Mantichore 15

Contents this issue Mantic Notes………………………………..……….…1

15

Books By My Bedside…………………………………5 A Few Notes on Ben Indick…………………………..6 Mantichorus: Mailing Notes………………………….7

Mantic Notes A Contribution by Leigh Blackmore for the Sword & Sorcery & Weird Fiction Terminus (Oct 31, 2009/ 35th mailing), & Esoteric Order of Dagon (Oct 31, 2009/ 148th mailing) amateur press associations. Leigh Blackmore, 78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2500. Australia. Mantichore 4, No 3 (WN 15) Email: [email protected] Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Blackmore Official Website: Blackmausoleum – http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/

IN MEMORIAM BEN INDICK (1923-2009)

‘Sabbatic HPL’ by Leigh Blackmore

(Pronunciation:'mantik. Etymology: Greek mantikos, from mantis : of, relating to the faculty of divination; prophetic).

I fear this issue may be a bit meagre, not for want of material backed up in my LB at Conflux 6 files, but because I’m assembling it only a week or two before deadline. The last three months I have been focussing on my thesis to the exclusion of nearly all else. As I write, it’s just a few days since I handed it in for examination. It consists of two parts: the critical component (“Individuation, ‘Mytho-realism’ and Surrealistic Traces in Terry Dowling’s Tom Rynosseros Cycle”) and the creative component (a 35,000 word novella called ‘Ghosts in the House of Life”). It seems the critical piece may find a home next year in S.T. Joshi’s new journal from Hippocampus Press, Weird Fiction Annual. I will be seeking a home in print for the novella as well but haven’t yet decided where to send it; in any case, I intend developing it into a full-length novel. My reading has been restricted due to the thesis – I have spent months reading nothing but Jungian, Surrealist and Pre-Raphaelite works – but I can now return to the consumption of fiction, and hopefully will have some reviews to offer next issue. I haven’t even had time yet to read Ken Faig’s The Unknown Lovecraft nor

Richard Tierney’s Drums of Chaos, both of which I received some time ago although I managed to squeeze in ST Joshi’s Classics and Contemporaries, which I vastly enjoyed. Presumably I will now graduate in December, finally having a degree at age 50. I intend looking for work in publishing or editing next year, after fulfilling a couple of other writing commitments between now and Christmas – a story for an American anthology, and a critical piece for another American book. I can’t refrain from publishing here the comments author M. John Harrison made about my essay on his work which appeared in Studies in the Fantastic No 2. In an email to me after I provided him a copy of the published essay, he said: “broadly, I think it is exceptional in its recognition of what I’m doing and how. After so many years in a wilderness, it’s such a relief when you know that people out there are getting it. I would say that “Undoing the Mechanisms” is more incisive than many of the texts it quotes –more incisive, too, than some of the criticism in Parietal Games [ed: a collection of criticism on MJH in which I wish I had been included!]. I feel that the books are well served by it, and in terms of its sense of authority and clarity of angle-of-attack, I’d place it with Chris Moyle’s Lacanian “Sex as Exile: Postmodern Metamorphosis and Erotic Dystopia” and David Punter’s Gothic “Light: Shadows of Modernity.” Given that I admire Harrison more than any other living fiction writer save perhaps Ligotti, these appreciative comments made me very very happy! I also feel that my critical ambitions are on the right mark and that perhaps I can further develop in that direction…. I received copies of Lovecraft Annual No 3, containing my essay on “The Transition of Juan Romero” and many other excellent essays on HPL. It’s a handsome production – this issue also contains my review of Joshi’s The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos – and I have scraped together enough money to order

the two back issues, plus all the issues of Dead Reckonings, which I have not yet seen at all. I also received Ben Szumskyj’s essay collection Robert Bloch: the Man Who Collected Psychos (McFarland) in which I have an essay. It’s a well put-together volume and I look forward to reading all of it shortly.My story in Gaslight Grotesque should be out in November, and I’m awaiting the anthology with bated breath – my first Holmes story in print, my first in an overseas anthology, and my first Canadian appearance! Also, I think, my highest-paying story in print as yet. I may have mentioned last time that I appeared on television in a special edition of the Australian book program ‘Jennifer Byrne Presents’, entitled ‘Monsters and Bloodsuckers’. While I would have preferred to talk modern horror and Lovecraft, the show focussed on ‘classic’ horror novels – ‘Dracula and so on – but we managed to sneak a few references to Lovecraft in under the radar, since the show’s editor was also a Lovecraft fan. The program screened in Australia in September and I had quite a number of positive comments from people who had seen it. For anyone who wants to see it and missed the original broadcast, you can go to the following site: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/jbp/ . Simply click on the picture next to the ‘Jennifer Byrne Presents: Monsters and Bloodsuckers’ heading and you will be taken to the vodcast window, then just press the ‘Play’ arrow. We made a trip to Woori Yallock in Victoria in September (a round trip of some 2000 miles) to gather with a group of Reclaiming Tradition witches. On the way down we saw Margi’s cousin Denise at her farm at Spring Valley near Goulburn, the ‘ancestral place’ of most of Margi’s folks, and Margi & Graham at explored the Spring Valley

cemetery there. In Victoria, we had a good couple of days meeting the people and doing some interesting ritual with them, and it may lead to further work. I am also currently considering rejoining the OTO, my former magical order, in which I haven’t been active since the mid1990s. En route to Victoria, we visited many small country bookshops in towns such as Holbrook, Goulburn, Euroa, Benalla, Wangaratta and Albury. I had a few good finds including a first of Witches LB standing next to weird roadside sculpture near Goulburn, NSW

Three (containing

Lieber’s Conjure Wife) The band I have been rehearsing in with Margi and Graham, now dubbed ‘Third Road’, is Playing bass at home going well. We in Third Road have perfected 2-3 hours of material to play live and will be doing a ‘dress rehearsal’ gig at a small hall locally in Wollongong on the 7th November for friends. Our first semipublic gig will be for a wedding in early December. Next year we hope to play local clubs and bring in some money. In October Margi, Graham and I attended Conflux sf Leigh & Margi at Conflux 6 convention in Canberra, now an annual tradition and the marker of the fifth anniversary of our polyamorous triad. Usually Margi and I run a workshop on

magick and appear on panels, but due to my time-consuming thesis, we took it easier this year and simply relaxed around the con. We also got out to see the National Art Gallery and the National Library in Canberra (the latter featuring the excellent exhibition on the work of muso Nick Cave). One day we had lunch with one of the co-editors of Studies in Australian Weird Fiction, James Doig. James took us to Tilley’s, an atmospheric eating place, and then on to a great secondhand bookshop ,Canty’s, where as well as finding a couple of good books, I ran into an old compadre from my magical lodge, the OTO, David Bottrill. It’s a small world! In family news, my stepson Rohan is about to turn 21, and we are hosting a party for him and his friends at Kuleto’s Cocktail Bar in Newtown, Sydney, near where he lives. Work on the property progresses, with Graham having hired a digger to flatten the earth near our back creek where we intend re-fencing next year. Margi is loving her painting and drawing classes and is turning out many artworks. Graham had a major coup with a commission some time ago to design the fonts for the intertitles of a re-release of the classic version of the silent horror film Nosferatu. He received the finished copy from America recently and is very happy with the result. It was with sadness that I learned of the passing of founding EOD member Ben Indick recently. I never met Ben but always appreciated his contributions to the EOD. (Danny Lovecraft met him while in the US a few years back). I pay a small tribute to Ben this issue with some notes about his output. I have been giving serious thought to the project of assembling Robert Bloch’s Selected Letters, for which I have obtained approval from the Bloch Estate. I imagine this will take at least the next year or two and will keep me out of mischief! Danny Lovecraft may be collaborating with me on this project, for which there is no publisher as yet.

I seem to have encouraged our esteemed EOD friend Fred Phillips about publishing a collection of his poetry to the extent that Hippocampus Press has apparently now committed to assembling a volume of his verse next year, for which I have provided a blurb. In my few idle moments I have found time to improve many Wikipedia entries relating to Arkham House and its authors (such as H. Russell Wakefield, Carl Jacobi, etc). Most of the changes have been left alone by the invisible ‘Big Brothers’ of Wikipedia, so they must have been OK. The ST Joshi page has also been considerably improved. Some investigation around Arkham House’s recent history leads me to discover that Peter Ruber (who became editor there in 1997) must have bowed out due to ill health around 2002 or so…and now Robert Weinberg and George Vanderburgh seem to be about to take the editorial reins. Of course, this is probably old news to some of you (such as John Haefele, who seems to be abreast of everything concerning Arkham House) but it was exciting to me to learn of a possible new injection of direction and impetus at the venerable publisher. I managed to watch some movies, though mostly in the last week or so. They were a mixed bag. Two were particularly disappointing. I have been collecting the movies of Christopher Lee, inspired by reading the excellent and comprehensive volume by Jonathan Rigby, Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History (Reynolds & Hearn, 2001). The film Funny Man (1993) should really be titled ‘Unfunny Man’ or even ‘Stupid Dickhead Man’. Lee’s appearances in it are restricted to a few minutes of footage in which he peers through a house of cards or recites bits of Lewis Carroll. The setting, a real disused lunatic asylum, is impressive, but the laboured script, in which Tim James’ character (described aptly by Rigby as ‘a repulsive, wisecracking combination of Harlequin, Freddy Krueger and Mr Punch) messily picks off characters about

whom one doesn’t care a whit, is terrible. And why does this Punch character speak with a Welsh accent? Rigby also refers to the film’s “lager-lout surrealism” and “a hit-or-miss stream of vulgar vaudeville routines.” A bloody awful film which I didn’t enjoy at all. There’s a much more menacing jester-capped troll in the final segment of the 1985 Stephen King adaptation Cat’s Eye. I was also disappointed by The Spirit, based on the Will Eisner character and scripted and direct by comics legend Frank Miller. While the production design is gorgeous, the acting is uniformly wooden (and that includes the usually excellent Samuel L. Jackson), the comedy doesn’t work, many scenes are incredibly stagy and talky (not least that in which the captured Spirit is lectured by Jackson’s Octopus character dressed as a Nazi), and the use of anachronism is grating (characters dress 1940’s style but use laptops and employ phrases like “lighten up” and “bling”). The brilliant title sequence of the film is all you really need to see; the rest is like wading through treacle. The best movie I’ve seen recently is David Lynch’s extraordinary Inland Empire – definitely worth the wait after five or six years since Lost Highway. Lynch has a lot in common with novelist Christopher Priest with their common usage of identity switches, interest in the double and the doppelganger, etc. Inland Empire is obscure, and at a three hours, a trifle overlong, but is another haunting production from Lynch that will stand the test of time. The movie I really want to see next is Terry Gilliam’s newie, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, which opens in Australia this week. I got to the local Lifeline Bookfair in October, and had a few good finds, probably the best of which was Alfred My cat Beltane, a.k.a. The Snuffler from the Stars

Metraux’s classic book Voodoo, first ed in dustjacket, for a mere $3. Holding up that role as an emissary for Fred Phillips’ Antient and Honourable Order of the Drowned Rat! Just as this issue goes out, Margi and I will be attending some workshops run by renowned American ceremonial magician and author Lon Milo DuQuette, presented by the Sydney OTO. We can’t go to them all, but will be attending the lecture on Enochian, and doing the all-day Lon Milo DuQuette after his workshop on the Qabala in Sydney, workshops with LB. on Crowley’s Thoth Tarot and on Qabalah. I got my copies of DuQuette’s books signed, and the workshops were fantastic. I had hoped this issue to present interviews with Joe S. Pulver and with Dave Carson, but with any luck they will appear next time. Needless to say, I have many and multifarious plans for the future…but I will speak of them when the stars are right.

Here’s the cover of a curious kids’ book I picked up secondhand recently. It was published by Ward Lock, 1957. A prime candidate for a detournement featuring Lovecraftian tentacles menacing those innocent children…

Books By My Bedside As mentioned, I have finished very few books lately, but the actual pile by my bed, which I hope to tackle soon, includes the following books, new and old: J.G. Ballard – The Four-Dimensional Nightmare; Samuel Delany – Atlantis: Three Tales; Dennis O’Neill – Batman: Knightfall; Umberto Eco – Foucault’s Pendulum; Gillian Polack – Life Through Cellophane; Garth Nix – Sabriel; Kim Stanley Robinson – A Short, Sharp Shock (Robinson will be GoH at next year’s Worldcon, to be held in Melbourne – I met him once before, in Hobart in 1995); J. Daniel Gunther – Initiation in the Aeon of the Child; Brian Aldiss – Romance of the Equator: Best Fantasy Stories; Thomas Disch – The Businessman; Roddy Doyle – Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha; Keith Stevenson (ed) X6: Six Journeys Beyond the Borders of the Real.; Algernon Blackwood – Incredible Adventures; Douglas Ezzy – Practicing the Witch’s Craft: Real Magic Under a Southern Sky; and Jeremy Dyson – Bright Darkness: The Lost Art of the Supernatural Horror Film. I’ve already dipped into many of these and look forward to completing them. I will also be reading Phillip Ellis’s thesis on poet Christopher Brennan, and some novel manuscripts for my literary agencies (being free to do this again now my thesis is concluded). And just as I was preparing this issue, a swag of stuff from Hippocampus Press turned up for me – the two-volume Essential Solitude (Lovecraft-Derleth letters) which I almost missed out on by leaving my order so late; plus all five issues of Dead Reckonings and all three of Lovecraft Annual. A feast of reading to keep me busy!

Books

A Few Notes on Ben Indick (1923-Sept 28, 2009)

The Drama of Ray Bradbury (1977). Revised reprint as Ray Bradbury, Dramatist.(Borgo press, 1989; also Paupers Press and Wildside press editions). Geo. Alec Effinger: From Entropy to Budayeen (with Daryl F. Mallett) (Wildside Press, 1993)

Ben Indick in centre between Peter Cannon (left) and Darrell Schweitzer (right) (photo: Kathryn Cramer from Flickr)

Unfortunately I never met Ben Indick but I knew of him through the mailings of the EOD. A founder member, he was contributing to EOD when I was in the order back in the mid-1980s, and was still contributing when I rejoined a few years ago, his enthusiasm obviously undinted. His death will sadden many members of the EOD, as it will his friends who knew him personally. I want to pay a small tribute to him by simply listing some of his works; this does not pretend to be a comprehensive bibliography Indick was also an early member of REHUPA, the Robert E. Howard apa. In addition to the items listed below, Indick reviewed for Shaw Studies, New York Review of Science Fiction, and Dead Reckonings. He provided intros to at least two books: Robert H. Knox’s H.P. Lovecraft: Illustrated in Ichor Niekas Publications, Center Harbor, NH, 1984. and Hannes Bok: Drawings and Sketches Certo, Nicholas J. (editor/publisher) Mugster Press, Circleville, 1996. He conducted an interview with Nelson Bond available online at: http://www.arkhamhouse.com/bondinterv iew.htm. The First Fandom Awards were presented at Anticipation to honour those with longstanding in the fannish community. Aug 2009. recipients were James Gunn and Ben Indick

Essays [essay] in Kingdom of Fear: The World of Stephen King (ed Chuck Miller) (Underwood-Miller, 1986). “Come

Out

Here and Take Your Medicine!” in Don Herron, ed. Reign of Fear. (LA: Underwood-Miller, 1988).

“Fantasy in the Theatre” (review of Patrick D. Murphy, ed. Staging the Impossible: The Fantastic Mode in Modern Drama). in Science Fiction Studies #61, Vol 20, Part 3 (Nov 1993) Reprinted in Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy 53. Greenwood Press, 1992. Online at: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/review_essay s/indick61.htm “A Gentleman from Providence Pens a Letter”. Madison, WI: Strange Co, 1975 wraps. (100 copies, booklet). “The History of the EOD”. Scream Factory #9 (Summer, 1992); revised and reprinted

in “James Van Hise Presents ‘The Fantastic Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft’”. Revised and reprinted online at: http://www.qusoor.com/EOD/EODhistory .html “HPL as Decadent: A Consideration of St Armand’s Essay”. Ibid No 14 (May 1976) pp 8-9 . (A reply to St Armand’s HP Lovecraft: New England Decadent, noting that the Decadent school was only one of the many influences upon Lovecraft’s thought). “H. Russell Wakefield: The Man Who Believed in Ghosts.” In Discovering Classic Horror Fiction 1, edited by Darrell Schweitzer, pp. 73-93. San Bernardino, Cal.: The Borgo Press, 1992. Online at: http://www.bookrags.com/criticism/herber t-russell-wakefield_10/

Stories •

• •

• •

• “In Memoriam: Frank Belknap Long”. Lovecraft Studies No 30 (Spring 1994): 3-4. "King and the Literary Tradition of Horror and the Supernatural" in Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller Fear Itself The Early Works of Stephen King, (Underwood-Miller, Inc) 1982. “Lovecraft’s Ladies” Xenophile 2, No 6 (Oct 1975). Reprinted in Darrell Schweitzer, ed. Essays Lovecraftian (Baltimore: TK Graphics, 1976). “Lovecraft’s POElar Adventure” Crypt of Cthulhu 32 (St John’s Eve 1985): 25-31. “Spooks and Worse: New King, Old Classics” The Blood Review (Apr 1990). “The Western Fiction of Robert E. Howard” in Don Herron (ed) The Dark Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard: A Critical Anthology. (Wildside Press, 1984) "What Makes Him So Scary," in Discovering Stephen King, ed Darrell Schweitzer, Starmont House, Inc., 1985, pp. 9-14.

* Bluegrass Reunion, (ss) Eldritch Tales #25 1991 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, ed. Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 1995 * Expiration Notice, (vi) Eldritch Tales #18 1989 * A Flash of Silver, (vi) Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, ed. Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 1998 * Quiz: Break a Leg!, (qz) Twilight Zone Jul/Aug 1985 * The Road to Dunwich, (ss) Ibid Jun 1973 The Dunwich Cycle, ed. Robert M. Price, Chaosium 1996 * The Rose Cavalier, (ss) 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories, ed. Robert Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz & Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 1995

MANTICHORUS: MAILING NOTES SWWFT Mailing #33 (Aug 2, 2009) John Howard, Change-Winds: Useful index to the Mammoth Books of Best New Horror, John. An author index would double the usefulness. I’ve collected the series since its inception, though to my annoyance I lack Vols 9 and 16, and don’t yet have 19. There are a couple of curious Australian reprints you may want to know about for bibliographic completeness. Magpie Books London published in 1993 The Giant Book of Best New Horror, a selection from the first three vols of Best New Horror (not in your checklist); this was reprinted in Oz by The Book Company (n.d., but c. 1994). The first two of my editions of the series are Carroll and

Graf hardcovers; I don’t know if C&G produced more than these two in hc. One minor point of interest is that around the time of Vol 6, Robinson Books was using the imprint Raven books, hence Vol 6 and 7 appear as published by Raven, with a Raven logo on the spine instead of the different bird used by Robinson. The related volume The Mammoth Book of Terror edited by Jones for Robinson in 1991 was reprinted in hc in Australia as The Anthology of Horror Stories (1994). I believe both this and the Book Company reprint mentioned above were unlicensed reprints of the UK books. I once sent Stephen Jones copies for his records and got a nice thanks card back. Re: the Bloch book, your essay appears therein (I assume you have your copy now) so I hope you’re happy with the version that appears! I enjoyed your collaboration with Mark Valentine in The Game’s Afoot! I confess that sadly I’ve never read Van Vogt. I have a bio of Baron Corvo, though. Scott Shaeffer, Dalriadic: Really enjoyed the piece on Serling’s war service and its relation to “The Purple Testament’. I recently acquired the DVD of Serling’s Night Gallery, (Season 1) and revisited a number of episodes I saw when growing up, plus some I’d never seen, including the adaptation of CA Smith’s “Return of the Sorcerer” and a brilliant Fritz Lieber story, “The Dead Man.” I’ve taken your recommendation on changing the font on title of The Nameless Cylinder for easier readability. Re EOD & SSWFT, my only experience comes from being an EOD member back in the 1980s. But I think the two apas are quite similar in focus; while nominally EOD focusses more strongly on Lovecraft, it allows a broader spectrum of writing on horror and fantasy; and SSWFT does that by definition. I recently invited members of EOD to join SSWFT as well, but no-one’s taken up the offer, so I guess Fred Phillips and Martin Andersson remain the only members (apart from myself) to belong to both.

Glad you enjoyed the essay on Lovecraft’s “Juan Romero.” You’re right – it wasn’t written for university, hence probably lacked the dense theoretical terminology so beloved of academics… Mark Valentine, Opharion: I like your taste for reading pre-twentieth century fiction. I’m rather inclined that way myself, though I try to keep up with at least some current horror authors. I really want to read all of Blackwood (I have a near-complete run of his books) and of Machen, and of all the Arkham House volumes which are on my shelves. Certainly not interested in reading Charlaine Harris and all those currently popular vampire things that sell by the bucketload. I enjoyed your revised essay on Carnacki. Many years ago I was in contact with Ian Bell when he was trying to instigate a Hodgson revival; whatever happened to him? He’d be pleased to see Night Shade Books complete series and the volumes Tartarus Press have issued (not that I have those – the prices are way out of my league). Do you have 472 Cheyne Walk, co-authored by me mate Rick Kennett and UK’s Chico Kidd? Well worth having in a Hodgson collection. Anyway, I rather like the fact Carnacki’s cases are not always supernatural; it rings true to me that some would turn out to be able to be explained by rationalistic means. I wonder why no-one reprints the Flaxman Low stories? (I have a set of the original Pearson’s Magazine in which those tales appeared). And I’ve always thought someone should write a Carnacki meets Jorkens story; maybe I’ll do it myself some time. I like your interpretation of the Carnacki tales as not merely concerned with “ghost-finding” but with a fight against the vast dark cosmic gulfs and their predatory abominations. Your phrase “insignificant physical condiment” on the last page strikes me as odd, though – is “condiment” an error? Makes Carnacki sound a bit like a salt-shaker! But you must have meant it, for the same phrase appears on p. 28 of your essay’s original appearances in Voyages and Visions….

Martin Andersson, Hyperborean: Re: Dunsany, I just read ST’s intro to his edition of In the Land of Time and other Fantasy Tales. Makes me realise I need to get all of ST’s editions, even though I sometimes have other editions of the authors, because he provides such succinct overviews of the writer’s output and of criticism that has been done on the given writer. I’m lucky that I decided some time ago that I would not collect either Dunsany or Howard; in fact I had rather large collections of their stuff which I parted with (Danny Lovecraft now has my Dunsany holdings). I have my hands full with so many other authors! As usual, Martin, your acquisitions list (and reading list) tends to the mind-boggling. Can I recommend you use LibraryThing? That way we could compare libraries. Of movies you list, I’ve seen Taken (good), Watchmen (wonderful), Star Trek (entertaining), Wolverine (pretty cool) but not the others, though I want to see Dean Spanley. Congrats on becoming an uncle! I’m looking forward to reading ST’s review of Tour de Lovecraft. Your Tolkien trip sounds cool. Sad that Charles N. Brown died. I met him in about 2005 when he was out here for a gathering with some local sf folks, at a party in Newtown. A strange little gnome-like man, with bare feet and painted toenails. But who can deny his lasting influence in establishing Locus magazine? Your Google translations of Lovecraft were at least amusing. Reminds me of some of those Chinese packaging instructions one gets on products sometimes. I’ll be interested to see if you said anything of my story in Eldritch Horrors when I receive my swag of Dead Reckonings from Derrick Hussey. I think your speculation that there may be a connection between “Juan Romero” and ‘The Mound” may well be correct, but “Juan Romero” is a very dim adumbration of a later theme, and in fact the political and sociological themes of “The Mound”, commenting as they do on the decline of Western civilisation, place it closer to a

story like “At the Mountains of Madness.” But yes, that Indian element in both stories, leading to the discovery of underground aliens or bizarre phenomena, certainly links “Juan Romero” and “The Mound” at least superficially. Thanks for that correction about Lovecraft hearing Dunsany lecture. As you rightly point out, it happened during Dunsany’s lecture tour of US, not at an amateur convention. I may have had in mind the fact that Lovecraft was introduced to Dunsany’s actual published work by an amateur – Alice M. Hamlet. But whoops! My error has made it through into the version of my essay in Lovecraft Annual No 3. I must be more rigorous in checking my facts! Mike Barrett, Koshtra Belorn: Enjoyed your article on Sturgeon, Mike. I had Sturgeon’s stories in the 5-vol collected edition but had to sell them a few years ago when I was poor. I still have a number of his novels, though. Your reviews were all interesting, though I’ve read none of the books you discuss. Phillip Ellis, Elegant Amusement: Before I comment, I’ll just say that wavy background you used makes the pages hard to read when printed out. I’d suggest changing it next time. But wow! A full-length essay on a single ‘Fungus’ from Lovecraft’s sonnet sequence. Re: the question of Lovecraft’s sonnets as “pseudo-sonnets,”(as he himself referred to them), I see no reason why their hybrid mixture of the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean forms should not be known as “the Lovecraftian sonnet.” (I’d have to check whether Wandrei also used this form). I’m not sufficiently familiar with the theory of primary, secondary and tertiary stresses in verse to fully understand what you’re saying about stress in this poem. Nevertheless, an interesting analysis. I’m not certain whether your conclusion that “the patterns are not accidental but part of the poem’s design” is accurate or not. Lovecraft referred to “grinding out” the various Fungi; and did so in a short time;

although he had sufficient metrical and poetic knowledge to construct poems in the vein of those he had read, I think we should be wary of attributing to him greater poetical powers than he possessed. Many of the perceivable patterns in “Zaman’s Hill” may simply be coincidental or accidental. It depends on the strength of Lovecraft’s ‘ear’ for such things as consonance and assonance. Perhaps a separate paper on Lovecraft’s demonstrable skills as a poet would cast light on this. Interesting to know of your project of the livre compose on Lovecraft. James Doig, Via Occulta: Fascinating material on the Penny Bloods and the old booksellers, James! I wonder if Barry Ono was any relation to Yoko (lol☺) Dorothea Phillips, Betwixt the Books: Entertaining account of your Canadian Rockies adventure with Fred. I would have loved to have seen the Robertson Davies play; I’m a great fan of his writing. Nice poem from Fred, too. Fred Phillips, Sercon: Nice account of ferreting for books, Fred. Smoley’s book on Gnosticism is worth having, though there are other equally good books on the subject. I must say the name of the literary salon FISTFA sounds vaguely obscene to me, but perhaps that’s just my dirty mind. Baron von Nederlinger’s haul of volumes sounds most intriguing. I’m a sucker for sliding panels revealing hidden recesses! But I fear this is one of your elaborate legpulls, for I can find no reference elsewhere to the Baron, to the Liber Ignotus, or to ‘Dr Obadiah Jessup’. EOD mailing #147 (Aug 2, 2009) Randy Everts, Performers: Interesting material on Holly (if somewhat marginal to horror and fantasy interests). Laurence Bush, Pleasures of Death: There’s an entry on R Murray Gilchrist by Brian Stableford in the St James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, and one by Jack Sullivan in The Penguin Encyc of Horror and the Supernatural. Odd stories by him appear in anthologies edited by EF Bleiler and Hugh

Lamb. Good luck with the thesis! Good info on “Olalla” too. John Haefele, Hesperia: I appreciate your work on Derleth and Arkham House, John; your depth of knowledge is admirable. The Chronology of the assemblage of HPL’s Selected Letters was informative. I was fortunate to start collecting Arkham House books back in 1973, when the Selected Letters volumes were first issued. At that time I also collected most of Derleth’s mainstream fiction and poetry, including the Hawk and Whippoorwill material, though I later sold this material as too diffuse to concentrate on the weird material issued by Arkham House. Don & Mollie Burleson, Morgan Rice Gazette: Don, in your comment to Steve Walker you refer to “chemistry, or its forebear, [as being] a mess of outlandish gibberish called alchemy.” It surprises me that you are dismissive of alchemy, especially since you have written of Jungian mythic archetypes and would be aware of Jung’s uses of the psychological implications of alchemical motifs. It’s true that modern chemistry developed from alchemy, and that alchemy was oft-times obscure; but I don’t believe that makes it outmoded. Alchemy is a fascinating and complex subject and is as much a “real” science (certainly in regard to psychology) as any other; though maybe you are demonstrating here your preference for the “hard” rather than the “soft” sciences. I don’t believe it would be accurate to say the “soft” sciences are not “real” sciences. They simply operate differently and are not as easily measurable as chemistry, physics etc. Glad you liked my essay on “Romero.” Yes, I actually exchanged a brief email with Marc Michaud and he tells me he hopes to revive Necronomicon Press “one day” I always enjoy your accounts of yours and Don’s doings, Mollie. Good poetry, too, both of you… T.R. Livesey, Redux: Good piece on Lovecraft and Sir James Jeans. I myself don’t see the necessity to inhabit a world

of belief ruled by either “emotional mythbelief” or “cosmic indifferentism”, attitudes which are often posited unnecessarily as diametrically opposed. There is deep truth in myth and esoteric knowledge which can inform us about life and the universe, no less than in the cosmic attitude. I believe we should avail ourselves of the latest scientific information while recognising that science is limited in its abilities to penetrate the deep mysteries, some of which are approached more usefully through other modalities of experience and knowledge. Scott Connors, Continuous Commentaries: I haven’t attempted to collect any of the Night Shade Smith volumes as yet, as I have all the Arkham House editions, but I will probably get them later for completism. (I only have Vol 3 of Hippocampus Press complete poetry set, and need to get Vols 1 and 2 of that first). Great detective work tracking down that description of Smith’s 1927 exhibition! I like the casual way you mention you “picked up” a signed copy of Wandrei’s Dark Odyssey poetry collection; I bet that cost a pretty penny. I would be exceedingly keen to see any unreprinted material from Howard and Donald Wandrei, and Carl Jacobi from the Minnesota Review. Good reprints by Price and Wandrei – the latter made me laugh out loud. And the piece on Smith in Carmel was very interesting. Fred Phillips, Sercon: See comments in SSWFT (above). John Goodrich: Raw, New Things: Enjoyed the reviews, John. Re: ST’s coverage of Mythos fiction in his book, he says explicitly that he is not attempting to cover everything, and wouldn’t want to. Perhaps someone should write a separate book covering the whole field and its exemplars, reviewing them individually? I really enjoy Charles Stross and think he’s done some great work utilising the Mythos. The mushrooming of the Mythos field makes it unlikely that any one book could cover it all. I agree with you that Dan Harms’ Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia is

a reference more useful for the writer than the casual reader. When I was in high school I started to compile a thing called The Lovecraft Companion (never finished). It served much the same purpose as Harms’ book. I look forward to your review of Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales. Ben Indick, Ibid 147: Well, here’s a sad issue to comment on, for as we all know, Ben passed away recently and so this is his last zine. He had complained of the font size in my zines, and I had planned to please him by restoring a readable size this issue (which I have done) but unfortunately he’s no longer with us to appreciate it. I wonder what will happen to Ben’s papers and effects? Does anyone know if anything has been organised? I enjoyed Ben’s story ‘The Traveller” here, and also went back to read his “The Road to Dunwich” in Price’s The Dunwich Cycle, which I think was an effective Mythos tale told without the usual trappings of eldritch names and books of brainshattering lore. Sean McLachlan: Notes from the XIIth Legion: You seem super busy with your writing on weaponry and military history, Sean. Glad you enjoyed your time with Martin Andersson during the Tolkien gathering. S.T. Joshi, What is Anything? : Hope you enjoyed the HP Lovecraft Film Festival; one day I may make it back to the States and participate in one of these events, which of course started up after my only overseas trip (to the Lovecraft Centennial back in 1990). I didn’t know you’d written a book on bestsellers (every mailing seems to reveal some new project you have undertaken)! Glad to know Robert Reginald and Borgo Press are still around. It seems that A Means to Freedom has now appeared, though it will be some little time before I can afford to buy it. I am highly excited by the prospect of the unabridged Lovecraft biography coming out; and of course, by the imminence of the new/updated Lovecraft bibliography, which Martin Andersson reveals in his mailing for this month’s SWFFT (which

has just reached me) has now gone to the printers and will be out shortly. I remember that back in Providence in 1990 some fellow was proposing to update the Lovecraft biblio and seeking your input, and you made a comment to him whose gist was that such a project didn’t hold much attraction for you; you evidently changed your mind in recent years! The new historical anthology of horror poetry sounds intriguing, and naturally I am flattered to be included. I hope that Mythos books will issue it within a reasonable time once you hand it in. Do you know, by the way, of any complete extant listing of Mythos Books’ catalogue? There doesn’t seem to be one, and requests to David Wynn seem to fall into a bit of a black hole. I enjoyed the intro to your edition of the DH Lawrence horror tales. The other editions (Underwood, Level etc) sound worthwhile too. Ye gods! One can hardly keep up as a buyer and a reader with your output, and once again I gape slack-jawed at the prodigious output from your editorial desk. David Drake, Potpourri: I’ve never read Wellman’s Hok stories Piazo Publications book edition of them sounds like a good idea. Ken Faig, EOD letter: More fascinating sources for the ethnic names in “Dreams in the Witch House’. Good material on the Lovecraft copyrights, which has long been a confusing issue. Glad you liked my “Romero” essay. I should have more essays in future issues on Lovecraft stories about which too little has been written. Martin Andersson, Hyperborean: You should get some kind of award for noting all those textual errors in the Barnes & Nobel edition! Re: “Romero,” I suppose that that narrator reminds one somewhat of Sir Richard Francis Burton, although Burton died in 1890. But I think there were many British officers in India who held the attitude of being comfortable with the natives, and Lovecraft’s narrator is simply a generic example of this. Re: Tierney’s new poetry collection, Savage Menace and Other Poems (from P’rea Press), this should

appear in early 2010. Danny Lovecraft has had some difficulty obtaining copyrights permissions from, for instance, the J K Rowling rights-holders (for poems Tierney has written in ‘homage’ to her characters) though it seems he has gotten permission for some Tolkien-related ones. The rights issue is interesting and raises the question of the distinction between ‘plagiarism’ and ‘homage’. Apparently even in cases of homage a piece of writing utilising another writer’s characters may be considered to infringe the original writer’s rights. Go figure. John Navroth, Lovecraftiana: An enjoyable coverage of references to Lovecraft in Fate magazine, John. One of these days I intend to update my long article on Lovecraft and occultism that appeared in Shadowplay and Dagon magazines in the 1980s. I was not a practicing occultist when I wrote it, but have now been one since about 1990, so my perspective in the rewrite will be a little different than in the original. Gavin Smith, Kornflake Killer: Nice to hear your views about Dean Spanley. I still haven’t caught the movie but will do so via DVD shortly. (Ah, thank Cthulhu my thesis is over!). Steve Walker, Criticaster: That PDF search engine is interesting, I’ll check it out. Have you ever looked at Scribd? There are some decent Lovecraft-related essays there published by academics as well as amateurs. Interesting speculations on origins for the name “Dunwich”; I hadn’t known of the reference in Matthew Lewis’ poem before. Re: “Romero,” I think HPL’s use of the Aztec god-name ‘Huitzilopochtli’ was, as you suggest, to ‘introduce a touch of exotic strangeness’, much as he used the names ‘Atys’ and ‘Magna Mater’ in “The Rats in the Walls” without fully grasping the nature of these ancient cults. (Magna Mater, for instance, the ‘Great Mother’, is only a name of dark portent if one goes along with the very common demonisation of goddess-based pagan cults by later, patriarchal religions including Christianity. But to HPL, it no

doubt had a whiff of dark and ancient mystery, and that was enough for him). The Aztec name in “Romero” serves no obvious central purpose in the story (unless, as I suggested in the essay, HPL is trying to hint that Romero himself is somehow connected via bloodline with the ancient Aztec gods. In any case, HPL didn’t make a very good job of that suggestion). Whether the story has an unreliable narrator is debatable. The witnesses disputing of the events may indicate that the events are simply beyond understanding, either by the witnesses or by the narrator. The tale ends in mystery, and HPL provides no satisfactory explanation. I agree with you that in “Romero”, the ‘vagueness is the story’. I think HPL was still developing his fictional technique at that time, and hadn’t yet learned how to tie all the elements together that he wished to include. But he always had a penchant for the unexplained exotic name, as those intriguing phrases muttered by Danforth at the conclusion of “At the Mountains of Madness” demonstrate. This was a very effective technique, I think, which makes the reader imagine what might lie behind the phrase – a sort of “Shunned-House”type linguistic elbow (or “Under the Pyramids”-type monstrous linguistic forepaw) that merely suggests the true extent of a given horror. Anyhow, yes, the old “it was all a dream” bromide is one way of interpreting “Romero” according to the internal evidence of the text, and that hackneyed fact makes it very much a lesser tale in the scale of Lovecraft’s literary achievement. Re: your excursus on evolution and devolution in Lovecraft, I agree that this is one of the most widespread and potent themes in Lovecraft. Occultists such as Kenneth Grant have picked up on this, naturally comparing it to the ‘atavistic resurgence’ theories of such esoteric artists as Austin Osman Spare, who sought to ‘unleash the inner beast’ in many of his artworks. One could write a decent essay exploring evolution and devolution as opposite

spectrums or poles of the same biological impulse, and even link this with HPL’s fascination with the laws of time. Juha-Matta Rahali, Nonconformist: The annotated Lovecraft correspondence is much appreciated. I’m not clear, though – are these letters which are not (or will not be) in the volumes of Lovecraft correspondence being issued by Hippocampus? Are you feeding your sources to ST? REQUEST FOR COPIES OF STUDIES IN WEIRD FICTION I lack the following numbers of Studies in Weird Fiction and would be willing to pay for photocopies or originals. Can anyone help? I need the following issues: 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 20. I also need the final two issues – Summer 2003 (which was erroneously numbered 25; it should have been 26); and Spring 2005 (numbered 27). I have photocopies of Issues 11 and 12 but would like to buy originals.

REQUEST FOR COPIES OF LOVECRAFT STUDIES Due to the years I was away from Lovecraft studies, I missed a number of issues of the journal Lovecraft Studies and am finding them difficult to obtain as they rarely come up on Ebay. If anyone in the EOD can help with copies for sale, or even photocopies of the following issues, I would be happy to pay. I need the following issues: 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 40. I have photocopies of the following issues but would be glad to buy originals: 24, 28, 42/43. Also, does anyone know if an Index to Lovecraft Studies after issue 25 exists? (LS 26 published an Index to Issues 1-25).

REQUEST FOR COPIES OF ROBERT BLOCH LETTERS I have initiated a project of compiling the Selected Letters of Robert Bloch, and the Bloch Estate has given me permission to pursue this, under the auspices of Bloch’s living daughter. I have already obtained copies of some Bloch letters from various library holdings in the US, but would be grateful for leads from EOD members, especially if anyone has copies of letters from Bloch they may be willing to share. Please contact me if you can help in any way.

“The Rats in the Walls” by Phillip Cornell, from The Australian HP Lovecraft Centennial Calendar (Sydney: Borderland Press, 1990).

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