Tag Archives: H. P. Lovecraft

“Beyond the Black River”: Is it Really “Beyond the Brazos River”? Part 1

What follows is a guest post by John Bullard. It is the first of three parts and contains spoilers for Robert E. Howard’s “Beyond the Black River”.

Weird Tales, May 1935, first installment of “Beyond the Black River”

Robert E. Howard’s Conan story, “Beyond the Black River” is considered to be one of his best stories by his fans. It tells of an attack by Howard’s favorite historical peoples, the Picts, against the encroaching colonization of the Aquilonians on the Picts’ deeply forested land between the Thunder River to the East, and the Black River to the west in his fictional Hyborian world setting. It is well-known that Robert E. Howard used historical events, people, places, and the stories of people he knew to help inspire his writing, giving his stories a grounding in realism that stories just made up from whole cloth may sometimes lack. In “Beyond the Black River”, Howard used his knowledge of Texas’s history and people, as well as his family’s history, to make the story as realistic as possible in a fantasy setting. Continue reading →

Blackwood’s “The Wendigo”

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British author Algernon Blackwood was born on this date, March 14, in 1869. Blackwood was a major influence on many writers of the weird tale in the early years of the 20th Century, including H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.

Along with “The Willows”, “The Wendigo” is one of Blackwood’s best known tales.

It concerns a group on a moose hunting expedition in the Canadian wilderness. A psychiatrist, his nephew, two guides, and a cook are having no luck on their hunt, so they decide to split up. The uncle and his guide go west, the nephew and his guide canoe across the lake they are camped by and hike some distance to another lake, and the cook stays in the base camp await their return. Continue reading →

Brief Reflections on August Derleth

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August Derleth

Today, February 24, marks the birth of August Derleth (1909-1971). He founded Arkham House publisher to keep the work of H. P. Lovecraft in print. For this we all owe him a great debt of gratitude. Derleth was something of a controversial figure in the field for the way he handled the literary estate of H. P. Lovecraft, especially his “posthumous collaborations” in which he completed some stories Lovecraft left unfinished at his death.

My purpose with this post is not to focus on Arkham House, but on an aspect of Derleth’s legacy that is sadly neglected today, and that’s his work as a writer of weird fiction.

It’s been over a decade since there was a collection of Derleth’s work published. I did a quick check online, and the starting price for a collection of his ghost stories was $200. Too rich for my blood.

I was going to review a couple of short pieces I have in anthologies, “Muggeridge’s Aunt” and “The Shuttered House”. Both were fairly standard ghost stories. While not rising to the level of a James or Wakefield, they were still well told and provided a pleasant way to while away a few spare minutes. The problem is the former isn’t readily available in either electronic or print format, and the latter is only in a facsimile of The Avon Fantasy Reader Number 1. For these birthday posts, I’m not going to review stories that aren’t readily available.

I would hope some ambitious publisher would take a chance and produce an inexpensive collection, or better yet a set, of Derleth’s weird fiction.

C. M. Eddy, Jr.’s Notorious Love

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard: “Pigeons From Hell”

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“Pigeons From Hell”
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
Originally published in Weird Tales, May 1938

And so we come to what is arguably the greatest horror story of Robert E. Howard. Although it wasn’t published until nearly two years after his death, “Pigeons From Hell” has remained one of Howard’s most popular nonseries stories.

It’s a Southern Gothic that contains some truly chilling scenes. I’ve read it at least twice before, but it’s been probably a decade since the last time. It had lost none of its power when I reread it earlier this evening. Continue reading →

Reflections on H. P. Lovecraft

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As I promised in the previous post, here’s one devoted to someone who has had an important role in my life and who has a birthday today. My mother-in-law. Happy birthday, June.

Wait, what? Oh, sorry about that. Got confused for a minute.

I want to talk about H. P. Lovecraft on his birthday (August 20). I’m gong to vent my spleen a bit.

A day or two ago a link came across my Twitter feed to an article ranting about Lovecraft’s racism. Yeah, that again.

Let me make something clear for everyone who didn’t quit reading at the last paragraph. I do not condone, subscribe to, or approve of Lovecraft’s views on race. Period. Full stop.

That does not mean I don’t enjoy his work. Do certain aspects of it bother me? Sure. But I’m a big boy. I can handle viewpoints that aren’t the same as mine. I can even handle viewpoints I find offensive.

What I get tired of are people who continually judge writers from other periods in history by today’s standards. For some reason those writers are always found wanting. If you don’t want to read an author because of their views on race/politics/religion/how they pronounce tomato, that’s fine. Just don’t tell me I can’t or shouldn’t read those authors. There’s a tendency to go beyond that and try to shame people who enjoy certain authors whose views aren’t politically correct. And people who do this have been awfully loud lately.

I’ll read what I damn well want to, and I don’t need anyone’s approval to do so. Certainly not the approval of some shrill scold, regardless of whether I agree with their point or not. If the fact I like Lovecraft, or Haggard, or Howard, or Burroughs, or any other writer offends you, then you can go pound sand.

Me, I’m going to read some Lovecraft in honor of his birthday. Hmm… “The Dunwich Horror” is looking pretty good. I think I’ll try that one.

A Quick Look at E. Hoffmann Price

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Pulp writer E. Hoffmann Price was born on this date, July 3, in 1898. He passed away in 1988 at the age of 89 a few weeks prior to his birthday. Price graduated from West Point, served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, as well as in the Philippines and Mexico. A student of the orient, he drew on these interests for much of his fiction.

Price wrote for a variety of pulps, especially adventure, detective, and western, but he is best remembered these days for his weird fiction. A correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft, they collaborated on “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”. I believe he is the only pulp writer to have met Robert E. Howard in person, on two different occasions, IIRC. He is also the only known person to have Howard, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. Price met many of the pulp writers, including Edmond Hamilton, Jack Williamson, and L. Sprague de Camp.

Price experienced a resurgence in his career in the late 70’s and early 80’s, publishing several fantasy and science fiction novels.

We just got back from vacation last night, so I’m playing catch-up today. If I get a chance, I’ll read one of his short stories this evening.

Henry S. Whitehead

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Today (March 5) marks the birth of Henry S. Whitehead. He was born in 1882 and passed away in November of 1932. Whitehead was a contributor of Weird Tales and a correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft. The year before Whitehead died, Lovecraft visited him at his Florida home and quite liked him. Had he not died so young, Whitehead would have been a major author of the weird and fantastic. I consider him to be so, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Whitehead served for a time as the Archdeacon for the Episcopal Church in the Virgin Islands. This posting would become a major influence on his fiction, as most of it dealt with voodoo and other fantastic aspects of Caribbean life.

Whitehead wrote no novels, but his short fiction is worth seeking out. I reviewed “Seven Turns in a Hangman’s Rope” a few years ago. Fortunately, his work is available in electronic format. If I get a chance, I’ll try to read something else by him.

You’re Offended?

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I’m gonna rant.

There was a post the other day that I’m not going to link to because I don’t want to give the site the clicks. Fortunately someone archived it.

TL;DR version:

The author, one Matt Mikalatos, laments that rereading a childhood favorite (The Once and Future King by T. H. White) didn’t live up to his expectations, specifically there were some things said that he found to be racially insensitive. I’ve never read the book, so I can’t say for sure. He’s specific enough that I’m willing to give him the benefit of doubt. Continue reading →

Pre-Tolkien Fantasy: H. P. Lovecraft in Observance of His Birthday

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H. P. Lovecraft

I’d intended to post my next review for the Pre-Tolkien Fantasy Challenge over the weekend, but I was a lazy bum. Since today is Lovecraft’s birthday (also my mother-in-law’s), I postponed that post to discuss Lovecraft and Tolkien in general terms.

First, their similarities. They are arguably the two most influential writers of the fantastic of the previous century. Their influence is considerable decades after their deaths. Much of what is written in fantasy today, especially in the epic fantasy, multiple volume “trilogy” format is a reaction/rebellion to Tolkien. Much Lovecraftian fiction is in reaction to Lovecraft’s work, whether stylistically or in response to some attitude Lovecraft held. Continue reading →

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