Wow, Michael. You are really knowledgeable about Lovecraft's publications. I wouldn't be surprised if some publisher asks you to write a forward for a Lovecraft collected edition.
I like those painted covers the most, very dreamy.. speaking of, missing the show on his own dream quest, oh Roger. My first books of just Lovecraft were chunky Grafton omnibus paperback collections about the same time you were starstruck by those lovely Arkham House hardbacks. The only other way to find his work was in old yellowing weird anthologies secreted in second hand shops amongst stuff time had forgotten, much like the run down old shops themselves, manned by aromatic pensioners that probably dabbled in the dark arts which would explain their advanced age and state of preservation in defiance of entropy and the laws of nature.
Lee Brown Coye is a great artist for Lovecraft. LBC would also be a great artist for the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake. But actually, I just remembered Mervyn Peake was an artist himself and illustrated Gormenghast - his was a similar style to LBC.
I love Arkham House editions! They have this weird...Grunginess....to them. My local bookseller managed to snag a collection, although the only one I was able to get before they sold out was Portraits in the Moonlight by Carl Jacobi. A neat little oddity for my collection.
I have all those editions with dustjackets, as I bought them as they were published. I also have the Horror in the Museum in the original Arkham edition, because they still had copies for sale when the first of the Joshi re-edited were published. I did actually see a copy of The Outsider and Others, which looked to be in mint condition, for sale at Chillercon last year. This, as I'm sure you know, is the holy grail, as it's the first Lovecraft collection that Arkham House ever published. I had to pass it by, as they wanted £1000 for it.
That edition is some of the most physically enjoyable reading I’ve ever done. The binding, the paper, the typography, it’s all just so good. Maybe a high water mark for Arkham House. (Some of their later sf volumes have very weird font choices.)
Such an impressive knowledge of Lovecraft. It’s so much fun listing to you talk, that I’m riveted even when I’m not particularly interested in the author!
So sad to think in a few hundred years not many of these books will be in existence. Build a bunker and keep them there, with cryptic cluesas to where they are so that the future antiquarians can find them.
Loved these Arkham editions (still regret not buying a copy of Outsider which was available at the now long gone Fantasy Centre in London). For some weird reason, many Arkham editions often ended up in my local Country library (such as the Dunwich Horror and the letters and many others - they were sold off for 10p probably during a mass clearout of books but sadly when I wasn't there to pick them all up). None of them ever had the covers though. Great video as ever.
Now I know why Amazon has been suggested some of the other authors you mentioned. I been browser shopping Lovecraft and pastiche Conan. Especially Clark Ashton Smith. Those computer fleas can actually be helpful some times.
hearing you go through that Dunwich Horror contents definitely took me back. Although I didn't discover him until the early 90s, it was through those three Arkham House volumes, and that one in particular, which I got in braille. The book took up thirteen or fourteen volumes, and I read a lot of it while waiting for my mum to pick me up from school (I was around 10 I think). The first couple of stories I didn't hugely get taken by at the time, but then there was Rats and Colour, and I was completely hooked, and, to be sure, unsettled, in a most delicious way. By the time I got to Whisperer I was totally into how he managed to merge horror and science fiction, the latter being a genre I was already very much a fan of, while horror was something I knew next to nothing about except for that one friend who was always watching all the restricted movies and reading Stephen King books.
Great information on HPL Michael. My first exposure to Lovecraft was a series of UK reprint paperbacks (which I still have) and I know there are errors in those; back then, in the 1970s, I had no idea about erroneous editions and just assumed that any book published was as the author intended it. Now I know better and have more accurate editions but Lovecraft's works still thrill me. I recall not being satisfied with "The Electric Executioner", there's something that just doesn't work with that story and I'm glad it's not just me. A suggestion for a future video: Lovecraft adaptations in comics. By the way, how come Roger snores if he's been dead for 3,000 years?
true the joshi edition is the best out there BUT the lovecraft/arkham collector (and there are many ) WILL still want those 60s eds with the stunning coye wrappers !
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Yes, very much Derleth. But then again you could say the same about some of the stories in The Horror in the Museum. It has some great stories in it, such as The Shuttered Room, The Gable Window, as well as the novel The Lurker at the Threshold If you want a copy, secondhand is the only way to go now I think. There was a paperback edition of this in the 90's, but Arkham House is the better option. Check out somewhere like Abe Books, my go-to place for second-hand books now
Thank you again for posting Michael in the UK we were lucky in the late 80s and early 90s sphere I think or penguin publised 3 volumes of his complete works I remember getting a copy of at the mountains of madness and others first before that I used to trawl charity shops I think they call them thrift shops in the USA? & got a few old paperbacks & discovered William hope Hodgson as well as lord dunsany finding a cpy of "the house on the borderland" & the short stories of lord dunsany..I think the UK editions of lovecraft has similar titles to your Arkham house editions have a good day my friend 😀👍
Get copies of the dust jackets off the Internet, save them to a memory stick, get them printed out in colour on a public library computer printer or somewhere, and make new dust jackets - it should not be too hard to replicate these dust jackets. It is not now appreciated that HPL was not always a niche thing. In the late 60s he was a paperback bestseller - every news agency in Australia used to sell HPL and CAS paperbacks. They had these garish covers, which I noticed, but couldn't figure out what they were supposed to be about. THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE? It made no sense. Then I read a review of DIE! MONSTER! DIE! in TV guide which said it was an adaptation of TCOOS. I knew DMD and now I understood. What really tipped me over was a painting of an Old One in Barlow's GUIDE TO EXTRATERRESTRIALS. As soon as I saw that I borrowed all the HPL in Gollancz editions from Cabramatta Library.
Do you hear that call? It sounds like the call of... OH MY GOODNESS! Why are there tentacles coming in the window? Where did all the slime on the floor come from? Are those spores in the air? Whose muddy feet left those clumps over there? Who is that behind me with the deep breathing, the bad breath... THE HORROR, THE HORROR!
I quite like "In the Vault", but as you say it's not exactly representative. A curious choice to start the book off with, indeed. Some of the other choices are a bit puzzling for an avowed best of, but I suppose that was Derleth for you. I have the 1980s editions as well (with covers, sorry; those Bayliss illustrations are a lot better than the later reprints), though my own first encounter with Lovecraft was actually the Ballantine paperbacks and the Grafton paperbacks, all of which predated the Joshi revisions. I remember The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (my very first Lovecraft) had some particularly bad issues, whole sentences and paragraphs missing, resulting in edits that made no sense.
do you have a Lovecraft Biography recommendation? I have heard some things abut his personal beliefs that go beyond simple racism. Just curios to see what is [closest to] the truth.
I suppose it's kind of cheating, but a quick perusal of eBay makes me think you could probably get those four dust jackets for not a huge amount of money ... were you so inclined. 🤔
Great tie! Roger stole the show as usual.
Wow, Michael. You are really knowledgeable about Lovecraft's publications. I wouldn't be surprised if some publisher asks you to write a forward for a Lovecraft collected edition.
Lovecraft is my god of horror fiction. I think the only living author who comes close but in his own unique way is Thomas Ligotti. Great video 📹
I like those painted covers the most, very dreamy.. speaking of, missing the show on his own dream quest, oh Roger.
My first books of just Lovecraft were chunky Grafton omnibus paperback collections about the same time you were starstruck by those lovely Arkham House hardbacks. The only other way to find his work was in old yellowing weird anthologies secreted in second hand shops amongst stuff time had forgotten, much like the run down old shops themselves, manned by aromatic pensioners that probably dabbled in the dark arts which would explain their advanced age and state of preservation in defiance of entropy and the laws of nature.
Lee Brown Coye is a great artist for Lovecraft.
LBC would also be a great artist for the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake. But actually, I just remembered Mervyn Peake was an artist himself and illustrated Gormenghast - his was a similar style to LBC.
I love Arkham House editions! They have this weird...Grunginess....to them. My local bookseller managed to snag a collection, although the only one I was able to get before they sold out was Portraits in the Moonlight by Carl Jacobi. A neat little oddity for my collection.
I have all those editions with dustjackets, as I bought them as they were published. I also have the Horror in the Museum in the original Arkham edition, because they still had copies for sale when the first of the Joshi re-edited were published. I did actually see a copy of The Outsider and Others, which looked to be in mint condition, for sale at Chillercon last year. This, as I'm sure you know, is the holy grail, as it's the first Lovecraft collection that Arkham House ever published. I had to pass it by, as they wanted £1000 for it.
Yeah, I sure wouldn’t mind owning a copy of Outsider.
not so long ago all Arkhams could be got for under $1000......
sad to say that is no longer the case !
That edition is some of the most physically enjoyable reading I’ve ever done. The binding, the paper, the typography, it’s all just so good. Maybe a high water mark for Arkham House. (Some of their later sf volumes have very weird font choices.)
Such an impressive knowledge of Lovecraft. It’s so much fun listing to you talk, that I’m riveted even when I’m not particularly interested in the author!
As always Michael, this was an entertaining and informative video. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
So sad to think in a few hundred years not many of these books will be in existence. Build a bunker and keep them there, with cryptic cluesas to where they are so that the future antiquarians can find them.
Very enjoyable vid. Roger's cameo was classic. Made me lol. :-)
These videos cover all my reading interests it's like reading rainbow for dark and adventurous stories
THE MOUND looks like it might have been an inspiration for Richard Shaver's SHAVER MYSTERY.
Loved these Arkham editions (still regret not buying a copy of Outsider which was available at the now long gone Fantasy Centre in London). For some weird reason, many Arkham editions often ended up in my local Country library (such as the Dunwich Horror and the letters and many others - they were sold off for 10p probably during a mass clearout of books but sadly when I wasn't there to pick them all up). None of them ever had the covers though. Great video as ever.
old library copies never quite cut it for me tho !
Now I know why Amazon has been suggested some of the other authors you mentioned. I been browser shopping Lovecraft and pastiche Conan. Especially Clark Ashton Smith. Those computer fleas can actually be helpful some times.
Very Cool.
Tons of love for Lovercraft.
Cheers!!!
Wake up, Roger.
hearing you go through that Dunwich Horror contents definitely took me back. Although I didn't discover him until the early 90s, it was through those three Arkham House volumes, and that one in particular, which I got in braille. The book took up thirteen or fourteen volumes, and I read a lot of it while waiting for my mum to pick me up from school (I was around 10 I think). The first couple of stories I didn't hugely get taken by at the time, but then there was Rats and Colour, and I was completely hooked, and, to be sure, unsettled, in a most delicious way. By the time I got to Whisperer I was totally into how he managed to merge horror and science fiction, the latter being a genre I was already very much a fan of, while horror was something I knew next to nothing about except for that one friend who was always watching all the restricted movies and reading Stephen King books.
Great information on HPL Michael. My first exposure to Lovecraft was a series of UK reprint paperbacks (which I still have) and I know there are errors in those; back then, in the 1970s, I had no idea about erroneous editions and just assumed that any book published was as the author intended it. Now I know better and have more accurate editions but Lovecraft's works still thrill me. I recall not being satisfied with "The Electric Executioner", there's something that just doesn't work with that story and I'm glad it's not just me. A suggestion for a future video: Lovecraft adaptations in comics. By the way, how come Roger snores if he's been dead for 3,000 years?
Imagine how bad his snoring must’ve been when he was alive!
true the joshi edition is the best out there BUT the lovecraft/arkham collector (and there are many ) WILL still want those 60s eds with the stunning coye wrappers !
Hello Michael Hello. I'm reading Marvel Comics Essential Conan. So enjoyable!
A wonderfully informative video, Michael, Thank you. Is Roger OK? He looks a bit under the weather!
I think there is a fifth Arkham House Lovecraft book, The Watchers Out of Time and Others, which collects August Derleth's posthumous collaborations
That book is a lot more Derleth than Lovecraft. I certainly wish I had a copy.
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Yes, very much Derleth. But then again you could say the same about some of the stories in The Horror in the Museum. It has some great stories in it, such as The Shuttered Room, The Gable Window, as well as the novel The Lurker at the Threshold
If you want a copy, secondhand is the only way to go now I think. There was a paperback edition of this in the 90's, but Arkham House is the better option. Check out somewhere like Abe Books, my go-to place for second-hand books now
Thank you again for posting Michael in the UK we were lucky in the late 80s and early 90s sphere I think or penguin publised 3 volumes of his complete works I remember getting a copy of at the mountains of madness and others first before that I used to trawl charity shops I think they call them thrift shops in the USA? & got a few old paperbacks & discovered William hope Hodgson as well as lord dunsany finding a cpy of "the house on the borderland" & the short stories of lord dunsany..I think the UK editions of lovecraft has similar titles to your Arkham house editions have a good day my friend 😀👍
I have nothing meaningful to say other than your tie is fantastic!
Yeh I admit, I had a touch of the Roger's today with this one 🤭🤭
Seen on a t-shirt ages ago, text above and below beer bottles: Try a case of Charles Dexter Ward! It’s essentially salty!
Yes! Thanks for the cover art review! The Bayless art is fantastic.
Get copies of the dust jackets off the Internet, save them to a memory stick, get them printed out in colour on a public library computer printer or somewhere, and make new dust jackets - it should not be too hard to replicate these dust jackets.
It is not now appreciated that HPL was not always a niche thing. In the late 60s he was a paperback bestseller - every news agency in Australia used to sell HPL and CAS paperbacks. They had these garish covers, which I noticed, but couldn't figure out what they were supposed to be about. THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE? It made no sense.
Then I read a review of DIE! MONSTER! DIE! in TV guide which said it was an adaptation of TCOOS. I knew DMD and now I understood. What really tipped me over was a painting of an Old One in Barlow's GUIDE TO EXTRATERRESTRIALS. As soon as I saw that I borrowed all the HPL in Gollancz editions from Cabramatta Library.
Do you hear that call? It sounds like the call of... OH MY GOODNESS! Why are there tentacles coming in the window? Where did all the slime on the floor come from? Are those spores in the air? Whose muddy feet left those clumps over there? Who is that behind me with the deep breathing, the bad breath... THE HORROR, THE HORROR!
Sounds like Roger might have Sleep Apnea.
He should be seen by a physician. 🙂
Gotta love lovecraft 😊
Thanks, I've always been curious about those.
I quite like "In the Vault", but as you say it's not exactly representative. A curious choice to start the book off with, indeed. Some of the other choices are a bit puzzling for an avowed best of, but I suppose that was Derleth for you. I have the 1980s editions as well (with covers, sorry; those Bayliss illustrations are a lot better than the later reprints), though my own first encounter with Lovecraft was actually the Ballantine paperbacks and the Grafton paperbacks, all of which predated the Joshi revisions. I remember The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (my very first Lovecraft) had some particularly bad issues, whole sentences and paragraphs missing, resulting in edits that made no sense.
I have the Arkham editions with the cool covers except the Revisions which I have only as an eBook.
thanks
OMG! Is that an HPL sketch Tie?
Yes! His Cthulhu sketch.
It's a shame he never wrote a story about The Mad Arab - Abdul Alhazred.
Michael, Have you done or are going to do a video on Lovecraft's 5 volume collection of letters?
One of these days!
🙂👍
do you have a Lovecraft Biography recommendation? I have heard some things abut his personal beliefs that go beyond simple racism. Just curios to see what is [closest to] the truth.
I Am Providence by S. T. Joshi.
I suppose it's kind of cheating, but a quick perusal of eBay makes me think you could probably get those four dust jackets for not a huge amount of money ... were you so inclined. 🤔