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Originally Posted by Curt Chiarelli  So true! After reading his letters I perceived a very different man than what the other fans of HPL were seeing. They viewed HPL as this cold, pompous, neurotic and reclusive Pontifex Maximus - which is so far from the reality of the man that it becomes a huge obstacle and disservice to not only understanding him as a person, but also to our appreciation of his contributions to literature.
Afterwards I read E. Hoffman Price's blunt, but perceptive anecdotal memoir of his fictioneering days, The Book of the Dead wherin he confirmed my belief that HPL was a man of not only great charisma, but also something of an engaging, self-deprecating raconteur! Certainly he had a warm and devoted following amongst his contemporaries and that should speak volumes for the man's character (of course, nowadays in our current mileau, no one would see any value in him at all). He was very deeply human, even though I suspect he would have preferred being a brain in a bottle!
As for Hodgson's The House on the Borderlands, I recall the first time I heard mention of it in Lovecraft's esay Supernatural Fiction late in my senoir year of high school. Long out of print, I searched for the book everywhere without luck and then completely forgot about it as my attentions were now focused on college. Years later a friend revived my interest in it by lending me a paperback copy (the one with the excellent cover art by Ron Courtenay). I loved it! Equally unsuccessful were my subsequent search for it's sequel. What a talent and what a tragedy that Hodgson's life, so full of promise, should be cut short by World War I. |
Unfortunately, there were no few like that, though; another being Fitz-James O'Brien, killed in the Civil War. Anyone who could write "What Was It?" or "The Wondersmith" was a major talent... and one can only imagine what he might have been had he lived.......
On the likelihood of HPL being considered of little value today... I'm not so sure about that one, Curt. The mere fact that such a series as this has become viable is an indication otherwise... and the books do get mentioned in different places, so people are buying, reading, and commenting on them. I think that the image of HPL is gradually shifting to a more rounded view -- which is all for the better, I think, as he has an enormous amount to offer above and beyond his fiction, yet so much of that ties back into his fiction that it adds layer after layer to appreciate there, as well. Even the Science volume, though the bulk of it is made up of his astronomical articles for the newspapers (and therfore rather dry and ephemeral through much of it) nonetheless does have points of interest even in those articles, for someone interested... and some of the other articles are themselves fascinating and thought-provoking, such as the "Some Backgrounds on Fairy-Land" ... or rather hilarious, such as his vicious satires of the astrologer J. F. Hartmann. And the volume includes Hartmann's articles, too, for context.
But the other volumes give much more of the flavor of Lovecraft, with his penchant for witticisms, word-play, and truly atrocious puns (which he seemed to love -- the worse the pun, the better). Yes, he had a twinkle in his eye more often than not, I'd say.
For that matter, that volume
Lovecraft Remembered is a wonderful addition for anyone interested in who or what the man was. That brings together the best of the memoirs by friends, fellow amateurs, neighbors, critics, and fans, and is a sizeable tome full of delightful tales (such as HPL's foray into an amusement park with the amateur society he was with... and his enjoyment of some of the sheer silliness -- not to mention roller-coasters!) (He loved speed in vehicles, and also very hot spicy foods....) For a look at the contents of that one:
Lovecraft Remembered - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And these new volumes of his letters are to be commended, too; not only for bringing in hundreds of letters not published before (or only published in severely truncated form) but for publishing them largely uncut... thus showing him as he was, the good and the bad; and I'd say he still comes out looking, in most areas, very good indeed.
Also, I can't recommend highly enough the
Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature. Not only does it provide a critical text -- it has the original version and inserts, with proper indicators, the additions or revisions of the later version of the essay -- but Joshi has done a wonderful job in providing extensive bibliographic information to aid those interested in locating all of the items mentioned, including, in most cases, most recent publications (as of the date of the book's publication), as well as frequently providing citations of critical articles on each of these, for those interested, and a very informative introduction to boot. This one is a joy not only for the Lovecraft fan, but for anyone who enjoys great weird literature, and provides more aid for finding things than anything else I've ever come across.