American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

The second part of my review of FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH by H. P. Lovecraft. Also, plenty of evidence on why I should not be doing too much with Lovecraft's poems.

My thoughts on the first half of FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH by H. P. Lovecraft. This is a cycle of sonnets exploring various of Lovecraft's themes, vistas, and questions.

We wrap up our look at the third volume of the "Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft" with the later part of 1931. During this period, Lovecraft was writing THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. He begins to write with increasing frequency to J. Vernon Shea, a young weird fiction writer.

Lovecraft was not writing too much fiction in the summer of 1931 (the exception being the collaboration "The Trap" with Henry Whitehead), but as always was busy with his penpals. Included in this period is a letter to Elizabeth Toldridge in which Lovecraft explores the causes of the Great Depression. For my money, this is the highlight of this set.

In the first half of 1931, H. P. Lovecraft was writing AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, but he was also also writing some substantial letters. A highlight here is on to Frank Belknap Long one cosmic isolation, race, and machine culture. Another fascinating letter is to Henry George Weiss on socialism and ethics. This episode explores these and more.

In the winter of 1930-31, H P. Lovecraft wrote about time travel stories with Clark Ashton Smith, Asian poetry with Elizabeth Toldridge, Quebec with James Morton, and atheism with August Derleth. There is more but you will need to listen to this episode.

In this podcast, I talk about the letters H. P. Lovecraft wrote to his friends and colleagues in the autumn of 1930. Topics include: "The Whisperer in Darkness, Quebec, Lovecraft's fictional world-building, witches, and the importance of dynamite in horror tales.

What do dinosaur bones, "clock-slavery", Charleston, and Hart Crane have in common? They all are discussed in H. P. Lovecraft's letters in 1930 (specifically February through August). I talk about this and more in this episode of this podcast.

H. P. Lovecraft's letters from the winter of 1929-1930 were written around the time he wrote "The Mound". So we should not be surprised to see him reflecting on civilizations, art, and geography. These letters also speak to his thoughts about erotic art. Highlight is a massive letter to Woodburn Harris.

So we are back to the "Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft" in this episode. Features correspondents include Maurice Moe, Elizabeth Toldridge, and James Ferdinand Morton. Topics include poetry, lost cultures, and machine culture