Table Of ContentLIBRARY OF ESSENTIAL WRITERS
H. P.
LOVECRAFT
9
THE FICTION
O
COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED
. .
The Outsider The Callof Cthulhu The CaseofCharles
. .
DexterWard The Colour out ofSpace The Dunwich
.
Horror At the Mountains ofMadness
andmore
BARNES & NOBLE
NEW YORK
Compilation©2008byBarnes86Noble,Inc.
IntroductionbyS.T.Joshi©2008byBarnes& Noble,Inc.
All rightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval
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Barnes8:Noble,Inc.
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ISBN-13:978-1-4351-0793—9
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CONTENTS
Introduction IX
The BeastintheCave
TheAlchemist
TheTomb 14
Dagon 23
A ReminiscenceofDr.SamuelJohnson 28
Polaris 33
BeyondtheWallofSleep 37
Memory 46
OldBugs 47
TheTransition ofjuanRomero 54
TheWhite Ship 60
The Street 65
The DoomThat CametoSarnath 70
The StatementofRandolphCarter 76
TheTerrible OldMan 81
TheTree 84
The CatsofUlthar 88
TheTemple 91
FacrsConcerningthe LateArthurJermynandHisFamily 102
Cclepha’is 110
FromBeyond 115
Nyarlathorep 121
The Pictureinthe House 124
ExOblivione 131
Sweet Ermengarde 133
The NamelessCity 141
The QuestofIranon 151
The Mooanog 157
The Outsider 164
The OtherGods 170
OVIO H.P. LOVECRAFT
TheMusic ofErichZann 174
HerbertWest—Reanimator 181
Hypnos 206
What theMoonBrings 212
Azathorh 214
The Hound 216
The LurkingFear 223
The RatsintheWalls 240
The Unnamable 256
The Festival 262
Underthe Pyramids 270
The ShunnedHouse 292
The HorroratRedHook 314
He 332
IntheVault 341
CoolAir 348
The CallofCthulhu 355
Pickman’sModel 380
TheSilverKey 391.
The Strange HighHouseintheMist 401
The DreavauestofUnknownKadath 409
TheCaseofCharles DexterWard 490
The ColouroutofSpace 594
The Descendant 61.7
HistoryoftheNecronomz'con 621
TheVery OldFolk 623
Ibid 629
The DunwichHorror 633
TheWhisperer inDarkness 668
At theMountains ofMadness 723
The Shadowover Innsmouth 807
The DreamsintheWitch House 859
ThroughtheGatesofthe SilverKey 889
TheThingonthe Doorstep 919
The EvilClergyman 941
The Book 945
The ShadowoutofTime 948
The Haunterofthe Dark 999
. .
CONTENTS v11
Appendixzjuveniliu
The LittleGlass Bottle 1018
The SecretCave 1020
TheMystery ofthe Grave—yard 1022
The Mysterious Ship [shortversion] 1027
The MysteriousShip [longversion] 1030
Discardeddraftof"TheShadow over Innsmouth” 1034
SupernaturalHorrorinLiterature 1041
About theAuthor 1099
INTRODUCTION
.P.LOVECRAFTWOULD HAVE BEENAS SURPRISED AS ANYONE IF HECOULD
havewitnessed the tremendousposthumoustriumphheandhiswork have
achieved. His tales—~fewer than seventy in number, and only three of short-
novellength—havebeenpublishedincountlesseditions rangingfromprestigious
academic volumes to mass-market paperbacks; they have been translated into at
least twenty-five languages around the world, from Bengali to Serbo-Croatian;
in the pastthirtyyears hisstories havebeenscrutinizedas meticuouslyas if they
were biblicaltexts,and somecritics have rankedhimamongtheworld’s greatest
writers. Most interestingof all,Lovecrafthimselfhasbecomeacultural icon,his
gaunt, lantern-jawedcountenance immediately recognizable as the fitting visage
of one whose imagination populated the world with a legionof cosmic horrors
thatbleaklyunderscoredtheinsignificanceofhumanityandallitsworksinablind,
godless universe.Some features of the myththatis H.P.Lovecraftare seriously
inerror,butthemainoutlinesof hislifeandwork havenowbeenestablishedwith
faircertainty.
HowardPhillipsLovecraftwasbornonAugust20, 1890,inProvidence,Rhode
Island.Hismaternallinewas aproudanddistinguishedone,reachingbackto the
seventeenthcentury;hispaternallineextendedtotheMiddleAgesinEngland,and
some membersof the Lovecraftfamily hademigrated to the UnitedStatesinthe
early nineteenth century. Lovecraft’s family experienced early turmoil when, in
1893,hisfather,WinfieldScottLovecraft,Sufferedaparalyticattackandhadtobe
confined to Butler Hospitalin Providence;hedied there five years later,of “pa—
resis” (tertiary syphilis). Traumatized, Lovecraft’s mother, Sarah Susan Phillips
Lovecraft,returnedto the family homeand,inher treatment of heronly son,al—
ternatedbetweenoverprotectiveness andacuriousemotional distance.Lovecraft,
forhispart,foundinhisgrandfather,thewealthyindustrialistWhipplePhillips,an
admirablereplacementforhisfather.Heengagedinliteraryandscientificpursuits
(witha particular enthusiasm for chemistry and astronomy) from an early age,
makingupforvery spottyformalschoolingattheSlaterAvenue SchoolandHope
StreetHighSchool.Hebeganwritingasearlyastheageofseven,producingboth
short horrortales (laterinspiredbyEdgarAllan Poe,whose discovery at the age
of eight thrilled him) and scientific treatises. Butill health—chiefly,it seems,of
.
+ x H.P. LOVECRAFT
a psychologicalvariety—dogged him,and hewas forced towithdraw from high
schoolin 1908without adiploma.
For the next five years, Lovecraft retreatedinto hermitry,seeing few of his
friends anddoinglittlesave readingbooks.Heemergedfromthiscocooninape—
culiar manner.Havingtakento readingsome of thepopularfiction magazinesof
theday,hewassodisgustedbythesentimentalromancesofawriter,FredJackson,
inArgosy that hewrote a long letter criticizingJackson’s productions.Jackson’s
many supporters came to his defense, and Lovecraft responded with more let—
ters——thistimeinverse,adoptingtheeighteenth—centurysatirestyleofAlexander
Pope.ThiscontroversywasobservedbyEdwardF.Daas,anofficialofthe United
Amateur PressAssociation (UAPA),and he invited Lovecraft to join. Lovecraft
didsowithalacrity.
.
The UAPA (andanolder organization,the NationalAmateur PressAssocia—
tion,which Lovecraft also later joined) was a relatively small group of amateur
writers from around the country (anda few from overseas) who publishedsmall
journals and circulated them to other members. Lovecraft found this intimate,
non-threateningsociety exactly thecure for hissocial timidity,andhebombarded
the journals of the UAPAwith his contributions—chiefly poetryand essays. He
publishedthirteenissuesof hisownamateurjournal,the Conservative—reflecting
bothhispoliticalandliteraryconservatism,asbefittedonewho felthebelongedin
the eighteenth century. Gradually,however,Lovecraftallowedsome of his early
talestobepublished;receivingencouragementfromafewfriends,notablyW Paul
Cook,hebeganwriting more.Hisdiscovery of the Irishfantasist LordDunsany
in 1919lentatremendousimpetustohiswork,andLovecraftproducedadozenor
moreimitationsofthelapidaryfantasyof hisnewidol.
Up to this point,Lovecrafthadnothoughtof professionalpublicationof his
work; but,after two of histales appeared in a crude semi-professional magazine
entitledHomeBrew,hewasintriguedbythefoundingin 1923ofthepulpmagazine
LVez'rd Tales. Several colleagues—including Clark Ashton Smith, the poet who
wouldattaincelebrityinthe 19303forfantasytalesofhisown—~—urgedhimtocon-
tribute,and Lovecraftat lastdidso. Histaleswere readilyaccepted,and he soon
becameafixtureinthemagazine.Indeed,in 1924hewasapparentlyaskedtobeits
editor;butthe job would have requiredrelocationto Chicago,a move Lovecraft
was,forseveralgoodreasons,notwillingtomake.
OneofthosereasonshadtodowiththefactthathehadrecentlymarriedSonia
H.Greene,aRussianJewishimmigrantwho hadjoined theamateurmovementin
1921.Afterasomewhatlanguidromance,theymarriedandsettledinSonia’sapart-
mentinBrooklyn.However,troublesofvarious sortsbesetthecouplealmostim—
mediately,chiefofthembeingasuddendeficiencyofincomeasaresultofSonia’s
.
INTRODUCTION » xx
losingherpositionasahighlypaidexecutiveataNewYork departmentstore.She
wasforcedtopursueacareerasamillinerintheMidwest,leavingLovecraftalone
inacitywhose immensity,modernity,and“foreigners”weresodifferentfromthe
placid,history-richcityof hisbirth.
At last,Lovecraftdecided for the sake of hissanity to returnto Providence,
andhedid so inthe springof 1926.Where Sonia fit into these planswas noten-
tirely clear;Lovecraft’stwo aunts—who hadnurturedhimafter the deathof his
motherin 1921—madeitclear thattheycouldnot“afford”tohavetheirnephew’s
wifebeatradeswomaninthetownwheretheyrepresentedaninformalaristocracy.
Lovecraftacquiescedinthisdecision,andSoniaknewthat themarriagewas over.
They divorcedin 1929.
Lovecraft’sreturntoProvidenceunleashed3Spareofwritingsuchashenever
eXperiencedbeforeorsince.Inninemonthsheproducedsuchworks as “TheCall
of of
of Cthulhu,” The Dream-Quest UnknownKaa’at/z, Tne Case C/zarlesDexter
Ward, and“TheColouroutof Space.” Lovecraftbythistime,perhapsasa result
ofworkingonahistoricaltreatise,“SupernaturalHorrorinLiterature,”hadcome
to have quite definite ideas of the nature and purpose of what he called “weird
fiction.” Heoutlinedtheseideas ina letterto FarnsworthWright,editorof Weird
Tales, in 1927:
Now all my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common
human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance
inthevast cosmos-at-large....To achievetheessenceof realexternality,
whether of timeorspaceordimension,onemustforgetthatsuchthingsas
organiclife,goodandevil,loveandhate,andallsuchlocalattributesofa
negligibleandtemporary racecalledmankind,haveany existence atall.
What this means is that Lovecraft, in a major departure from the previous
horror tradition—and,inmanyways,from the entire Western literarytradition,
which habitually if unconsciously stressed the centrality of humanbeings to the
cosmos—would emphasize the insignificance of humanity in a universe that ap-
pearsto beboundleSsbothinspace andintime.Hewould do this chiefly by the
depictionof immenseentities—called “gods”byhumanbeingswho cannotcom-
prehendsuchcreatures exceptbyappeals to a deity—from the farthestdepths of
space.ItcanbeseenfromthisthatLovecraftwascreatingafusionofsupernatural
horrorwiththenewgenreofsciencefiction;itisnoaccidentthat“TheColourout
of Space”appearedinthepioneeringsciencefictionpulp,Amagz'ng Stories.
As Lovecraftdeveloped hispseudomythology from tale to tale—incorporat-
ingsuchelementsasanentire fictional NewEnglandtopography,with suchcities
.x11+ H. P. LOVECRAFT
as Arkham, Kingsport,Dunwich,and Innsmouth;a growing library of “forbid-
den”books,suchastheNecronomiconofthemadArabAbdulAlhazred,whichpro-
videdglimpsesof thecosmicentitiesandtheirencounterswithhumanbeings;and
a cadre of sober,scientific protagonistswhose encounterswith the unimaginably
bizarre unhingedtheir minds—readers andfellow writers begannoticinga curi—
ous coherence inthe mythicbackground.Itwas, however,only after Lovecraft’s
death that his self-styled discipleAugust Derlethgave it a name—the “Cthulhu
Mythos.”Writers suchasDerleth,FrankBelknapLong,ClarkAshton Smith,and
RobertE.Howard,beganwriting tales develOpeduponthe Mythos or creatinga
parallelMythosoftheirown.Lovecraftoftenwelcomedthesetakeoffsofhiswork,
chieflybecausehefeltthatthecitationofhissynthetic monstersbydifferentwrit—
erswouldlendthemgreatercredibility.
As Lovecraft’swork progressed,hehimself beganeschewing traditional su-
pernaturalismmoreandmore.Hehad,infact,neverusedsuchconventionaltrOpes
asthevampire,theghost,orthewerewolf:averycuriouspsychicvampirefigures
in “TheShunned House,”and Tlze Caseof CharlesDexter Wardisaskillfulhom-
age to the old-time Gothicschool in itsuseof alchemy and the quest for eternal
life;butinhismostcharacteristicwork Lovecraftdevisedconceptionsandentities
entirely his own. By 1931,when he wrote the landmark Antarctic novelAt the
MountainsofMadness, hewas readytoarticulatehisnewaestheticcreed:
The time has come when the normal revolt against time, Space, 8c mat-
ter mustassume a form notovertly incompatible with what is knownof
reality—whenit mustbegratifiedbyimages formingsupplements rather
thancontradictionsof thevisible &mensurableuniverse.Andwhat,if not
aformOf non-supernaturalcosmicart, is topacifythissense of reVOlt—as
well asgratifythecognate senseof curiosity?
At tlteMountains ofMadness—in which it is madeplainthat the entities that
humanbeingslikeAlhazred took tobe “gods”are nothingmorethanaliens from
outerspace—embodiesthesenewconceptionsperfectly,andinmanywaysremains
hisgreatestwork offiction.Andyet,Lovecraftcouldstillwrite sopowerfulatale
as “The Shadow over Innsmouth,”which is largely lackingin the overt “cosmi-
cism”oftheAntarcticnovel,insteadpaintinganunforgettablepictureOfthedecay
of anagingNewEnglandbackwaterinvadedbyhybridentitiesfromthesea.
The lastseveralyearsof Lovecraft’3careerwere,however,notentirelyhappy.
In 1931hewas stunnedby FarnsworthWright’srejectionofAt t/zeMountains of
Madness, which helateradmitted “didmorethan anything else to endmyeffec-
tive fictional career.” Severalof the talesheproducedduringthis period,suchas
