It was the depression and checks were slow. Writing was his job so write he did. Lovecraft was the acknowledged master of the wierd and the terrible. While often neglecting the better known stories of his 'commercial career', Lovecraft would often write unpaid for amateur publications. Equally prolific were his letters and contributions to other writers of his 'circle'. Borrowing freely and sharing alike, his was a club that not only crowned the peak of the gothic genre but along the way to the fantastic horror of the Ancient Elder Pantheon and the Necronomicon, invented Science Fiction as well. Today 70 years after his premature death Lovecraft finally enjoys the sort of popularity denied him in his own lifetime. The world of fantastic literature is a richer place thanks to his and his friends shared energy and creativity. But revisions paid cash, hard cash and in the depression--- or if you were an aspiring writer looking for some help, to dress up your work, for a small fee, H P Lovecraft was your best friend. And write it he did. Sometimes with little more than a title and a plot Lovecraft augmented his meager living, as a sometimes gun for hire. The above illustration from a previously collected work illustrates Lovecraft's process. Typically writing longhand in margins and between lines of someone's manuscript, HPL crafted. Some of these works eventually were sold to the pulps like Weird Tales, some made it to publication in modern anthologies, some languished in private archives. Today On the Road to Great Cthulhu you may find twenty of these lost masterpieces of collaboration. Donald Correll Contents Battle That Ended Challenge from Beyond Collapsing Cosmoses Curse of Yig Diary of Alonzo Typer Green Meadow History of the Necronomicon Horror in the Burying Ground Last Test Night Ocean Notes On Writing Weird Fiction The Electric Executioner The Horror in the Museum The Mound The Trap Thing in the Moonlight Till A the Seas Tree On The Hill Two Black Bottles Winged Death Within the Walls of Eryx |
