American author (1890-1937) of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, known then simply as weird fiction, and widely considerd the 20th-century successor to Poe as America's foremost writer of fantastic fiction.
Amazing and content-rich ALS signed “E'ch-Pi-El [H.P.L.],” one page both sides, 5.5 x 9, no date. Letter to friend Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961). Smith was an author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories, and a friend of Lovecraft’s from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937. With Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, also a friend and correspondent, Smith remains one of the most famous contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales.
In full, with mispellings retained: “Dear Klarkash-Ton, I am delighted to hear that you were not disappointed in ‘The Whisperer’, and I hope I can grind out some more things of the sort during the ensuing months. [The Whisperer in the Darkness was first published in Weird Tales, August 1931. It is a blend of horror and science fiction. In addition to being a textbook example of Lovecraft's characteristically non-occult brand of horror, in an age when the genre consisted almost entirely of ghosts, vampires, "Whisperer" is one of the earliest literary appearances of the now-cliché concept of a living human brain being preserved in a jar] .Cerleth says that Wandre’s - with whome he is in close touch nowadays - wants to borrow it during the presence in the Turin Cities, and it will be interesting to see what they think of it. Tsathoggua - or Azatoth [both characters in “The Whisperer In the Darkness”] still broods cryptically on his neighboring pedestal, eyeing with varied emotions the trivial human world into which he has been projected. I certainly would like to see the rocky Desert of Dserts beyond Bodrahalin whence he came, and doubt not but that many arcane palaeageanentitles even more terrible than he lie waiting - beneath the scariac flocks which mark the ruins of the aemon-city Akghurr and the frightful five-dimensional temple of Hei-Y’at. Really sinister scenery is the one thing which cannot be found among the exsquisite rural beautify of Southern New England. One has to get up to Vermont to see any natural landscapes suggestive of the weird. About the most daemoniac place I ever saw was a valley in New Jersey - in the foothills of the Ramapos - where the sides were covered with the outcroppings of a black crystalline basaltic formation, and the floor was strewn with curiously angular fragments. I only saw it once, but its image has lingered with me. So Meester Gernspack vants someding more should happen by de ‘Red Voild’ a ready! Oy, should ah poor man pay oudt good money, buy a story vere effedying stand still, ent don’t say it unddings? I shan’t find the gentleman’s periodical much of a haven for my stuff - though he did take my ‘Colour Out of Space’ [a short story written in March 1927 and initially published in Amazing Stories in September 1927, it became one of his most anthologized works] in the old Amazing days…paying all of $25 like the generous philanthropist he is! I am eager to see your ‘Offering to the Moon’ - and meanwhile you are aware of the enthusiasm with which I perused the’ Rendezvous.’ I hope Wright will take ‘Zonaida.’ Oriental doesn’t look like much of a market for me, for I’ve never seemed to get captivated by the conventional ‘Spell of the East.’ To my mind the Orient is so remote that its happenings lack the sense of substance needed to produce an impression of reality. Only when it is sublimed out of a sort of fantastic ethereal psuedo-Orient does it pack any real kick for me - and even then it only runs a good second to the still less real Danvanie beyond the East and over the edge of the world. The one possible exception is the Arabian Nights tradition. I was utterly fascinated by Andrew Lang’s [poet, novelist, and literary critic, best known as one of the most important collector of folk and fairy tales] version of the A.N. when I was five years old, and I never fail to experience a sort of retrospective thrill when confronted again with the old Bagdad scene. I would try something in this line if I had the right background of scholarship. I wonder what the best works on Arabian history and customes are? I am still obsessed by the notion that one of the most extremely powerful of all tales would be an utterly realistic thing dealing with the sensations of a man deposited without a great amount of warning in another world. The one fatal weakness of nearly all interplanetary tales is that they almost completely ignore this factor of the situation. To my mind, the stupendous wave of emotion - incredulity, lostness, wonder, stark terror - incident to this supreme dislocation from man’s immemorially fixed background would be so colossal a thing as almost to dwarf any events which might happen to a celestial traveler. I yet mean to write a tale whose one supreme climax shall be the man’s discovery, after many torturing and ambiguous doubts, that he is on another world. Thanks exceedingly for the additional Carlsbad cuttings. What a cosmos of Subterraine secrets!”
In fine condition, with small spot to top of letter, aforementioned date notation, and a few small red pencil notations. Lovecraft was known as a prolific letter writer, with some saying he spent far more time corresponding with friends and colleagues instead of working. This letter offers a fine combination of literary references and interesting insight between two of the three members of the great triumvirate of Weird Tales. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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