Joshi's book is an awesome thing to behold. If Lovecraft will go on in the 21st century to be one of America's great writers, much credit will go to Joshi for his incredible research, storytelling and critical view of a very curious man.

At times I felt like skipping around and reading chapters which tell of Lovecraft's life during the creation of a specific story (my favorites like "Call of Cthulhu" and "At the Mountains of Madness") -- easy to due thanks for the great Index compiled for this work. The whole book is very thought provoking -- even if you thought you knew enough about Lovecraft's life. The disassembling of the (Derelith's) mythos too is good to have made official with the keen research Joshi has done.

Have recommended this to friends both Lovecraft-lovers and ones-not-necessarily-so. An example of what a good literary biography should be.

Joshi's biography will quite probably never be topped. It easily outdistances L. Sprague de Camp's original biographical study, even though it does slip into some of de Camp's finger-wagging mode from time to time. (Joshi, in common with all critics, seems to feel that his OPINIONS about specific stories are OFFICIAL PRONUNCIAMENTOS about them, a form of arrogance that only mars the fine scholarship, indefatigable research and pleasant writing style of this book.) That minor cavil aside, this is a major accomplishment --- and even when you disagree with Joshi, he'll leave you thinking, AND pleased that you read the book. What more can you ask?

There is little I can add to the kudos already present on this page in reference to "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life." It is every bit as good as the previous readers have said it is: magnificently detailed, critical yet sympathethic, and, yes, "compulsively readable." The point I wish to add is this. The folks who have already reviewed this book here all seem to be inveterate Lovecraftians; in contrast, I am not. While I am slowly warming to Lovecraft as I read more of his fiction, I really ordered this book simply to obtain some background on the writer for a class I teach which will touch briefly on his work. I never had any intention of actually reading all 600 pages---there was some specific information I was looking for, and really only planned to skim the volume. Well! Five days later I staggered away from this magnificent book, dizzy from reading, exhilarated, moved, overwhelmed. The point is: if you have any interest in literary biography, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It is one of the finest examples of the genre published in the past 30 years, and even if you do not much care about Lovecraft the writer, S.T. Joshi will make you care about Lovecraft the man. It should be required reading for anyone planning to write a biography.

"H.P. Lovecraft: A Life" is a great achievement.

With so many different Lovecraft collections out there, it may help prospective buyers to know what's actually in this one:

[By S. T. Joshi:] A Note on the Texts; [by Robert Bloch:] Heritage of Horror [an introductory essay by a protégé of Lovecraft and the author of PSYCHO]; [short stories by Lovecraft:] In the Vault; Pickman's Model; The Rats in the Walls; The Outsider; The Colour Out of Space; The Music of Erich Zann; The Haunter of the Dark; The Picture in the House; The Call of Cthulhu; The Dunwich Horror; Cool Air; The Whisperer in Darkness; The Terrible Old Man; The Thing on the Doorstep; The Shadow Over Innsmouth; The Shadow Out of Time

This is the first in a series of four matching hardcover volumes that present nearly all of Lovecraft's prose fiction. This first volume emphasizes Lovecraft's better short stories (in fact, its original editor, August Derleth, had initially planned to title it BEST SUPERNATURAL FICTION OF H.P. LOVECRAFT). The second volume, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS AND OTHER NOVELS, features Lovecraft's three novellas, his three short stories concerning the character Randolph Carter (who's also featured in one of the novellas), and a few other short stories. The third volume, DAGON AND OTHER MACABRE TALES, presents many lesser, or at least less popular, works of fiction, plus Lovecraft's monograph, "Supernatural Horror in Literature". The fourth, THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM AND OTHER REVISIONS, which includes most of his ghostwritten and collaborative stories, is the weakest in this series, but some gems still lie within.

This series of volumes was originally published by Arkham House Publishers, Inc., in the 1960s, edited, as noted above, by August Derleth. Years later, after Derleth's death, the Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi prepared texts of Lovecraft's fiction that corrected errors that had plagued various print versions thereof and otherwise tried to do a better job of honoring Lovecraft's intentions. Though Joshi had hoped to edit a chronological presentation of Lovecraft's fiction, Arkham House only agreed to publish Joshi's revised texts arranged according to the old Derleth collections, so that the Derleth Estate, which owns Arkham House, could cash in on much of the royalties of the revised texts for Derleth's old editing job. So, alas, this series of matching volumes now in print as published in the '80s isn't arranged as systematically as should be: Lovecraft's work tends to be best enjoyed, understood, and consulted in the chronological order of its composition.

Joshi deserves great credit for bringing these vastly improved texts to the public. Still, some of his textual editing decisions deserve to be called into dispute. Take, for example, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", one of the stories in THE DUNWICH HORROR AND OTHERS. The three dictionaries I consulted say that "cyclopean" and "Cyclopean" are both valid forms of the same word; yet Joshi arbitrarily changes Lovecraft's unmistakable choice of the former to the latter. Those dictionaries also indicate a general preference for not hyphenating adjectives ending with the suffix "like" - yet Joshi inexplicably changes Lovecraft's use of the words fishlike, froglike, sheeplike, barnlike, parklike, and doglike to fish-like, frog-like, sheep-like, barn-like, park-like and dog-like.

Other times, the standard rules of English are on Joshi's side, as when he corrects Lovecraft's habit of hyphenating between adverbs and adjectives (as in "thickly-settled"). But in these and other such reasonable corrections, Joshi presumes too much. Lovecraft was highly literate and well-educated, a professional editor himself, and must have had carefully thought out reasons for spelling and punctuating as he did. Joshi is inconsistent by restoring some nonstandard features of Lovecraft's writing, such as a preference for British and certain archaic spelling, on the one hand, and to "correct" other idiosyncratic features on the other.

All that aside, THE DUNWICH HORROR AND OTHERS, as with the others in this series, has fine content amd belongs on the bookshelf of every serious Lovecraft reader.

This collection of work ranks as my second favorite, falling just short of "At the Mountains of Madness" also published by Arkham house. It contains most of his earlier works, and does a better job providing the reader with a glimpse of the forces which shaped his work through the years than any other collection could hope to. If you are new to Lovecraft, these works would probably not be appreciated as much as others. They are much more enjoyable when one has a better understanding of what Lovecraft is all about. I would suggest starting with the collection "The Dunwich Horror and Others" also by Arkham house. It contains most of Lovecraft's most popular work, including "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Colour out of Space". For any fan or collecter of Lovecraft, however, this book is an absolute must have.

In my humble opinion, there are two ways to read Lovecraft. The first, and best, is to get your hands on an original "Wierd Tales" or other pulp. There is something about the musty smell that adds to the tale. For true conisours, read them under the covers with a flashlight, late in the evening hours.

Realizing that original pulps may be prohibitively expensive, the Arkham House Editions are the next option. These hardback treasures are as much a part of Lovecraft's legacy as the stories themselves. Lovecraft would be all but forgotten if it were not for the small circle of friends who founded Arkham House, with the sole mission of keeping his writings in print. Arkham House is the definitive Lovecraft volume.

The stories in "Dagon and Other MacAbre Tales" are classics, including "Herbert West Re-Animator," "The Doom That Came to Sarnath," "The Strange High House in the Mist," "The Cats of Ulthar ," "Dagon," "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family ," "The Lurking Fear ," "The Transition of Juan Romero ," and his acclaimed essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature [revised] ."

I highly recommend this book. Not only did I feel I was being personally introduced to Howard P. Lovecraft while reading it, I felt Joshi personally knew him. Of course he didn't, but after reading virtually everything in print (including manuscript archives by and about him), Joshi knew more about Lovecraft than most people know about their closest friends. I have never seen letters so well deployed to assemble the day to day, month to month activities and intellectual concerns of a historical figure. (Lovecraft wrote letters by the tons, and many were saved.) There is some discussion of the "weird fiction" Lovecraft wrote, with sometimes negative evaluations of its quality, but the key work gets enthusiastic and insightful brief evaluation, with further context based on the articles in the specialized journals that keep Lovecraft's critical reputation alive. Lovecraft is an acquired taste, but those of us who have acquired it owe Joshi a debt of gratitude. I never knew of Lovecraft's involvement with the amateur press organizations, or of his peripatetic travels across the east coast and parts of Canada he could easily get to. I think Joshi quite rightly attributes Lovecraft's premature death (at age 37) to a lifetime of poor nutrition, much of which was caused by near-poverty -- he never had a professional position, and lived hand to mouth on editing and rewriting of others' work, as well as meager pay for some publications (many of which weren't issued till after his death). His racism is discussed as a personal failing that doesn't undercut the author's other achievements. If that doesn't wash with you, I don't recommend the book. Otherwise, this is the go-to biography of one of the most unusual authors America has ever produced. My one quibble is that no pictures are provided, but they are available elsewhere.

"A Dreamer and A Visionary: H.P. Lovecraft in His Time" is one of the latest offerings from top Lovecraft scholar, S.T. Joshi. This is not an entirely new book, but a heavily edited and condensed version of his monumental 1996 biography "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life" published by Necronomicon Press.

For those persons who a) are new to Lovecraft and want to know more or b) are unable to obtain a copy of the sadly out of print
"H.P. Lovecraft: A Life", "A Dreamer and A Visionary" is well worth the price. Even those who own "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life" will
find this to be a nice companion volume.

Unlike many previous Lovecraft biographies, Joshi's works present a fair look at Lovecraft, warts and all, neither judging or lionizing him. "A Dreamer and A Visionary", like "Lord of A Visible World" and the annotated editions, is a most welcome addition to any Lovecraft library.

H. L. Mencken was not on a campaign against religion: "I have never consciously tried to convert anyone to anything," he wrote. Perhaps not, but conversions must have happened as readers sought his columns in the _Baltimore Evening Sun_, the _Smart Set_, and the _American Mercury_. He didn't write mostly on religion, of course, excoriating Americans for their general stupidity in many spheres. But his critiques of religion have been collected in _H. L. Mencken on Religion_ (Prometheus Books), edited by S. T. Joshi, and they are a stimulating, wide-ranging attack on various aspects of a particular foe. Fundamentalist Christians especially will find much offensive here, for they are Mencken's particular game, although Catholics, Methodists, Christian Scientists, spiritualists, and other more moderate sects come into scorn in their turn. If Mencken were alive today, how he would spring into attacks upon the Raelians, the TV spiritualists, the New Agers, and of course the fundamentalist Christians who are still thriving. To read these essays is to be reminded of how relatively mild such criticism has now become.

Of course Mencken was misanthropic, and of course he was bigoted. He was careful to express disdain of his own character, often saying that in studying religious ideas, he found "soothing proof that there are men left who are even worse asses than I am." One of his essays is even called "Confessions of a Theological Moron," in which he admits that unlike most of the people on the planet, he has no religious feeling whatsoever and that no sense of any divine personality enters into his thinking. "As for the impulse to worship, it is as foreign to my nature as the impulse to run for Congress." But he also made clear that he was "... anything but a militant atheist and haven't the slightest objection to church-going, so long as it is honest." He thought power grabs by religion dishonest; in his own time, he lambasted religious support of prohibition, the Ku Klux Klan, Sunday marketing laws, and divorce restrictions. "The whole history of the church, as everyone knows, is a history of schemes to put down heresy by force." Mencken was present for much of the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, or the trial of (as he repeatedly names him) "the infidel Scopes," and his columns are reprinted here. He does not come out and say it, but he favored the wall between church and state as a means of not just separating but of protecting each side from the other.

The wit and erudition displayed in these essays is a real treasure, and ought to be for believers and infidels alike. Get out your dictionary; you will read here of the roar of the catamount, the boons and usufructs of modern medicine, the pothers of the newspapers, and the head wiskinski of the wowsers. As an epilogue, here is the famous, funny, and oddly moving "Memorial Service" seeking the gravesite of the thousands of gods people have believed in, "... many of them mentioned with fear and trembling in the Old Testament." The long list, including Baal, Pluto, Odin, and Huitzilopochtli, is composed of gods "...of civilized peoples - worshipped and believed in by millions. All were theoretically omnipotent, omniscient, and immortal. And all are dead." Mencken is dead, too, but his thoughts as retained in this invigorating collection ought to last far longer that Huitzilopochtli himself managed.

What can I say? The brilliant editorialist H. L. Mencken, gone for almost half a century, shines again in vintage newspaper columns that are just as relevant now as ever. In this day and age, almost 80 years after Scopes, when it's barely legal to teach actual science in Kansas classrooms, Mencken shows what intelligent folks have known about him all along: that he was decades ahead of his time. What would he have had to say about the Taliban? Or about so-called "Creation Science" ? Or about science textbook "disclaimers" in Mississippi schools, Trinity Broadcasting, the "Left Behind" series, and the Psychic Network? We'll never know, but we can guess! Buy this indispensable collection for your neighborhood Fundamentalist. He could use it! I'd give it 6 stars if they'd let me. Henry, where are you now that we really need you?

Finally, the long awaited annotated edition of HPL's essential essay of horror/weird fiction is here...

The only flaw/drawback to this edition is the decision to keep all annotation notes in the back of the book unlike previous annotated Lovecraft works. Granted, having the annotations at the bottom of the revelant page did slow down a straight reading of only the text in the annotated story collections. However, an indepth reading was not hampered by having to track down the exact footnote/annotation.

Even with this minor design point, your Lovecraft library deserves this new annotated edition of a Lovecraft classic...Once again, S.T. Joshi proves his status as THE Lovecraft scholar with his in-depth research that sheds new light on this classic work for the modern reader.

It seems incredible that much of the work in this volume has not been widely available since the publication of Bierce's Collected Works more than ninety years ago. It seems particularly incredible in the case of the two long satires, "Ashes of the Beacon" and "The Land Beyond the Blow", since these constitute perhaps his most sustained attack on the absurdities of American society, and contain some of his most pointed and iconoclastic writing. Bierce himself seems to have held them in high regard, but until the Collected Works no publisher took an interest. "The Land Beyond the Blow" is a voyage to strange lands, undertaken courtesy of a large hairy fist applied to the narrator's eye; the various customs and other foibles of the peoples encountered serve to parody the government, judiciary, public taste, dog lovers, etc., etc., of Bierce's own time and place. "Ashes of the Beacon" purports to be "An Historical Monograph Written in 4930" and gives a few indications concerning the lamentable failure of "self-government" in America. It is less amusing and more analytical; and while practically everyone will find much in it to disagree with, there is also plenty to think about. Though generally conservative (with some startling exceptions) and frequently pigheaded, Bierce is neither a fool nor a hypocrite, and he makes his points with thoroughgoing clarity. His work as a whole is (among many other things) a lifelong battle against woolly thinking, murky logic and bad writing, and the pieces in The Fall of the Republic are no exception. Besides the long satires, the book includes a number of short essays on such topics as capital punishment (which Bierce favours), insurance (which he does not favour), temperance (which he demolishes completely) and the Decay of the Nose (upon which he is coolly judicious and commendably straight-faced). A further section is devoted to the Annals of the Future Historian, a series of pieces in which the Future Historian's misconceptions and presuppositions serve to point the reader towards uncomfortable questions not only about the present but, by implication, about the possible misconceptions and presuppositions embedded in our own perception of history. There is also a scholarly and sympathetic critical introduction by the editors who, in hunting out this work and making it available to a general readership, have done satire, literature and the rest of us an immense service.

Ohio Univ. Press has finally released the long awaited edited, annotated volume of Mencken's literary reviews and essays dating generally from 1910 to 1930, most having never been reprinted before now, and it is a wonderful collection.
In addition to being a renowned newspaper reporter, editorial wirter, and drama critic for both the Baltimore Herald and Baltimore Evening Sun, Mencken worked as a book reviewer for both the Smaart Set and American Mercury magazines. From 1908 to the mid 30's he wrote thousands of reviews and essays and became one of the most trusted, and feared, literary critics of the twentieth century.
Trying to review this collection is a bit like sitting down to a gourmet Thanksgiving dinner. It's sometimes difficult to decide where to begin given the wonderful selection available. Mencken stated his motives in writing reviews was "...principally to clear the ground of moldering rubbish, to chase away old ghosts, to help set the artist free. The work of erecting new structure belongs primarily to the artist as creator, not to me as critic." To that end he reviewed most if not all of the important writers of the early twentieth century and his sometimes tart, provocative, always entertaining opinions are a delight to read. He considered Mark Twain to be the"...largest figure that ever reared itself out of the flat, damp prairie of American literature." Indeed, Twain was believed by Mencken to be "...the noblest literary artist who ever set pen to paper on American soil..." He found Ambrose Bierce to be "...a good deal damaged by the excessive praises of his partisans..." but ultimately a worthy writer that was capable of producing in The Devil's Dictionary "...the most brilliant stuff, first and last, that America has ever produced." Not in a class with Twain but a worthy contributor to American literature. The anecdote about Mencken's first reading, in galley proofs, of Main Street by Sinclair Lewis is a pure delight. "That idiot has written a masterpiece" must surely go down as a classic quote in literary history. Space does not permit the in-depth review this book deserves. Suffice it to say that such authors as Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald and dozens of other legendary literary figures were subjected to the scrutiny of Mencken and some, but by no means all, were considered worthy of his praise. Some for very different reasons than the reader might expect but rest assured all make for good reading.
This is a must book for readers, students, scholars and writers of all persuasions that are interested in great writing by a literary giant in his own right that is gone but surely,with the publication of this book, not forgotten. This is a prime example of quality publications typically offered by university presses and Ohio University Press is to be commended for the effort.

Lovecraft's work does for the horror fiction tale what David Lynch's films do for cinema. It takes the genre into a stratum of the unconscious so abstract and frightening that one finds beauty in the macabre madness that exists there. "The Dunwich Horror and Others" is the ideal starting point for any Lovecraft neophyte. All of Lovecraft's most important and frightening short stories are found in their original forms in this beautiful Arkham House hardcover. There are a few omissions such as "The Lurking Fear" and "The Dreams in the Which House," but these stories and more are easy enough to locate in other Arkham House or Del Rey collections. To sit and read this volume cover to cover is to experience horror fiction at its most dismal and horrific. In "The Dunwich Horror," the reader visits the damned Whateley farm, where an extra-dimensional being has been summoned. In "The Colour Out of Space," a farm in Arkham, Ma. has been hit by a meteorite that carries with it a pestilence that drives the land and its inhabitants to madness and death. The maddeningly eerie "The Whisperer in Darkness" an isolated man describes his encounters with a malign alien colony that has taken residence near his home in backwater New England. "The Whisperer in Darkness" is one of Lovecraft's most potent tales due to the fact that it's narrative is largely drawn from letters, journal entries and even phonograph recordings of the extra-terrestrials themselves.

It's been said that Lovecraft is the only legitimate heir to Edgar Allen Poe in the field of American horror stories. Anyone who has read this collection of his best stories will have a hard time disputing this claim.

I first read THE DUNWICH HORROR & OTHERS when I was 12 years old and, though I may not have had much contact with Lovecraft's writing since, I have carried these tales with me. His writing informed my entire outlook on writing and "Weird Tales". For years afterward I was obsessed with his stuff. It's great to finally go back and re-discover him after all this time. To my surprise, the stories are just as wonderful as ever. I feared that they would not age well, would seem hokey and dated.

...Guess that 12 year old was a pretty decent judge after all.

Highest recommendation.

I highly recommend this first in a series of Arkham House books which comprise the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft. As Robert Bloch points out in his introduction, Lovecraft was the premiere horror writer of his day and even now we owe much to him. The genre of horror fiction (and cinema) owes and insurmountable debt of gratitude to Lovecraft. His existential vision of an uncaring universe, his colorful and panoramic prose, and his penchant for turn of the century vocabulary (such as "phantasy")takes the reader into *his* narrative like few other writers of horror can. Consider writers like Stephen King, who like Lovecraft sets many of his tales in their familiar and beloved New England and you realize the unmistakable presence and influence of Lovecraft. This edition published by Arkham House is the definitive edition of Lovecraft's work, corrected, re-edited, and thoroughly revised.

If you're familiar with Machen, you've probably read the frequently anthologized chapters of "The Three Imposters" -- "The Novel of the White Seal" and "The Novel of the Black Powder" -- as stand alone short stories. I found that I appreciate them more after having read them in their original context as chapters or "novels" of this odd picaresque (or maybe arabesque) novel. In "The Three Imposters", these "novels" appear as stories narrated by characters within the main plot. It's an interesting idea. However, the "novels" stand out as better stories than the narrative in which they are imbedded. So I'm not sure it's such a good idea. The book ends with a truly gruesome finish -- even for Machen.

This is definitely a worthwhile read even if you've read the aforementioned novels. As usual, skip Joshi's introduction. For example, Joshi finds the source of Machen's numinous sense of horror in -- surprise! -- Machen's Victorian discomfort with sexuality. Not to mention the fact that he was a Christian, too. Ooh those Christians just hate sex! I suppose we are then to believe that Machen undertook the translation of Casanova's "Memoirs" as some sort of penance, like the protagonist's hair shirt in Machen's "Hill of Dreams". (Machen's "Memoirs" is still the standard translation in English, by the way.) Or could it be the case that Machen was more subtle than the freshman composition caricature of a sexually repressed Victorian Anglo-Catholic Joshi draws in his introduction; that in fact one of Machen's great themes is the reconciliation of sensuality with mysticism? Not surprisingly Joshi, who professes a peculiarly coarse and unreflective variety of atheistic materialism, is blind to this possibility.

Whatever happened to E. F. Bleiler or Lin Carter? (Well, they're dead, sadly. But can't Chaosium and Dover find a better editor for their Weird Fiction?)

arthur machen is a great writer. his approach to his own material is calm, cold and scientific. sometimes it feels like a public servant writing a report (by that I am refering to his technical approach, like detective novels, this does NOT mean boring, it means details, objective considerations, etc), without passion. arthur machen most times only hints at what's going on, maybe letting some character come with a theory (this is what I mean by scientific). his style is suggestive. not being a passionate writer, machen doesn't carry you away, but he sure can make you believe his stories. his stories mostly dwells at one thing (a personality change, for example), making the story sometimes too boring. his greatest accomplishment is his stories about the little people, where there are many interesting stories.

In my own opinion, Arthur Machen was the best author before Lovecraft in helping us see the "cracks" in reality -- those gaps in our everyday way of looking at the world through which almost anything may come out at us. This stories of this collection (and its companion volume) have a certain haunting beauty to which Machen's rather straightforward prose is an obedient servant. Chaosium is to be highly commended for keeping these stories in print.

Professor N. W. Peaslee, from 1908 to 1913, suffered a form of amnesia or did he? After waking up he stuffers from dreams of an other time, in a city built before history and a race of creatures long gone. Is he going mad or is it real? The answer can be found in Australia, where in one of the deserts explorers have found ruins over 150,000,000 years old. The question is, does he WANT to find the answer or not?

If you liked 'At The Mountains of Madness' you should enjoy this book AND already know what the answers are!

"The Shadow Out of Time" is one of Lovecraft's finest tales, and this version is a collector-quality edition. The story itself is found in many Lovecraft anthologies, including an excellent presentation in Arkham House's "The Dunwich Horror and Others." However, there are many features that mark this volume as the definitive edition of "The Shadow Out of Time."

The corrected text from a recently discovered manuscript is the highlight. This is the tale as Lovecraft envisioned it. Anyone familiar with "The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft" will appreciate S.T. Joshi's meticulous notes and annotations. He adds another layer of insight to these familiar stories.

My favorite feature, however, is the restoration of the pulp cover from Astounding Stories 6-36 where the story first appeared. It is nice to see the pulp roots of H.P. Lovecraft being honored.

Unlike most recent Lovecraft fiction offerings, "The Shadow Out of Time" focuses on Lovecraft's final tale concerning Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, a professor at the infamous Miskatonic University who undergoes an amazing personality change that leads to a mysterious expedition under the deserts of Australia. Working from Lovecraft's own handwritten manuscript along with the common versions, the result is "The Shadow Out of Time" as Lovecraft himself must have visioned the final product.
Along with the corrected text, there are the marvelous detailed notes, appendices and history that readers have come to realize as the hallmark of a Joshi/Schultz collaboration. And like other Joshi/Schultz edited volumes, "The Shadow Out of Time" is a must have item for the complete H.P. Lovecraft library. Hopefully many other volumes devoted to other Lovecraft classics will follow.