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In Lovecraft's Shadow
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| 1552460037 |
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| Self Published |
| Derleth, August |
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| $90.00 |
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| All prices in Canadian dollars unless indicated otherwise. |
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| This special illustrated and annotated edition of August Derleth’s complete Mythos stories (aside from the Lovecraft collaborations) makes available for the first time all of the author’s solo writings on the subject. It includes as well the three 1931 Mythos tales (“Lair of the Star Spawn”, “Spawn of the Maelstrom”, and “The Horror from the Depths”) which Derleth wrote jointly with his Sauk City boyhood friend Mark Schorer. Along with “The House in the Oaks”, left unfinished by Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Cimmerian and King Kull), completed and published by Derleth in 1971, the year of his own death.
The bulk of In Lovecraft’s Shadow, however, consisting entirely of Derleth’s own Mythos stories, gives clear evidence of his skill and ingenuity at devising fresh — even provocative variations on Lovecraft’s original idea. For instance, in “Those Who Seek” (the author’s very first Mythos tale) and “Something from Out There”, he sets the Mythos abroad, discovering Cthulhu horrors in English abbey ruins. By contrast, in both “Beyond the Threshold” and “The Thing That Walked on the Wind”, the locale remains American, with Ithaqua, the Great Old One, stalking the North Woods of Wisconsin and Canada in pursuit of his prey.
But, by far, most of Derleth’s Mythos stories take place on familiar Lovecraft soil, in or near the decaying New England seaport towns of Arkham and Innsmouth. As do “The Return of Hastur” and “The Sandwin Compact” — both examples of his early work — in which canny old New Englanders, not so futilely, try to renege on obligations to the Great Old Ones, and — from the author’s later period — the five-part Dr. Laban Shrewsbury series recounting the “blind but sighted” scholar’s efforts to find and destroy Cthulhu’s secret island lair, by means of an atomic bomb, if that proves necessary!
Also included here are the 1962 essay, “A Note on the Cthulhu Mythos” (Derleth’s succinct “last word” on the Mythos phenomenon) and some rare but relevant poetry: the never before reprinted “Incubus” (from a 1934 issue of Weird Tales); “Providence: Two Gentlemen Meet at Midnight” (a 1948 double homage to both Lovecraft and Poe); and “On Reading Old Letters. For H.P.L.,” a newly discovered heart-felt tribute to his dead mentor, found among Derleth’s papers and published here for the first time.
Cover art by Steve Fabian
For more than a quarter of a century, August Derleth (1909-1971) was a remarkable phenomenon in both the literary and publishing worlds. One of our most prolific authors (as novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, journalist), he was also a discriminating critic, editor, and anthologist. Even more important, however, in 1939 (along with Donald Wandrei) he founded Arkham House, certainly the most influential small-press specialty publisher in the macabre fiction field, which single-handedly “rescued from pulp oblivion” the now important writings of such major fantasists as H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith.
As a writer, however, Derleth is perhaps now best remembered for his Sac Prairie Saga regional fiction. But he is also noted for his macabre writings as well, much of it collected in Someone in the Dark, Something Near, Not Long for This World, and Dwellers in Darkness. And for the collaborations with H.P. Lovecraft (reprinted in The Watchers Out of Time and Others) and, of course, his own solo writings on the Mythos theme, the latter now made available once again – as a special tribute to the author – in this deluxe edition of In Lovecraft’s Shadow.
Joseph Wrzos, a recently retired educator, has also moonlighted as both editor and writer in the science-fiction and fantasy fields. As an editor, he was with Gnome Press, then moved on to the pulps, editing simultaneously both Amazing Stories and Fantastic. In 1965 he also edited the Doubleday science-fiction anthology The Best of Amazing. In addition, he has published critical articles in The Survey of Science Fiction series and Fantasy Commentator as well as verse in August Derleth’s Hawk & Whippoorwill. Currently he is working on New Horizons, a final Derleth science-fiction anthology left incomplete at the time of the author’s death, to be published by Arkham House in the near future.
Stephen E. Fabian, the award-winning New Jersey fantasy artist, is highly regarded both by fans and connoisseurs alike. In a career commencing in 1974, he has illustrated works by Jack Vance, William Hope Hodgson, Jack Williamson, Brian Lumley, and Basil Copper, among others. And now – with the many superb black and white interiors embellishing In Lovecraft’s Shadow – he bids fair to establish himself as the premier fantasy book illustrator in the field. |
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