CRYPT OF

CTHULHU
A Pulp Thriller and Theological Journal

Volume 7, Number 3 Candlemas 1988

CONTENTS
Editorial Shards 2

On "The Book" 3
By S. T. Joshi

On "Azathoth" 8
By Will Murray

On "The Descendant" 10
By S. T. Joshi

"The Thing in the Moonlight," A Hoax Revealed . 12

By David E. Schultz

Where was the Place of Dagon? 14

By Will Murray

Faulty Memories and "Evill Sorceries" 18

By Robert M. Price

And Yet Even Still More Limericks from Yuggoth . 23

By Lin Carter

Did Lovecraft Have Syphilis? 25

By Robert M. Price

Who the Hell was Winfield Scott Phillips? 27

By Will Murray

Iranon and Kuranes: An Intertextual Gloss ... 31

By Donald R. Burleson

From the Vaults of Yoh-Vombis 34

By Lin Carter

R'lyeh Review 38

Mail-Call of Cthulhu 44

1
2 / Crypt of Cthulhu

Debatable and Disturbing:

EDITORIAL SHARDS
"Lovecraft's Fragments" sounds Howard's synopses and complete his
rather ghoulish, doesn't it? In our drafts, Derleth merely used bare
field of weird fiction fandom, we so hints and ideas listed in Lovecraft's
love every tale by our favorite Commonplace Book. The closest he
authors that we must have access came to a real collaboration was
to every piece of juvenilia and mar- perhaps "The Survivor," with The
ginalia. The temptation to "finish" Lurker at the Threshold coming in
a writer's unfinished scraps is second
great. Critics suggest that this is Two of Lovecraft's fragments
wish-fulfillment pure and simple: have been finished. They are A. A.
since there is no more real fiction Attanasio's "The Black Tome of
forthcoming from the lamented Alsophocus" (in Ramsey Campbell,
writer, we merely write new stories ed . , New Tales of the Cthulhu
based on his discarded snippets Mythos ) , a completion of "The
and pretend we are reading new Book," and an as-yet-unpublished
tales by the Master himself. Wasn't completion of "The Descendant"
the late writer wiser? He could see by Lin Carter.
that what he had begun wasn't The "Lovecraft's Fragments" is-
worth finishing; why can't we see sue of Crypt of Cthulhu features a
it? In defense of posthumous col- set of analyses of the fragments
laborations, we might point out themselves, as Lovecraft left them.
that writers often see less merit S. T. Joshi's "On 'The Book'" has
even in their finished works than appeared previously in Nyctalops
their readers do. Remember that My own "Faulty Memories and 'Evill
HPL "repudiated" several works Sorceries'" is based on part of an
including The Case of Charles Dex - article called "The Legacy of the
ter Ward . Lurker" back in Crypt #6. I have
Unlike Robert E. Howard, Love- elaborated it a bit for reincarnation
craft has attracted few attempts to here.
finish his fragmentary manuscripts. You willfind that even the tiny
Recall that August Derleth's many canon of Lovecraft's fragments
"posthumous collaborations" were holds a certain interest of its own.
nothing of the sort. Whereas Lin You may even be in for some sur-
Carter and L. Sprague de Camp, prises .

for instance, actually did fill out Robert M. Price, Editor

 Candlemas 1988 / 3

On The Book
By S. T. Joshi

Lovecraft's fictional fragments others.

have not received much attention Let us first attempt to date the
from critics, and perhaps deserved- fragment as precisely as possible.
ly so; for by their very incomplete- Barlow's date of 1934 is probably
ness they are aesthetically unsatis- not far off, for the manuscript is
fying, the more so since we have written in that tiny, spidery hand-
no idea how Lovecraft intended to writing typical of Lovecraft's late
finish them. The fragments can works. We can, however, perhaps
gain value only by the possible be rather more exact. Note this
light they may shed upon the his- passage from a letter of 2-5 Novem-
tory and progression of Lovecraft's ber 1933:
writing. For example, it is con-
ceivable that "Azathoth" (1922) is a
I am at a sort of standstill in
writing disgusted at much of
vague adumbration of Lovecraft's
later novel. The Dream-Quest of my older work, 6 uncertain as
to avenues of improvement. In
Unknown Kadath (1926-27). Even
recent weeks have done a
I

in this respect we encounter diffi-

tremendous amount of experi-
culties; for the dating of the frag-
menting in different styles and
ments is often uncertain and tenta-
perspectives, but have de-
tive. "Azathoth" is clearly dated
stroyed most (emphasis mine]
to June 1922, as Lovecraft alludes
of the results.
to it in a letter; 1 but "The Descen-
dant" (the title is R. H. Barlow's) Perhaps both "The Book" and "The
is dated plausibly but none the Thing in the Moonlight" could be
less arbitrarily to 1926, and the referred to here. We must also re-
original manuscript helps little in mark that the dream of an evil
this regard, as does internal evi- clergyman which Lovecraft wrote
dence. Barlow also supplied the into a brief tale (actually an ex-
title for "The Book," and dated it cerpt from a letter to Bernard
hesitantly to 1934, while "The Thing Dwyer) dates to October 1933.1 This *

in the Moonlight" is the most curi- period seems to have been a time
ous of the lot: it survives only in of great psychological stress for
a posthumous publication, the fan- Lovecraft terms of fiction-writ-
in
zine Bizarre (1941), and Derleth ing: he had suffered painful re-
dated it to 1934, on no apparent jections At the Mountains of Mad -
(

grounds. That it is a late work is ness by Weird Tales collections of

;

evident by the mention of 66 Col- his work by Putnam's and Knopf),

lege Street in the third paragraph and appeared to have great diffi-
(Lovecraft moved into this last culty in recapturing that fluency in
residence in May 1933); but the writing which had characterized his
fragment is largely an excerpt from 1926-27 period (after his return
a dream as recorded to Donald from New York), when he produced
Wandrei on 24 November 1927 2 The Dream-Quest of Unknown Ka-
date actually mentioned in the frag- dath and The Case of Charles Dex -
ment. Moreover, the latter portion ter Ward plus
, several shorter
of the text may not be Lovecraft's tales, in a period of about six
at all: several sentences here are months. Indeed, after writing
distinctly un-Lovecraftian in "The Thing on the Doorstep" in
style. 2aBut "The Book" offers August 1933, he would write no
some insights into Lovecraft's tech- more original fiction save "The
niques of fiction- writing which make Shadow out of Time" (which itself
it rather more interesting than the went through three drafts)5 in
4 / Crypt of Cthulhu

November 1934-March 1935, and make stories of them whenever I

"The Haunter of the Dark" in No- get that constantly deferred crea-
vember 1935. tive opportunity am always wait-
I

"The Book" may then date to ing for." Is it possible that "The
late 1933; but it is far more in- Book," written at a time when
teresting not when considered by Lovecraft's creative urge may have
itself, but in connection with one been at a lull, may be such an
of Lovecraft's most celebrated works attempt to rewrite the Fungi into
the Fungi from Yuqqoth sonnets, prose?
written in late 1929 and early 1930. We know that only the first
The relations between the Fungi three of the Fungi sonnets are
and Lovecraft's prose fiction have openly linked, although R. Boerem
perhaps not been fully realized. has attempted to find continuity in
Some of the sonnets are echoes or the whole sequence. 8 Comparison
more interestingly foreshadowings between "The Book" and the first
of themes and plots used in his fic- three sonnets reveals an amazing
tion. "The Courtyard" (IX) per- similarity of theme, plot, and even
haps contains vague references to language; such that we can hardly
the earlier story "He" (1925): but conclude that the fragment
bears a distinct relation to the
As edging through the filth I

sonnets.
saw the gate
The plot of both the prose tale
To the black courtyard where
and the poems is that of a man's
the man would be. (11. 7-8)
discovery of a forbidden book (pre-
"The Bells" (XIX) mentions the sumably, though not necessarily,
name "Innsmouth" (cited first in the Necronomicon and its effect
)

"Celephais" (1920), but set there upon him as he reads it. The set-
in England), used later, of course, ting of "The Book" tallies with that
in "The Shadow over Innsmouth. "6 of the sonnet "The Book"
Fungi
"Night-Gaunts" (XX) of course em- (I): in the former we read of a
ploys the entities cited in the ear- "dimly lighted place near the black,
lier Dream-Quest and stemming from oily river where the mists always
Lovecraft's boyhood nightmares. swirl." In the sonnet we read of
"Nyarlathotep" (XXI) seems to be "old alleys near the quays" (I. 2)
an exact retelling of the prose-poem and "queer curls of fog" (I. 4).
of 1920, while "Azathoth" (XXII) The old bookshop is, in the frag-
may provide clues as to the theme ment, "very old" (recall the "old
of the unfinished tale of 1922. The alleys") and "[had] ceiling-high
"thing . . (with] a silken mask"
. shelves full of rotting volumes."
from "The Elder Pharos" (XXVII) In the sonnet we find "the books,
had, of course, made a vivid ap- in piles like twisted trees, / Rot-
pearance in the Dream-Quest while , ting from floor to roof" (II. 6-7).
"The Dweller" (XXXI) may be re- In the fragment the narrator finds
telling the events of the very early the book amidst "great formless
"Statement of Randolph Carter" heaps of books on the floor and
(1919). "Alienation" (XXXII) may in crude bins"; in the sonnet the
perhaps echo the theme of "The narrator "from a cobwebbed heap
Strange High House in the Mist," / Took up the nearest tome and
written only a few months before thumbed it through" (II. 9-10).
the writing of the sonnet. Such At this point Lovecraft in the
examples could be multiplied upon fragment makes a glancing reference
additional study. to the third sonnet of the Fungi
Lovecraft made, indeed, a very sequence, "The Key": "It was a
revealing remark soon after com- key a guide to certain gateways
pleting the Fungi sequence: "Some and transitions. . ."
. Quickly,
of the themes (expressed in the however, Lovecraft appears to re-
sonnets are really more adapted to
|
turn to the first and second son-
fiction so that shallI probably nets, and retells them in order. "I
 Candlemas 1988 / 5

remember how the old man leered (II. 9-10). The narrator of the
and tittered," says the narrator in fragment continues: "Every once-
the fragment. In the sonnet "The familiar object loomed alien in the
Book" we read new perspective brought by my
widened sight." In "Alienation" we
Then, looking for some seller
read
old in craft,
I could find nothing but a voice Objects around float nebulous
that laughed. (II. 13-14) and dim
False, fleeting trifles of some
The narrator of the fragment then
vaster plan.
"hurried home through those nar-
His folk and friends are now
row, winding, mist-choked
water-
an alien throng
front streets." In "Pursuit" (II)
To which he struggles vainly
the narrator is seen "Hurrying
to belong (II. 11-14)
through the ancient harbour lanes / .

With often-turning head and ner- Later, the narrator of "The Book"
vous face" (II. 3-4). In the frag- recalls: "I was swept by a black
ment "I had a frightful impression wind through gulfs of fathomless
of being stealthily followed by soft grey the needle-like pinnacles
with
padding feet."- At this point the of unknown mountains miles below
verbal correspondence becomes al- me. After a while there was utter
most exact, for in the sonnet "far blackness, and then the light of
behind me, unseen feet were pad- myriad stars forming strange, alien
ding" (I. 14). The narrator of the constellations." This is vaguely
fragment speaks of "the centuried, reminiscent of "Azathoth" (XXII):
tottering houses with fishy,
. . .

Out of the mindless void the

eye-like, diamond-paned windows
daemon bore me.
that leered." In the sonnet "Dull,
Past the bright clusters of
furtive windows in old tottering
dimensioned space.
brick / Peered at me oddly as I
Tillneither time nor matter
hastened by" (II. 5-6).
stretched before me.
In the fragment Lovecraft now
But only Chaos, without form
begins to describe the events as
or place. (II. 1-4)
recorded in the third Fungi sonnet,
"The Key." In the fragment the But the resemblance is vague, ten-
narrator "locked (himself] in the uous, and hardly exact, and the
attic room. . . Then came the
. fragment soon ends. Whether Love-
first scratching and fumbling at the craft simply tired of the attempt to
dormer window." Note the last line rewrite the Fungi into prose (we
of the sonnet: "The attic window may perhaps be thankful that he
shook with a faint fumbling." never fully did so) or whether he
Here, in the last two paragraphs found it difficult to string all or
of the fragment, the correspondence even some of the sonnets together
with the Fungi becomes blurred, into a coherent story, we may nev-
and may indicate Lovecraft's per- er know. Boerem's thesis of a
plexity as to how to continue the "continuity" in the Fungi sonnets
tale, since the rest of the thirty- is neither confirmed nor refuted
three sonnets of the Fungi are not, by the above correspondences; for
as previously noted, ostensibly if we accept the theory that "The
linked, at least in terms of plot. Book" is an attempt to write out
Only a few parallels can be drawn. the Fungi in prose, then we must
In the fragment the narrator con- equally accept the possibility that
fesses: "Nor could ever after see
I Lovecraft could have written all or
the world as Ihad known it." We some into a tale, or at least con-
are reminded of "Alienation" ceived the possibility of so doing.
(XXXII): "He waked that morning As it is, the fundamental theme
as an older man, / And nothing of both the fragment and the Fungi
since has looked the same to him" sonnets as a whole is that of time--
6 / Crypt of Cthulhu

a central concept in Lovecraft's seems to be the case, if we take

writing. Throughout the fragment "The Shadow out of Time" and the
the narrator hints of the new con- collaboration "The Night Ocean"
ceptions of time gained from read- into consideration. But Lovecraft
ing the book he has discovered: felt increasingly that "I'm farther
"At times feel appalling vistas of
I from doing what I want to do than I

years stretching behind me, while was 20 years ago"; 10 the result
at other times it seems as if the was a series of experiments dating
present moment wereisolated an as early as "The Shadow over Inns-
point in a grey formless infinity. . mouth," 11 of which "The Book" may
. That night
. passed the gate- I represent another example. In his
way to a vortex of twisted time and later years Lovecraft confessed that
vision. Mingled with the pres-
. . . his "right medium" might perhaps
ent scene was always a little of the be "the cheapened and hackneyed
past and a little of the future. . term 'prose-poem'"; 12 and perhaps
. ." All this is expressed if of- "The Book," its basis drawn from
tentimes with less a feeling of hor- some of Lovecraft's best poetry, is
ror than of exhiliration or "adven- a step in that direction a direction
turous expectancy" in the sonnets: which Lovecraft perhaps did not
achieve fully until his very last
At last the key was mine to
work of fiction, the extended
those vague visions
prose-poem "The Night Ocean."
Of sunset spires and twilight
woods that brood
Dim in the gulfs beyond this
NOTES
earth's precisions. 1
SL 1.185.
Lurking as memories of infini- 2 Rpt. Dreams and Fancies
tude. (III. 9-12)
(1962), pp. 26f . Cf. also SL
The winter sunset . . . 1 1 99 f
1 .

Opens great gates to some for- 2a The possibility of the text's

gotten year. . . . spuriousness was first suggested to
It is a land where beauty's me by David E. Schultz. am not, I

meaning flowers; however, convinced (as Schultz be-

Where every unplaced memory lieves) that the entire text was
has a source; merely thrown together by Derleth
Where the great river Time or some other hand: it is still pos-

begins its course sible that Lovecraft resurrected this

Down the vast void in starlit dream in 1933 or 1934 and tried to
streams of hours. write a story around it.
(XIII . 1 2, 9-12) 3 SL IV. 297.
,

**SL IV. 289-90. Derleth's dating

I do not know what land it is
to 1937 has no authority at all.
or dare it

Indeed, even the possibility that

Ask when or why was, or I
Lovecraft wrote up the dream at a
will be, there.
later time seems refuted by the fol-
(XXIII. 13-14)
lowing letter from Dwyer to Clark
In that strange light I feel I Ashton Smith (n.d., but soon after
am not far Lovecraft's death): "I sent [Farns-
From the fixt mass whose sides worth] Wright [editor of Weird
the ages are. Tales ] a short story of his Love- [

(XXXVI. 13-14) crafts) a dream never pub-

lished. ...
copied it out of an
I

"The Book," then, while not of old [my emphasis] letter to me. A
great intrinsic interest, typifies very odd little story; call it 'The I

Lovecraft's despair at his own abili- Wicked Clergyman.'" (MS., Clark

ty to write fiction during his later Ashton Smith Coll., John Hay Li-
years. Certainly his powers were brary . )

not failing rather the reverse ,

5 Cf. SL V.346.
 Candlemas 1988 / 7

8 Frank Utpatel's illustration for MAILCALL OF CTHULHU

the sonnet, depicting the fishy in- (continued from page 43)
habitants of Innsmouth ( Collected
Poems |1963|, p. 123), may be Thanks for Crypt #52. laughedI

anachronistic, for there is no evi- myself silly over the stories by

dence from the poem that Love- Messrs. Cort and Garofalo. But my
craft had at this time populated the nose is a little out of joint because,
city with such denizens. in your piece on Lovecraft as a fic-
7 SL 111.116-17. tional character, you did not men-
8 Cf. "The Continuity of the tion my Willy Newbury story "Bal-
Fungi from Yuggoth ," in S. T. samo's Mirror." In this, Willy and
Joshi, ed., H. P. Lovecraft: Four Lovecraft were translated into the
Decades of Criticism (1980), pp. bodies of two 18th-century English
222f rustics. Lovecraft finds that life
8 Pagon and Other Macabre Tales less glamorous than he had imag-
(1965), p. 340. All other citations ined .

from the fragment are taken from The tale appeared in The Purple
pp. 340-42 of this edition (text Pterodactyls but met the kind of
corrected from the A.Ms.). misfortune that makes one wonder
10 SL V.224. if the Old Ones have it in for one.
I'Cf. SL 111.435: "I am using The book got excellent reviews, and
the new story] idea as a basis for
| the first printing of the paperback
what might be called laboratory ex- sold out immediately. But Ace was
perimentation-writing it out in merging with Berkley, and the
different manners, one after the mechanics of this process so pre-
other, in an effort to determine the occupied the editors that they for-
mood 6 tempo best suited to the got to order another printing be-
theme. fore the type was scrapped.
12 SL V. 230. P. 56: Lovecraft discussed the
pronunciation of "Cthulhu" in let-
ters to Rimel, 7/23/24, and to Fish-
er, 1/10/37. It is hard to be sure
what he meant, since he was gross-
ly ignorant of scientific phonetics.
TWO NEW ADVENTURES That did not stop him from ghost-
ing Well Bred Speech for Anne
FROM CRYPTIC PUBLICATIONS Tillery Renshaw in 1936. To any
phonetician this little book was a
Pulse Pounding Adventure Sto - disaster
ries #2 with "The Treasure of From the letters, think FIPL's
I

Horemkhu" (a Simon of Gitta idea was that while the spelling

tale with Lovecraftian links) by tried to approximate nonhuman vocal
Richard L. Tierney; Carl Jaco- sounds, what he had in mind was
bi's "Your Witness, Tuan"; something like this, in the Inter-
Robert Bloch's "Indian Sign"; national Phonetic Alphabet:
and C. J. Henderson's "A Des-
ert Story"; plus a Stephen E.
Fabian cover $4.50 c4y4y
North of Khyber by Robert E. The meanings of the symbols are
Howard. Five fragments by the as follows: c is the palatal voice-
teenage REH, in which he less plosive, spelled ty in Hungar-
teamed up his characters El ian (a sound between k and the O ;

Borak and the Sonora Kid. looped represents the voiceless

With a Stephen E. Fabian cov- lateralfricative, spelled ^1 in Welsh
er $5.00 (prepare to make an and then
_]_

blow air through); y stands for the

(continued on page 9)
8 / Crypt of Cthulhu

On Azathoth
By Will Murray

In his article,"On 'The Book, " 1

Thus, we find many references and
S. T. Joshi speculates that . . allusions to Lovecraft's Dunsanian
it is conceivable that 'Azathoth' stories. Ulthar, Leng, Sarnath and
(1922) is a vague adumbration of other place-names abound. Richard
Lovecraft's later novel. The Dream- Pickman from the non-Dunsanian
Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926- "Pickman's Model" returns, and
27)." This is very likely. "Aza- Randolph Carter is himself a vet-
thoth" is but a fragment, only eran of Dunsanian efforts.
three paragraphs long, of a Dun- Of course, new place-names ap-
sanian dream-fantasy. There is not pear in profusion, as do new crea-
enough of it to tell a thing about tures, like gugs, ghasts, red-
Lovecraft's plans for the work, footed wamps and others. But by
only that an unnamed man of "the and large, there are no new char-
waking world" one night bridges acters of consequence and while
the gulf to other worlds. The there are many digressive allusions
fragment ends as this person stands to Lovecraft's past dreamland sto-
on the first brink of discovery. ries, there are almost none of these
In a letter to Frank Belknap which can't be traced back to one
Long, dated June 9, 1922, HPL or more stories HPL had penned in
calls "Azathoth" a "weird Vathek- the Twenties.
like novel," so we know it was to The two exceptions are interest-
be of ambitious length. The entity ing. Early in Dream-Quest , there
Azathoth later appears in Love- is mention of "the dreamer Sirnath-
craft's fiction, and he is a familiar Ko," the "only fully human person"
figure, even if he is described ever to behold the dark side of the
only obliquely. And of the aborted moon. There is no such character
novel, the Commonplace Book de- mentioned in any extant Lovecraft
scribes it in one succinct sentence: story, so this reference stands out
"A terrible pilgrimage to seek the as unusual. If it was an uncharac-
nighted throne of the far daemon- teristic bit of extemporanity , Love-
sultan Azathoth .
craft does not expand upon it.
This is exactly the plot of That is odd, so odd I suspect a
Dream-Quest . The dreamer Ran- lost Dunsanian story exists with
dolph in seeking a city he
Carter, Sirnath-Ko as a significant charac-
saw a dream, goes to the castle
in ter. Perhaps he appeared in the
of Great Gods in Unknown Ka-
the still-lost "Life and Death."
dath to plead with them to be The other exception is even more
shown the way to this city. This strange. Near the end of Dream-
quest takes up the entire novel, Quest , there is a scene in which
and at the end, Nyarlathotep, ser- Nyarlathotep tells Randolph Carter
vant to Azathoth, denies him audi- the following:
ence with the terrible daemon-sul-
tan. When Barzai the Wise climbed
Dream-Quest may indeed be a Hatheg-Kla to see the Great
latter-day "Azathoth " Between the .
Ones dance and howl above the
fragment and the novel, Lovecraft clouds in the moonlight he nev-
wrote no Dunsanian dream stories. er returned. The Other Gods
Virtually every dreamland character were there, and they did what
and idea is incorporated into was expected. Zenig of Apho-
Dream-Quest as if Lovecraft was
, rat sought to reach unknown
attempting to recreate the lost mood Kadath in the cold waste, and
of his early Dunsanian period. his skull is set in a ring on the
 Candlemas 1988 / 9

littlefinger of one whom I need cannot tell us. But any ambi-
if

not name. tious person ever attempts to com-

plete the "Azathoth" fragment, he'd
the Wise is the protago-
Barzai do well to consider this article as
nist of Lovecraft's "The Other he sits at his typewriter and pon-
Gods." His name and fate are often ders: "How would Lovecraft have
mentioned in Dream-Quest But . done it?"
Zenig of Aphorat is a new name.
His guest, which sounds like the NOTE
creative basis of Randolph Carter's
quest, is not recorded by Love-
'An Commonplace Book
earlier
craft. this a spontaneous throw-
reference reads "AZATHOTH a hid-
Is
away, or a clue to another lost
eous name." The origin of this
story?
name is unclear. It's very likely,
Or perhaps Lovecraft dredged
given HPL's penchant for adopting
it from his memory of the planned
biblical names, that the town of
novel "Azathoth." The protagonist what is now
Anathoth, once in
of that fragment is not named, but
Jordan, was the inspiration. If you
like the unnamed Londoner who
tip the "n" on its side, you have a
became dreamland's King Kuranes
"z" and Azathoth. However, there
in "Celephais," the unnamed hero
is an "Azoth" mentioned in Theo-
of "Azathoth" could hardly have
sophical writings (e.g., A. E.
supported an entire novel without
Waite's Azoth: The Star of the
being named. It is entirely possi-
East ),
and it may have been cob-
ble that had "Azathoth" been com-
bled with Anathoth to obtaining
pleted, that dim character might
this coining.
have become Zenig of Aphorat and,
in venturing to Unknown Kadath,
succeeded where Carter did not in MAIL=CALL OF CTHULHU
meeting Azathoth. His fate, having (continued from page 7)
his skull set in Azathoth's ring (for
the one Nyarlathotep didn't name high front rounded vowel, spelled u
could only have been him whom in French and Dutch, u in German,
Nyarlathotep called "the daemon- and y in the Scandinavian tongues.
sultan whose name no lips dare The result sounds like the sort of
speak aloud") sounds like an ex- noise one makes when one inad-
quisitely Dunsanian story ending. vertently bites into something nasty
It evokes the image Lovecraft so and tries to get rid of it.
loved in Dunsany's "Idle Days on L. Sprague de Camp
the Yann," that of the throne Villanova, PA
carved from a single piece of ivory.
I can easily imagine the "terrible Wheareas Iagree with Mr. Dzie-
pilgrimage" of the finished "Aza- mianowicz's opinions regarding Mr.
thoth" ending with the sardonic Rainey's excellent "Threnody," I

image of the protagonist's skull found his surmise of the work of

set in the "boundless daemon-sul- Mr. Wilum Pugmire's fiction overall
tan's" pinky ring. It would have quite unprobing and slight he fails
been perfect. And it would have to analyze the work of Mr. Pugmire
been poetic of Lovecraft, if Dream- in its full form, as well as neglect-
Quest is a different approach to ing to try to truly understand the
"Azathoth," to have subsumed his emotional depth in which his tales
original ending into the new cli- take their originality. As opposed
max. as seems to be the case. to certain other Mythos pastiches
But, of course, we do not know. which are wholly uninspired and
"Azathoth" is a mere scrap, and resound hollow in everything but a
Lovecraft, who curiously never en- somewhat bland and unoriginal plot,
tered the delicious image of Zenig's Mr. Pugmire is thorough in the
fate into his Commonplace Book, (continued on page 17)
10 / Crypt of Cthulhu

On The Descendant
By S. T. Joshi

We know less about "The De- per around, so that the "deleted"
scendant" than about any other paragraph is now at the bottom of
single story or fragment by Love- the first page of the ms., upside
craft. The title was supplied by down. This along with the ap-
R. H. Barlow; the date of 1926 was parently unrelated nature of the
supplied by August Derleth and, paragraph led me to believe that it
although apparently roughly accu- does not belong with "The Descen-
rate, is entirely conjectural. Love- dant" at all; have accordingly re-
I

craft never mentions the fragment moved it from my text. The deleted
in any correspondence seen by me. paragraph is in the first person,
Whereas we can guess that "Aza- while the fragment proper is in the
thoth" may be an early adumbration third; and the "I" does not seem
of The Dream-Quest of Unknown to represent either character of the
Kadath and "The Book
. Fn part a
1
'
fragment. Lord Northam or "young
rewriting of the Fungi from Yug - Williams." My inclination is to re-
goth 1 we have no idea what "The
, gard the deleted paragraph as yet
Descendant" is about or where it is another, separate fragment.
going. It is Lovecraft's most un- This still does not allow us to
satisfying yet most tantalizing make much sense of "The Descen-
piece. dant" as it stands. Let us see
How Derleth arrived at the date what internal evidence provides in
of the work, have no idea; per-
I terms of dating and content. The
haps Lovecraft mentioned it in his mention of a "Nameless City" in the
correspondence to Derleth, but I "desert of Araby" at the very end
have not found the citation. The of the fragment clearly points to his
date of 1926 seems right, based on own tale of 1921 . The mentions of
the handwriting of the manuscript Charles Fort and Ignatius Donnelly
(John Hay Library) and internal seem promising, but not much can
evidence; certainly it cannot be any be made of them: we do not know
earlier than 1923 or later than when Lovecraft read Donnelly's The
about 1930. Story of Atlantis (1882); as to
The very text of the fragment is Charles Fort, we learn that around
confused. Editions previous to September 1927 Lovecraft read New
mine Dagon and Other Macabre
( Lands but "didn't find it as inter-
,

Tales rev. ed. 1986, pp. 358-62)

, esting as The Book of the Damned "
printed an introductory paragraph (SL 11.179), which he must have
or fragment: "Writing on what the read earlier.
doctor tells me is my deathbed, my More may be gleaned from the
most hideous fear is that the man is character of Lord Northam, the
wrong. suppose shall seem to
I I harried old man who has only one
be buried next week, but ." . . goal in life: "All he seeks from
When this was printed in Marginalia ,
life is not to think." Some exter-
Derleth added the note: " foregoing nal features of his characterization
deleted)." It was indeed crossed bring Arthur Machen and Lord
out on the ms., but what Derleth Dunsany to mind, although in a
did not explain is that when Love- very superficial way. Northam
craft began "The Descendant" prop- lives at Cray's Inn, London;
er ("In London there is a man who Machen lived for many years at
screams .") he turned the pa-
. . 9 Verulam Buildings, Cray's Inn
 Candlemas 1988 / 11

(this is what gives us the terminus "The Descendant" dry; there does
post quern of since Lovecraft
1923, not seem anything more to be got
only encountered the work of out of it. If written in 1926, it

Machen at date).
this Northam is may have been written early in the
the "nineteenth Baron of a line year, when Lovecraft was still in
whose beginnings went uncomfort- New York: he frequently confessed
ably far back into the past"; Dun- to his inability to write fiction to-
sany was the eighteenth Baron ward the end of his "New York
Dunsany in a line founded in the exile." The Roman aspect is inter-
twelfth century. esting in between
providing a link
Much of the fragment spins a "The Rats in the and Love- Walls"
peculiar tale about strange happen- craft's great "Roman dream" of
ings in Roman Britain. Here the 1927; and the scene where young
most interesting point is how many Williams buys the Necronomicon from
things Lovecraft gets wrong in his a "gnarled old Levite" is uncannily
historical account. The biggest similar to the scene in "The Book"
blunder is his mention of "the Third (c. 1933) where the nameless nar-
Augustan Legion then stationed at rator buys a nameless tome from an
Lindum." Regrettably, Legio III "old man [who] leered and
Augusta was never stationed in tittered." We would like very much
England (it was almost always in to know what Lovecraft was trying
Libya); rather, it was Legio II to do with "The Descendant"; it
Augusta that was in England; and embodies central themes in his work
it was not, as far as know, ever I dubious heredity, ancient horror,
stationed in Lindum (Lincoln), but a Faustian quest for forbidden
always in Isca Silurum (Caerleon- knowledge but never resolves
on-Usk), something Lovecraft should them. It is one of Lovecraft's few
have known from reading Machen's false starts; and yet, we can learn
Hill of Dreams Lovecraft made the
. something even from its unsatisfy-
same mistake in "The Rats in the ing paragraphs.
Walls" (1923), where he says that
the legion camped at "Anchester." NOTE
Lovecraft has here made three mis-
takes in one: (1) neither the sec- 'See my "On 'The Book,"' Nyc -
ond nor the third Augustan legion talops No. 4 (April 1983), 9-13,
, 3,
was ever stationed in Anchester be- reprinted elsewhere in this issue.
cause (2) the town never had a
legionary fort, and (3) the town's
name is Ancaster, not Anchester!
(For the record, two other legions,
IX Hispana and XX Valeria, were
customarily stationed in England, at PRICES SLASHED!
York and Chester, respectively.
Other legions were transferred We are overstocked on three
there as needed during revolts or of our older publications and
to build Hadrian's Wall. Interest- would like to get rid of them.
ingly enough, IX Hispana seems to So we invite you to take ad-
have vanished around A.D. 130, vantage of these new, lower
and to this day no satisfactory ex- prices
planation of its disappearance has
been made. Now there's a story Shudder Stories #2
idea for Lovecraft!) By 1933, how- Was $4.00 now . . . $1.50
ever, when he read Arthur Weigall's The Adventures of Lai Singh
Wand erings in Roman Britain Love- ,
Was $3.00 now . . .$1.50
craft finally got the legions in Ro- Pay Day
man Britain straight (cf. SL IV. Was $3.50 now . . . $1.50
293).
Well, think
I have squeezedI
12 / Crypt of Cthulhu

The Thing in the Moonlight

A HOAX REVEALED
By David E. Schultz

The authorship of H. P. Love- recall word for word the description

craft's "The Thing in the Moon- of a dream from a letter written six
light" has recently come under the years earlier. And by what coinci-
skeptical scrutiny of Lovecraft dence would Lovecraft have men-
scholars. The story first appeared tioned in his tale the exact date of
in January 1941 in the amateur a letter in which the same story
publication Bizarre edited by Jack 1
was recounted?
Chapman Miske of Cleveland, Ohio. The structure of the story itself
No information was provided about casts suspicion upon its authorship.
the hitherto unknown Lovecraft The development and treatment are
story. The story was later in- distinctly unsatisfying. The story
cluded in several Arkham House is much shorter than other of Love-
publications, including Marginalia craft's stories from the Thirties.
(1944), Dreams and Fancies (1962), Furthermore, the opening and clos-
Dagon and Other Macabre Tales ing paragraphs are much shorter
(1963), and The Arkham Collector than the paragraphs constituting
(Winter 1969jT^ August Derleth the body of the story.
dated this 1934 and
short piece to The answer to this puzzle is
dubbed it a Dagon
"fragment" in . found in two letters to Derleth from
The text of "The Thing in the the editor of Bizarre . In a letter
Moonlight" is suspiciously similar to dated 17 June 1940, Miske wrote
that a of
letter by Lovecraft to "Wandrei has sent me two splendid
Donald Wandrei dated 24 November story-letters of HPL's, and the
1927.3 Indeed, the only difference longest is appearing in the current
between the story and the letter S-S. . The other will be in the
. .

are the opening and closing para-
graphs. The authorship of those
paragraphs first came under ques-
tion because of the following state-
ment from the story:
My name
first printed number, of Bizarre ." 5
Miske was referring to the piece he
titled "The Very Old Folk," from
Lovecraft's letter of 2 November
1927 to Wandrei 6 that appeared in
the summer 1940 number of Scienti-
is Howard Phillips.
Snaps Miske later wrote to Der-
.

I live at 66 College Street, in

leth :

Providence, Rhode Island. On

November 1927 for
24, know I You may be interested in
not even what the year may be something noticed while read-
I

now, I fell asleep and ing HPL's Marginalia The .

dreamed, since when have I sketch, "The Thing in the

1*
been unable to awaken. Moonlight," was not so written
by HPL. The first couple of
The address is, of course. Love-
paragraphs and the last one or
craft's address from May 1933 until
two were added by me when I

1937. The mention of his final

published it in Bizarre in or- ,
address is probably the reason that
der to do away with some of
"The Thing in the Moonlight" has
the otherwise fragmentary ef-
been dated to 1934. It seems un-
fect of the piece.
likely that Lovecraft at some time
after 1933 would have been able to Jack Miske was probably a "posthu-
 Candlemas 1988 / 13

mous collaborator" with Lovecraft MAIL-CALL OF CTHULHU

before Derleth thought to coin the (continued from page 44)
term. Oddly enough, although
Derleth knew that Lovecraft was sort of hobby out of enumerating
not the sole author of "The Thing various Hebrew and pseudo-cabalis-
in the Moonlight," he neither ex- tic names and words according to
cised the spurious paragraphs for the well-known but much derided
later printings, nor pointed out practice of gematria (Hebrew nu-
that Miske had had a hand in the merology as applied to sacred writ-
story. Indeed, further printing of ings). It was a time-passing mind
the piece as fiction by Lovecraft game, like anagrams or palindromes.
was unwarranted, which might also When had quite a few of these,
I I

be said of other excerpts from let- typed it all up in manuscript form

ters such as "Old Bugs," "The and sent it off to a publisher in
Very Old Folk," and "The Evil St. Paul who dealt in such things.
Clergyman." Since "The Thing in Much to my surprise, it was ac-
the Moonlight" is nothing more than cepted, and it finally appeared in
an excerpt from a letter that was print in 1978 as Godwin's Cabalistic
later amended by another writer, it Encyclopedia (not my choice of
should not be regarded as a work title). So that's the secret of my
from Lovecraft's pen, but merely as "knowledge" of cabalism all self-
a curiosity of the fan press. acquired and limited to gematria and
the modern occultist interpretation.
NOTES No sooner had the book appeared,
than began to realize that my
I

'initially called Scienti-Snaps . quasi-hippie mystical leanings of the

2 1 ts appearance in The Arkham 70s were delusion and hogwash.
Collector was particularly odd be- Without knowing anything of Love-
cause it was "completed" by Brian craft's materialistic philosophy, I

Lumley began to lean in that direction my-

^Cf. Selected Letters II (1968), self and even wound up subscribing
pp. 199-200. to The Skeptical Inquirer I'd have .

t
Dagon p. 342.

, to class myself at present as an
5 Ms. State Historical Society of existentialist agnostic, if there is
Wisconsin such a thing.
6 Cf. Selected Letters II, pp. But now suffer from a shad-
I

189-197. This appearance of Love- owy sort of guilt for having added
craft's Roman dream as a letter to to the endless mountains of dreck
Bernard Austin Dwyer. Lovecraft that are continually absorbed by
mentions the version he sent to true believers in what is now re-
Wandrei in his letter of 24 Novem- ferred to as New Age Science!
ber. Frank
Belknap Long incor- But old habits die hard, even if
porated the version of the dream their object is not taken seriously.
that he received from Lovecraft into Hence my recent letter concerning
his novel. The Horror from the Dagon and hence my observation
Hills with Lovecraft's blessing.
, that Cthulhu, transposed into He-
^Miske to Derleth, 28 June 1946 brew letters, enumerates to 467
(ms. State Historical Society of number shared by nothing else at
Wisconsin) . all that I've yet stumbled upon.
You could always subtract 360, the
No more Lovecraft films from number of degrees in a circle, to
Stuart Cordon, says Rave Re - arrive at 107, as in 107 East James
views editor Marc A. Cerasini. Street, but I've wasted enough of
who reports that Cordon has your time. I'd just like to apolo-
instead signed a multipicture gize to anyone who ever bought the
contract with Disney. (Hm... book and to the public in general
Splash II with Daryl Hannah as for foisting off yet another arcane
a Deep One?) (continued on page 22)
14 / Crypt of Cthulhu

Where Was the Place of Dagon ?

By Will Murray

Among the Lovecraftian frag- the most puzzling was the alteration
ments used by August Derleth in of the location of the "Place of
his Cthulhu Mythos novel The Dagon" from New Plymouth to New
Lurker at the Threshold was a seg- Dunnich. New Dunnich is obviously
ment HPL had called, "Of Evill a phonetic rendering of the proper
Sorceries Done in New-England of British way of pronouncing Dun-
Daemons in No Humane Shape." wich, which is of course one of
The fragment is written in Puritan- Lovecraft's most famous Massachu-
style English and purports to be a setts locales.
piece of a report of strange doings There is no New Dunnich men-
in Puritan Massachusetts during the tioned in any of Lovecraft's stories.
time of Governor Bradford. Nor New Plymouth mentioned. At
is
The fragment, which was first firstglance Lovecraft's naming of a
published as Lovecraft wrote it new Massachusetts seat of horror
back in Crypt of Cthulhu #6, fo- might indicate he was planning at
cuses on a man, one point to move the Mythos from
the common Arkham/ Dunwich/ Inns-
" . One Richard Billing -
. .

mouth/Kingsport locales to other

ton being instructed partly
,
imaginary places. There is no New
by evill Books, and partly by
Plymouth listed in contemporary
an antient Wonder-Worker
maps of Massachusetts, and Derleth
amongst the Indian Salvages, may have assumed that New Plym-
so fell away from good Chris -
outh was a mythical place-name
tian Practice that he not only
which still does not explain why he
lay'd claim to Immortality in the
felt constrained to change the
flesh, but sett up in the Woods
name.
a Place of Dagon, namely |a|
Lovecraft's fragment is no mere
great Ring of Stones, inside
concoction. Its style, setting, er-
which he say'd prayers to the
ratic capitalization, and even sub-
Devill, and sung certain Rites
of Magick abominable by Scrip-
ject mattei
a strange man who con-
sorts with Indians and builds a
ture.
Place of Dagon are taken from an
The fragment goes on to relate actual historical incident with which
that Richard Billington had been Lovecraft was familiar.
eaten by some thing which he had As I related in my article, "Da-
called down from the sky during a gon in Puritan Massachusetts,"
rite at the Ring of Stones, and that (Lovecraft Studies , Vol IV, No. 2,
.

the thing was a toadlike spirit Fall 1985) in 1627, during the gov-
known as Ossadogowah. The Indian ernorship of John Endicott, an
wise man, Misquamacus, who had adventurer named Thomas Morton
taught Billington some of his se- took over the failing Mount Wollas-
crets, then imprisoned Ossadagowah ton settlement in the town of Quin-
near the ring of stones under a cy, Massachusetts. Contrary to
mound around which no vegetation the strict Puritan laws, Morton, un-
would grow. der the guise of running a fur-
For reasons known only to him, trading post, consorted with Indi-
Derleth made several striking ans, selling them liquor and guns,
changes in this fragment before he and in contravention of the Puri-
incorporated it, along with other tans' dour distaste for humor,
fragments, into his novel. One of changed the sober name of Mount
 Candlemas 1988 / 15

Wollaston to Merry Mount. Morton fragment. He was familiar with

also revived the pagan Druidic Morton and the whole Mount Dagon
custom of dancing around the May episode. This can be deduced
pole. He built one atop Merry from the title Derleth gave to an-
Mount, overlooking the sea. Call- other Lovecraft fragment used in
ing himself "The Lord of Misrule," Lurker at the Threshold entitled ,

he formed what seems to be almost "Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the

a Puritan version of a hippie com-
mune, complete with Free Love and
all the trappings.
The Puritan fathers in Plymouth
were outraged by all this. They
could not ignore it because the In-
dians had taken to murdering set-
tlers with the guns Morton pro-
vided. So Governor Endicott sent
a company of soldiers, led by Miles
Standish, to break up the settle-
ment and tear down the May pole.
Which they did.
Morton was sent back to England
by boat, and although he was later
to return to the colonies, he was
never again the wild and crazy guy
he had been at Merry Mount.
After the May pole had been
taken down, the area was shunned
and, as a recognition of the place
of ill repute it had been, for some
years afterward the Puritans called
it "Mounte-Dagon " Or Mount Dagon.
.
New-English Canaan," which Derleth
credited, whimsically enough, to the
"Reverend Ward Phillips, Pastor of
the Second Church of Arkham."
Lovecraft had not titled the second
fragment, which concerned super-
natural manifestations in Duxbury
circa 1684, nor is that title, sup-
posedly of a Puritan book, men-
tioned anywhere by Lovecraft.
But a Puritan era book actually
called The New English Canaan does
exist. was authored by no less
It
than ThomasMorton after his re-
turn It was a com-
to the colonies.
bination memoir and apology for the
Mount Dagon episode, in which
Morton attempts to explain away
many of the stories and rumors of
idolatry that hung over his activi-
ties. Some of his explanations may
be specious, but the odor of the
supernatural permeates this book.
Moreover, it was written in a style

Obviously, they took the name from carefully copied by Lovecraft for
biblicalreferences to idolatry that his "Evill Sorceries" fragment.
haunted the name of Dagon as it Derleth obviously understood all
appeared in the Bible. of this, which is why he evoked
It seems clear that Lovecraft's The New English Canaan in The
Richard Billington was inspired by Lurker at the Threshold . As
Thomas Morton. Although Morton pointed out in my Lovecraft Studies
was never accused of sorcery as article, Mount Dagon episode
the
such, his paganism and consorting seems to have made a profound im-
with Indians is analogous to Billing- print upon the collective conscious-
ton's alleged deeds. And his build- ness of Puritan Massachusetts. Sev-
ing of a Stonehenge-like ring of eral years after Morton was exiled,
stones is certainly as Druidic as the certain Bostonians were buried un-
May pole. der headstones carved by an un-

Dagon
Does this mean that the Place of
Lovecraft mentions is identi-
identifiable
sported twin
stonecuttei which
fish-tailed creatures

cal with Mount Dagon? And does believed be representations of
to
the name New Plymouth, then, Dagon. Speculation as to why only
really mask the reality of Quincy, this dozen or so stones in the
the birthplace of two presidents, greater Boston burying grounds
the railroad, the first Dunkin
first bear the Dagon image has never
Donuts and the Howard Johnson produced a concrete conclusion al-
chain? (And the home of Will Mur- though one theory has it that even
ray himself --Ed
I
. ] after Mount Wollaston was aban-
No, it is not. And even mid- doned and its inhabitants were
westerner August Derleth seems to scattered or absorbed into the Puri-
have understood the source of the tan mainstream, there continued to
16 / Crypt of Cthulhu

exist a secret society or "under- erences to Dagon are too weak to

ground" which clung stubbornly to spark a powerful story like "Da-
Morton's free-thinking philosophy. gon." It might be that Lovecraft
The Merry Mount incident clearly was so taken by the sinister name
impressed Lovecraft. It was a per- Mounte-Dagon in early reading
fect example of the dark side of about Morton's career that he was
Puritanism he found so fascinating. led to investigate the origin of the
It also, incidentally, inspired one of name, and liking what he found,
Lovecraft's favorite contemporary used it.
horror novels, Herbert Gorman's But there is another possible
The Place Called Dagon (George H. source a bizarre one. As it turns
Doran Company, 1927) ,which fo- out, Dagon is also a word found in
cused on a surviving witch cult in the Algonquin Indian language the
the mythical Western Massachusetts same language out of which Love-
communities of Leeminster and Marl- craft concocted the name of the in-
boro, west of the Connecticut famous Miskatonic River and from
River. Gorman also cites the which Misquamacus, the name of the
Thomas Morton incident in his book, Indian wizard who is also mentioned
as did Fred Chappell decades later in the "Evill Sorceries" fragment, is
in his similar book, Dagon . derived
In fact, it may well be that the Actually, the word "dagon" does
wording of Lovecraft's "Place of not appear by itself. It is half of
Dagon" was inspired by the title of a mysterious construction, Sagon-
Gorman's novel more than anything daqon Its
. true meaning is un-
else. For when Lovecraft uses the known, according to every refer-
term, he is not referring to a ence I've consulted. Sagon-daqon
place-name, despite the use of cap- is, appropriately enough, the Indi-
ital letters (the Puritans capitalized an place-name for Maine's Newport
words seemingly at random, as the Lake, now called Sebasticook Lake.
"Evill Sorceries" fragment so faith- It can be found on the map near
fully reflects), but to the pagan Bangor. '

god, as he would later do with the According to Fannie Hardy Eck-

Esoteric Order of Dagon. Love- storm's Indian Place-Names of the
craft's use of the Philistine fish-god Penobscot Valley and the Maine
in the 1917 short story, "Dagon," Coast Sagon-dagon may be another
,

and the 1931 "Shadow over Inns- name for the place-name Nala-bon -
mouth" are specific references to gan , itself a difficult-to-translate
the god and, at least in the second word which might mean "long, level,
story, is a Cthulhu Mythos trap- still water." She also theorizes
ping. The Puritan usage in the that Sagon-dagon may be a corrup-
"Evill Sorceries" fragment simply tion of akkadeqen meaning "it is
,

refers to a place of shame or idol- level," or s ageoei onigen which ,

atry in the colloquial or biblical means "an ancient portage." Eck-

sense and has nothing to do with storm rejects the name Sagwai-ah -
Philistine mythology. Since later wanqan "the Old Route" as a pos-
,

in the fragment Lovecraft also men- sible source.

tions Sadogowah, an Algonquinized Apparently, the word "dagon"
version of Clark Ashton Smith's does not appear by itself in the
toad god, Tsathoggua, he was no Algonquian language, at least as a
doubt planning to splice the Cthu- place-name. In fact, place-names
lhu Mythos connotations of Dagon beginning with the consonant "d"
to the Puritans' biblical meaning. are extremely rare in New England
We may never know why Love- Indian lore. (Although do note I

craft, as a teenager, leapt upon the place-name, Daaquam which ,

the name of Dagon for one of his means "thy beaver," which is not
earliestsupernatural horror stories. much Thus, the Algonquin
help.)
From the Bible, perhaps, although meaning of "dagon" is an impenetra-
it would seem that the biblical ref- ble mystery.
 Candlemas 1988 / 17

It's a wonderful coincidence if the South Shore of that state. More

such it is that the name should be incredibly, Plymouth is not north of
present in pre-Colonial New Eng- the Salem area, which is the ac-
land, and associated with water as cepted locale of Arkham, but south!
well. If Lovecraft knew of this And if further proof of this
fact, he must have been tickled by belief is needed, should point out
I

it, because he loved to show in his that the town of Duxbury, which is
stories that his entities and con- also mentioned in the Thaumaturgi-
cepts were universally known by cal Prodigies fragment as a place
primitive man, who called them by where odd doings occurred in Puri-
(sometimes only slightly) different tan times, is only a few miles up
names and cloaked their reality be- the coast from Plymouth.
hind conflicting legends. It's unfortunate that Lovecraft
So where was the Place of Da- never finished "Of Evill Sorceries,"
gon? because it indicates that he was
This is where August Derleth's about to break ground in a new
puzzling name change seems espe- corner of the Cthulhu Mythos, mov-
cially dubious. New Plymouth is ing it away from Dunwich to the
the early name given to the town of west and Arkham and Kingsport and
Plymouth, the seat of Massachusetts Innsmouth to the north, to Plym-
government in the Puritan days and outh by the sea a place which
the site of the landing of the May- might be called the lost city of the
flower and Plymouth Rock. The Cthulhu Mythos.
early settlers called it New Plym-
outh to distinguish it from old
Plymouth, in old England. The MAIL-CALL OF CTHULHU
hidden irony in Lovecraft's frag- (continued from page 9)
ment was that after Governor Endi-
cott sent Miles Standish up to production of his tales, be they
Quincy from Plymouth to quench the simple or not, in that they are full
fires of paganism lit by Thomas of hideously simple hints and por-
Morton, Plymouth was plagued by a tents to the true nature of his cre-
Thomas Morton of its own in the ation, the Sesqua Valley. This
person of Richard Billington, and creation, Mr. Pugmire has made
cursed by its own version of Mount from a part of himself, and part of
Dagon, far worse than a simple everything he sees and feels, thus
seaside hill crowned by a May pole rendering his stories the truest art
topped by buck antlers. imaginable.
Derleth seemed aware of the --Shawn Ramsey
Puritan practice of calling New Eng- Anderson, IN
land versions of old English towns
"New" this and "New" that. In The I liked Bruce J. Bal-
especially
Lurker at the Threshold he wrote
, four's charming
"Christmas with
". .it might well be presumed
. Uncle Lovecraft." It was a wonder-
that the superstitions of that time ful and the story had an un-
idea,
still lingered among the credulous expected note of poignancy. Guy
people, cleric as well as lay, when Cowlishaw's witty cover was also a
they lived in the country around real treat.
Duxbury and 'New Dunnich' which, To quotes and
that collector of
surely,must be the place known as eminent Mr. Lin
eluctidationist ,

Dunwich, and thus in the neigh- Carter, pass along one of my fa-
I

bourhood." The "neighbourhood" vorite sayings. It's the epigraph

is that which, in the opening para- of David Rabe's play Sticks and
graph of this novel, Derleth styles Bones and it really impressed me
,

as "North of Arkham." Incredibly, when read it there.

I The quote
Derleth has, through a simple re- is from, of all people. Sonny Lis-
naming, relocated Dunwich from its ton: "Life a funny thing." It
rural western Massachusetts seat to (continued on page 33)
18 / Crypt of Cthulhu

Faulty Memories & Evill Sorceries

By Robert M. Price

August Derleth's novel The he connects them in theme (making

Lurker at the Threshold has often the bat-thing of the second anec-
been mistakenly attributed to H. P. dote the bastard offspring of Rich-
Lovecraft (a misunderstanding to ard Billington, the subject of the
which Derleth did not seem strongly first anecdote). And he attributes
averse) because Derleth used some the second anecdote to a completely
fragments and notes left unfinished different book of his own devising,
by Lovecraft, incorporating some Thaumaturqicall Prodigies in the
of this material verbatim. Derleth New-Enqlish Canaan; By the Rev.
claimed to have based his story on Ward Phillips, Pastor of the Sec-
two sets of Lovecraft's notes con- ond Church in Arkham, in the
-

cerning a "round tower" and "a Massachusetts-Bay -Boston, 1697,

rose window." We will see that it a title he erroneously ascribes to
is not quite so simple a picture. Lovecraft, making "Evill Sorceries,
Instead, Derleth may be shown to etc.," into a mere chapter of the
have taken the main direction of the former. Derleth seems in general
story from other Lovecraftian to have had trouble recalling just
sources, and to have pretty much who created what title. He was
disregarded the interesting plot also in the habit of crediting him-
suggestions left in Lovecraft's self as the creator of Cultes des
notes Coules . though actually it was Rob-
In his Some Notes on H. P. ert Bloch's.
Lovecraft (1959), Derleth repro- Textual matters aside, it is ap-
duced the fragments he used, indi- parent that Derleth's physical de-
cating most of the relatively minor scription of the round tower (the
changes he made incorporating them ultimate origin of which would seem
into The Lurker at the Threshold . to be the "Old Stone Mill" or "Vik-
Yet even Derleth's "purified" ver- ing Tower" in Newport, Rhode
sion of the original texts is not Island) in Lurker owes more to
quite accurate. (The reader is ad- "The Round Tower" than to "The
vised at this point to refer to the Rose Window." Its sealing with the
corrected text of Lovecraft's frag- Elder Sign and its function of im-
ments at the end of this article.) prisoning a demon obviously derive
The first thing to be noted is from "Evill Sorceries." Interesting-
that there are three distinct frag- ly, in none of the fragments is the
ments, not two as Derleth claimed. tower depicted as on an island in
And whereas Derleth had admitted the Miskatonic as Derleth has it.
that the fragments about the round "The Round Tower" provided the
tower and the rose window were detail of the dried-up tributary of
only possibly connected, these two the Miskatonic, but in this fragment
would seem to be the most closely the tower actually stood in the
related, since both contain very riverbed and had once been under
similar descriptions of a cylindrical water. The location on an island
tower. The burial mound in "Evill in the river comes, surprisingly,
Sorceries," by contrast, is only from "The Colour out of Space,"
vaguely reminiscent of the tower in where we read of "the small island
either fragment. And not only does in the Miskatonic where the devil
"Evill Sorceries" have nothing to do held court beside a curious stone
with either "The Round Tower" or altar older than the Indians."
"The Rose Window," it is composed Who built the tower? According
of two separate anecdotes. Derleth to "The Round Tower," "it was
does break them up in Lurker but ,
built by [ the ]
Old Ones (shapeless
 Candlemas 1988 / 19

& gigantic amphibia)." According- the elder world which will spell
ly, it is "supposed to be older than death for anyone whose curiosity
mankind." Another example, then, has led him to do some exploring.
of Lovecraft's
oft-used device of Regarding the appended anecdote
prehuman artifacts. But Derleth concerning the bat-creature, which
dropped this conception in Lurker . Derleth incorporates to no real pur-
substituting for it the more prosaic pose, we may point out two inter-
expedient of having the tower built esting parallels elsewhere in the
by Alijah Billington in the 1700s. Lovecraft canon. "The monstrous
As Lovecraft conceived the plot, it Bat with a human Face" was
would have largely paralleled "The "brought out of the Woods near
Nameless City." Like that city, the Candlemas of 1863." This is remi-
tower is the tip of a subterranean niscent of the backwoods birth of
city (it extends downward indefi- goatlike Wilbur Whateley ("The Dun-
nitely and connects with caverns wich Horror") at Candlemas, having
where the Old Ones still dwell un- been conceived nine months earlier
beknownst to men). And the tow- in an occult rite at Roodmas. And
er, like the Nameless City, is the something similar is implied in The
subject of frightful legends of fool- Case of Charles Dexter Ward ,

hardy explorers. wherein the Roodmas invocation of

Derleth is somewhat more faith- Yog-Sothoth will cause "ye thing
ful to the fragment "Evill Sor- (to] breede in ye Outside Spheres,"
ceries." Of course, he does in- presumably to be born nine months
clude most of it verbatim, includ- later at Candlemas. Indeed, there
ing the reference to "Ossadogowah ," is some reason to interpret Joseph
the "child of Sadogowah." It is Curwen's ultimate design as being
plain, however, from this passage the same as Wizard Whateley 's to
that for Lovecraft, the "lurker at unleash Yog-Sothoth upon the
the threshold" would have been world, threatening "all civilization,
this "Son of Tsathoggua." Derleth all natural law, perhaps even the
brushes this entity aside in favor fate of the solar system and the
of Yog-Sothoth. In one place he universe" The Case of Charles
(

says the ancient Indian sorcerer Dexter Ward ) Perhaps something

.

Misquamacus was simply wrong, similar was in view in "Evill Sor-

having mistaken Yog-Sothoth for ceries," with the birth of the bat-
Ossadogowah. As for the descrip- thing. And though The Lurker
tion of Ossadogowah, Derleth has at the Threshold does show the
slightly altered Lovecraft's de- influence of "The Dunwich
scription, adding that when it was Horror," almost nothing is made
"big and cloudy" it had a face full of the monstrous birth of the
of serpentine tentacles. He does bat-hybrid. It is mentioned only
not indicate this change when pur- vestigially, having no real
porting to give Lovecraft's original significance in terms of the plot.
in Some Notes on H. P. Lovecraft . This is too bad since Lovecraft's
It becomes obvious that Derleth brief note was "pregnant" with
simply lifted the Lovecraft sections horrific potential.
out of the text of Lurker changes
,
Finally, here are Lovecraft's
and all, instead of going back to oriqinal fragments, transcribed by
HPL's original notes. He did not S. T. Joshi:
quite recall all the differences be-
tween the two versions. THE ROUND TOWER
Something else in the "Evill
Sorceries" fragment that deserves S. of Arkham is cylindrical tower
mention is the implicit parallel with of stone with conical roofperhaps
"The Mound." In both cases, what 12 across & 20 ft. high. There
feet
appears to be an Indian burial has been a great arched opening
mound is a cover for something (
up?), but it is sealed
else, a survival or invader from with masonry. The thing rises
20 / Crypt of Cthulhu

from the bottom of a densely Sky at Night. There were in that

wooded ravine once the bed of an year seven slayings in the Woods
extinct tributary of the Miskatonic. near to Richard Billington's Stones,
Whole region feared t shunned by those slain being crushed and half-
rustics. Tales of fate of persons melted in a Fashion outside all Ex-
climbing into tower before opening perience. Upon Talk of a Tryall,
was sealed. Indian legends speak Billington dropt out of Sight, nor
of it as existing as long as they was any clear word of him ever
could remembei -supposed to be after heard.
older than mankind. Legend that "Two months from then, by
it was built by Old Ones (shapeless Night, there was heard a Band of
6 gigantic amphibia) & that it was Wampanaug Salvages howling and
once under the water. Dressed singing in the Woods; and it ap-
stone masonry shews odd 6 un- peared, they took down the Ring of
known technique. Geometrical de- Stones and did much besides. For
signs on large stone above sealed their head Man Misquamacus that ,

opening utterly baffling. Sup- same antient Wonder-Worker of

posed to house a treasure or some-
thing which Old Ones value highly.
Possibly nothing of interest to hu-
man beings. Rumours that it con-
nects with hidden caverns where
water still exists. Perhaps Old
Ones still alive. Base seems
tend indefinitely downward ground
level having somewhat risen. Has
not been seen for ages, since ev-
eryone shuns the ravine.
OF EVILL SORCERIES DONE IN
NEW ENGLAND OF DAEMONS
IN NO HUMANE SHAPE
"But, not to speak at too great
Length upon so horrid a Matter,
will add onlie what is commonly re-
ported concerning an Happening in
New Plymouth fifty
, Years since,
when Mr. Bradford was Governour.
'Tis said, one Richard Billington
being instructed partly by evill
Books, and partly by an antient
Wonder-Worker amongst the Indian
Salvages, so fell away from good
Christian Practice that he not only
lay'd claim to Immortality in the
Flesh, but sett up in the Woods a
Place of Dagon, namely |a] great
Ring of Stones, inside which he
say'd Prayers to the Divell, and
sung certain Rites of Magick abomi-
nable by Scripture. This being
brought to the Notice of the Magis-
whom Billington had learnt some of
his Sorceries, came shortly into the
town and told Mr. Bradford some
strange Things: namely, that Bill-
ington had done worse Evill than
cou'd be well repair'd, and that he
to ex- was no doubt eat up by what he
had call'd out of the Sky. That
there was no Way to send back that
Thing he had summon'd, so the
Wampanaug wise Men had caught
and prison'd it where the Ring of
Stones had been.
"They had digg'd a Hole three
Ells deep and two across, and had
thither charmed the Daemon with
Spells that they knew; covering it
over with Great Rocks and setting
I on Top a flat Stone carved with
what they call'd the Elder Sign.
On this they made a Mound of the
Earth digg'd from the Pit, sticking
on it a tall Stone carv'd with a
, Warning. The old Salvage affirm'd,
this mound must on no Account be
disturb'd, lest the Daemon come
loose again which it wou'd if the
bury'd flatt Stone with the Elder
Sign shou'd get out of Place. On
being ask'd what the Daemon look'd
like, he gave a very curious and
circumstantiall Relation, saying it
was sometimes small and solid, like
a great Toad the Bigness of a
Ground-Hog, but sometimes big and
cloudy, without any Shape at all.
"It had the Name Ossadaqowah ,

trates, he deny'd all blasphemous which signifys the child of Sadogo -

Dealings; but not long after he wah ; the last a frightfull Spirit
privately shew'd great Fear about spoke of by old Men as coming
some Thing he had call'd out of the down from the Stars and being
 Candlemas 1988 / 21

formerly worshipt in Lands to the | THE ROSE WINDOW]

North. The Wampanauqs and Nan - .

sets and Nahiqqansets knew how to , Rumoursabout nameless evil in

draw it out of the Sky, but never the house before legatee's ancestors
did so because of the exceeding bought it in 1758. Nothing definite
great Evilness of it. They knew villagers dislike to talk of it.
also how to catch and prison it, Builder probably Edward Crane who
tho 1
they cou'd not send it back lived muchin Europe. Mysteriously
whence it was however
came. It rich. Disappeared 1723 house long
declar'd, that the old Tribes of vacant and shunned.
Lamah who dwelt under the Great
, Very ancient house on Central
Bear and were antiently destroy'd Hill, Kingsport inherited. Thick
for their Wickedness, knew how to walls date circa 1700 (some parts
manage it in all Ways. Many up- older). Labyrinthine plan. He has
start Men pretended to a Knowledge often visited it and felt an odd
of such antient Secrets, but none fear, especially in high-oak-pan-
in these Parts cou'd give any Proof elled library, but ancestors have
of truly having it. It was say'd by never shewn fear. Hard to figure
some, that Ossadogowah often went what lies beyond library's N. wall.
back to the Sky from choice without (Staircase and cupboards.) During
any sending, but that he cou'd not repairs, plane wooden front comes
come back unless summon'd. off triangular pediment of huge,
"This much the antient Wizard built-in bookcase in library's N.
Misquamacus told to Mr. Bradford , wall, revealing strangely carved
and ever after a great Mound in the surface with convex glass circle 7"
Woods near the Pond southwest of diameter in centre. This was origi-
New-Plymouth hath been straitly nal surface, later covered over.//
lett alone. The tall Stone is these House a very early classical speci-
Twenty years gone, but the Mound men//case 9 ft high 8 ft wide small
is mark'd by the Circumstance, that step-ladder used for top shelves//
nothing, neither Grass nor Brush, circle 8 ft above floor //legatee Dud-
will grow upon it. Grave Men doubt ley Ropes Glover//
that the evill Billington was eat up, Carving very baffling. Possibly
as the Salvages believe, by what just classical conventional designs,
he call'd out of the Sky; notwith- possibly something else. Disquiet-
standing certain Reports of the ing resemblance under certain lights
Idle, of his being since seen in to huge octopus-like thing yet not
divers places, and that no longer like anything of earth of which
ago than the late monstrous Witch- glass circle is a huge, single cen-
crafts in Essex-County in the , tral eye. Signs in corners of pedi-
Year 1692. ment uncomfortably familiar. Glass
itself also baffling. Opaque evi-
* * *
dently convex mirror like many in
old houses but curiously devoid of
But in respect of generall In- reflective power. Also too high up
famy, no Report more terrible hath to reflect anything but top of room.
come to Notice, than of what Good- What one sees in it is generally on-
wife Doten Relict of John Doten of
, ly cloudy light. This light seems
Duxbury in the Old Colonie, to shift oddly, and one acquires a
brought out of the Woods near Can- perverse tendency to keep staring
dlemas of 1683. She affirm'd, and at the thing as if one expected
her good neighbors likewise, that it something to appear. Suggestion
had been borne that which was of self-luminousness at night.
neither Beast nor Man, but like to Cleaning does no good. Owner de-
a monstrous Bat with humane Face. cides to let it alone. Moves in.
The which was burnt by Order of In back garden, ruins of a brick
the High-Sheriff on the 5th of June tower 12 ft in diameter. Rumours
in the Year 1689. of evil annual use lights signalling
22 / Crypt of Cthulhu

answered. Doorway now bricked MAIL-CALL OF CTHULHU

up. Ivy-clad. Windowless 30 ft (continued from page 13)
standing once 50 with windows and
flat railed roof. tome on the poor creatures who
comprise what Isaac Asimov calls
Told by father? the Army of the Night.
Stimulates hereditary memory. Is David F. Godwin
lens, prism, or mirror reflecting Dallas, TX
vision from other dimension or di-
mensions time or space. Or rather, Crypt#51 might be called the
reflecting obscure rays not of vi- "merciful correlation of contents is-
sion but operating on vestigial and sue," with Shawn Ramsey's and
forgotten extra senses. Constructed Carl Ford's respective anatomies of
by outside Entities in effort to Lumley's and Kuttner's Mythos fic-
inspect human world or rather, tion and the info on the Tcho-
const, by elder wizard under their Tchos. Mike Ashley's piece on
direction Lovecraft and Blackwood was his
Outer beings peer through it. usual informative stuff. We all
Influence humans by opening up idolize Lovecraft looking back from
other senses and dimension-percep- 1987, but it's interesting to see
tions possibly including hereditary how his contemporaries perceived
memory. Explains odd dreams of him. Hugh Cave seemed to think
strange horror. Also works through of him as just another colleague in
dreams his interview with Audrey Parente
Principal effect, perhaps, to in the last Etchings and Odysseys .

hold the attention and make mind About the same time, though, John
susceptible to outside influence. Campbell was using him as an exam-
Supply details of effect on oc- ple of type of fantasy he did
the
cupant/ /hered mem. //going
. for not want in Unknown which in a
,

door now closed.// Discovering very backhanded way was recogniz-

books in attic//shadowy companion? ing Lovecraft not just as an author,
//wanders around tower//final de- but as an innovator of a particular
nouement kind of fantasy.
| In secret room deep black shaft Of all the fiction Lin Carter has
5 ft. diam. leading down from hole had in Crypt liked "The Benevo-
, I

in floor through house and founda- lence of Yib" the best. Ligotti's
tions. Swish of the tides heard far "The Mystics of Meulenburg" was
*
below . ] his usual good stuff.

Stefan R. Dziemianowicz
Crossed out. (continued on page 24)

SF/FANTASY

HORROR LITERATURE

NEW AND USED FIRST EDITIONS

MONTHLY CATALOGS ISSUED

WANT LIST/SEARCH SERVICE

MENTION CRYPTIC PUBLICATIONS 6 RECEIVE COUPON

FOR 10% DISCOUNT ON YOUR FIRST ORDER.
 Candlemas 1 988 / 23

AND YET EVEN STILL MORE

LIMERICKS FROM YUGGOTH
By Lin Carter

XXXX. XXXXVI
Of Colgoroth, here's what I've And Mnomquah lives inside the Moon
heard Rather far from the nearest saloon;
That he often acts somewhat ab- When he's worked up a thirst
surd . He has to go first
The Shantaks that serve him Down to lb on the shores of Lake
Will often observe him Thune,
Behaving a bit like a nerd.
XXXXVII
XXXXI.
Where his minions keep lots of the
Why else would he pick the South
sauce
Pole
Right on hand so whenever their
To bury himself in a hole
boss
Beneath the Black Mountain?
Has a hankering hearty
(There ain't no accountin'
To have him a party,
For personal taste, I've been tol'l)
It won't catch the boys at a loss.
XXXXII.
XXXXVIII.
When Zoth-Ommog came down from
the stars Yes, the whole darn tentacular crew
He passed up Uranus and Mars, Of the Old Ones are fond of the
Saturn, Neptune and Pluto brew
Never caring a hoot, though. They enjoy some high jinks
Since Yuggoth had classier bars. And a couple stiff drinks,
Then they nap for an aeon or two.
XXXXIII.
Yep, on Yuggoth a cocktail they XXXXIX.
serve If the Old Ones stopped off at the
To drink one takes plenty of
store
nerve
There on Yuggoth to have just one
Culp down three, the ground
more
quakes.
Before they descended.
Even Yig sees pink snakes. No wonder it ended
And, wow, all the stars you'll ob- With the Elder Cods winning the
serve!
war
XXXXIV.
L.
So Zoth-Ommog stopped off on his
trip But don't think it makes any diff
I

Down to Earth just to sample a sip: That the Elder Cods won it what if
His thirst was terrific. Old Cthulhu instead
It took the Pacific Had come out way ahead.
To cool off his headache, the rip! Although drunk as an old bindle-
stiff
XXXXV.
LI .

Come to think of it, this could ex-

plain
Why Golgoroth put ice on his
And found the Antarctic
Cool, soothing and dark (hie!)
Just the thing for his hangover
pain
Why, it sure would be awfully dumb
brain. To have the nine worlds ruled by
some
Cosmic octopi boozy.
All maudlin and woozy.
And their boss a besotted old bum!
24 / Crypt of Cthulhu

LI I MAIL-CALL OF CTHULHU
(continued from page 22)
Yes, the Elder Gods still are some
use Although find Crypt erratic,
I

(at least they stay off the old

that is part of its charm; and each
juice)
issue contains at least a couple of
And rule with propriety. fascinating items if nothing else,
Loads of sobriety.
the reviews and letters are usually
From their domain on the far Betel-
interesting. hope that your more
I

geuze.
liberal fiction policy does not lead
Pronounced "beetle-juice," you to an increase in the percentage of
know. Crypt that is devoted to fiction.
Fan horror zines that publish fic-
L'Envoi* tion are everywhere these days, it
seems, but precious few magazines
Llll.
include the mix of fiction and non-
So . . . if a Byakhee gives you fiction, with the emphasis on HPL's
the wink works, that characterizes Crypt In .

And offers to buy you a drink. any case, I'm glad you changed
Just thank him politely your one-time plans to stop at #50.
But say "no" forthrightly, Hang in there at least until #100,
And never mind what he may think. okay?
LIV.

Michael A. Morrison
Norman, OK
And if you would keep a clear head
Go early (and sober) to bed; Your notice of Donald Wandrei's
Yes, you'd really be wise death has left me numb. Since 1984
To do as advise I I had been exchanging letters with
And order a Pepsi instead. him. I found him courteous and
that he had the soul of a poet. He
*1 think I mean "L'Envoi." once told me in a letter he hoped to
write more stories when he had the
ABSOLUTELY AND POSITIVELY time. Sadly time ran out for him.
THE END In my last contact with him he said
OF THE LIMERICKS FROM YUGGOTH he had "been overwhelmed with
problems." By his handwriting I

Lin Carter got the impression he had severe

rheumatoid arthritis or Parkinson-
ism. His stories such as "The Tree
Men of M'Bwa" or "Lives of Alfred
Kramer" were among the greatest
stories that Weird Tales published.
Had his output been greater have
I

AD RATES no doubts he would have been

ranked along with Clark Ashton
Full page (6 1/2"x9 1/2"). . $30 Smith and Robert E. Howard. He
Half page (6 1/2"x4 3/4" made up with E. Hoffmann Price
or 3"x9 1/2") . $16 and C. L. Moore a second three
Quarter page (6 1/2"x2 1/3 II
musketeers of Weird Tales Let us
.

or 3"x3 3/4") $8.50 hope that if he left any unpublished

manuscripts that they don't disap-
Send camera ready copy, and pear as has happened with other
do not exceed exact dimensions writers (Otis Adelbert Kline to
as stated above (the first fig- mention one). His stories deserve
ure denotes width). to see the light of day. How many
people have read The Eye and t he
Fi nger (Arkham House, 1944) 7 One
(continued on page 26)
 Candlemas 1988 / 25

Did Lovecraft Have Syphilis ?

H. P. Lovecraft's father, Win- bear him, and he would not have

field Scott Lovecraft, died on July survived. But the taint would re-
19, 1898, of "general paresis," a main, sufficiently strong to torment
state of paralysis now most often Lovecraft in the ways Keller sug-
associated with syphilis, though at gested .

that time, as L. Sprague de Camp Keller's controversial essay,

notes, "paresis" was simply another which originally appeared in Fan -
word for paralysis. Nonetheless, tasy Commentator was reprinted a
,

it is most often believed that Win- decade later in Fresco Spring ,

field Lovecraft's paresis was a re- 1958, where it was followed by a

sult of syphilis. De Camp reports rebuttal by Kenneth Sterling, MD.
that physicians he consulted during Sterling charged that all of Keller's
the writing of his Lovecraft: A information was either outdated or
Biography judged that what little just plain false, and thus his argu-
evidence exists would seem to sug- mentation was inexcusably shoddy.
gest syphilis as the origin of the First, Sterling argued that the
elder Lovecraft's condition. 1 Could elder Lovecraft might indeed have
his father have passed on the had syphilis, but that the evidence
affliction to his son, HPL? was certainly ambiguous, since he
As far as know, the first to
I lived longer in the paretic condition
broach this possibility was Winfield than syphilitic cases usually do.
Townley Scott in his essay "His But supposing Winfield Lovecraft
Own Most Fantastic Creation" did have syphilis. Sterling con-
(1944). He remarks very briefly, tinued, it is simply not true that
"There is no indication at all that his wife or child must have derived
11
his son inherited his father's dis- it from him.

ease." ^ David H. Keller in "Shad- Onesuspects that more was in-

ows Over Lovecraft" (1948) dis- volved in this dispute than medi-
missed Scott's judgment as that of cine. Keller was also a success-
an uninformed layperson and argued ful pulp writer, and some have
instead that Lovecraft must have suggested that his insinuation of
inherited the disease, and that the Lovecraft having syphilis may have
accompanying threat of eventual been a spiteful jab at Lovecraft's
madness and death was the genesis apostle August W. Derleth for some
of these recurring themes in Love- disparaging remark Derleth had
craft's fiction. The prospect of made concerning Keller's fiction.
miscegenation, inbreeding, and he- Sterling, in turn, was not only
reditary degeneration was a matter himself a one-time pulp writer, but
of true horror to Lovecraft, Keller also a friend and fan of Lovecraft
claimed, because like the protag- (the two co-authored "In the Walls
onist of "The Shadow over Inns- of Eryx"), and thus was anxious
mouth," Lovecraft found himself to to clear Lovecraft's name of what
be their victim! he considered a slur. But in any
Keller was an MD and explained event, only medical evidence can
that Winfield Lovecraft's condition settle the issue. Now at last the
must have been the result of syphi- question has been settled.
lis. His wife, HPL's mother Susie, The microfilmed medical records
in turn must have contracted the housed in Jane Brown Memorial
disease, and she must have passed Hospital that were made at the time
it on to young Howard. Susie and of H. P. Lovecraft's final illness
Howard must have had mild cases, clearly show (on the top left-hand
or she would have been unable to corner of the lab sheet) that Love-
26 / Crypt of Cthulhu

craft was given a Wasserman test, MAIL=CALL OF CTHULHU

which proved negative. He did not (continued from page 24)
have syphilis.
How has this data escaped ear- more thread that tied us with the
lier researchers? Apparently they golden age of Weird Tales has now
had access only to earlier, inferior been cut. Perhaps Crypt of Cthu -
quality photocopies of the records. lhu can have someone who knew him
Such copies, which have also I well write a memorial or even have
seen, turned out quite faded, and an issue devoted to him. Crypt is
one cannot make out the relevant about the only magazine qualified to
material, which is, however, quite do so. Let Donald Wandrei be re-
distinct on more recent, superior membered not as someone who knew
copies Lovecraft, but as a great writer
and poet in his own right.
NOTES Donald Wandrei: May he rest in
peace but may his memory live on.
1L. Sprague de Camp, Love - --Morgan T. Holmes
cr aft: A Biography ( London : New Cleveland Heights, OH
English Library, 1976), p. 16.
Yuletide issue is excellent you'll
^Winfield Townley Scott, "His tide me over until next year! It
Own Most Fantastic Creation," in continues to amaze me that there
August W. Derleth (ed.). Margina - are so many new aspects of HPL
lia (Sauk City: Arkham House, being discovered by the scholars
1994), p. 327. who contribute to Crypt Probably
no other contemporary author has
^David H. Keller, "Shadows
received such intense a study or
Over Lovecraft," Fresco, Spring
deserved it!
1958, Vol 8, No.
. 3, pp. 23-26. Robert Bloch
^Response by Kenneth Sterling Los Angeles, CA
appended to Keller, "Shadows,"
I loved the new Crypt My .

pp. 27-29.
favorite item was Mike Ashley's
"Lovecraft and Blackwood: A Sur-
veillance." Reading it made me re-
KLARKASH-TON gret that I've yet to find a collec-
Those readers interested in tion of Blackwood's tales. Ashley
submitting articles to Klarkash - writes very well, and the article
Ton a new Cryptic Publications
, seems well-researched.
journal devoted to Clark Ash- Shawn's piece on Kuttner's My-
ton Smith, should send manu- thos tales reveals yet another side
scripts to editor Steve Beh- of Ramsey's writing talents (he has
rends, 508 East Downer Place, composed many excellent poems,
Aurora, IL 60505. written some swell stories, and
edited a great first issue of Revela -
tions from Yuqgoth )

I hope you will soon realize that

Ligotti deserves a special issue
BACK ISSUES AVAILABLE dedicated to him, filled with rare
Copies of Crypt of Cthulhu tales and articles. He continues to
#s 10, 16, 17, 23, 25, 26, 32, stun andfascinate me with his
34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 45, 46, titanic abilities as a writer. Thanks
47, 48, 49, 50, 51 , and 52 at for including "The Mystics of Mue-
$4.50. lenburg" in this issue.
Outside of USA and Canada, The other articles were all in-
add $1.00 per booklet for post- teresting and entertaining, and as
age. Pay in U. S. funds. usual the letters section was great.
In my letter, it should have been
(continued on page 37)
 Candlemas 1988 / 27

Who the Hell Was Winfield Scott Phillips?

By Will Murray

I enjoy research. Digging and possibly being a trifle bored, I

through stacks of old magazines, looked up Winfield Scott Phillips in

letters and manuscripts with the
goal of distilling information, is one
of the joys of my life. But some-
times research does not solve a
question so much as it creates new
ones.
This was the case sometime back
when hied off to that repository
I East Fifth Street in South Boston,
of arcana, the Boston Public Li-
brary, in search of a bit of H. P.
Lovecraft trivia. As is well known,
Lovecraft's parents, Susan Phillips
and Winfield Scott Lovecraft, were
wed in Boston and resided in the
Dorchester section for some time
after their marriage. thought it
would be interesting to consult the
Boston City Directories for 1889,
establish their address and then
check out the house where in all
several consecutive directories.
Phillips was listed as a teamster,
residing at 19 Condor Street in
Boston in 1888. The next year, he
had moved to 1 Meridan. There
was no listing of him in 1890. But
he was back in 1891, living at 824
where he remained into 1892. Phil-
lips was absent from the Boston
City Directory again in 1893, but
the next year he was back in South
Boston, this time residing at 822
East Fifth Street (probably the
other side of a typical South Boston
I duplex), where the Boston City
Directory listed him as living until
1900 after which he drops out of
the listings completely.
For some reason, made notes I

probability the immortal H. P. Love- of all this erratic information,

craft was actually conceived. tempted guess by the vague par-
I

This was easily done, but the allels between Phillips' movements
trouble was there was no Winfield and the activities of H. P. Love-
Scott Lovecraft to be found in the craft's parents. When later com- I

1889 Boston City Directory. Nor pared what dug up about W. S.

I

in 1890. Nor even in 1888. In Phillips with what knew of W. S.

I

fact there were no Lovecrafts listed Lovecraft, was astonished to find

I

at all. Annoyed, but not wishing an amazing string of coincidences.

to give up without
fight, a I None of this may mean anything,
prowled the city directories at ran- but I found that Phillips' first
dom, looking at names and ad- move, from 14 Condor to 1 Meridan
dresses. While doing so, a thought Street (both of which are in East
struck me. Perhaps should look
I Boston, by the way), occurs in the
under the name Phillips. Who knows year that Susan Phillips and Win-
but that Susan Phillips might have field Scott Lovecraft were wed, and
established the residence prior to the year Lovecraft would presum-
the marriage. But, alas, found I ably have changed his address.
no Susan Phillips. According to L. Sprague de Camp,
Idid, however, find a Winfield in his biography, Lovecraft ". , . .

Scott Phillips. following the marriage, the . . .

How odd, thought. Still, Phil-

I couple rented quarters in Dorches-
lips was a common name at least in ter, Massachusetts, south of Bos-
turn-of-the-century Boston. And ton, since most of Winfield Love-
Winfield Scott was a popular name craft's business was at that time in
combination given to men in the last Boston." The next year, in August,
century, inasmuch as it honored the Susan Lovecraft returned to Provi-
famous American military hero. Gen- dence alone to have her child, HPL.
eral Winfield Scott. This is the year there is no listing
Struck by the amusing parallel. for Winfield Scott Phillips in the
28 / Crypt of Cthulhu

Boston City Directory, interestingly Winfield Scott Lovecraft's death.

enough Let's speculate, shall we? Let's
According de Camp, "Since
to assume, because we all like to be-
Winfield Lovecraft's principal busi- lieve that really close coincidences
ness was in Boston, he set about actually mean something, that Win-
buying a lot in that area and con- field Scott Phillips and Winfield
tracting for a house. In the spring Scott Lovecraft were the same per-
of 1892, when Howard was a year son. Let's say, either because
and a half old, the family moved. Lovecraft was such an unusual name
Their movements for the next year (Don't forget that HPL was the only
are uncertain. According to Love- known Lovecraft to be born in
craft, the family rented temporary America even to this day) or be-
quarters in Dorchester and took a cause strong-willed Susan was re-
vacation in Dudley, Massachusetts." luctant to part with her honored
This does not correspond to Win- maiden name, that the couple was
field Scott Phillips' movements. He knows as the Phillips- not the Love-
is listed at 824 East Fifth Street for craft-family.
both 1891 and1 892 although if the If we allow such a fancy, then
census taken early enough in
was virtually every one of Winfield Scott
the year, it might not have re- Phillips' address changes and dis-
corded a springtime move. (Let us, appearances can be explained by a
for the sake of speculation, pre- simultaneous event in the life of
tend that Winfield Scott Phillips and Winfield Scott Lovecraft. It's all
Winfield Scott Lovecraft are some- nicely Fortean. Except for the
how connected.) period from 1894 to 1899 when Win-
After they boarded with the fam- field Scott Phillips is listed as re-
ily of the poet Louise Imogen Cun- siding at 822 East Fifth Street in
ley for the months of June and July South Boston while Winfield Scott
in Auburndale, the living situation Lovecraft was supposedly in an
of the Lovecraft family is unknown. institution
De Camp writes: "I do not know Butwas Lovecraft in an institu-
where the Lovecrafts lived during tion? De Camp's vagueness about
the fall and winter of 1892-93," and where Lovecraft had been taken af-
he goes on to relate the story of ter the breakdown, combined with
how Winfield Scott Lovecraft, dur- his indication that Lovecraft wasn't
ing a trip to Chicago in April 1893, hospitalized at Butler until April
apparently suffered a nervous 1898, indicates that there may be
breakdown and had to be institu- no extant documentation of Love-
tionalized in the East. "This state craft's living situation, other than
of affairs continued for five years hearsay from Lovecraft's letters or
until, on April 25, 1898, Winfield surviving members of the family.
Lovecraft was admitted (or read- It is therefore not impossible for
mitted) to Butler Hospital in Provi- Winfield Scott Lovecraft to have
dence, in a condition of advanced lived in Boston from 1894 to 1898
cerebral disease or 'general paraly- under the name Winfield Scott Phil-
sis of the insane.' On July 19th lips. It is known that his marriage
aged forty-four, he died." was very shaky and that while
As it happens, 1893 is the sec- Susan Lovecraft continued to reside
ond year that Winfield Scott Phillips in Providence, her husband lived
disappears from the Boston listings, an hour away in Boston. And even
as presumably Winfield Scott Love- if Lovecraft was institutionalized, it
craft would have had he continued is not impossible that a residence
to maintain a Boston address up to might have been maintained in the
this time. expectation of recovery. It could
The next year, of course, Phil- be that he merely boarded at 822
lips is listed at 822 East Fifth East Fifth Street and the boarding
Street, where he continued to be house owner dutifully gave his name
listed until 1899 the year following at each year's census taking.
 Candlemas 1988 / 29

I cannot explain Phillips' contin- As his occupation, he gave

uing to be listed in 1899, a year "Teamster, Richmond Print Works."
after Lovecraft's death. except Stunned, checked the 1888
I

through some clerical error. When Boston City Directory, which is

the census taker finds no one home, where found Phillips living at 18
I

for instance, one accepted prac- Condor Street. There was no list-
tice is to carry over the previous ing for Phillips in Boston prior to
year's listing. 1888. But in Providence, found I

I admit this is all fanciful. I him as far back as 1875, living at

don't believe that the two Winfield a succession of addresses with the
Scotts were identical. If for no exceptions of the years 1880, and
other reason than that Mrs. Love- 1882-1883, always giving teamster
craft, being a proper middle-class as his occupation.
woman of the Victorian era, would It would seem that Winfield Scott
hardly retain her maiden name after Phillips' Boston movements not only
marriage, much less insist or allow paralleled those of Winfield Scott
her husband to assume that name. Lovecraft, but that they both moved
Yet can't account for the absence
I from Providence to Boston in the
of a Winfield Scott Lovecraft in the same year, 1888. Needless to say,
Boston City Directories during the I found no Winfield Scott Lovecraft
years he is believed to have re- listed in the Providence City Direc-
sided in Boston. tories, either.
And there is the fact that Win- I don't know how to explain any
field Scott Phillips listed his occu- of this. I'm not sure it requires
pation as a teamstei although this explanation. There is no reason
might be
explained away, too. that Winfield Scott Lovecraft should
W. S. Lovecraft's occupation was be linked in any concrete way with
that of salesman for the Gorham Winfield Scott Phillips, but those
Silver Company of Providence. As are the fruits of my idle research.
it happens, my father was a team- Who the hell is Winfield Scott
ster. He delivered cookies, potato Phillips? don't know.
I I'm too
chips and pies to grocery stores busy trying to identify Winfield
and supermarkets by truck. But Scott Lovecraft's Boston addresses
because he worked on commission, to worry about it any longer. Stuff
he called himself a salesman. That like this can drive you crazy.
practice might have been current
in Lovecraft's day.
There is one more piece to this
puzzle. It is a startling one, and I

discovered it in a startling way.

During my first trip to the Bos-
ton Public Library, was unable to I

check all the city directories had I

FANTASY MACABRE 1
wanted. Specifically, wanted to I

work my way back from 1889, which SPECIAL CTHULHU MYTHOS ISSUE
was the earliest year had been I

This magazine, advertised

able to examine the listings. A
week later here last issue, is available
returned to the library
I

from
and called for the 1888 city direc-
tory and looked up Winfield Scott Richard Fawcett
Phillips. found him. I 61 Teecomwas Drive
Then did a double take.
I By Uncasville, CT 06382
some mental quirk, had called, I

not for the Boston City Directory,

but the Providence one! And it
listed a Winfield Scott Phillips re-
siding at 151 Fountain in Provi-
dence .
30 / Crypt of Cthulhu

SOFT BOOKS
89 Marion Street, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, M6R 1E6

VVe buy and sell Arkham, Berkley, Cape, Dobson, Doubleday,

Faber, Gnome, Gollancz, Grant, Grosset, Hodder, Hutchinson,
Kimber, Little Brown, MacDonald, Phantasia, Random,
Scream, Scribners, Underwood, Viking, Whispers - - Crypt Of
Cthulhu, Drumm, Fawcett, Necronomicon, Pardoe, Spectre,
Strange Co., - - Aldiss, Anderson, Ballard, Bloch, Brennen,
Campbell, Derleth, Ellison, Farmer, Howard, King, Long,
Moorcock, Niven, Smith, Straub, Vance, Wellman, etc., etc. . .

w e have also published selected works by H. P. Lovecraft,

plus Lovecraft criticism and bibliographies. At The Root, Cats

And Dogs, The Materialist Today, FuBar, Les Bibliotheques,
and Howard Phillips Lovecraft: The Books 4. etc., etc., etc

I orthcoming items include: William Hope Hodgson: A

Bibliography of Books
and Periodical Appearances. Clark
Ashton Smith: The Books. Les Bibliotheques, etc., etc., etc

Send For Free Catalogue


IRANON & KURANES
AN INTERTEXTUAL GLOSS
By Donald R. Burleson, PhD
In "The Quest of Iranon," Love-
craft's purple-robed minstrel Iranon
wanders the earth in search of his
remembered city of Aira; in "Cele-
phais," Lovecraft's dreamer Kura-
nes wanders in dream in search of
his own briefly-glimpsed marvellous
city of Celephais (Arkham House:
Daqon and Other Macabre Tales 83- . nes, he chooses to search for his
89, 111-17). In many respects one
feels that the two wanderers Iranon
and Kuranes are thematically the
same peripatetic soul, with different
names, and it may prove interesting
to meld the differently-named as-
pects of this one mythic quester to
see how, as one coalesced figure,
he comments intertextually upon
himself.
The wanderer, as Iranon among
the stern-faced inhabitants of the
granite city of Teloth, has "no
heart for the cobbler's trade," pre-
ferring to sing of the beautiful
memories of his childhood, but he
is told that "song is folly." As
Kuranes, caring not "for the ways
of people about him," he prefers
"to dream and write of his dreams,"
but those about him laugh at his
writings. In both aspects, the
source of his scorned art is memory
for Iranon, memory regarded as
recollection of a real childhood
home; for Kuranes, memory re-
garded as recollection of a child-
hood dream. Thus on this point
the quester differs from himself.
A valuational distinction between
the "realities" of dream and of wak-
ing may ultimately be superfluous
Lovecraft's narrator in "The Silver
Key" reminds us, after all, that "all
life is only a set of pictures in the
brain, among which there is no dif-
ference betwixt those born of real
things and those born of inward
dreamings, and no cause to value
the one above the other" (Arkham
House: At the Mountai ns of Ma d ness
and ^3ther Nove ls 908) but in any
,
Candlemas 1988 / 31
case the quester differs with him-
self over basic attitudinal and per-
ceptive distinctions. As Iranon, he
searches for his lost city only when
he supposes that it corresponds to
a remembered outward reality of his
childhood as opposed to a memory
of his childhood dreams; as Kura-
once-glimpsed city because it cor-
responds to a childhood dream that
he prefers to the outward realities
of prosaic adulthood. The journey-
ing quester pursues his goal tragi-
cally divided against himself, one
side of his personality embracing an
understanding wholly suppressed
by the other side. Yet this differ-
ence is on another level dismantled
by the fact that the two facets are
in agreement, in that they both in
their respective ways reject the
"Silver Key" axiom. As Iranon, the
quester would not suppress the
oneiric nature of his cherished city
if he believed that dream and out-
ward reality hold equal importance;
likewise, as Kuranes, if he believed
so, he would not prefer dream to
outward reality. Each facet takes a
stand, each complementing the other
like the two sides of a coin a stand
against the axiom. But there is
paradox in the fact that it is by
splicing the texts together that one
sees this homogeneity, when the
merging has the effect of grafting
one text ("Iranon") in which the
assumption seems to be that on a
practical level the "Silver Key"
axiom is false (Iranon is destroyed
by the discovery that his "reality"
is the memory of but dream)
with another text ("Celephais") in
which a narrative indifference to
the dream-versus-reality distinction
persists to the end, where both
dream and reality are treated in
balance. Clearly, an interwoven
web of paradox and textual self-
subversion exists here, a web in
32 / Crypt of Cthulhu

which the critical process is itself resort to drugs to maintain his

enmeshed quest; even as the strong side of
The quester, as meets Iranon, Iranon's personality he contains
a young boy named Romnod, who, seeds of weakness. Reciprocally,
unlike his stern-visaged peers, Iranon, though seemingly less self-
seems a kindred spirit; together sustaining, does carry on his quest
they search at length for the mar- without the departed Romnod, per-
vellous city, Romnod growing older severing though people laugh at his
while Iranon seems not to age. They songs and his tattered robes; even
find lodgment in the garishly fes- as the weak side of Kuranes' per-
tive city of Oonai, a poor parody of sonality he harbours reserves of
the city of Iranon's yearning, and strength. Thus as a unitary fig-
Romnod grows coarse with wine and ure, the quester is not merely so
revelry and finally dies. Romnod heterogeneous as to possess a per-
has served textually as a kind of sonality in which strength and
comparative figure; not sharing the weakness are mingled; in the ques-
central quester's memories of the ter's multiply complex being, there
marvellous city, he ages while the is strength in the weakness and
quester remains young, and not weakness in the strength, a sort of
having the quester's standards, he thematic chiasmus, so that the dif-
is content with the experience of ference between the poles of the
Oonai and its dissipations; he per- personality dismantles itself into
ishes, while the quester lives to ways in which strength differs
quest again but Iranon reclaims from itself and weakness differs
his purple rags and returns to the from itself. Like all great fictional
road only when Romnod has died; heroes, the wanderer is richly
Iranon seems to have needed this enigmatic
experience to turn his mind back Traditionally, the mythic hero
upon the quest with the conviction dies in the quest and is reborn.
that Oonai has been no adequate In these present texts, to the ex-
substitute for the city of his memo- tent that one credits their conven-
ries. But as Kuranes, the quester tional boundaries, one does not find
has depended upon no Romnod, no the typical mythopoeic pattern.
comparative main-
object-lesson, to Iranon, upon hearing the old shep-
tain his vision; wandering through herd disclose the dream-nature of
dreamscapes, he has found lesser the elusive city of Aira, simply
places than his dream-city, but has walks into the quicksand (as an old
not lingered, has not really tried man now) and dies; Kuranes,
to content himself with them, his though he both dies physically and
vision and goal remaining fixed. lives on in some sphere of dream,
As Kuranes, the quester has an does not die and become reborn in
underlying potential for weakness temporal succession. It is only
(the ironic Iranonic? side of his when one merges the texts, refus-
personality) that he must not allow ing to accept the tyranny of their
to surface and to deflect him from artificial boundaries, that one finds
his steadfastness; as Iranon, the the whole timeless pattern of death
quester has an underlying strength and rebirth. The wanderer, as
(the Kuranes curative? side of Iranon the vulnerable, perishes,
his personality) that sustains him and we are told that "that night
through periods of confusion. something of youth and beauty died
Yet the respective sides of this in the elder world." The quicksand
complementation contain elements that swallows him is the dead-
antithetical to themselves. Kuranes, handed judgment of the world that
though seemingly self-sustaining dream is mere dream; it is the same
and unswerving of purpose, is stultifying judgment that has driven
tempted in the dreamland of the the quester, as the dreamer Kura-
red roofed pagodas to forget his nes, inward upon himself to begin
Celephais, and he must eventually with, to find a higher reality. But
 Candlemas 1988 / 33

as Kuranes he prevails; the "Silver taste, and others surely differ. I

Key" axiom affirms itself after all don't have the word "critic" on my
in the arrival of
cortege of "the business don't think my
card, so I

knights come from Celephais to bear esthetic judgments constitute

him thither forever." What is con- "Truth," as believe some of your
I

fused in the seekei the beautiful esteemed contributors do. Fritz

and noble but irresolute Iranon, Leiber wrote somewhere that he
for whom dream is not enough has finds dealing with facts difficult
died, and what is left is strength enough, and that truth is beyond
and clarity of conviction: Kuranes him. This seems like a wise view,
reigns forever "over Ooth-Nargai to this humble observer.
and all the neighbouring regions of I liked #51 quite a bit, particu-
dream." The archetypal inscrip- larly the Blackwood article and the
tion of heroic death and rebirth "Mystics of Muelenburg."
emerges here with the recognition I cannot resist a good-natured
that as in all worthy literature, dig at Mr. Carter's comments in his
textual boundaries boundaries be- letter in #52. He is so busy, it
tween texts and critical processes seems, digging through musty ar-
are themselves a prosaic integument cana of the sort we see in
of mundane illusion obscuring the his charming Yoh-Vombis column
wonders of dream. that he has somehow missed the
emergence in recent years of Mae-
MAIL-CALL OF CTHULHU stro Ligotti even apparently,
,

(continued from page 17) overlooking your review of the now

out-of-print Songs of a Dead
seems to say it doesn't
all, it? Dreamer . Come on, Linkah-Tah,
Jim Cort get with it! Also, the comment that
Newton, NJ Lovecraft couldn't write with "eerie
suggestiveness" any more than he
am sorry to write that Crypt
I could, should not be put to a Crypt
#52 was my least favorite issue, readers' poll. However, let me add
ever. The HPL-as-character sto- that feel that some of the slams
I

ries nothing for me.

did They did directed at Mr. Carter's tales have
not say anything interesting about been excessive. If a reader says
the man, using him as one more that he doesn't like something, and
Mythos prop. Using Lovecraft him- why, that is one thing. When he
self in this way is to take the My- makes personal insults, feel that I

thos to its logical extreme, retain- he should write something better

ing the superficialities and gimmicks and be prepared to face the music,
that HPL used, usually at the ex- or shut up. Once again, a cranky
pense of the tone, atmosphere, opinion from my endless store.
substance and purpose which char- I thought Will Murray's article
acterized his literary ideal and the showing HPL didn't revise "The
best of his fiction. don't mean to I Curse of Alabad and Chinu and
be harsh do not mind if your
I Aratza" was an amusing shaggy
readership wants an occasional dog. have suspicions that he
I

batch of stories like this. am I didn't revise a vast number of

glad that you don't print such works from that era perhaps Mr.
material too often. Furthermore, I Murray has stumbled on a whole
believe that both the readers and new genre in HPL studies.
writers in question are capable of Michael J. Lotus
bette r. think the reception that
I Chicago, IL
the Ligotti stories have received is
evidence of this. He proves that it
is possible to draw inspiration from
what is unique and of most value
in Lovecraft's work. will admit I

that this is a matter of opinion and

34 / Crypt of Cthulhu

FROM THE VAULTS OF YOH VOMBIS

By Lin Carter

Unnatural History source adds, with ghoulish relish,

that Mantichores hunt them down
The bestiaries were among the
and gorge on their blood
great best sellers of the Middle
Ages. They were serious compen- Miscellaneous information from
dia of information, hearsay, opinion the bestiaries:
and rumor about all sorts of beasts, The
6. carbuncle-stone
red
some drawn from actual observation
which is condensed from the urine
and some from Pliny, Aristotle, and
of lynxes is called Ligurius.
the first pioneers of zoology. Con-
sidering their enormous popularity 7. Leucrota is the very swiftest
and vast, almost Scriptural, author- of beasts. It has no teeth, but one
ity. it surprises me that only one continuous (serrated?) bony ridge
has ever been translated into Eng- in its mouth. Its mouth opens all
lish, and that (a Latin prose besti- the way back to its ears and it
ary of the twelfth century) by makes a sound like many people
T. H. White. talking at once. Rather like a
One of the most interesting singles bar, guess. I

things brought to light in the bes-

8. Makara
is an elephant-headed
tiaric literature is the notion of a
fish a curling trunk
with four legs,
pecking order among beasts, that
and suit of large scales overlap-
a
is, that even the most ferocious of
ping, which begins at the base of
monsters lives in bowel-quaking
its neck. Unelephantinelike it has
dread of another creature. Let me
,
10.
no tusks but sharp triangular teeth
share some of this data with you:
like sharks have. It is found prin-
1. Lions fear roosters, especially cipally in India ...
as if they
white roosters. didn't have enough things to worry
about in India, as things are.
2. Weasels are immune to the
petrification inflicted on all other 9. The
Physeter, or Whirlpoole
creatures by the gaze of the Basil- (physeter means "blower" in Creek)
isk. In fact, weasels kill them on creates maelstroms by spouting
sight. water, then sucking ships down.
It feeds only on drowned sailors.
Although the scaly-armored,
3.
horrendous Corkodrill which wallows The exhudations of the Upas
amidst the mudflats of the Nile is a Tree are deadly to all life within a
fearful brute, its natural enemy is radius of fifteen miles.
the Hydrus, a huge Nilotic serpent, * * *
known to swallow the horny Corko-
drill at a gulp. From the Wisdom of Oz
4. Dragons hate doves, for some You wouldn't expect wise or
reason, but are afraid of the trees pithy sayings to be found in books
they are fond of nesting in, such written for the ten-years-old-and-
as the sweet-fruited Perindeus up trade, now would you? Well,
trees of India. they abound in the Oz books, and
some of them, like the first quote I

5. While Dragons dislike doves

below, are succinct enough to have
and avoid, wherever possible, even
appeared in Poor Richard with Ben
the trees they roost in, they go in
Franklin's name attached to them.
great fear of Mantichores, especially
the bright-yellow Mantichore (most "Many a satin ribbon has a cot-
of them are scarlet, you know). My ton back." --Patchwork Girl
 Candlemas 1988 / 35

"Dangers hurt us; only

don't N otes 6 Qu otes
things that happen ever hurt any-
one, and a danger is a thing that Some primal termite knocked on
might happen, and might not hap- wood
pen, and sometimes don't amount to And tasted it, and found it good.
shucks." -- Lost Princess And that is why your Cousin May
Fell through the parlor floor today.
"Dangers, when they cannot be
avoided, are often quite interest-
Ogden Nash
ing."
Tin Woodman "We have invented the wireless
telegraph, the motor car and the
"No thief, however skillful, can
electric light, commodities unknown
rob one of knowledge, and that is
to previous centuries: and for that
why knowledge is the best and
safest treasure to acquire." Lost reason we assume that the twentieth
century is the best of all, instead
Princess
of being merely the most recent."
"The
more one knows, the luck- T. H. White
ier he is, for knowledge is the
"Anyone who consults a shrink
greatest gift in life." Patchwork
should have his head examined."
Girl
--Robert A. Heinlein
"The way to solve a problem is
"Everything can be explained
begin at the beginning and go on
to
to the conclusion." Giant Horse except facts. Talbot Mundy
"His malaise was that particular
"Only those things one acquires
plateau of middle-age, swept by un-
honestly are able to render one
content."
Lost Princess
certain winds and lit by dubious
dawns and dusks, when one realizes
"One who is master of himself is that hopes deferred are no longer
always a king, if only to himself." realizable, that ports yet unvisited
Tik-Tok will never now be known."
"Contentment with one's lot is

P. D. James

true wisdom." Lost Princess "To err is human; to forgive,

divine; but to findsomeone else to
good heart is a thing that
"A
blame it on is sheer genius."
brains cannot create and that money
cannot buy." Marvelous Land
Anon
A jolly fisher named Fischer
young
"Always, when there's trouble,
Went fishing for fish in a fissure,
there's a way out of it, if you can
find it." Lost Princess
A with a grin.
fish,
Pulled the fisherman in
"If we didn't want anything, we Now they're fishing the fissure for
would never get anything, good or Fischer. Anon
bad. think our longings are
I

"The secret of eternal youth is

natural, and if we act as nature
to lie like the dickens about your
prompts us we can't go far wrong."
age." --H. C.
Tik-Tok
"And this is the strangest mys-
"If one
has money without
tery of all, that Death must hurry
brains, he cannot use it to full ad-
to our bidding, although he is a
vantage; but if one has brains
god." -Amanda Cross
without money, they will enable him
to live comfortably to the end of "Thefantasy of growing old,
his days."
Marvelous Land like the fantasy of growing up, was
part of the ineffable sweetness,
"It is more fun to accomplish a
touched with horror, of existence
good act than an evil one, as you
itself the lordliest fantasy of all."
will discover when once you have
--Charles Williams
tried it." --Scarecrow
The simplest things last long-
36 / Crypt of Cthulhu

est; the microbe outlived the masto- big as all outdoors

don." --T. H. White deaf as a post
white as a sheet
"Time is a random wind that
light as a feather
blows down the long, long corridor
cute as a button
of life, eventually slamming shut
soft as butter
every door." H. C. clear as crystal
A man hired by John Smith 6 Co. neat as a pin
Loudly declared he would tho clean as a whistle
Man that he saw thin as a rail
Dumping dirt near his store. clear as a bell
The drivers, therefore, didn't do. silent as the grave
Mark Twain busy as a bee
"Things might be better, or they
drunk as a lord
high as a kite
might be worse, but they would
silly as a goose
never be the same again; and the
cold as ice
innate conservatism of youth asks
black as pitch
neither poverty nor riches, but
hard as nails
only immunity from change."

"The Golden Age," Kenneth
mad as a hatter
blind as a bat
Grahame
proud as a peacock
"The very existence of a riddle dull as dishwater
is proof that there is a solution to
it."
Talbot Mundy Some of these are self-explana-
tory ("dry as dust"; "high as a
Folk-Similes kite"), others inexplicable. Why
"homely as a hedge fence," for in-
I have no idea why, but I've
been
stance? When I last visited Eng-
collecting such as the follow-
land, I thought the hedge fences
ing for years now. There's no
between plowed fields were quite
great trick to it; any reader can
come up with a dozen or two more
attractive. They reminded me of
illustrations by Edmund Dulac, or
in couple of afternoons of medita-
a
whomever it was who did the pic-
tion. But let me share these with
tures in the Heritage edition of The
you, a selection from my Master
Wind in the Willows .

List.
. . And, considering the num-
.

cool as a cucumber ber of times it has been devalued

cheap as dirt since Lyndon Johnson, wonder if I

bold as brass people still say "sound as the dol-

sharp as a tack lar"?
flat as a pancake
dead as a door nail The Leviathan
stiff as a board
Leviathan is very large.
easy as pie
Much bigger than an oil-barge.
bald as an egg
And swims with so much motion
mad as wet hen
a
That there is only room for one
fresh as a daisy
Under the Moon, beneath the Sun.
crazy as a loon
In any given Ocean.
sick as a dog
pretty as a picture I used to wonder
they ate what
weak as a kitten Until saw one at his plate
I

dry as dust A-crunchin' and a-munchin'

homely as a hedge fence On full-grown Whales (to him, sar -
sound as the dollar dines )

nervous as a cat And found out what Enormous

good as gold means
poor as a church mouse
I left him at his luncheon.
 Candlemas 1988 / 37

T he My rm coleo n of the professional magazines do not

want Mythos fiction, but a really
The Myrmecoleon, you'll find. good story, which is a good story
Is lionfront and ant behind; first and Mythos second, should
Or, if you're nautical and daft, sell on its own merits.
Leonic fore and antic aft . Aside from one Brian Lumley
piece to be published in the Summer
Which makes me wonder what it
1988 Weird Tales which is very mar-
eats.
ginally Mythos-related no profes-
And how it handles all its feets. Mythos
,

sional-quality story has

And why such folks as me and you
turned up at WT. We don't want
Don't ever see one in a Zoo.
routine scholar-is-eaten stories. We
from The Intelligent Child's would buy a Mythos story which
Own Book of Interesting and was genuinely frightening The
Instructive Monsters , element of fear seems to be almost
entirely absent from most post-
by your Humble Columnist Lovecraft Mythos stories, particu-
larly those of the Derleth Mythos
(by Derleth and others). If the
MAIL-CALL OF CTHULHU story exists merely to make the
(continued from page 26) reader smile and fondly remember
other Mythos stories, well, forget
"his letters from HPL . . ." that it. But if it's a genuinely self-
Munn burned. standing, valid story, then Weird
-Wilum Pugmire, Seattle, WA Tales will pay roughly 64 a word
for it.
Stefan Dziemianowicz's review of Darrell Schweitzer
"The Magazine Mythos" in Crypt #52 Strafford, PA
raises a curious question. You may
have noticed that the Cthulhu My- Lin Carter's poem about the
thos has virtually died out in pro- Jabberwock was excellent. It read

fessional fantasy fiction. With rare like Lewis Carroll had written it.
exceptions, like T. E. D. Klein's His work on the Griffin was clever
The Ceremonies there have been as well.
Charles
,

strikingly few Mythos stories pub- Carofalo

lished on a professional level in the Wayne, NJ
past decade. But there are enough
published in amateur magazines to suppose you are aware that
I

make a yearly survey possible. next up from the folks who did Re-
So wonder: How many, if any,
I Animator and From Beyond is some-
of these amateur-published Mythos thing based on "The Evil Clergy-
tales are actually of professional man." This, if remember correct-
I

quality? note that they tend to

I ly, will be the middle part of a
appear toward the lower end of the 3-part horror anthology film. After
semi-pro spectrum, in magazines that the same producer and direc-
that pay so little (or nothing) that tor will do an adaptation of "The
they cannot maintain professional Lurking Fear," and also announced
standards the way Whispers Weird - , is Bride of the Reanimator Well, l I

book or Fantasy Tales do.

,
But don't know about that . . . !

somewhere in all that mass of stuff

Randy Palmer
there must be one or two stories Arlington, VA
well-written enough and original
enough to be of interest to a gen- Just wanted to say that en- I

eral readership, not just to a small joyed Crypt #52 very much. Also I

segment of fandom. wanted to salute Stefan Dziemiano -

Are the writers submitting their wicz for his exceMent reviews. I

stories professionally? It's commonly feel that he hasn't been given

perceived, I suspect, that editors (continued on page 43)
38 / Crypt of Cthulhu

Rlyeh Review
Weird Tales , Spring 1988, 188 review, alas, is going to add up to
pp. , $3.50. a lot of minor points.
Moving right along,
the first in-
(Reviewed by Lin Carter) Scithers has committed is
novation
greet the reappearance of Weird
I to make this the "special Gene Wolfe
Tales with eagerness and optimism, issue," and to lead off the issue
and approach the task of reviewing with no fewer than six Gene Wolfe
the first issue with presentiments of stories, of which no fewer than five
Doom are trivial bordering on awful. Most
That is, hope enthusiastically I I of these have been printed before
approve of what Scithers and his (fannishly, guess), but so ob-
I

henchmen have done to the venera- scurely that you are not likely to
ble old magazine, because if have I have seen the stories. The trouble
to say half-hearted (or even down- is, they weren't worth reprinting in
right critical) things about it, more the first place.
than of my readers,
a few well The one new story Gene Wolfe
aware that was the previous edi- I has written for the issue ("The
tor magazine, until it was
of the Other Dead Man") is a science fic-
taken away from me, might very tion story that smoodges over into
well mark down my lack of enthusi- being a horror yarn, and succeeds
asm to Sour Crapes. brilliantly at being both. If had I

Well here goes.. . . been the editor who put this issue
First, applaud the fact that
I together, would have headlined
I

Scithers has restored WT to some- "The Other Dead Man" and dumped
thing close to its original propor- the other "stories" in the garbage.
tions as a pulp magazine. Also, I'm not at all sure approve of
I

the cover (by George Barr) is ter- this newfangled idea of devoting so
rific; from what Schweitzer tells much of any one issue to any one
me, it's supposed to be a sort of author, even Gene Wolfe, but what
super-Brundage cover. Well, it the hay ... a minor point.
doesn't look anything like a Brun- Most of the other stories in this
dage, but it's a super cover, just issue (by luminaries like T. E. D.
the same. And the interior illos Klein, Ramsey Campbell, and Tanith
are uniformly good, with sly little Lee) are excellent shading over into
tricks thrown in (all the interiors mediocre, to not so hot (Darrell
are by George Barr, who's even Schweitzer, with a rather meander-
better in black and white than he ing narrative that would be a lot
is in color. better with a sense of style which
By sly tricks, I mean the dou- it really needed). Even the stories
ble-pager on pp. 58-5 closely re- by the best writers are, urn, not
sembles the style of Virgil Finlay, their best by a long shot. Ramsey
while the one on p. 88 derives ob- Campbell's story is very second-
viously from Hannes Bok rate Ramsey Campbell, although, of
while the one on p. 120 is Boris course, not all that bad, since even
Dolgov, by Crom! Didn't think second-rate Ramsey Campbell is
anyone in the world remembered better than the cream produced by
Boris Dolgov but me . . . some writers could name (but
I

Unfortunately, Barr has seen fit won't); but Ted Klein's story is
(or been instructed) to redraw the light-years away from the plateau
contents page logo, originally de- he reached with "Black Man With a
signed by Bok. Well, he has also Horn" or "The Events at Poroth
redesigned it, for no good reason Farm," and, to my taste, is utterly
that can see, and it irks me that
I vitiated by a sappy last paragraph,
he did. This is a minor point, which presents a happy ending.
but can already see that this
I (Imagine a T. E. D. Klein horror
 Candlemas 1988 / 39

story with a happy ending!) almost completely in the direction of

Tanith Lee's story, "Death new authors, still think so. I

Dances," forms a neat and amusing But the really important thing is
contrast with Darrell Schweitzer's that Weird Tales is back with us
effort. That is, the story has again, and in the hands of a
enough "sense of style" in it to re- shrewd and highly-experienced edi-
deem any two other graceless nar- tor, who has, think, stumbled on I

ratives the calibre of Darrell's.

of the one and only way the magazine
Chod, that lady can write And . could prove viable on today's mag-
pure style is such a difficult thing azine market to take it entirely off
to pin down or even describe . . . the market, and make it only avail-
but, boy, does she have it! able by prepaid advance subscrip-
The only author represented tion through the mails. This elimi-
here who had anything at all to do nates the distributor almost miracu-
with the old Weird Tales of the '30s lously (and if you ever had trouble
and '40s
is Lloyd Arthur Eshback, finding one or another of the issues
who sold a couple of yarns to of WT edited for Zebra Books,
I

Farnsworth Wright. His story is you know what a miracle it would

called "Sister Abigail's Collection" be to avoid distributors).
and Ithink it's just nifty: but Another mistake think Scithers I

that's only natural, since original- I is making is not apparent from this
ly accepted the yarn for future first issue, but came out in an
publication, back when was edit- I exchange of letters between the
ing the magazine, before Bob Wein- new Weird Tales staff and me.
berg yanked the editorial chair out You aren't going to like this any
from under me. more than did. So, if you have
I

Oh, and one set of verses by a loins, prepare to gird them now:
WT regular, Joseph Payne Brennan, They will not be publishing any
pretty minor stuff, memorable be- Cthulhu Mythos stories .

cause it shows that Joe Brennan At all. Not just by me, although
likes "brusque" brusk
to spell All . that's how found this out, when
I

of the other authors and versifiers they rejected three or four new
represented in this issue are new Mythos stories which offered them I

to Weird Tales . (don't worry, they bought a few of

In this respect, think George I my poems, which will, trust, be I

Scithers is making a large mistake. appearing in.time).

(Here comes the Sour Grapes, gang The reason for this seems to be
. . ) When
. was editing Ithe mag- that not Scithers, but also
only
azine, strove mightily to establish
I Schweitzer, dislike Lovecraftian
a bridge, a continuity between stuff Lovecraft's prose style in
present-day writers like Ramsey particular and seem to regard
Campbell and Tanith Lee and Gary Mythos stories as unpublishable
Myers and Brian Lumley, and some these days. (Put down that type-
of the writers who helped build the writer, Darrell: Gene Wolfe's six-
Weird Tales legend. That is, I hundred word "story" or whatever
coaxed new stuff out of Manly Wade it is, "John K. (Kinder) Price" is
Wellman and Ray Bradbury, Frank not a Cthulhu Mythos story, no
Belknap Long and Carl Jacobi, and matter what you said in your last
even found some previously unpub- letter to me .

lished stuff by Howard and Smith think this is a big mistake, if

I

and Lovecraft, plus unreprinted only because, since the Mythos was
stories by Derleth and Seabury born in Weird Tales it seems very ,

Quinn, so that each of the only likely to me that people today who
four issues which appeared under pick up Weird Tales are going to
my editorship were more or less expect to find a Mythos story
half-and-half. A good mix, I therein. (I know did!)
thought then, and, looking at the Well . . . what else? Cover
newly-revived magazine, which leans stock is heavy, quality, slick, like
40 / Crypt of Cthulhu

paperback covers; paper inside has and others, and a portfolio of pho-
trimmed edges and is fine, sturdy tographs of James and his friends
bond; magazine is handsome, truly. and some especially rare book cov-
And has vast promise and potential, ers. The whole package, there-
considering the number of excellent fore, is not just a reading feast,
writers around today (I wonder if but a book collector's treasure.
George has thought of writing to All of the stories have their
Angela Carter? She writes terrific merits even though there are some,
short weirds, if her little book The like John Dickson Carr's "Blind
Bloody Chamber is not just a Man's Hood," which isn't very
fluke ) Jamesian, or others, like Sir An-
Yep, all of this is very well . . drew Caldecott's "Christmas Re-
but *sigh* ( just wish )liked I I union," which, frankly, just isn't
the first issue a lot more than do. I very good. But the majority are
rare and thus, like some of the
Richard Dalby and Rosemary items produced in Crypt are being,

Pardoe (eds.). Ghosts 6 Scholars , made available for collectors and

Wellingborough, UK; Crucible/ devotees, who would have trouble
Aquarian Press (Thorsons Publish- finding some of these items. Two
ing Croup, Denington Estate, Well- particularly rare items are "Brother
ingborough, Northamptonshire, NN8 John's Bequest" a delightful, slight-
2RQ), hardcover, 272 pp., L12.95. ly tongue-in-cheek piece by Arthur
ISBN -85274-022-1
1 . Gray from his notoriously scarce
Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and
(Reviewed by Mike Ashley)
Gramarye (1919), and "The Eastern
In his essay on "Supernatural Window" from the equally rare
Horror in Literature," Lovecraft Stoneqround Ghost Tales (1912), by
made a particularly astute observa- E. C. Swain, one of MRJ's first
tion with regard to the work of imitators. Even rarer, though far
M. R. James. "A literary weird less in demand, is "The Stone Cof-
fictionist of the very first rank . . fin" by the pseudonymous 'B,' un-
[James] has developed a
. . . available in bookform and lost in
distinctive style and method likely the pages of the Magdalene College
to serve as models for an enduring Magazine during 1913 and reprinted
line of disciples." How right he here for the first time. A few
was: indeed, the disciples had al- other stories are rescued here from
ready been hard at it before Love- pages of old magazines: Arnold
craft first penned those lines, Smith's "The Face in the Fresco,"
though how much of it he was for instance, comes from the London
aware of, know not. Unlike Love-
I Mercury whilst two of the stories,
,

craft, M. R. James has attracted "The House Party" by Emma S.

perhaps more than his fair share of Duffin and "Here he Lies Where he
imitators. He even has his own Longed To Be" by Winifred Gal-
Crypt -like magazine in the form of braith, were winners in a competi-
Rosemary Pardoe' s Ghosts & Schol - tion run by The Spectator news-
ars ,which has been appearing an- paper and are reprinted here along
nually now for nine years. Rose- with the words of the competition
mary has now teamed with Richard judge, M. R. James.
Dalby, a noted authority on weird All of these stories have a de-
fiction, and assembled a volume of lightful, log-crackling feel about
Jamesian stories which is a must for them, although few have that true
any fan of MRJ. Published by Jamesian chill of horror. The best
Crucible in a particularly handsome is Eleanor Scott's "Celui-la," with a
edition, this book contains 25 sto- truly evocative ghost scene on a
ries plus 2 essays by MRJ, an bleak French seashore. There are
introduction by Michael Cox, 14 also some nice Jamesian touches in
illustrations by the likes of Stephen R. H. Benson's "Father Maccles-
Jones, John Stewart, Brian Frost field's Tale," where the ghost's
 Candlemas 1988 / 91

progress is in an eddy of
outlined Weird Tales is the only magazine
leaves, and Cecil Binney's "The to get a special section, and it's
Saint and the Vicar," where foot- jammed full of Bok, Finlay, Coye.
steps provide the shivers. Other Dolgov, Fox. But enough illustra-
worthy tales include "This Time" tions from Famous Fantastic Mys -
by Ramsey Campbell, "Dr. Horder's teries are reprinted to remind us of
Room" by Patrick Carleton, "Come, how much good artwork that maga-
Follow!," written by Sheila Hodgson zine carried (Bok's definitive "Pick
based on one of James' own ideas man's Model" and Finlay's spread
and including a chilling nocturnal for "Worms of the Earth" are just
encounter, "The Horn of Vapula" two examples here), and how much
by Lewis Spence and "An Incident of it was done by the relatively un-
in the City" by A. F. Kidd. They remembered Stephen Lawrence. One
are my own personal favourites, but could have wished for portfolios
there are plenty of others here, arranged by artist, rather than by
enough to please even the most the authors they illustrated, and
peripheral Jamesian fan. HPL would for an index at the back of the
have found the volume a pleasure book, but these are small com-
to relax to. plaints for the price.

Peter Haining, The Art of Hor - Clark Ashton Smith, Mother of

ror Stories Chartwell Books (A
. Toads Necronomicon Press, Decem-
(

Division of Book Sales Inc., 110 En- ber 1987, $2.50).

terprise Avenue, Secaucus, NJ Clark Ashton Smith, The Dwell er
07099), 176 pp. $8.95. in the Gulf (Necronomicon Press,
December 1987, $2.50).
(Reviewed by Stefan Dziemianowicz
(Reviewed by Robert M. Price)
For many years Peter Haining
has expressed his appreciation of Necronomicon Press once again
popular illustrations by including secures its position as the foremost
period-art folios in anthologies like small press publisher of scholarly
The Fantastic Pulps and his facsim- resources for the study and enjoy-
ile edition of Weird Tales In this
. ment of the Weird Tales authors.
book, first published in England in These two booklets are the first in
1976 as Terror , he drops the fic- a new series called "The Unexpur-
tion and expands his scope to offer gated Clark Ashton Smith." Several
a sampling of horror illustrations of Smith's tales were mercilessly
from the last two centuries. bowdlerized and ham-handedly ed-
The Art of Horror Stories begins ited (sometimes by himself at edi-
with the "shilling shockers," hack tors' insistence!), and the original
rewrites of the gothic novels. They versions which alone embody CAS'
used illustrations to grab the read- creative vision have remained un-
er's attention (often more graphical- available, extant only in manu-
ly than the most lurid pulp maga- script. Now Smithologist par ex-
zines of our own century). Haining cellance Steve Behrends is unearth-
continues through the penny-dread- ing the original versions, and pub-
ful and pulp eras, by which time lisher Marc Michaud is making them
illustrations had become integral available to the Smith-starved pub-
parts of the text. The book is set lic. "Mother of Toads" had been
up chronologically, with a brief in- trimmed of its eroticism, while
troductory paragraph to each sec- "Dweller in the Gulf" had suffered
tion and the rest told through the the addition of a whole new charac-
captions. No attempt is made to ter and subplot in order to supply
give a formal history, but one still the trite pseudo-explanation for the
gets a good feel for each era's in- fantastic that CAS so hated in pulp
terests and taboos from the art- science fiction.
work. The quality of black-and- These two booklets are certainly
white reproductions is exceptional. by far the most visually striking
42 / Crypt of Cthulhu

ever published by Necronomicon in one case from Sonia Davis' mem-

Press. Smith aficionado Robert H. oirs. There are also six large-scale
Knox has unleashed his insane area road maps of College Hill,
imagination in three-color covers Providence, Boston, Marblehead,
which are truly jolting! Brooklyn, and New England, the
For years. Smith fans have had last also showing probable locations
to take a back seat to the larger of Arkham, Kingsport, etc., taking
followings of Lovecraft and Howard. into account the recent research
Smith's disciples had to content of Will Murray (e.g., both Salem
themselves with occasional special and Oakham are shown as analogues
Smith issues of magazines like Nyc - to Arkham). Eckhardt has pro-
talops ,
Anubis or .Crypt of vided an ideal tool for all Love-
Cthulhu. But now a Smith boom of craftian acolytes who wish to take
sorts seems to be getting off the up the terrifically fun sport of
ground, largely thanks to Necro- pilgrimage.
nomicon Press. The recent collec-
tion of Smith's letters to Lovecraft Fantasy Commentator, Vol. VI,
may be seen as the beginning, and No. 1, Fall 1987. $3.00. (Order
the present series of textually cor- from A. Langley Searles, 48 High-
rected stories has supplied the land Circle, Bronxville, NY 10708-
momentum. In the near future, so 5909.
rumor has it, Arkham House is to
(Reviewed by Robert M. Price)
issue a "Best of Smith" collection.
Finally, Cryptic Publications will This is the thirty-seventh issue
this year unveil a new and ongoing of a yearly magazine going back
(though irregular) magazine, Klark - (with a very few interruptions) into
ash-Ton devoted to Smith and ed- the 1940s. As such it is a valuable
ited by Steve Behrends. It will re- living link with the very first era
print scarce and out-of-print criti- of "scientifiction" and fantasy fan-
cal articles together with new Smith dom. This "apostolic succession" of
studies and unpublished material fandom still includes some of the
by Smith. original apostles, e.g., Sam Mosko-
witz and T. C. Cockroft, among its
Jason C. Eckhardt, Off the An - contributing editors.
cient Track, A Lovecraftian Guide This issue features a major his-
to New-England 6 Adjacent New- torical piece by Eric Leif Davin,
York (Necronomicon Press, 101 "The Age of Wonder," which re-
Lockwood Street, West Warwick, counts the history of Hugo Gerns-
Rl 02893). $3.50. back's Amazing Stories and the
pulp era it inaugurated. He tells
(Reviewed by Robert M. Price)
the tale of Cernsback's founding of
This guidebook to Lovecraftian Amazing Stories and of Wonder
sites is once more comprehensive
at Stories editor David Lasser, as well
and briefer than Beckwith's Love - as of Bernarr McFadden's driving
craft's Providence recently re- Cernsback into bankruptcy in order
vamped and reissued by Donald M. to take over his magazines. This
Grant. Eckhardt's booklet, as the article contains revealing interviews
title suggests, covers all the places with Lasser and Charles D. Hornig,
of importance both in Lovecraft's editor/publisher of The Fantasy
fiction and his life (quite appropri- Fan hired by Cernsback at age 17
,

ately, since they often overlapped). to replace Lasser at the helm of

The main body of Off the Ancient Wonder Stories Hornig shares
.

T rac k is a series of uniquely Eck- reminiscences of Clark Ashton Smith

hardtian line-drawings of the vari- and H. P. Lovecraft, both of whom
ous houses, churches, and other he had met. Hornig recalls that
buildings, each accompanied by ex- HPL used to pronounce "Cthulhu"
planatory paragraphs quoted from in a way "no one else could." Very
Lovecraft's fiction and letters, and interesting stuff.
 Candlemas 1988 / 83

Sam Moskowitz presents the sec- cated Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

to
ond installment of "Bernarr Mac- ( Frankenstein and Shirley Jackson
)

Fadden and his Obsession with ( We Have Always Lived in the Cas -
Science-Fiction." These and other tle) . Appropriately, all of the
articles make the 37th Fantasy Com - issue's are women, as far
writers
mentator a marvelous resource for as can tell.
I The female theme
understanding the pulp era in graces the cover as well, which is
which all readers of Crypt of Cthu - a beautiful depiction of the three
Ihu wish they lived! forms of the Moon Goddess by Peter
A H. Gilmore. The artists seem to be
FuBar: Periodical 6 Soft (
all males. The art throughout is
Books, 89 Marion Street, Toronto,
striking and beautiful. Grue #6
Ontario, Canada, M6R 1E6), $4.00.
strikes me as the most impressive
(Reviewed by Robert M. Price) yet.
This strangely titled magazine is MAIL-CALL OF CTHULHU
a revised and updated reissue of (continued from page 37)
FuBar #1 from 1983. It is essen-
enough credit. Even though we
tially an annotated listing of all
disagreed sharply in our assess-
issues of several small press Love-
ments of Re-Animator in general I
craftian fanzines and journals. In- ,

have found his reviews to be a

formation given for most titles in-
cludes principal contents of each
good guide for those who don't
have the time to read everything
issue, number of copies, dates of
printings and editions, publisher and he expresses his views much
better than ever could.
I His mag-
addresses, cover price, etc. Titles
azine reviews this time out were
covered are The Lovecraftian and
The Lovecraft Collector both from
very welcome.
Allen Koszowski
the George The
,

Wetzel's
Upper Darby, PA
1940s;
Lovecraft Collector's The Library ; has proven his slipshod
Price
Lovecraftsman Harry Morris' Nyc -
; scholarship once more! In his
talops The Dark Brotherhood Jour -
; superfluous essay "Lovecraft as a
nal and Newsletter (including an Character in Lovecraftian Fiction,"
article detailing the history of that as well as in his windy editorial.
promising but failed early 70s Love- Price attributes the description of
craftian fan club by R. Boerem); HPL as "his own most fantastic
The Journal of the H. P. Lovecraft creation" to Winfield Townley Scott.
Society Lovecraft Studies
; Crypt ; This is just the kind of "second-
of Cthulhu Dagon FuBar and Les
; ; ; hand erudition" of which Lovecraft
Bibliotheques Bell has omitted the
. once accused Poe. Had Price actu-
granddaddy of all Lovecraftian mag- ally read Scott's essay on Lovecraft
azines, The Acolyte simply because , he would have known what Scott
he is planning a separate work de- himself knew: that it was Vincent
voted entirely to it. This magazine Starrett who originally dubbed HPL
is of obvious importance for either "his own most fantastic creation."
the collector/completist or the his- Melvin G. Outlaw, Mount Pilot, NC
torian of Lovecraft fandom. Bell's (continued on page 7)
efforts have paid off in a very use-
ful compendium of information that
is to be highly recommended. SubsCRYPTions
CRUE Magazine #6. $4.00 from
One year's subscription (8
Hell's Kitchen Productions, Inc.,
issues costs $36 in the USA
P. O. Box 370, Times Square Sta- and Canada, $44 in Western
tion, NY, NY 10108. Checks to
Europe and $47 in Australia.
Peggy Nadramia, U . S. funds only. Pay in U. S. funds, and
(Reviewed by Robert M. Price) indicate first issue.

The sixth issue of Grue is dedi-

94 / Crypt of Cthulhu

MAIL-CALL OF CTHULHU
I very pleased with your
am Holmes from childhood to conviction
journal. It's nice to know that with murder by murder, swindle by
someone out there is willing to swindle description of his career.
treat Lovecraft's works with some If the opening chapters chronicle
respect and professionalism. es- I Holmes' kinks ad nauseam without
pecially enjoy your "R'lyeh Review" being truly convincing, these chap-
section. would, however, like to
I ters extending from Holmes' Chicago
see more stories from beginning residency and beyond flesh out the
writers. Other than this, your characters seen in Franke's book
publication is wonderful. only (and sometimes more effective-

Scott D. Hazen ly) as historical ciphers and effec-
Santa Cruz, CA tively evoke a little of what it must
have meant to live in Chicago dur-
Anyone disappointed by Robert ing the Columbian Exposition and
Bloch's portrayal of H. H. Holmes turn of the century America in gen-
in American Gothic [reviewed in eral. Imagine a mixture of the
Crypt #50] should look out for picaresque novel, the psychological
either David Franke's The Torture novel, criminal history and de
Doctor (NY: Hawthorn Books, 1975. Tocqueville and you may come close
Reprinted by Avon Publishers. to an idea of what this book is
1976) or Allan W. Eckert, The about. As the suggested juxtapo-
Scarlet Mansion (NY: Little, Brown sitions imply, the book doesn't al-
& Company, 1985. Reprinted by ways succeed, but presents a much
Bantam Books, 1986). Of the two, more vivid and more horrifying ac-
Mr. Franke's The Torture Doctor count of Holmes and his world than
proves most consistent. Working the slick, but hollow American
from contemporary documents, Gothic .

Franke begins his book with what --James Rockhill

looks like an investigation for in- South Bend, IN
surance fraud that becomes pro-
gressively more complicated and I would invite you and Salmonson
more menacing until the full extent (and others) to personally explore
of Mr. Holmes' activities is revealed. the claims that HPL was a "misogy-
The reader learns detail by detail nist." Whenever have done so, I I

as the insurance companies and found, e.g., that HPL was not only
then the police follow Holmes' trail married but had
,
many female
from state to state, into Canada and friends, visitors, correspondents
back to the hidden chambers of his and colleagues (need name them?). I

"castle" in Chicago. Mr. Franke

Philip Obed Marsh
has supplied photographs, a chro- Newquay, England
nology, notes as to his sources and
an index. Forrest Hartmann tells me that
Mr. Eckert's The Scarlet Man - he heard Don Wandrei fell in his
sion, seeking motivation for Holmes' home and broke his hand. The
deeds and laying more credence in break required surgery, and Don
Mr. Holmes' own gloating version of died during the operation. Now
events. Hol mes' Own Story (which S. T. Joshi tells me that there will
has the same exaggerated careless- be a Don Wandrei commemorative
ness as the celebrated Newgate Cal - issue of Studies in Weird Fiction
e ndar ) , is less concerned with the coming up this spring.
literal truth of events, as is Mr. - Richard L. Tierney

Franke, than with reconciling Mason City, IA

events with what he feels was Mr.
Holmes' sadistic, near necrophiliac Back in the early 70s, I made a
temperament. This novel follows (continued on page 13)
 NEXT TIME

A special release of two issues simultaneously:

Crypt of Clhulhu #54: The Fishers from Outside by Lin Carter

A Cartercopia of goodies! Crypt #54 is a collection of all new fan-
tasy and horror tales by Lin Carter, including these:
"Papyrus of the Dark Wisdom"
"Strange Manuscript Found in the Vermont Woods"
"The Fishers from Outside"
"The Secret in the Parchment"
"From the Archives of the Moon"
"Dead of Night"
"The Shadow from the Stars"
"How Chuth Would Have Hunted the Silth"
"The Slitherer from the Slime" (1958 version)

Crypt of Cthulhu #55: The Cryptophile by Mike Ashley

An exhaustive index of Crypt of Cthulhu #s 1-50, including articles,
fiction,letters, and reviews, listed by author, title, and major dis-
cussions of Lovecraft stories. Plus Stefan Dziemianowicz's review of
horror fiction published during 1987 by Cryptic Publications!

Copyright O 1988

Cryptic Publications
Robert M. Price, Editor
107 East James Street
Mount Olive, North Carolina 28365
Cover art by Robert H. Knox

CRYPT OF CTHULHU

Editor
Robert M. Price
Fiction Editor and Reviewer
Stefan R. Dziemianowicz
Contributing Editors
S. T. Joshi Will Murray
.

Columnists
Lin Carter . Carl T. Ford