H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) and Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) are two pillars in the New World Gothic castle of fantastic fiction. They are especially interesting in their surprising aspects. They both died young, they both lived sheltered and geographically-constricted lives, they both absorbed influences from wide and deep sources which they then used to create wonderfully complex and vast universes that they have shared with writers long after their passing, and they both lived for sharing their creative energies with other writers through letters and encouraging words, including each other.
Lovecraft the New Englander drew from Poe, Machen, and Dunsany to fashion the crucible from which his Cthulhu Mythos emerged, the indifferent and destructive universe of what humans would call monsters from beyond space and time. He was a master at delineating the gulf between what terrible fate was suggested and why it could not be described in all its horror.
Robert E. Howard the Texan connected to semi-mythic history and the existential journey of one determined man through all the dangers of men and beasts. He is the father of an American sword and sorcery, a juxtaposition of power that seems illogical but also somehow inevitable, almost an allegory of the wars of the 20th Century -- what you cannot see may kill you from afar, and what you can see may kill you up close. The survivor must be ready and skilled and wary at all times.
The legacies of these two writers last and grow to this day in literature, art, and film, even language. We stock their writings and associated contemporary writers as well as some of the more interesting and provocative writers working with the generous heritage that Lovecraft and Howard bequeathed to an increasingly uneasy world.
The Call of Cthulhu & At the Mountains of Madness
The Call of Cthulhu & At the Mountains of Madness
This single-volume edition features a pair of H. P. Lovecraft's best and most popular tales of horror and fantasy: "The Call of Cthulhu," praised by Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard as "a masterpiece, which I am sure will live as one of the highest achievements of literature," and "At the Mountains of Madness," hailed as "first-water, true-blue science fiction" by author Theodore Sturgeon.
Originally published by Weird Tales magazine in 1928, "The Call of Cthulhu" recounts the discovery of a mysterious box among the personal effects of a recently deceased archaeologist. The box's contents — a disturbing bas-relief sculpture and manuscripts hinting at forbidden knowledge — offer sinister clues about a secret cult and its attempts to resurrect an ancient monster that will envelop the planet in chaos. "At the Mountains of Madness," serialized in 1936 in Astounding Stories magazine, traces a disastrous expedition to the Antarctic that uncovers an abandoned city haunted by an unnamed evil. Both stories contributed to the formation of the Cthulhu Mythos, the framework for a shared universe that has inspired countless writers, musicians, readers, and visual artists. These enormously influential tales are must-reads for all fans of speculative fiction.
Reprint of the Ballantine Books, New York, 1971 edition.