[Ningauble]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I was discussing my ignorance of HPL's work with one of my friends yesterday, and she handed me a book from her bookcase entitled New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, edited by Ramsey Campbell. Looking at the contents, it has nine stories in it, only one of which is by HPL himself (although I know already that many other authors have written in, or been influenced by his mythology).

Actually, "The Black Tome of Alsophocus" is not by Lovecraft. It was written by Martin Warnes, based on a fragment by Lovecraft.

This publisher (Grafton) has a Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, too, which I gather from the title is an earlier work.

Yes, Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos was put together in 1969 by August Derleth. I think it was the first Cthulhu anthology. Please note that there are two versions of this book; a new one with slightly different contents was assembled for the 50th anniversary of Arkham House (although IIRC it actually appeared one year late). The Grafton edition has the original contents.

My question is this: as someone with no prior experience reading HPL, and who knows nothing of his mythology, is this an okay place to start? Or should I put off reading this until I have read more of the man's own work?

I'd say yes, read some more by the man himself. But if you then want to read Cthulhu Mythos stuff by other writers, then I think Tales and New Tales might be good places to start (I actually haven't read the latter myself, but I've read all the included stories except two).

And if you had to recommend a place for me to begin, what would it be?

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, published by Penguin. Whatever you do, shun the Omnibus volumes (white spines, ugly covers) like the plague -- they're riddled with typos.