I ran across a copy of HPL’s pamphlet, History of the Necronomicon in the Brandeis University Library – filed as non-fiction! Not sure if the librarian was deliberately joking, or just taken in by the format, but this is exactly the sort of thing that keeps belief in its reality alive 
Just wanted to say, that was a wicked cool report, Dex. Kudos.
Makes me want to go back and re-read all my Lovecraft. It’s been years, I tell you, years…
My university had an psuedo-organization called “Campus Crusade for Cthulhu.”
Outside of T-shirts and posters, it didn’t actually exist. It mostly served to scandalize the real “crusaders.” (You know, the God-fearing fundamentalists.) 
It served that purpose quite well.
Uh, has anyone else noticed that it’s spelled “Necronomicon” everywhere else but in the title of the Staff Report, where it’s spelled “Necromicon”? So Dex, was that you, Ed Zotti, or some nameless pion copyboy? 
Irishman beat me to it. Shite.
Peon? Prion?
My spelling is always perfect. Well, mostly. Well, more than half the time. But Ed, man, Cecil gotta crack the whip on Ed again, he’s getting sloppy.
On the other hand, when it comes to SPELLing, if I place the black candles just SO, and throw incense in the air like THAT, and mumble the magic charm while turning on my heel three times… I bet that I can change reality, so that the title will have the correct spelling henceforth. Nothin’ like a little warping of the fabric of space and time to keep editors on their toes.
[Edited by C K Dexter Haven on 07-03-2001 at 03:22 PM]
Dex knows just as well as I do that these staff reports are all fine and good, but the Old Ones have little patience for such flimflammery, and he wrote that report solely to mislead those who would follow the Old Ones without being properly prepared.
Fhtagn, I say. Fhtagn.
Nonsense. Wagh’nagl. It’s been proven.
Dex: Great report you did there. There are a couple of things I want to point out, though.
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The Call of Cthulhu, whil certainly HPL’s best known work, doesn’t really mention much of what would be later considered “The Mythos”. It only mentions Cthulhu (duh). On the other hand, it’s definitely the single most imitated piece of work that Lovecraft produced. As Dex implies, most of his imitators, well-meaning or not, failed quite badly.
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A minor point: *The Case of Charles Dexter Ward[/], while definitely completed by 1927, was never published by Lovecraft - it was only discovered and published after his death in 1937.
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You mentioned one website in your bibliography. An even better one is Donovan Loucks’ site at http://www.hplovecraft.com .
Oh, and there used to be (and probably still is) a USENET newsgroup called alt.necromicon (note spelling). It was the result of either a typographical error or a deliberate obfuscation, but at least your misspelling has precedent.
I’m sorry. It has to be done. It was time for a sig change anyway . . .
Gaudere’s Law strikes again? Or are you suggesting the Straight Dope now has subatomic particles on the staff?
IIRC, in de Camp’s autobiography of HPL, he says that HPL also edited other writer’s stories and, with their permission, inserted the references himself. Is de Camp correct?
Hey Dex: Truly awesome article, but I’ve got a question. You said DeCamp wrote (or helped write) a Necronomicon? Do you have any bibliographic info on that particular version? I’m a big DeCamp fan and’d love to get my hands on a copy.
Fenris
Absolutely. Lovecraft obtained income, at least early on, as a proofreader/editor for other writers, while some writers simply asked for his input on their stories. In both cases he was given to adding touches of the Cthulhu mythos. Some of the best mythos stories ever (IMHO)were written in this way. Zelia Bishop’s “The Mound” is one example and is probably better than any of Lovecrafts individual works.
If you’ve never read any of these collaborations (and I recommend that you do so if you enjoy Lovecraft’s work) try to get ahold of “The Horror in the Museum”, which used to be a bound collection of some of these works.
And try to get ahold of the first edition from 1970, with the blindingly cool wraparound dustjacket art by Gahan Wilson.
Yet another Lovecraft Nerd stepping in to pat CDex on the back for the fine, succinct essay. Still can’t believe you’re doing this for free.
From the wells of night to the gulfs of space, and from the gulfs of space to the wells of night, ever the praises of Great Cthulhu, of Tsathoggua, and of Him Who is not to be Named. Ever their praises, and abundance to the Black Goat of the Woods. Ia! Shub-Niggurath! The Goat with a Thousand Young!
You’re wrong! It’s all true! All true, I tell you. Bwahahahahahahaha. <hysteric laughter fades>
Fenris:
You may, or may not have already heard of the DeCamp Necronomicon - it is, in retrospect, the most obvious hoax you could ever come up with. It consists of a bound hardcover volume containing untranslated arabic script. In point of fact, it consists of the same eight pages of arabic script, reproduced multiple times. Frighteningly, this edition was reported to be archived in a number of better libraries at one point. DeCamp invented a fiction history for its “discovery” and lack of translation, but he later said publicly that it was never intended to be even a very thorough hoax. I can’t recall offhand whether it was published before or after his biography of Lovecraft.
Thanks a lot, Dex. Now I have to go read all my Lovecraft again.
Regardless, that was some great research work and a great article. Good job.
Just noticed this:
Autobiography 
HPL Preincarnated
The worm that walks :eek:
That is not dead which can eternal lie…
When discussing dangerous books, let’s not forget the great and mysterious Necrotelicomnicon, AKA the Liber Paginarum Fulvarum. Kept between iron plates at Unseen University, these convenient guides to the underworld let your fingers do the walking. Even when your hands are several yards away.
You’ll find this dread volume, along with many other books that must be chained up at night, in the works of Terry Pratchett.
Lorelei
who prefers to chain people up at night
and leave the books running loose
Heh, my bad.
Well, either that, or my mad gibbering hints at the utmost nuclear chaos that the Necronomicon itself only dares to mention in a single deranged and oblique couplet.
It’s one of the two, for sure.