H.P. Lovecraft: An Introduction to His Life and Writings

Fans of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) will welcome the publication of Koki’s 1962 thesis, “the first extended treatment of the entire course of Lovecraft’s life,” as Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi notes in his introduction. Koki (1937–1989) covers the important events in Lovecraft’s writing career, such as his activity in the amateur journalism movement, his initial professional success placing stories in Weird Tales magazine, the development of what became known as the Cthulhu Mythos, and his loss of confidence after the editor of Weird Tales rejected his most ambitious work, At the Mountains of Madness, in 1931. Koki interviewed or corresponded with dozens of people who knew Lovecraft and drew from the Lovecraft correspondence at Brown University’s John Hay library, notably the letters Lovecraft wrote to his aunts while he was living in New York City and yearning to return home to Providence, R.I. Oddly, as Joshi observes, Koki mentions only in passing “The Dunwich Horror,” one of Lovecraft’s major tales, and he makes minor errors, such as Lovecraft’s submitting “The Shadow over Innsmouth” to Weird Tales when a friend did so without Lovecraft’s knowledge, that Joshi corrects in footnotes. But these are quibbles. Written in nonacademic prose, this remains valuable despite the many biographical and critical studies that have appeared in the decades since. Those new to Lovecraft will find it a good place to start. (Nov.)