Edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz

From the Introduction

     We are fortunate to have the Lovecraft-Wandrei correspondence in as nearly complete a condition as it is. It appears that Wandrei preserved virtually every letter or postcard he received from Lovecraft. For Lovecraft’s part, he preserved nearly all Wandrei’s letters (aside from his first) for the first several years of their relationship, but as their letters became relatively infrequent in the 1930s, did not keep Wandrei’s missives consistently. (It is a bit harrowing to see that Wandrei’s final letter is dated two days after Lovecraft’s death on March 15, 1937—apparently the first letter Wandrei had written to Lovecraft in three months.) What is revealed in these letters—beyond the multitude of details about each author’s life and work, discussions of classic and contemporary weird fiction, accounts of travels and of meeting mutual colleagues, and the progress of each author’s literary work—is the parallel maturation of both Lovecraft and Wandrei over more than a decade of living and writing, and the close intellectual and imaginative bonds forged by common philosophical outlooks, common ties to their native regions, and, for a time, common literary aspirations. Although Wandrei visited Lovecraft twice in Providence—in 1927 and 1932—and met him briefly in New York on several occasions in the 1930s, their relationship was largely confined to paper; but despite its occasionally sporadic nature, it remained strong to the end. Lovecraft and Wandrei knew that they were members of a very small circle of cosmic visionaries, and that each required the encouragement of the other to maintain his unique perspective on literature and life.

Contents

• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• A Note on This Edition
• Letters
• Glossary of Frequently Mentioned Names
• Bibliography
• Index

Bibliographic Information

Mysteries of Time and Spirit: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei. Edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR: Night Shade Books; 2003; ISBN 1-892389-49-5 (hard cover) and 1-892389-50-9 (trade paper).

Purchasing This Book

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