H.P. LOVECRAFT The Complete Omnibus Volume I: 1917-1926 — A Pulp-Lit Omnibus Edition — By H.P. LOVECRAFT Edited and annotated by FINN J.D. JOHN Pulp-Lit PRODUCTIONS Corvallis, Oregon Copyright ©2016 by Finn J.D. John. All rights reserved, with the exception of all text written by Howard Phillips (H.P.) Lovecraft and all text and art originally published in Weird Tales, on which copyright protections have expired worldwide. In the spirit of good stewardship of the public domain, no copyright claim is asserted over any of H.P. Lovecraft’s original text or any of the magazine art as presented in this book, including any and all corrections and style changes made to the originals. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Pulp-Lit Productions, Post Office Box 77, Corvallis, OR 97339, or e-mail [email protected]. Second edition: Interactive PDF ISBN: 978-1-63591-258-6 Dustjacket art: Dust jacket: Front cover adopted from Harold S. DeLay’s cover illustration for In the Walls of Eryx, by H.P. Lovecraft and Kenneth J. Sterling, for the October 1939 issue of Weird Tales magazine. Back cover adopted from Virgil Finlay’s illustration for The Shunned House (see Page 301), in the October 1937 issue of Weird Tales. Cover design by Fiona Mac Daibheid and Natalie L. Conaway. Pulp-Lit Productions Corvallis, Oregon http://pulp-lit.com Other Pulp-Lit Productions titles Robert E. Howard’s CONAN the CIMMERIAN BARBARIAN: you might enjoy: •Hardcover (860 pages) H.P. LOVECRAFT: The Complete •Pulp-sized 7x10 softcover Omnibus, Vol. II: 1927-1935: •E-book •Hardcover (606 pages) •Audiobook (35.1 hours) •Pulp-sized 7x10 softcover •E-book The JOHN CARTER of MARS Trilogy of Edgar Rice Burroughs. •Audiobook (27 hours) •Hardcover (636 pages) FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH: THE •6x9 softcover SONNET CYCLE by H.P. Lovecraft. •E-book •Hardcover (102 pages) •Audiobook (19.5 hours) •Pocket-size softcover •E-book TARZAN of the APES and THE RETURN of TARZAN •Audiobook (1.3 hours) by Edgar Rice Burroughs. SUPERNATURAL HORROR in •6x9 softcover (590 pages) FICTION by H.P. Lovecraft. •E-book •Hardcover (128 pages) •Audiobook (16.5 hours) •Pocket-size softcover •E-book THE LISTENER and OTHER TALES by Algernon Blackwood. •Audiobook (3 hours) •Hardcover (340 pages) •Pocket-size softcover For our full catalog search “Pulp-Lit” on your favorite bookseller's Website, or see •E-book http://pulp-lit.com. •Audiobook (8 hours) TABLE of CONTENTS. This book is available in other formats: FOREWORD. (audiobook chapter 2) ........................ xiii Audiobook, e-book, paperback, hardcover. 1917: A change of Literary Style. (audiobook chapter 3) ...........1 The Tomb. (audiobook chapter 4) ........................3 Dagon. (audiobook chapter 5) ..........................13 A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson. (audiobook ch. 6). 19 You are reading the complimentary electronic copy of H.P. Lovecraft: The 1918: The GHOSTWRITER. (audiobook chapter 7) ...........25 Complete Omnibus, Volume I, in the Adobe PDF format — Pulp-Lit Productions’ Polaris. (audiobook chapter 8) ..........................27 version of Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature, only including the entire book. Whether you’re here checking it out to see if you might want to own a copy, or doing a quick search, or even retrieving a clean digital copy of one of Lovecraft’s 1919: The GENTLEMAN FICTIONEER. (audiobook ch. 9) ...31 stories for a project of your own — welcome! Beyond the Wall of Sleep. (audiobook chapter 10) ..........33 But, of course, PDF is hardly the most convenient format in which to read a book. Old Bugs. (audiobook chapter 11) ...................... 43 Here are a few other options that are available, followed by a link to take you directly The Transition of Juan Romero. (audiobook chapter 12). .51 to them: The White Ship. (audiobook chapter 13). .59 • Hardcover multimedia bundle edition (includes audiobook and e-book); The Street. (audiobook chapter 14) ......................65 • Deluxe 7x10 pulp-magazine-size softcover; The Doom that Came to Sarnath. (audiobook chapter 15) ....71 • E-book in EPUB and Kindle formats; • Audiobook (35 hours). The Statement of Randolph Carter. (audiobook chapter 16) ..77 To learn more about these other formats, please click here to go to the H.P. (audiobook ch. 17) Lovecraft Volume I Book Support Page at http://pulp-lit.com/250.html. 1920: FINDING LIKE-MINDED SOULS. ..83 The Terrible Old Man. (audiobook chapter 18) .............85 The Tree. (audiobook chapter 19) ........................89 Thank you for reading our books! Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and his Family. (audiobook chapter 20) .................93 I (ch. 20) .......93 II (ch. 21) ......97 viii ix The Cats of Ulthar. (audiobook chapter 22) ..............103 1923: The Weird Tales Era Begins. (audiobook chapter 50) .......261 From Beyond. (audiobook chapter 23) ...................107 The Rats in the Walls. (audiobook chapter 51). 263 CelephaÏs. (audiobook chapter 24). .115 The Unnamable. (audiobook chapter 52) .................281 Nyarlarthotep. (audiobook chapter 25). 121 The Festival. (audiobook chapter 53) ....................289 The Temple. (audiobook chapter 26) ....................125 The Picture in the House. (audiobook chapter 27). .137 1924: Failure to Launch. (audiobook chapter 54) ...............297 The Shunned House. (audiobook chapters 55-59) ..........301 1921: Unexpectedly an orphan. (audiobook ch. 28) .............145 I (ch. 55) ......301 IV (ch. 58). .314 The Nameless City. (audiobook chapter 29) ...............147 II (ch. 56) ......305 V (ch. 59) .....320 The Quest of Iranon. (audiobook chapter 30) .............159 III (ch. 57) .....309 Ex Oblivione. (audiobook chapter 31) ...................165 The Moon Bog. (audiobook chapter 32) .................167 1925: The Year in Exile. (audiobook chapter 60) ................325 The Outsider. (audiobook chapter 33) ...................175 The Horror at Red Hook. (audiobook chapters 61-67) .......327 The Other Gods. (audiobook chapter 34) ................181 I (ch.61 ) ......327 V (ch. 65) .....338 The Music of Erich Zann. (audiobook chapter 35). 187 II (ch. 62) ......329 VI (ch. 66). .340 Herbert West, Reanimator. (audiobook chapters 36-41) ......195 III (ch. 63) .....332 VII (ch. 67) ....343 I (ch. 36) ......195 IV (ch. 39). .208 IV (ch. 64) .....334 II (ch. 37) ......199 V (ch. 40) .....212 In the Vault. (audiobook chapter 68) ....................347 III (ch. 38) .....204 VI (ch. 41). .216 He. (audiobook chapter 69) ...........................355 1922: Crossing New Thresholds. (audiobook ch. 42) ...........223 1926: Back in Space, Back in Time. (audiobook chapter 70). .365 Hypnos. (audiobook chapter 43) ........................225 Cool Air. (audiobook chapter 71) .......................367 What the Moon Brings. (audiobook chapter 44) ...........233 The Call of Cthulhu. (audiobook chapters 72-74) ...........375 The Hound. (audiobook chapter 45) ....................235 I. The Horror in Clay (ch. 72) ...........375 The Lurking Fear. (audiobook chapters 46-49) .............243 II. The Tale of Inspector Legrasse (ch. 73) ...381 I. A Shadow on the Chimney (ch. 46) .....243 III. The Madness from the Sea (ch. 74) .....392 II. A Passer in the Storm (ch. 47) .........247 Pickman’s Model. (audiobook chapter 75) ................401 III. What the Red Glare Meant (ch. 48) .....250 The Strange High House in the Mist. (audiobook ch. 76) ...413 IV. The Horror in the Eyes (ch. 49) ........254 The Silver Key. (audiobook chapter 77) ..................421 x xi The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. (audiobook ch. 78-83) 433 History of the Necronomicon. (audiobook ch. 83) .........521 Afterword. (audiobook chapter 84) .........................523 Appendix .. (audiobook chapter 85) .........................525 The Alchemist. (audiobook chapter 86). .527 Sweet Ermengarde; or, The Heart FOREWORD. of a Country Girl. (audiobook chapter 87 ..............535 I. A Simple Rustic Maid. .535 [return to table of contents] II. And the Villain Still Pursued Her ......537 III. A Dastardly Act ...................538 IV. Subtle Villainy ....................538 oward Phillips Lovecraft Lovecraft wrote—not by a long V. The City Chap ....................539 was born on August 10, stretch. It excludes his juvenilia, his VI. Alone in the Great City ..............539 1890—a product of the philosophical ruminations, his VII. Happy Ever Afterward ..............540 VictorianH era. In many ways, he nonfiction writings, his vast collec- remained a Victorian man until his tion of poetry, and, of course his death in 1937. Along the way, he letters. It also excludes (with the produced a body of weird-fiction exception of Through the Gates of the work that, sparse though it is, has Silver Key, in Volume II) works had a tremendous influence on written in collaboration with other 20th- and 21st-century literature. authors, such as Robert Barlow and That body of work is contained Robert Bloch, or clients of his ghost- in this two-volume omnibus edition: writing business such as Hazel all of Lovecraft’s prose-fiction Heald and Harry Houdini. output published under his own Taken together, these other writ- name between 1917, when he first ings dwarf the weird-fiction writings turned from the turgid Georgian contained in this edition. His letters poetry that he then favored, until his alone total many times more than death from cancer in 1937. It’s everything else he wrote put important to note, though, that this together; estimates of his total edition includes just Lovecraft’s