|
This time we are proud to present a
lineup of really first-class, fascinating studies of Lovecraft's work and
related matters. Ralph E. Vaughan's "Believers in Lovecraft" focuses
on a puzzling phenomenon many readers may have either encountered or actually
participated in: the readiness of some Lovecraft fans to take his fiction as
more than fiction. Lovecraft's eccentric friend William Lumley believed this in
HPL's own lifetime and warned Lovecraft that he was but the oracle of forces
from Outside. Lovecraft didn't believe him, and today many fans think Lovecraft
was wrong not to.
David E. Schultz knows it is all
fiction, though, and his "Lovecraft's New York Exile" is a detailed
and revealing examination of the influence on Lovecraft's work of his unhappy
stay in the Big Apple.
Englishman Joel Lane examines HPL's use
of tomb-and-ghoul-imagery, "digging up" several interesting insights
along the way.
One of Lovecraft's favorite works of
fantasy was Vathek by William Beckford. Its influences on him have been
ably explored elsewhere by Peter Cannon, and now Darrell Schweitzer explores
what influences were at work on Beckford himself in "Some
Ancestors of Vathek".
Next you'll come to a trio of articles
which report on various media adaptations of Lovecraft and company. First,
William Fulwiler and Graeme Flanagan follow up Fulwiler's "Weird Tales
Filmography" (Crypt #22) with "Weird Tales on
Television". Second, believe it or not, there is "Yet More Lovecraft
in the Cinema" by Chester Malon. Third, for all those "semi-literate,
comic-book-reading morons" castigated by S. T. Joshi in a Crypt
letter column some years back, we've included Will Murray's "Lovecraftin
the Comics", an updated version of an article that first appeared in the Comic
Buyer's Guide. We're sorry to do this to you fanatical collectors out there,
we really are. Now you're going to have to get your video recorders and Comic
Book Price Guides out and go hunting!
And, last but not least, how about some
new unpublished material by H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith? Three poems
by Lovecraft (one implying that he had once been associated with a church!) and
several story synopses by Smith ought to keep you busy for a while!
Robert M. Price, Editor
|