Blog Archives
sLovecraft: The Great Tales/ John D. Haefele (Cimmerian Press, 2021): John D. Haefele’s The Derleth Mythos was a book that made me do if not a 180, a 135 degree turn on my view of August Derleth. The Great Tales has 746 pages of text. John Haefele goes through Lovecraft’s evolution as a writer. Each […]
The Cimmerian was a one of the best Robert E. Howard small press magazines ever produced. Editor/publisher Leo Grin had the idea of a magazine that contained well edited, entertaining non-fiction articles, a few poems, and a letter section. Art, all too often bad art would overwhelm many a small press magazine. The Cimmerian had […]
Sensor Sweep: CAS, REH, and HPL; Roger Zelazny; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Medieval Tales
Monday , 8, October 2018 Sensor Sweep 3 CommentsFiction (DMR Books): Today would be the one hundred and fourth birthday of Donald A. Wollheim. When it comes to a debate regarding which editor had the greatest overall impact on the field of science fiction, Wollheim often gets shortchanged–in my opinion–in favor of Hugo Gernsback and/or John W. Campbell. However, that neglect pales in comparison to the […]
“The ancient empires fall. The dark skinned peoples fade, and even the demons of antiquity gasp their last…but above all stands the Aryan barbarian. White-skinned, cold-eyed, dominant. The supreme fighting man of the Earth.” Robert E. Howard, “Wings in the Night” This quote is used at a Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upSOO8rjHrw#t=15) entitled “He-Man=Nazi.” The “Robert E. […]
Sensor Sweep: Conan pastiches, Crashing Suns, and lots of Star Wars
Monday , 25, December 2017 Sensor Sweep 5 CommentsWriters (Williamette Week): You may have heard that Portland’s famous goth bar, The Lovecraft, is under new ownership after the previous owner, Jon Horrid was accused of assault. Now that the bar has changed hands, questions arose whether the new owner planned on continuing to call the bar after an author known for racism and anti-semitism, […]
Of any member of the Lovecraft Circle, Robert Bloch was arguably the most successful. As the author of Psycho and a couple of Star Trek (original series), just about anyone would have some vague knowledge of his work. Bloch sold his first story (“The Secret in the Tomb”) in July 1934 right after graduating from […]
August Derleth was a member of the Lovecraft circle from the late 1920s until Lovecraft’s death. He was also one of the first to make use of the Cthulhu Mythos (with Lovecraft’s blessing). He remains controversial among Lovecraftians for his handling of Lovecraft’s legacy and especially for his Mythos fiction. A review of Derleth’s Mythos […]
One of the surprising books of the late 1980s was a Robert E. Howard collection, Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors. This was a Baen paperback published in May 1987. David Drake edited the book. It sold for $2.95, was 247 pages, and had three printings. The cover by Steve Hickman is spectacular. This book […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Haunter of the Dark
Sunday , 30, October 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 5 Comments“The Haunter of the Dark” was H. P. Lovecraft’s last story. He wrote it in November 1935 right after finding out about the sale of At the Mountains of Madness and “The Shadow Out of Time” to Astounding Stories. It is a relatively short piece of fiction at 9,320 words in comparison to most of […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Shadow Out of Time
Sunday , 23, October 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 11 CommentsH. P. Lovecraft wrote “The Shadow Out of Time” in November-December 1934. It is a novella at 25,323 words. This is the other pillar of his cosmic history. There is a sense of déjà vu reading it as he reused some ideas. The main plot concerns Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, an instructor of Political Economy […]