By H.P. Lovecraft
Edited by S.T. Joshi

Dust Jacket Text

This fifth and final volume of Lovecraft’s Collected Essays mines a rich vein of his philosophical writings. A lifelong student of metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and other branches of philosophy, Lovecraft early declared himself a forthright materialist and atheist. Here he defends his views in numerous controversies with colleagues. Such essays as “Idealism and Materialism—A Reflection” and the In Defence of Dagon essays outline the essentials of Lovecraft’s philosophical thought, including such issues as free will, the improbability of theism, and cosmic pessimism. In his later years, the problems of politics and economics came to the forefront of his attention. In the essays “Some Repetitions on the Times,” “A Layman Looks at the Government,” and the unpublished “The Journal and the New Deal” Lovecraft vigorously argues for a moderate socialism to relieve the widespread unemployment brought on by the Depression. The problem of art in the modern age also concerned Lovecraft, and in the unpublished essay “A Living Heritage: Roman Architecture in Today’s America” Lovecraft condemns modern architecture as an inherently ugly product of sterile theory. This volume also contains Lovecraft’s autobiographical essays, including the delightful “A Confession of Unfaith,” describing his shedding of religious belief, and the piquant “Cats and Dogs,” in which cats stand as symbols for the abstract beauty of a boundless cosmos. All texts are extensively annotated, with critical and bibliographical notes, by S.T. Joshi.

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) has belatedly achieved universal recognition as the twentieth century’s premier author of supernatural fiction. Poet, essayist, philosopher, and man of letters, Lovecraft’s work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and is widely available in numerous annotated editions.

S.T. Joshi is a leading authority on Lovecraft and the author of an exhaustive biography, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996). He has prepared many annotated editions of Lovecraft’s fiction, poetry, essays, and letters, along with such critical studies as H.P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West (1990) and A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of H.P. Lovecraft (1996). He has also done critical and editorial work on Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, Ambrose Bierce, and H.L. Mencken.

Contents

• Introduction by S.T. Joshi
  
  
• Philosophy
• The Crime of the Century
• The Renaissance of Manhood
• Liquor and Its Friends
• More Chain Lightning
• Symphony and Stress
• Old England and the “Hyphen”
• Revolutionary Mythology
• The Symphonic Ideal
• “Editor’s Note” to “The Genesis of the Revolutionary War” by Henry Clapham McGavack
• A Remarkable Document
• At the Root
• Time and Space
• Merlinus Redivivus
• Anglo-Saxondom
• Americanism
• The League
• Bolshevism
• Idealism and Materialism—A Reflection
• Life for Humanity’s Sake
• [In Defence of Dagon]
• Nietzscheism and Realism
• East and West Harvard Conservatism
• The Materialist Today
• Some Causes of Self-Immolation
• Some Repetitions on the Times
• A Layman Looks at the Government
• The Journal and the New Deal
• A Living Heritage: Roman Architecture in Today’s America
• Objections to Orthodox Communism



• Autobiography and Miscellany
• The Brief Autobiography of an Inconsequential Scribbler
• A Confession of Unfaith
• [Diary: 1925]
• [Commercial Blurbs]
• Cats and Dogs
• Notes on Hudson Valley History
• Autobiography of Howard Phillips Lovecraft
• In Memoriam: Henry St. Clair Whitehead
• Some Notes on a Nonentity
• Correspondence between R.H. Barlow and Wilson Shepherd of Oakman, Alabama—Sept.–Nov. 1932
• In Memoriam: Robert Ervin Howard
• Commonplace Book
• Instructions in Case of Decease
• [Diary—1937]
• [Notes for Stories]
• [Notes to “Medusa’s Coil”]
• [Notes to At the Mountains of Madness]
• [Notes to “The Shadow over Innsmouth”]
• [The Round Tower]
• [The Rose Window]
• Of Evill Sorceries Done in New-England, of Daemons in No Humane Shape
• [Notes to “The Shadow out of Time”]
• [Notes to “The Challenge From Beyond”]
• [Miscellaneous Lists and Notes]
• [1] Catalogue of Prov. Press Co.
• [2] [Catalogue of Works (1902)]
• [3] [Postal Expenses]
• [4] Old Farmer’s Almanacks Wanted by H.P. Lovecraft
• [5] [Notes on Clothing Stores]
• [6] [Works Desired by H. Warner Munn]
• [7] [Works of Weird Fiction]
• [8] Tales by H.P. Lovecraft
• [9] Basic Books for a Weird Library
• [10] [Remembrancer]
• [11] [List of Amateur Papers]
• [12] [Possible Collections of Tales]
• [13] [Magazine Addresses]
• [14] [List of Individuals to Be Sent “The Battle That Ended the Century”]
• [15] [List of Correspondents to Whom Postcards Have Been Sent]
• [16] Suggested Recipients for Dragon Fly Outside Memb. List of NAPA
• [17] Fungi from Yuggoth and Other Verses
• [18] [Notable Stories in Recent Issues of Weird Tales]
• [19] “Little Magazines”
• [20] [Worthy Stories in Recent Issues of Weird Tales]
• [21] [Pronunciation Guide]
• [22] Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
• Weird &c. Items in Library of H.P. Lovecraft



• Appendix
• [Advertisement of Revisory Services]
• [Advertisement in the New York Times]
• The Recognition of Temperance
• [Advertisement in Weird Tales]
• [Biographical Notice]
• Preface [to Old World Footprints]
• [E’ch-Pi-El Speaks]
• Robert Ervin Howard: 1906–1936


• Chronology of the Works of H.P. Lovecraft
• Index of Titles (Volumes 1–5)
• Index (Volumes 1–5)

Bibliographic Information

Collected Essays, Volume 5: Philosophy; Autobiography & Miscellany. By H.P. Lovecraft, Edited by S.T. Joshi. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press; 2006; ISBN 0-9761592-2-8 (hardcover) 0-9761592-3-6 (paperback), 382 pages.

Purchasing This Book

This book may be purchased in hardcover from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, in paperback from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, or directly from the publisher, Hippocampus Press.