Contents this issue
Mantic Notes………………………………..……….…1
15
A Contribution by Leigh Blackmore for the Sword
& Sorcery & Weird Fiction Terminus (Oct 31, 2009/
35th mailing), & Esoteric Order of Dagon (Oct 31,
2009/ 148th mailing) amateur press associations.
Leigh Blackmore, 78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong,
NSW 2500. Australia.
Mantichore 4, No 3 (WN 15)
Email: lvxnox@gmail.com
Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Blackmore
Official Website: Blackmausoleum –
http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/
IN MEMORIAM
BEN INDICK
(1923-2009)
‘Sabbatic HPL’ by Leigh Blackmore
Books By My Bedside…………………………………5
A Few Notes on Ben Indick…………………………..6
Mantichorus: Mailing Notes………………………….7
Mantic Notes
(Pronunciation:'man-
tik. Etymology:
Greek mantikos, from
mantis : of, relating to
the faculty of
divination; prophetic).
I fear this
issue may be a bit
meagre, not for
want of material
LB at Conflux 6 backed up in my
files, but because I’m assembling it only a
week or two before deadline. The last
three months I have been focussing on my
thesis to the exclusion of nearly all else. As
I write, it’s just a few days since I handed
it in for examination. It consists of two
parts: the critical component
(“Individuation, ‘Mytho-realism’ and
Surrealistic Traces in Terry Dowling’s Tom
Rynosseros Cycle”) and the creative
component (a 35,000 word novella called
‘Ghosts in the House of Life”). It seems the
critical piece may find a home next year in
S.T. Joshi’s new journal from
Hippocampus Press, Weird Fiction Annual.
I will be seeking a home in print for the
novella as well but haven’t yet decided
where to send it; in any case, I intend
developing it into a full-length novel.
My reading has been restricted
due to the thesis – I have spent months
reading nothing but Jungian, Surrealist
and Pre-Raphaelite works – but I can now
return to the consumption of fiction, and
hopefully will have some reviews to offer
next issue. I haven’t even had time yet to
read Ken Faig’s The Unknown Lovecraft nor
Richard Tierney’s Drums of Chaos, both of
which I received some time ago although I
managed to squeeze in ST Joshi’s Classics
and Contemporaries, which I vastly enjoyed.
Presumably I will now graduate in
December, finally having a degree at age
50. I intend looking for work in publishing
or editing next year, after fulfilling a
couple of other writing commitments
between now and Christmas – a story for
an American anthology, and a critical
piece for another American book.
I can’t refrain from publishing
here the comments author M. John
Harrison made about my essay on his
work which appeared in Studies in the
Fantastic No 2. In an email to me after I
provided him a copy of the published
essay, he said: “broadly, I think it is
exceptional in its recognition of what I’m
doing and how. After so many years in a
wilderness, it’s such a relief when you
know that people out there are getting it. I
would say that “Undoing the
Mechanisms” is more incisive than many
of the texts it quotes –more incisive, too,
than some of the criticism in Parietal Games
[ed: a collection of criticism on MJH in
which I wish I had been included!]. I feel
that the books are well served by it, and in
terms of its sense of authority and clarity
of angle-of-attack, I’d place it with Chris
Moyle’s Lacanian “Sex as Exile:
Postmodern Metamorphosis and Erotic
Dystopia” and David Punter’s Gothic
“Light: Shadows of Modernity.”
Given that I admire Harrison
more than any other living fiction writer
save perhaps Ligotti, these appreciative
comments made me very very happy! I
also feel that my critical ambitions are on
the right mark and that perhaps I can
further develop in that direction….
I received copies of Lovecraft
Annual No 3, containing my essay on “The
Transition of Juan Romero” and many
other excellent essays on HPL. It’s a
handsome production – this issue also
contains my review of Joshi’s The Rise and
Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos – and I have
scraped together enough money to order
the two back issues, plus all the issues of
Dead Reckonings, which I have not yet seen
at all. I also received Ben Szumskyj’s essay
collection Robert Bloch: the Man Who
Collected Psychos (McFarland) in which I
have an essay. It’s a well put-together
volume and I look forward to reading all
of it shortly.My story in Gaslight Grotesque
should be out in November, and I’m
awaiting the anthology with bated breath
– my first Holmes story in print, my first
in an overseas anthology, and my first
Canadian appearance! Also, I think, my
highest-paying story in print as yet. I may
have mentioned last time that I appeared
on television in a special edition of the
Australian book program ‘Jennifer Byrne
Presents’, entitled ‘Monsters and
Bloodsuckers’. While I would have
preferred to talk modern horror and
Lovecraft, the show focussed on ‘classic’
horror novels – ‘Dracula and so on – but
we managed to sneak a few references to
Lovecraft in under the radar, since the
show’s editor was also a Lovecraft fan.
The program screened in Australia in
September and I had quite a number of
positive comments from people who had
seen it. For anyone who wants to see it
and missed the original broadcast, you can
go to the following site:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/jbp/
. Simply click on the picture next to the
‘Jennifer Byrne Presents: Monsters and
Bloodsuckers’ heading and you will be
taken to the vodcast window, then just
press the ‘Play’ arrow. We made a trip to
Woori Yallock in Victoria in September (a
round trip of some 2000 miles) to gather
with a group of Reclaiming Tradition
witches. On the
way down we
saw Margi’s
cousin Denise at
her farm at
Spring Valley
near Goulburn,
the ‘ancestral
place’ of most of
Margi’s folks, and
Margi & Graham at explored the
Spring Valley
 cemetery there. In Victoria, we had a magick and appear on panels, but due to
good couple of days meeting the people my time-consuming thesis, we took it
and doing some interesting ritual with easier this year and simply relaxed around
them, and it may lead to further work. I the con. We also got out to see the
am also currently considering rejoining National Art Gallery and the National
the OTO, my former magical order, in Library in Canberra (the latter featuring
which I haven’t been active since the mid- the excellent exhibition on the work of
1990s. muso Nick Cave). One day we had lunch
En route to Victoria, we visited with one of the co-editors of Studies in
many small country bookshops in towns Australian Weird Fiction, James Doig. James
such as Holbrook, Goulburn, Euroa, took us to Tilley’s, an atmospheric eating
Benalla, place, and then on to a great secondhand
Wangaratta bookshop ,Canty’s, where as well as
and Albury. finding a couple of good books, I ran into
I had a few an old compadre from my magical lodge,
good finds the OTO, David Bottrill. It’s a small world!
including a In family news, my stepson Rohan
first of is about to turn 21, and we are hosting a
Witches party for him and his friends at Kuleto’s
LB standing next to weird roadside Three Cocktail Bar in Newtown, Sydney, near
sculpture near Goulburn, NSW (containing where he lives. Work on the property
Lieber’s Conjure Wife) progresses, with Graham having hired a
digger to flatten the earth near our back
The creek where we intend re-fencing next
band I have year. Margi is loving her painting and
been rehearsing drawing classes and is turning out many
in with Margi artworks. Graham had a major coup with
and Graham, a commission some time ago to design the
now dubbed fonts for the intertitles of a re-release of the
‘Third Road’, is classic version of the silent horror film
going well. We Playing bass at home Nosferatu. He received the finished copy
in Third Road from America recently and is very happy
have perfected
2-3 hours of material to play live and will with the result.
be doing a ‘dress rehearsal’ gig at a small It was with sadness that I learned
hall locally in Wollongong on the 7th of the passing of founding EOD member
November for friends. Our first semi- Ben Indick recently. I never met Ben but
public gig will be for a wedding in early always appreciated his contributions to
December. Next year we hope to play local the EOD. (Danny Lovecraft met him while
clubs and bring in some money. in the US a few years back). I pay a small
In tribute to Ben this issue with some notes
October about his output.
Margi, I have been giving serious thought
Graham to the project of assembling Robert Bloch’s
and I Selected Letters, for which I have obtained
attended approval from the Bloch Estate. I imagine
this will take at least the next year or two
Conflux sf Leigh & Margi at Conflux 6 and will keep me out of mischief! Danny
convention in Canberra, now an annual Lovecraft may be collaborating with me
tradition and the marker of the fifth on this project, for which there is no
anniversary of our polyamorous triad. publisher as yet.
Usually Margi and I run a workshop on
 I seem to have encouraged our
esteemed EOD friend Fred Phillips about
publishing a collection of his poetry to the
extent that Hippocampus Press has
apparently now committed to assembling
a volume of his verse next year, for which
I have provided a blurb.
In my few idle moments I have
found time to improve many Wikipedia
entries relating to Arkham House and its
authors (such as H. Russell Wakefield,
Carl Jacobi, etc). Most of the changes have
been left alone by the invisible ‘Big
Brothers’ of Wikipedia, so they must have
been OK. The ST Joshi page has also been
considerably improved. Some
investigation around Arkham House’s
recent history leads me to discover that
Peter Ruber (who became editor there in
1997) must have bowed out due to ill
health around 2002 or so…and now
Robert Weinberg and George
Vanderburgh seem to be about to take the
editorial reins. Of course, this is probably
old news to some of you (such as John
Haefele, who seems to be abreast of
everything concerning Arkham House)
but it was exciting to me to learn of a
possible new injection of direction and
impetus at the venerable publisher.
I managed to watch some movies,
though mostly in the last week or so. They
were a mixed bag. Two were particularly
disappointing. I have been collecting the
movies of Christopher Lee, inspired by
reading the excellent and comprehensive
volume by Jonathan Rigby, Christopher Lee:
The Authorised Screen History (Reynolds &
Hearn, 2001). The film Funny Man (1993)
should really be titled ‘Unfunny Man’ or
even ‘Stupid Dickhead Man’. Lee’s
appearances in it are restricted to a few
minutes of footage in which he peers
through a house of cards or recites bits of
Lewis Carroll. The setting, a real disused
lunatic asylum, is impressive, but the
laboured script, in which Tim James’
character (described aptly by Rigby as ‘a
repulsive, wisecracking combination of
Harlequin, Freddy Krueger and Mr
Punch) messily picks off characters about
whom one doesn’t care a whit, is terrible.
And why does this Punch character speak
with a Welsh accent? Rigby also refers to
the film’s “lager-lout surrealism” and “a
hit-or-miss stream of vulgar vaudeville
routines.” A bloody awful film which I
didn’t enjoy at all. There’s a much more
menacing jester-capped troll in the final
segment of the 1985 Stephen King
adaptation Cat’s Eye.
I was also disappointed by The
Spirit, based on the Will Eisner character
and scripted and direct by comics legend
Frank Miller. While the production design
is gorgeous, the acting is uniformly
wooden (and that includes the usually
excellent Samuel L. Jackson), the comedy
doesn’t work, many scenes are incredibly
stagy and talky (not least that in which the
captured Spirit is lectured by Jackson’s
Octopus character dressed as a Nazi), and
the use of anachronism is grating
(characters dress 1940’s style but use
laptops and employ phrases like “lighten
up” and “bling”). The brilliant title
sequence of the film is all you really need
to see; the rest is like wading through
treacle.
The best movie I’ve seen recently
is David Lynch’s extraordinary Inland
Empire – definitely worth the wait after
five or six years since Lost Highway. Lynch
has a lot in common with novelist
Christopher Priest with their common
usage of identity switches, interest in the
double and the doppelganger, etc. Inland
Empire is obscure, and at a three hours, a
trifle overlong, but is another haunting
production from Lynch that will stand the
test of time.
The movie I really want to see
next is Terry Gilliam’s newie, The
Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, which opens
in Australia this
week.
I got to the
local Lifeline Bookfair
in October, and had a
few good finds,
probably the best of
which was Alfred
My cat Beltane, a.k.a.
The Snuffler from the
Stars
Metraux’s classic book Voodoo, first ed in Books By My Bedside
dustjacket, for a mere $3. Holding up that
role as an emissary for Fred Phillips’ As mentioned, I have finished
Antient and Honourable Order of the very few books lately, but the actual pile
Drowned Rat! by my bed, which I hope to tackle soon,
Just as this issue goes out, Margi includes the following books, new and
and I will be attending some workshops old: J.G. Ballard – The Four-Dimensional
run by renowned American ceremonial Nightmare; Samuel Delany – Atlantis: Three
magician and author Lon Milo DuQuette, Tales; Dennis O’Neill – Batman: Knightfall;
presented by the Sydney OTO. We can’t Umberto Eco – Foucault’s Pendulum;
go to them Gillian Polack – Life Through Cellophane;
all, but will Garth Nix – Sabriel; Kim Stanley Robinson
be – A Short, Sharp Shock (Robinson will be
attending GoH at next year’s Worldcon, to be held in
the lecture Melbourne – I met him once before, in
on Hobart in 1995); J. Daniel Gunther –
Enochian, Initiation in the Aeon of the Child; Brian
and doing Aldiss – Romance of the Equator: Best
Lon Milo DuQuette after his the all-day Fantasy Stories; Thomas Disch – The
workshop on the Qabala in Sydney, workshops
with LB. Businessman; Roddy Doyle – Paddy Clarke
on Ha Ha Ha; Keith Stevenson (ed) X6: Six
Crowley’s Thoth Tarot and on Qabalah. I Journeys Beyond the Borders of the Real.;
got my copies of DuQuette’s books signed, Algernon Blackwood – Incredible
and the workshops were fantastic. I had Adventures; Douglas Ezzy – Practicing the
hoped this issue to present interviews Witch’s Craft: Real Magic Under a Southern
with Joe S. Pulver and with Dave Carson, Sky; and Jeremy Dyson – Bright Darkness:
but with any luck they will appear next The Lost Art of the Supernatural Horror Film.
time. I’ve already dipped into many of these
Needless to say, I have many and and look forward to completing them. I
multifarious plans for the future…but I will also be reading Phillip Ellis’s thesis on
will speak of them when the stars are poet Christopher Brennan, and some
right. novel manuscripts for my literary agencies
(being free to do this again now my thesis
is concluded).
And just as I was preparing this
issue, a swag of stuff from Hippocampus
Here’s the cover of a curious kids’
Press turned up for me – the two-volume
book I picked up secondhand recently. It
Essential Solitude (Lovecraft-Derleth letters)
was published by
which I almost missed out on by leaving
Ward Lock, 1957.
my order so late; plus all five issues of
A prime
Dead Reckonings and all three of Lovecraft
candidate for a
Annual. A feast of reading to keep me
detournement featuring
busy!
Lovecraftian tentacles
menacing those
innocent children…

A Few Notes on Ben Indick
(1923-Sept 28, 2009)
Ben Indick in centre between
Peter Cannon (left) and Darrell
Schweitzer (right) (photo:
Kathryn Cramer from Flickr)
Unfortunately I never met Ben Indick but I
knew of him through the mailings of the
EOD. A founder member, he was
contributing to EOD when I was in the
order back in the mid-1980s, and was still
contributing when I rejoined a few years
ago, his enthusiasm obviously undinted.
His death will sadden many members of
the EOD, as it will his friends who knew
him personally. I want to pay a small
tribute to him by simply listing some of
his works; this does not pretend to be a
comprehensive bibliography Indick was
also an early member of REHUPA, the
Robert E. Howard apa. In addition to the
items listed below, Indick reviewed for
Shaw Studies, New York Review of Science
Fiction, and Dead Reckonings. He provided
intros to at least two books: Robert H.
Knox’s H.P. Lovecraft: Illustrated in Ichor
Niekas Publications, Center Harbor, NH,
1984. and Hannes Bok: Drawings and
Sketches Certo, Nicholas J.
(editor/publisher) Mugster Press,
Circleville, 1996. He conducted an
interview with Nelson Bond available
online at:
http://www.arkhamhouse.com/bondinterv
iew.htm.
The First Fandom Awards were presented
at Anticipation to honour those with long-
standing in the fannish community. Aug
2009. recipients were James Gunn and Ben
Indick
Books
The Drama of Ray Bradbury (1977).
Revised reprint as Ray Bradbury,
Dramatist.(Borgo press, 1989; also Paupers
Press and Wildside press editions).
Geo. Alec Effinger: From Entropy to
Budayeen (with Daryl F. Mallett) (Wildside
Press, 1993)
Essays
[essay] in Kingdom of Fear:
The World of Stephen King
(ed Chuck Miller)
(Underwood-Miller,
1986).
“Come Out Here and Take Your
Medicine!” in Don
Herron, ed. Reign of Fear.
(LA: Underwood-Miller,
1988).
“Fantasy in the Theatre”
(review of Patrick D.
Murphy, ed. Staging the
Impossible: The Fantastic Mode in Modern
Drama). in Science Fiction Studies #61, Vol
20, Part 3 (Nov 1993) Reprinted in
Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction
and Fantasy 53. Greenwood Press, 1992.
Online at:
http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/review_essay
s/indick61.htm
“A Gentleman from Providence Pens a
Letter”. Madison, WI: Strange Co, 1975
wraps. (100 copies, booklet).
“The History of the EOD”. Scream Factory
#9 (Summer, 1992); revised and reprinted
in “James Van Hise Presents ‘The Fantastic
Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft’”. Revised and
reprinted online at:
http://www.qusoor.com/EOD/EODhistory
.html
“HPL as Decadent: A Consideration of St
Armand’s Essay”. Ibid No 14 (May 1976)
pp 8-9 . (A reply to St Armand’s HP
Lovecraft: New England Decadent, noting
that the Decadent school was only one of
the many influences upon Lovecraft’s
thought).
“H. Russell Wakefield: The Man Who
Believed in Ghosts.” In Discovering Classic
Horror Fiction 1, edited by Darrell
Schweitzer, pp. 73-93. San Bernardino,
Cal.: The Borgo Press, 1992. Online at:
http://www.bookrags.com/criticism/herber
t-russell-wakefield_10/
“In Memoriam: Frank Belknap Long”.
Lovecraft Studies No 30 (Spring 1994): 3-4.
"King and the Literary Tradition of Horror
and the Supernatural" in Tim Underwood
and Chuck Miller Fear Itself The Early
Works of Stephen King, (Underwood-Miller,
Inc) 1982.
“Lovecraft’s Ladies” Xenophile 2, No 6 (Oct
1975). Reprinted in Darrell Schweitzer, ed.
Essays Lovecraftian (Baltimore: TK
Graphics, 1976).
“Lovecraft’s POElar Adventure” Crypt of
Cthulhu 32 (St John’s Eve 1985): 25-31.
“Spooks and Worse: New King, Old
Classics” The Blood Review (Apr 1990).
“The Western Fiction of Robert E.
Howard” in Don Herron (ed) The Dark
Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard:
A Critical Anthology. (Wildside Press, 1984)
"What Makes Him So Scary," in
Discovering Stephen King, ed Darrell
Schweitzer, Starmont House, Inc., 1985,
pp. 9-14.
Stories
• * Bluegrass Reunion, (ss) Eldritch Tales
#25 1991 100 Wicked Little Witch
Stories, ed. Stefan Dziemianowicz,
Robert Weinberg & Martin H.
Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 1995
• * Expiration Notice, (vi) Eldritch Tales
#18 1989
• * A Flash of Silver, (vi) Horrors! 365
Scary Stories, ed. Stefan R.
Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg &
Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble
1998
• * Quiz: Break a Leg!, (qz) Twilight Zone
Jul/Aug 1985
• * The Road to Dunwich,
(ss) Ibid Jun 1973 The
Dunwich Cycle, ed.
Robert M. Price,
Chaosium 1996
• * The Rose Cavalier, (ss)
100 Vicious Little
Vampire Stories, ed.
Robert Weinberg, Stefan
Dziemianowicz & Martin H.
Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 1995
MANTICHORUS: MAILING
NOTES
SWWFT Mailing #33 (Aug 2, 2009)
John Howard, Change-Winds:
Useful index to the Mammoth Books of Best
New Horror, John. An author index would
double the usefulness. I’ve collected the
series since its inception, though to my
annoyance I lack Vols 9 and 16, and don’t
yet have 19. There are a couple of curious
Australian reprints you may want to know
about for bibliographic completeness.
Magpie Books London published in 1993
The Giant Book of Best New Horror, a
selection from the first three vols of Best
New Horror (not in your checklist); this
was reprinted in Oz by The Book
Company (n.d., but c. 1994). The first two
of my editions of the series are Carroll and
Graf hardcovers; I don’t know if C&G
produced more than these two in hc. One
minor point of interest is that around the
time of Vol 6, Robinson Books was using
the imprint Raven books, hence Vol 6 and
7 appear as published by Raven, with a
Raven logo on the spine instead of the
different bird used by Robinson. The
related volume The Mammoth Book of Terror
edited by Jones for Robinson in 1991 was
reprinted in hc in Australia as The
Anthology of Horror Stories (1994). I believe
both this and the Book Company reprint
mentioned above were unlicensed reprints
of the UK books. I once sent Stephen Jones
copies for his records and got a nice
thanks card back.
Re: the Bloch book, your essay
appears therein (I assume you have your
copy now) so I hope you’re happy with
the version that appears! I enjoyed your
collaboration with Mark Valentine in The
Game’s Afoot! I confess that sadly I’ve
never read Van Vogt. I have a bio of Baron
Corvo, though.
Scott Shaeffer, Dalriadic: Really enjoyed
the piece on Serling’s war service and its
relation to “The Purple Testament’. I
recently acquired the DVD of Serling’s
Night Gallery, (Season 1) and revisited a
number of episodes I saw when growing
up, plus some I’d never seen, including
the adaptation of CA Smith’s “Return of
the Sorcerer” and a brilliant Fritz Lieber
story, “The Dead Man.” I’ve taken your
recommendation on changing the font on
title of The Nameless Cylinder for easier
readability.
Re EOD & SSWFT, my only
experience comes from being an EOD
member back in the 1980s. But I think the
two apas are quite similar in focus; while
nominally EOD focusses more strongly on
Lovecraft, it allows a broader spectrum of
writing on horror and fantasy; and SSWFT
does that by definition. I recently invited
members of EOD to join SSWFT as well,
but no-one’s taken up the offer, so I guess
Fred Phillips and Martin Andersson
remain the only members (apart from
myself) to belong to both.
Glad you enjoyed the essay on
Lovecraft’s “Juan Romero.” You’re right –
it wasn’t written for university, hence
probably lacked the dense theoretical
terminology so beloved of academics…
Mark Valentine, Opharion: I like
your taste for reading pre-twentieth
century fiction. I’m rather inclined that
way myself, though I try to keep up with
at least some current horror authors. I
really want to read all of Blackwood (I
have a near-complete run of his books)
and of Machen, and of all the Arkham
House volumes which are on my shelves.
Certainly not interested in reading
Charlaine Harris and all those currently
popular vampire things that sell by the
bucketload. I enjoyed your revised essay
on Carnacki. Many years ago I was in
contact with Ian Bell when he was trying
to instigate a Hodgson revival; whatever
happened to him? He’d be pleased to see
Night Shade Books complete series and
the volumes Tartarus Press have issued
(not that I have those – the prices are way
out of my league). Do you have 472 Cheyne
Walk, co-authored by me mate Rick
Kennett and UK’s Chico Kidd? Well worth
having in a Hodgson collection. Anyway, I
rather like the fact Carnacki’s cases are not
always supernatural; it rings true to me
that some would turn out to be able to be
explained by rationalistic means. I wonder
why no-one reprints the Flaxman Low
stories? (I have a set of the original
Pearson’s Magazine in which those tales
appeared). And I’ve always thought
someone should write a Carnacki meets
Jorkens story; maybe I’ll do it myself some
time. I like your interpretation of the
Carnacki tales as not merely concerned
with “ghost-finding” but with a fight
against the vast dark cosmic gulfs and
their predatory abominations. Your phrase
“insignificant physical condiment” on the
last page strikes me as odd, though – is
“condiment” an error? Makes Carnacki
sound a bit like a salt-shaker! But you
must have meant it, for the same phrase
appears on p. 28 of your essay’s original
appearances in Voyages and Visions….
 Martin Andersson, Hyperborean:
Re: Dunsany, I just read ST’s intro
to his edition of In the Land of Time and
other Fantasy Tales. Makes me realise I
need to get all of ST’s editions, even
though I sometimes have other editions of
the authors, because he provides such
succinct overviews of the writer’s output
and of criticism that has been done on the
given writer. I’m lucky that I decided
some time ago that I would not collect
either Dunsany or Howard; in fact I had
rather large collections of their stuff which
I parted with (Danny Lovecraft now has
my Dunsany holdings). I have my hands
full with so many other authors! As usual,
Martin, your acquisitions list (and reading
list) tends to the mind-boggling. Can I
recommend you use LibraryThing? That
way we could compare libraries. Of
movies you list, I’ve seen Taken (good),
Watchmen (wonderful), Star Trek
(entertaining), Wolverine (pretty cool) but
not the others, though I want to see Dean
Spanley. Congrats on becoming an uncle!
I’m looking forward to reading ST’s
review of Tour de Lovecraft. Your Tolkien
trip sounds cool. Sad that Charles N.
Brown died. I met him in about 2005 when
he was out here for a gathering with some
local sf folks, at a party in Newtown. A
strange little gnome-like man, with bare
feet and painted toenails. But who can
deny his lasting influence in establishing
Locus magazine? Your Google translations
of Lovecraft were at least amusing.
Reminds me of some of those Chinese
packaging instructions one gets on
products sometimes.
I’ll be interested to see if you said
anything of my story in Eldritch Horrors
when I receive my swag of Dead
Reckonings from Derrick Hussey. I think
your speculation that there may be a
connection between “Juan Romero” and
‘The Mound” may well be correct, but
“Juan Romero” is a very dim adumbration
of a later theme, and in fact the political
and sociological themes of “The Mound”,
commenting as they do on the decline of
Western civilisation, place it closer to a
story like “At the Mountains of Madness.”
But yes, that Indian element in both
stories, leading to the discovery of
underground aliens or bizarre
phenomena, certainly links “Juan
Romero” and “The Mound” at least
superficially. Thanks for that correction
about Lovecraft hearing Dunsany lecture.
As you rightly point out, it happened
during Dunsany’s lecture tour of US, not
at an amateur convention. I may have had
in mind the fact that Lovecraft was
introduced to Dunsany’s actual published
work by an amateur – Alice M. Hamlet.
But whoops! My error has made it
through into the version of my essay in
Lovecraft Annual No 3. I must be more
rigorous in checking my facts!
Mike Barrett, Koshtra Belorn:
Enjoyed your article on Sturgeon, Mike. I
had Sturgeon’s stories in the 5-vol
collected edition but had to sell them a few
years ago when I was poor. I still have a
number of his novels, though. Your
reviews were all interesting, though I’ve
read none of the books you discuss.
Phillip Ellis, Elegant
Amusement: Before I comment, I’ll just
say that wavy background you used
makes the pages hard to read when
printed out. I’d suggest changing it next
time. But wow! A full-length essay on a
single ‘Fungus’ from Lovecraft’s sonnet
sequence. Re: the question of Lovecraft’s
sonnets as “pseudo-sonnets,”(as he
himself referred to them), I see no reason
why their hybrid mixture of the
Petrarchan and the Shakespearean forms
should not be known as “the Lovecraftian
sonnet.” (I’d have to check whether
Wandrei also used this form). I’m not
sufficiently familiar with the theory of
primary, secondary and tertiary stresses in
verse to fully understand what you’re
saying about stress in this poem.
Nevertheless, an interesting analysis. I’m
not certain whether your conclusion that
“the patterns are not accidental but part of
the poem’s design” is accurate or not.
Lovecraft referred to “grinding out” the
various Fungi; and did so in a short time;
although he had sufficient metrical and
poetic knowledge to construct poems in
the vein of those he had read, I think we
should be wary of attributing to him
greater poetical powers than he possessed.
Many of the perceivable patterns in
“Zaman’s Hill” may simply be
coincidental or accidental. It depends on
the strength of Lovecraft’s ‘ear’ for such
things as consonance and assonance.
Perhaps a separate paper on Lovecraft’s
demonstrable skills as a poet would cast
light on this. Interesting to know of your
project of the livre compose on Lovecraft.
James Doig, Via Occulta:
Fascinating material on the Penny Bloods
and the old booksellers, James! I wonder if
Barry Ono was any relation to Yoko (lol☺)
Dorothea Phillips, Betwixt the
Books: Entertaining account of your
Canadian Rockies adventure with Fred. I
would have loved to have seen the
Robertson Davies play; I’m a great fan of
his writing. Nice poem from Fred, too.
Fred Phillips, Sercon: Nice
account of ferreting for books, Fred.
Smoley’s book on Gnosticism is worth
having, though there are other equally
good books on the subject. I must say the
name of the literary salon FISTFA sounds
vaguely obscene to me, but perhaps that’s
just my dirty mind.
Baron von Nederlinger’s haul of volumes
sounds most intriguing. I’m a sucker for
sliding panels revealing hidden recesses!
But I fear this is one of your elaborate leg-
pulls, for I can find no reference elsewhere
to the Baron, to the Liber Ignotus, or to ‘Dr
Obadiah Jessup’.
EOD mailing #147 (Aug 2, 2009)
Randy Everts, Performers:
Interesting material on Holly (if somewhat
marginal to horror and fantasy interests).
Laurence Bush, Pleasures of
Death: There’s an entry on R Murray
Gilchrist by Brian Stableford in the St
James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic
Writers, and one by Jack Sullivan in The
Penguin Encyc of Horror and the
Supernatural. Odd stories by him appear in
anthologies edited by EF Bleiler and Hugh
Lamb. Good luck with the thesis! Good
info on “Olalla” too.
John Haefele, Hesperia: I
appreciate your work on Derleth and
Arkham House, John; your depth of
knowledge is admirable. The Chronology
of the assemblage of HPL’s Selected Letters
was informative. I was fortunate to start
collecting Arkham House books back in
1973, when the Selected Letters volumes
were first issued. At that time I also
collected most of Derleth’s mainstream
fiction and poetry, including the Hawk
and Whippoorwill material, though I later
sold this material as too diffuse to
concentrate on the weird material issued
by Arkham House.
Don & Mollie Burleson, Morgan
Rice Gazette: Don, in your comment to
Steve Walker you refer to “chemistry, or
its forebear, [as being] a mess of
outlandish gibberish called alchemy.” It
surprises me that you are dismissive of
alchemy, especially since you have written
of Jungian mythic archetypes and would
be aware of Jung’s uses of the
psychological implications of alchemical
motifs. It’s true that modern chemistry
developed from alchemy, and that
alchemy was oft-times obscure; but I don’t
believe that makes it outmoded. Alchemy
is a fascinating and complex subject and is
as much a “real” science (certainly in
regard to psychology) as any other;
though maybe you are demonstrating here
your preference for the “hard” rather than
the “soft” sciences. I don’t believe it would
be accurate to say the “soft” sciences are
not “real” sciences. They simply operate
differently and are not as easily
measurable as chemistry, physics etc. Glad
you liked my essay on “Romero.” Yes, I
actually exchanged a brief email with
Marc Michaud and he tells me he hopes to
revive Necronomicon Press “one day” I
always enjoy your accounts of yours and
Don’s doings, Mollie. Good poetry, too,
both of you…
T.R. Livesey, Redux: Good piece
on Lovecraft and Sir James Jeans. I myself
don’t see the necessity to inhabit a world
of belief ruled by either “emotional myth-
belief” or “cosmic indifferentism”,
attitudes which are often posited
unnecessarily as diametrically opposed.
There is deep truth in myth and esoteric
knowledge which can inform us about life
and the universe, no less than in the
cosmic attitude. I believe we should avail
ourselves of the latest scientific
information while recognising that science
is limited in its abilities to penetrate the
deep mysteries, some of which are
approached more usefully through other
modalities of experience and knowledge.
Scott Connors, Continuous
Commentaries: I haven’t attempted to
collect any of the Night Shade Smith
volumes as yet, as I have all the Arkham
House editions, but I will probably get
them later for completism. (I only have
Vol 3 of Hippocampus Press complete
poetry set, and need to get Vols 1 and 2 of
that first). Great detective work tracking
down that description of Smith’s 1927
exhibition! I like the casual way you
mention you “picked up” a signed copy of
Wandrei’s Dark Odyssey poetry collection;
I bet that cost a pretty penny. I would be
exceedingly keen to see any unreprinted
material from Howard and Donald
Wandrei, and Carl Jacobi from the
Minnesota Review. Good reprints by Price
and Wandrei – the latter made me laugh
out loud. And the piece on Smith in
Carmel was very interesting.
Fred Phillips, Sercon: See comments in
SSWFT (above).
John Goodrich: Raw, New Things:
Enjoyed the reviews, John. Re: ST’s
coverage of Mythos fiction in his book, he
says explicitly that he is not attempting to
cover everything, and wouldn’t want to.
Perhaps someone should write a separate
book covering the whole field and its
exemplars, reviewing them individually? I
really enjoy Charles Stross and think he’s
done some great work utilising the
Mythos. The mushrooming of the Mythos
field makes it unlikely that any one book
could cover it all. I agree with you that
Dan Harms’ Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia is
a reference more useful for the writer than
the casual reader. When I was in high
school I started to compile a thing called
The Lovecraft Companion (never finished). It
served much the same purpose as Harms’
book. I look forward to your review of
Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales.
Ben Indick, Ibid 147: Well, here’s a sad
issue to comment on, for as we all know,
Ben passed away recently and so this is his
last zine. He had complained of the font
size in my zines, and I had planned to
please him by restoring a readable size
this issue (which I have done) but
unfortunately he’s no longer with us to
appreciate it. I wonder what will happen
to Ben’s papers and effects? Does anyone
know if anything has been organised? I
enjoyed Ben’s story ‘The Traveller” here,
and also went back to read his “The Road
to Dunwich” in Price’s The Dunwich Cycle,
which I think was an effective Mythos tale
told without the usual trappings of
eldritch names and books of brain-
shattering lore.
Sean McLachlan: Notes from the XIIth
Legion: You seem super busy with your
writing on weaponry and military history,
Sean. Glad you enjoyed your time with
Martin Andersson during the Tolkien
gathering.
S.T. Joshi, What is Anything? : Hope you
enjoyed the HP Lovecraft Film Festival;
one day I may make it back to the States
and participate in one of these events,
which of course started up after my only
overseas trip (to the Lovecraft Centennial
back in 1990). I didn’t know you’d written
a book on bestsellers (every mailing seems
to reveal some new project you have
undertaken)! Glad to know Robert
Reginald and Borgo Press are still around.
It seems that A Means to Freedom has now
appeared, though it will be some little
time before I can afford to buy it. I am
highly excited by the prospect of the
unabridged Lovecraft biography coming
out; and of course, by the imminence of
the new/updated Lovecraft bibliography,
which Martin Andersson reveals in his
mailing for this month’s SWFFT (which
has just reached me) has now gone to the
printers and will be out shortly. I
remember that back in Providence in 1990
some fellow was proposing to update the
Lovecraft biblio and seeking your input,
and you made a comment to him whose
gist was that such a project didn’t hold
much attraction for you; you evidently
changed your mind in recent years! The
new historical anthology of horror poetry
sounds intriguing, and naturally I am
flattered to be included. I hope that
Mythos books will issue it within a
reasonable time once you hand it in. Do
you know, by the way, of any complete
extant listing of Mythos Books’ catalogue?
There doesn’t seem to be one, and requests
to David Wynn seem to fall into a bit of a
black hole. I enjoyed the intro to your
edition of the DH Lawrence horror tales.
The other editions (Underwood, Level etc)
sound worthwhile too. Ye gods! One can
hardly keep up as a buyer and a reader
with your output, and once again I gape
slack-jawed at the prodigious output from
your editorial desk.
David Drake, Potpourri: I’ve never read
Wellman’s Hok stories Piazo Publications
book edition of them sounds like a good
idea.
Ken Faig, EOD letter: More fascinating
sources for the ethnic names in “Dreams
in the Witch House’. Good material on the
Lovecraft copyrights, which has long been
a confusing issue. Glad you liked my
“Romero” essay. I should have more
essays in future issues on Lovecraft stories
about which too little has been written.
Martin Andersson, Hyperborean: You
should get some kind of award for noting
all those textual errors in the Barnes &
Nobel edition! Re: “Romero,” I suppose
that that narrator reminds one somewhat
of Sir Richard Francis Burton, although
Burton died in 1890. But I think there were
many British officers in India who held the
attitude of being comfortable with the
natives, and Lovecraft’s narrator is simply
a generic example of this. Re: Tierney’s
new poetry collection, Savage Menace and
Other Poems (from P’rea Press), this should
appear in early 2010. Danny Lovecraft has
had some difficulty obtaining copyrights
permissions from, for instance, the J K
Rowling rights-holders (for poems Tierney
has written in ‘homage’ to her characters)
though it seems he has gotten permission
for some Tolkien-related ones. The rights
issue is interesting and raises the question
of the distinction between ‘plagiarism’ and
‘homage’. Apparently even in cases of
homage a piece of writing utilising
another writer’s characters may be
considered to infringe the original writer’s
rights. Go figure.
John Navroth, Lovecraftiana: An
enjoyable coverage of references to
Lovecraft in Fate magazine, John. One of
these days I intend to update my long
article on Lovecraft and occultism that
appeared in Shadowplay and Dagon
magazines in the 1980s. I was not a
practicing occultist when I wrote it, but
have now been one since about 1990, so
my perspective in the rewrite will be a
little different than in the original.
Gavin Smith, Kornflake Killer: Nice to
hear your views about Dean Spanley. I still
haven’t caught the movie but will do so
via DVD shortly. (Ah, thank Cthulhu my
thesis is over!).
Steve Walker, Criticaster: That PDF
search engine is interesting, I’ll check it
out. Have you ever looked at Scribd?
There are some decent Lovecraft-related
essays there published by academics as
well as amateurs. Interesting speculations
on origins for the name “Dunwich”; I
hadn’t known of the reference in Matthew
Lewis’ poem before. Re: “Romero,” I think
HPL’s use of the Aztec god-name
‘Huitzilopochtli’ was, as you suggest, to
‘introduce a touch of exotic strangeness’,
much as he used the names ‘Atys’ and
‘Magna Mater’ in “The Rats in the Walls”
without fully grasping the nature of these
ancient cults. (Magna Mater, for instance,
the ‘Great Mother’, is only a name of dark
portent if one goes along with the very
common demonisation of goddess-based
pagan cults by later, patriarchal religions
including Christianity. But to HPL, it no
doubt had a whiff of dark and ancient
mystery, and that was enough for him).
The Aztec name in “Romero” serves no
obvious central purpose in the story
(unless, as I suggested in the essay, HPL is
trying to hint that Romero himself is
somehow connected via bloodline with
the ancient Aztec gods. In any case, HPL
didn’t make a very good job of that
suggestion). Whether the story has an
unreliable narrator is debatable. The
witnesses disputing of the events may
indicate that the events are simply beyond
understanding, either by the witnesses or
by the narrator. The tale ends in mystery,
and HPL provides no satisfactory
explanation. I agree with you that in
“Romero”, the ‘vagueness is the story’. I
think HPL was still developing his
fictional technique at that time, and hadn’t
yet learned how to tie all the elements
together that he wished to include. But he
always had a penchant for the
unexplained exotic name, as those
intriguing phrases muttered by Danforth
at the conclusion of “At the Mountains of
Madness” demonstrate. This was a very
effective technique, I think, which makes
the reader imagine what might lie behind
the phrase – a sort of “Shunned-House”-
type linguistic elbow (or “Under the
Pyramids”-type monstrous linguistic
forepaw) that merely suggests the true
extent of a given horror. Anyhow, yes, the
old “it was all a dream” bromide is one
way of interpreting “Romero” according
to the internal evidence of the text, and
that hackneyed fact makes it very much a
lesser tale in the scale of Lovecraft’s
literary achievement. Re: your excursus on
evolution and devolution in Lovecraft, I
agree that this is one of the most
widespread and potent themes in
Lovecraft. Occultists such as Kenneth
Grant have picked up on this, naturally
comparing it to the ‘atavistic resurgence’
theories of such esoteric artists as Austin
Osman Spare, who sought to ‘unleash the
inner beast’ in many of his artworks. One
could write a decent essay exploring
evolution and devolution as opposite
spectrums or poles of the same biological
impulse, and even link this with HPL’s
fascination with the laws of time.
Juha-Matta Rahali, Nonconformist: The
annotated Lovecraft correspondence is
much appreciated. I’m not clear, though –
are these letters which are not (or will not
be) in the volumes of Lovecraft
correspondence being issued by
Hippocampus? Are you feeding your
sources to ST?
REQUEST FOR COPIES OF STUDIES
IN WEIRD FICTION
I lack the following numbers of Studies in
Weird Fiction and would be willing to pay
for photocopies or originals. Can anyone
help? I need the following issues:
8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 20. I also need the
final two issues – Summer 2003 (which
was erroneously numbered 25; it should
have been 26); and Spring 2005 (numbered
27).
I have photocopies of Issues 11 and 12 but
would like to buy originals.
REQUEST FOR COPIES OF
LOVECRAFT STUDIES
Due to the years I was away from
Lovecraft studies, I missed a number of
issues of the journal Lovecraft Studies and
am finding them difficult to obtain as they
rarely come up on Ebay. If anyone in the
EOD can help with copies for sale, or even
photocopies of the following issues, I
would be happy to pay. I need the
following issues:
25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 40.
I have photocopies of the following issues
but would be glad to buy originals: 24, 28,
42/43.
Also, does anyone know if an Index to
Lovecraft Studies after issue 25 exists? (LS
26 published an Index to Issues 1-25).
 REQUEST FOR COPIES OF ROBERT
BLOCH LETTERS

I have initiated a project of compiling the

Selected Letters of Robert Bloch, and the
Bloch Estate has given me permission to
pursue this, under the auspices of Bloch’s
living daughter. I have already obtained
copies of some Bloch letters from various
library holdings in the US, but would be
grateful for leads from EOD members,
especially if anyone has copies of letters
from Bloch they may be willing to share.
“The Haunter of the Dark” by Neil
Please contact me if you can help in any
Walpole (from the Australian HP Lovecraft
way.
Centennial Calendar).

INVITATION TO MEMBERS OF E.O.D.

TO JOIN S.S.W.F.T APA
I have already emailed all EOD members
to invite them to join the apa for which I
am now Official Editor, the Sword and
Sorcery and Weird Fiction Terminus apa
(founded by Benjamin J. Szumskyj) but
will repeat the invitation here. SSWFT has
been running just over eight years and
currently has about 12 or 13 members. I
would like to see it grow to 20 or more
members. Fred Phillips and Martin
Andersson belong to both EOD and
SSWFT and so there is a precedent for this
idea. SWWFT requires no annual dues if
you accept files in PDF format. Because it
is run from Australia this is the easiest
way for it to operate. If you wish to join,
you would simply email to me (as editor
of SSWFT) the same material you circulate
“The Rats in the Walls” by Phillip Cornell,
in a given mailing of the EOD. (SSWFT’s
from The Australian HP Lovecraft Centennial
quarterly deadlines have been brought in
Calendar (Sydney: Borderland Press, 1990).
line with those of the EOD to facilitate
this). Minac is similar to Eod
requirements. If you require hardcopies
there is an annual fee; please enquire if
you want more details. SSWFT members
also receive the benefits of having their
publishing and activity news published
online at the SWWFT blog:
http://sswftapa.blogspot.com/
If you wish to join, please email Leigh
Blackmore at: lvxnox@gmail.com.