERY interesting man: > [@](#): > > British peer, Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett was the 18th Baron Dunsany, whose family seat is in County Meath, northwest of Dublin. He fought in the Boer War and was wounded in WWI. An excellent chess player, Lord Dunsany was the Irish champion and held the great Capablanca to a draw in a simultaneous exhibition in London; his “Three Sailors’ Gambit” is considered one of the best chess stories written. > > Dunsany was one of the harbingers of modern fantasy, along with William Morris and George MacDonald. A successful playwright, he once had five concurrent plays running on Broadway (Five Plays). He wrote over seventy books, many with a quill pen, others dictated to his wife, beginning in 1905 with The Gods of Pegana, and including the very readable memoirs Patches of Sunlight and While the Sirens Slept. In the words of the ardent admirer H.P. Lovecraft: “To the truly imaginative he is a talisman and a key unlocking rich storehouses of dream.” Such magical tales as “Idle Days on the Yann” and “A Shop in Go-by Street” conjure idyllic realms of fantasy far away from the worries of the common world – though they may well have exotic troubles of their own. Let’s hope the Drummer of the Gods never rests! ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/33 "2000-05-08T20:27:38Z")
> [@](#): > > **A few posters towards the top of this page indicate that Lovecraft wrote the Necronomicon. He most certainly did not.** Um…like who? Reviewing the thread, noone has said Lovecraft _wrote_ the damned thing (heheh) just that he _created_ it. Every mention of who wrote it mentions either Abdul Alhazred (it’s purported author within the Mythos), or that different editions were written by different people - some fans meaning to add something to the Mythos, some charlatains. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Smasho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f9ae1b/32.png) [@El\_Smasho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Smasho)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/34 "2000-05-08T21:21:12Z")
Not to hijack the thread or anything, but while I have you all here… How exactly did ol’ Howard die? I know he passed in '37, before the Big One, but I can’t find out how. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/35 "2000-05-08T22:32:02Z")
H. P. Lovecraft died from cancer of the intestines on March 10, 1937. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/36 "2000-05-08T22:34:57Z")
El Smasho: H. P. went on his final Dream-quest from a combination of Bright’s disease and intestinal cancer. Or so _they_ want you to think… ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/37 "2000-05-08T23:12:03Z")
Actually, he was swallowed up by great Cthulu. Or he said “hastur” three times. Take your pick. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/38 "2000-05-08T23:47:07Z")
**SoulFrost** , I might have been whooshed, but the “Anti-FAQ” you mentioned is a great big joke. The author admits as much, thus it’s an “_Anti_-FAQ.” ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2000, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621/39 "2000-05-09T00:56:50Z")
This thread has coaxed me into tempting fate. Here I go: Hastur Hastur HastuaAAAUUGGHH!!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/h-p-lovecraft-and-the-necronomicon/18621.md?page=1)