The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

Here's an annotated edition of “the 20th century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale” (Stephen King). "With an increasing distance from the 20th century…the New England poet, author, essayist & stunningly profuse epistolary Howard Phillips Lovecraft is beginning to emerge as one of that tumultuous period’s most critically fascinating & yet enigmatic figures," writes Alan Moore in his introduction to The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft. Despite his posthumous trajectory, at the time of his death, aged 46, his work had appeared only in pulps, ignored by the public, maligned by critics. Now he's being recognized as the foundation for American horror & scifi, the source of "incalculable influence on succeeding generations of writers of horror fiction" (Joyce Carol Oates). This volume reanimates him with historical insight, charting the rise of the erstwhile pulp writer, whose entry into the literary canon may be compared to that of Poe & Melville. Weaving a broad base of existing scholarship with his own insights, Klinger appends Lovecraft's oeuvre & Kafkaesque life story in a way that provides context & unlocks many of the secrets of his often cryptic body of work. Over the course of his career, Lovecraft—"the Copernicus of the horror story" (Fritz Leiber)—departed from the gothic style of his predecessors that focused mostly on ghosts, ghouls & witches, instead crafting a vast mythos in which humanity is but a blissfully unaware speck in a cosmos shared by ancient aliens. One of weird fiction's progenitors, he wrote stories suggesting that we share not just our reality but our planet, even our ancestry, with unspeakable, godlike creatures just one accidental revelation away from emerging from their hibernation & extinguishing both our sanity & entire civilization. Following his bestselling The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Klinger collects 22 of Lovecraft's Arkham tales. With nearly 300 illustrations, including full-color reproductions of original artwork & covers from Weird Tales & Astounding Stories, & over 1000 annotations, this volume illuminates every dimension of Lovecraft & stirs the Great Old Ones in their millennia of sleep. Introduction by Alan Moore Foreword Editor's note Dagon -- The statement of Randolph Carter -- Beyond the wall of sleep -- Nyarlathotep -- The picture in the house -- Herbert West: reanimator -- The nameless city -- The hound -- The festival -- The unnamable -- The call of Cthulhu -- The silver key -- The case of Charles Dexter Ward -- The colour out of space -- The Dunwich horror -- The whisperer in darkness -- At the mountains of madness -- The shadow over Innsmouth -- The dreams in the witch house -- The thing on the doorstep -- The shadow out of time -- The haunter of the dark -- Appendix 1. Chronological table Appendix 2. Faculty of Miskatonic University Appendix 3. History of the Necronomicon Appendix 4. Genealogy of the elder races Appendix 5. The works of H.P. Lovecraft Appendix 6. The "revisions" of H.P. Lovecraft Appendix 7. H.P. Lovecraft in popular culture