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Acolyte, v. 2, issue 3, whole no. 7, Summer 1944
Page 29
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ANTHONY BOUCHER, prominent author and reviewer, puts in his bit from Berkeley, California: ...Lovecraft's influence has never worked on me especially--my few attempts have been abortions. In fact, I largely disagree with him in theory, no matter how much I like what he achieved in practice. I will maintain to the death that the only true horror is that of understatement (I am basically an MRJames man); and it annoys me, as a theorist, that both Poe and HPL managed to attain horror by explicit overstatement. For even HPL's cryptic, allusive manner is not true understatement. He simply makes nameless and indescribable and unmentionable into very definite connotative namings and descriptions and mentions. I'm afraid that much of the Lovecraftiana you mention doesn't markedly stimulate my salivary glands. My feelings on HPL are mixed. They're best described by comparing them to those of a Baker Street Irregular. I can speak only for myself, but I feel that most of the BSI would agree with me in considering Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as a singularly dull and stuffy gentleman who happened to transcribe the immortal Canon of Baker Street. From what I know of Doyle, particularly from his autobiography, nothing could tempt me less than unpublished letters of his--unless they happened to deal in some manner with the Holmes saga. And I think the same goes for HPL. As a man, he seems to me an overgrown prodigy, a man of extraordinary IQ and limited intellect. This is as superficial as it is heretical, and my opinion may well change. But for my money the fun in exploiting Lovecraft lies in further investigation of the Canon--the sort of thing that you did in your glossary. The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the extraordinary imaginative achievements of our times, and I want to know everything I can about it. But I don't care much what HPL thought about life and manners and things. It is as the transcriber of the Myth that he looms incomparable. ----oo0oo---- AUGUST DERLETH just makes our deadline with an exciting announcement: There appears to be a relaxation in paper restrictions as applying to small publishers like Arkham House; so I hasten to let you know that if there is indeed such a relaxation as the new order L-245 indicates--according to printer interpretation and my own--then Arkham House will publish by February 1945 four books, no less: The Eye and The Finger, by Donald Wandrei; Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales, by Henry S. Whitehead; Lost Worlds, by Clark Ashton Smith; and Marginalia, by H. P. Lovecraft--at $3.00 each. Fans are asked to place advance orders for all four books, plus $2.60 for Sleep No More!, just as soon as possible. Will you spread the word as quickly as you can, so that I won't be strapped for dough to pay the printer. Out Of Space And Time, by Smith, is now out of print, as I wrote that it soon would be...A Hodgson and a Howard collection will be coming along soon, probably in 1945; and my novel, The Trail of Cthulhu, in 1946. A LAST-MINUTE EDITORIAL by Samuel D. Russell -o0o- The above letter from Mr. Derleth is certainly the best news of the month for fantasy connoisseurs, and serves to remind us of what a splendid and unique work Arkham House is doing in the service of our favorite branch of literature. When Derleth and Wandrei brought out -- 29 --
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ANTHONY BOUCHER, prominent author and reviewer, puts in his bit from Berkeley, California: ...Lovecraft's influence has never worked on me especially--my few attempts have been abortions. In fact, I largely disagree with him in theory, no matter how much I like what he achieved in practice. I will maintain to the death that the only true horror is that of understatement (I am basically an MRJames man); and it annoys me, as a theorist, that both Poe and HPL managed to attain horror by explicit overstatement. For even HPL's cryptic, allusive manner is not true understatement. He simply makes nameless and indescribable and unmentionable into very definite connotative namings and descriptions and mentions. I'm afraid that much of the Lovecraftiana you mention doesn't markedly stimulate my salivary glands. My feelings on HPL are mixed. They're best described by comparing them to those of a Baker Street Irregular. I can speak only for myself, but I feel that most of the BSI would agree with me in considering Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as a singularly dull and stuffy gentleman who happened to transcribe the immortal Canon of Baker Street. From what I know of Doyle, particularly from his autobiography, nothing could tempt me less than unpublished letters of his--unless they happened to deal in some manner with the Holmes saga. And I think the same goes for HPL. As a man, he seems to me an overgrown prodigy, a man of extraordinary IQ and limited intellect. This is as superficial as it is heretical, and my opinion may well change. But for my money the fun in exploiting Lovecraft lies in further investigation of the Canon--the sort of thing that you did in your glossary. The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the extraordinary imaginative achievements of our times, and I want to know everything I can about it. But I don't care much what HPL thought about life and manners and things. It is as the transcriber of the Myth that he looms incomparable. ----oo0oo---- AUGUST DERLETH just makes our deadline with an exciting announcement: There appears to be a relaxation in paper restrictions as applying to small publishers like Arkham House; so I hasten to let you know that if there is indeed such a relaxation as the new order L-245 indicates--according to printer interpretation and my own--then Arkham House will publish by February 1945 four books, no less: The Eye and The Finger, by Donald Wandrei; Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales, by Henry S. Whitehead; Lost Worlds, by Clark Ashton Smith; and Marginalia, by H. P. Lovecraft--at $3.00 each. Fans are asked to place advance orders for all four books, plus $2.60 for Sleep No More!, just as soon as possible. Will you spread the word as quickly as you can, so that I won't be strapped for dough to pay the printer. Out Of Space And Time, by Smith, is now out of print, as I wrote that it soon would be...A Hodgson and a Howard collection will be coming along soon, probably in 1945; and my novel, The Trail of Cthulhu, in 1946. A LAST-MINUTE EDITORIAL by Samuel D. Russell -o0o- The above letter from Mr. Derleth is certainly the best news of the month for fantasy connoisseurs, and serves to remind us of what a splendid and unique work Arkham House is doing in the service of our favorite branch of literature. When Derleth and Wandrei brought out -- 29 --
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