HP Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft’s Monster Drawings: Cthulhu and “an open slice of howling fear”

Image | | Paul Greer


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“On March 23rd, the manuscript continued, Wilcox failed to appear; and inquiries at his quarters revealed that he had been stricken with an obscure sort of fever and taken to the home of his family in Waterman Street. He had cried out in the night, arousing several other artists in the building, and had manifested since then only alternations of unconsciousness and delirium.”

via nearsightedmonkey


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“Mountains featured several species of forgotten, intelligent beings, including the ‘Elder Things.’ The sketch on the right side of this page of notes (click here to view it in a larger format), with its annotations (‘body dark grey’; ‘all appendages not in use customarily folded down to body’; ‘leathery or rubbery’) represents Lovecraft working out the specifics of an Elder Thing’s anatomy.” That such things lurked in Lovecraft’s imagination have made his state of mind a subject of decades and decades of rich discussion among his enthusiasts. But just the body count racked up by Cthulhu, the Elder Things, and the other denizens of this unfathomable realm should make us thankful that Lovecraft saw them in his mind’s eye so we wouldn’t have to.”

from openculture

“An impression—city in peril—dead city—equestrian statue—men in closed room—clattering of hooves heard from outside—marvel disclosed on looking out—doubtful ending”

Link | | Paul Greer
  1. Demophon shivered when the sun shone upon him. (Lover of darkness = ignorance.)
  2. Inhabitants of Zinge, over whom the star Canopus rises every night, are always gay and without sorrow. [x]
  3. The shores of Attica respond in song to the waves of the Aegean. [x]
  4. Horror Story
    Man dreams of falling—found on floor mangled as tho’ from falling from a vast height. [x]
  5. Narrator walks along unfamiliar country road,—comes to strange region of the unreal.
  6. In Ld Dunsany’s “Idle Days on the Yann”
    The inhabitants of the antient Astahan, on the Yann, do all things according to antient ceremony. Nothing new is found.
  7. “Here we have fetter’d and manacled Time, who wou’d otherwise slay the Gods.” [x] Horror Story
    The sculptured hand—or other artificial hand—which strangles its creator. [x]
  8. Hor. Sto.
    Man makes appt. with old enemy. Dies—body keeps appt.
  9. Dr. Eben Spencer plot. [x]
  10. Dream of flying over city. [Celephaïs]

Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book