Lovecraft, where to start?

[Andrew D. Gable]

Don't stop there! Could you give a bit more detail (or links to more detail) on the best places to go after Lovecraft. Which authors which books. It's very easy to choose A-list authors to read, but I find picking authors who aren't quite as big name much harder.

I'm digging Arthur Machen. He has a style kinda similar to Lovecraft's, and he hinted at things more than showed them. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" is an expanded reision of Machen's "The Novel of the Black Seal". Algernon Blackwood is a non-Mythos author, but Lovecraft certainly liked him, especially his story "The Willows". There's another Joshi-edited collection of Blackwood stories that's very good.

 

[Alzrius]

I've a related question. Where do you finish with Lovecraft? What's the best way to get your hands on everything Lovecraft wrote? I keep on coming across different re-compilations, how do I get everything?

Well, this isn't really an answer to that, but you (and ever Mythos fan) should get a copy of Encyclopedia Cthulhiana or, even better, Encyclopedia Cthulhiana: Expanded and Revised Second Edition, writte by Daniel Harms (who is really the most knowledgable Lovecraft - or rather, Mythos - scholar out there). While published by Chaosium, the Encyclopedia is by far the single best resource to break down the Mythos in it's entirety. Both versions are out of print now, but are still invaluable resources.

 

[haiiro]

Whatever you do, don't buy the editions that DelRey has out there, they cost the same but don't have the corrected texts and the annotations found in the Penguin editions. The most popular of these is The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre which is what most booksellers will point you towards, since almost all the big stores carry it. Skip it and have them order one of the Penguin editions if they don't have them in stock, it'll be well worth the extra couple days you have to wait for it.

I got my start with these, back in high school, and once I knew I enjoyed HPL I went out and picked up the Arkham House hardcovers (also edited by Joshi). I don't think going mass market will ruin your enjoyment -- you'll either like it or you won't -- but I agree with CL: why not just go for a good edition to start with?

And I have to say that I think Herbert West and Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath are not good ones to start with, IMO. The latter is sidereal to HPL's main mythos stories, and although it's excellent I don't think it's as enjoyable without some of the other stuff as background. I really dislike Herbert West, but quite apart from that I just don't think it lays much groundwork for enjoying his other stories. YMMV, and all that!

 

[Fenris]

I'd start with either of these:

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/002-4348101-6309663?v=glance&s=books

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...1/002-4348101-6309663?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance

Both are edited and have notes by S.T. Joshi, the most knowledgable Lovecraft scholar out there. His work on these editions is excellent, and the editions by Penguin have very nice selections of stories presented in the definitive corrected texts. The first contains some of his most classic short stories, while the second contains some great stories and At the Mountains of Madness, which many consider his best work.

Whatever you do, don't buy the editions that DelRey has out there, they cost the same but don't have the corrected texts and the annotations found in the Penguin editions. The most popular of these is The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre which is what most booksellers will point you towards, since almost all the big stores carry it. Skip it and have them order one of the Penguin editions if they don't have them in stock, it'll be well worth the extra couple days you have to wait for it.

So where do my old Ballantine copies fall?

 

[Dark Jezter]

2) what order should i read them in?

I can't remember the title, but there's a Lovecraft story where the protagonist ends up going insane. You should start with that one.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

If you want something short and sweet, try The Statement of Randolph Carter or The Outsider or Pickman's Model or The Music of Erich Zann or The Rats in the Walls

If you want something longer, try The Shadow over Innsmouth or The Shadow out of Time or The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

After you read Shadow Over Innsmouth, read The Thing on the Doorstep for a nice little story with a reference to Innsmouth.

 

[jester47]

Color, Music, and Rats are perhaps the best short stories. After that I would do The Whisperer in the Darkness and Call of Cthulhu. Many of the suggestions here are good also...

Aaron.

 

[MonsterMash]

Colour out of Space, Shadow over Innsmouth and Rats in the Walls are good stories to start off with. The longer stories are better after reading these. I can't recommend any specific editions of the books (and there are many variations out there), but the Penguin ones CL recommends look good.

Other authors to read around the Cthulhu Mythos - Clark Ashton Smith, Ramsey Campbell, Arthur Machen, and Robert E Howard. The horror stories Howard wrote are an interesting contrast to Lovecraft as the protaganists are much more active and this does colour the writing.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

What's been corrected? I have read some of both the DelRey and the Penguin series, and didn't notice any major changes...

Joshi went back to HPLs original manuscripts where available, and reedited the stories from them. Often times, when the stories were published in the pulps, the editors would cut text in order to fit the magazine, as opposed to cutting text because it made for a better story. There were often misspellings, bad punctuation, and other things that crept in at this point, and upon subsequnt publications these mistakes sometimes multiplied. The corrected texts fix many of these mistakes, and also put back text that was dropped due to space. Many times you won't notice, as it's only a line here or there, but in some cases it is entire paragraphs that were cut.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I think it's just minor corrections to punctuation, which allows re-copyrighting. I can't imagine it's major changes.

See my post above.

I've a related question. Where do you finish with Lovecraft? What's the best way to get your hands on everything Lovecraft wrote? I keep on coming across different re-compilations, how do I get everything?

Everything? I don't think that's possible...
Lovecraft was an extremely prolific writer. If you just want all his stories, the definitive editions (these are the ones that Penguin is reprinting in tradepaper with different titles and the additional notes) are the 4 hardcovers from Arkham House.
http://64.227.162.73/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=arkhamhouse&Category_Code=001
Arkham also publishes the Seleted Writings and Aelected Letters volumes, many of which are out of print now. There are tons of books out there with Lovecrafts writings in them, but not all of them are his fiction. Some are letters to other writers and personal correspondance and some are essays. He was in constant contact with many, many other writers during his life, including August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, C.L. Moore, and more.