(Part 2) Top products from r/Lovecraft

There is a book titled, "Hardboiled Cthulhu" here it is on amazon i have it. Some of the stories just plain suck, but some are badass. It basically takes that "James Cagney/ Humphrey Bagart" vibe and at times does very well.
That type of genre mash-up is tough to come by.
Another FANTASTIC book I read is called "Shadows Over Baker Street". amazon link here I LOVED this book. Two of my favorite things, Sherlock Holmes and HPL Mythos. Those two seem to fit together perfectly.

The 3 Penguin classics are great because they've got annotations from S.T. Joshi and also have the corrected text by him. They're also cheap. Since they aren't huge volumes they are also easy to read and carry.

http://www.amazon.ca/Call-Cthulhu-Other-Weird-Stories/dp/0141182342/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1335790731&sr=8-7

http://www.amazon.ca/Penguin-Classics-Dreams-Witch-Stories/dp/0142437956/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335790731&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.ca/Thing-Doorstep-Other-Weird-Stories/dp/0142180033/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1335790731&sr=8-9

The Necronomicon (listed in the comments below) is nice as well, but it lacks footnotes and has errors. Also nice is the companion to this - Eldritch Tales which has some stuff the Necronomicon doesn't.

http://www.amazon.ca/Eldritch-Tales-H-P-Lovecraft/dp/0575099356/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335790861&sr=1-1


The Barnes and Noble edition seems like a good buy.

I recommend having a look at this page over at hplovecraft.com. It has a good overview of the various sources you can choose from.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/sources/

The Arkham house editions seem like the definitive ones, however they are a bit harder to come by than some of the others.

"The Complete Fiction" has all the fiction Lovecraft wrote in his lifetime, minus the commissioned works and collaborations with other writers. Also, the texts are edited by S.T. Joshi, who's the foremost Lovecraft scholar. "The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft" has some analysis for some of his works, but I don't know about the editing of the text. I own this one, which I'm pretty sure has the same contents as the Knickerbocker Classics edition.

If you want annotations AND complete texts, Penguin Classics' three paperback collections are a good choice, because the texts are those edited by Joshi, plus they have a ton of annotations for basically every bit of extra info regarding the particular story, influential element, etc... Yes, they are softcover books, but the good side is they have annotations. Here they are:

• The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
  
• The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
  
• The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories
  
  "The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories" also has a special edition with Cthulhu with a monocle, mustache and tuxedo on the front cover.
  
  I share the opinion of /u/leafyhouse, who says "Buy The Complete Fiction" first. You can read all of his official stories in a chronological order and see how he grew up as a writer. Later you can check out Penguin Classics or The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft and sink deep in what influenced Lovecraft to write all this gorgeous work.
  
  EDIT: Forgot to put links to the Penguin Classics collections.
  
  EDIT número dos: In this other thread, /u/IndispensableNobody points out the differences between the Knickerbocker Classics "Complete Fiction" and the Barnes & Noble one. Check it out.

This is going to be long, but I'll quote from Joshi's own hand, from I am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft I realize this could be shorter, but I think the whole tale is pretty interesting:

One final issue, partly related to his promulgation of the "Cthulhu Mythos," is Derleth's control over the Lovecraft copyrights. This is an extraordinarily complicated situation and has yet to be resolved, but a few notes can be set down here. Lovecraft's will of 1912 naturally made no provision for a literary estate, so any such estate by default ended up in the cntrol of his sole surviving relative, Annie Gamwell, upon his death. Annie, as we have seen, formalised Lovecraft's wish to have [Robert] Barlow deemed his literary executor, but this conferred no control over the copyrights to Lovecraft's work. When Annie herself died, her estate passed to Ethel Phillips Morrish and Edna Lewis.

Derleth from the beginning claimed de facto ownership of Lovecraft's work by virtue of publishing it in book form, but his control is almost certainly fictitious. He became angry at Corwin Stickney for publishing his small HPL pamphlet in 1937, even though this booklet of eight sonnets was published in an edition of 25 copies. He repeatedly badgered anthologists into paying him reprint fees for Lovecraft stories, and most did so simply to stay on good terms with him. Derleth indeed claimed that he had sunk $25,000 of his own money into Arkham House in its first decade, and I am willing to beleive it; but I also maintain that Arkham House would never have stayed afloat at all had it not been for the sales generated from Lovecraft's work.

What, then, were Derleth's claims for owndership of Lovecraft's copyrights? He initially tried to maintain that Annie Gamwell's will had conferred such rights, but that will states clearly that Derleth and Wandrei are to receive merely the remaining proceeds from 'The Outsider and Others' - not the literary rights to the material therein. Arkham House then claimed that something called "the Morrish-Lewis gift" (presumably a document signed by Ethel Phillips Morrish and Edna Lewis) grants Arkham House blanket permission to publish Lovecraft's work; but this document, which was finally produced in court, does not in any sense transfer copyright to Arkham House.

Finally, Derleth claimed to have purchased from 'Weird Tales' the rights to forty-six Lovecraft stories published in that magazine. There is indeed a document to this effect, dated October 9, 1947; but the question is: what rights could have been transferred in this manner? Weird Tales could only have transferred rights to those stories where they controlled all rights (not merely first serial rights) but Lovecraft declared frequently that, although initially selling all rights to Weird Tales because he did not know any better, by April 1926 he began reserving his rights. Now there is no documentary evidence of this (i.e. no contracts from Weird Tales in which only first serial rights are purchased), but there is considerable circumstantial evidence to support Lovecraft's claim....

If April 1926 is the cut-off, there are 13 stories for which Weird Tales owned the rights (not counting 'Under the Pyramids," which was presumably written on a work-for-hire contract). But of these thirteen, seven had already appeared in amateur (uncopyrighted) journals, hence were in the public domain the moment they were published. Therefore, Derleth in truth purchased the rights to only six stories. And yet, he continued to act as if he controlled all of Lovecraft's works...

The whole issue is, of course, now moot, for it is widely acknowledged that Lovecraft's entire work went into the public domain at the end of the seventieth year following his death, i.e. January 1, 2008.

Hope that helps/was interesting and good luck with your project!

That's the one edited by Robert Price? Definitely worth it, as are pretty much all of the compilations he's put together over the years (most, if not all, of Chaosium's fiction lineup, and a number of related books published by others). It covers a lot of territory, from the earlier stories by Ambrose Bierce and Arthur Machen that inspired both Chambers and Lovecraft, some of the most important works from the younger members of Lovecraft's circle (including James Blish's hugely important "More Light," which is quite difficult to find elsewhere these days, and August Derleth's "The Return of Hastur" which... isn't difficult to find at all, but is still significant). The only really downside is that it duplicates a lot of stuff easily available elsewhere, including the two best short stories from Chamber's The King in Yellow collection and Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness," but it's probably still worth it despite that, and it's a convenient volume even so. And, for my money, Karl Wagner's "The River of Night's Dreaming" is worth the price of admission by itself.

I would also recommend Rehearsals for Oblivion, which is a similar short story collection, but one that focuses exclusively on more modern works and is curated to emphasize Chamber's work and not Lovecraft's. As such, it contains a lot of very, very good stories that would likely be overlooked in more Cthulhu-centric compilations.

There's also In the Court of the Yellow King, which I haven't read so I can't vouch for it personally. But it does have the benefit of having a Kindle version available, unlike the above two collections, which makes it considerably cheaper if you don't mind reading on a digital device. And Joseph S. Pulver has edited no less than three Hastur/King in Yellow-centric short story compilations: A Season in Carcosa, Cassilda's Song, and The King in Yellow Tales Vol. 1. Haven't read any of these, either (though they're up next on my reading list, funnily enough), but, again, all available as Kindle eBooks, and the last one, in particular, is dirt cheap in that format.

Lovecraft himself would probably reject the idea of an official cannon for his mythos. He was ambiguous about everything, re-using names in contradictory fashion all the time. He was happy to have his friends add stories to the colective "Yog-Sothothery" as he referred to the mythos, simply because he enjoyed reading them and watching his creations grow through the contributions of others. It wasn't until after his death that Derleth thought to try and definitively codify the mythos, and he did a generally poor job of it, tying each great old one to an element and creating such silly ideas as oppositional deities and magic that would thwart all mythos creatures.

Honestly, the closest thing to canon that exists for the mythos as it exists today is probably the Call of Cthulhu rpg by Chaosium. Much of the modern interpretation of the monsters and gods that Lovecraft dreamed up are a direct result of the published works of that game.

As far as Hastur and the King in Yellow, they are even harder to define than almost any other entity that is accepted as part of the mythos. Hastur first appeared in Ambrose Bierce's "Haïta the Shepherd" as a benevolent god of Shepherds. It wasn't until Robert Chambers' 'The King in Yellow' that Hastur and the eponymous king would become associated, and as was previously mentioned, that is a collection of short stories wherein Hastur is at times both a place and an entity, and the King a sort of herald of Doom.

In modern Chaosium usage, Hastur is an almost unfathomable great old one and the king is his avatar, a form that is comprehensible to mortals. They are associated with a the play 'le Roi en Jaune' (the king in yellow) which drives those who read/see it mad. They are associated with the mythical city of Carcosa, on the shores of lake Hali and the constellation of the Hyades.

There are two pretty good fiction collections by Chaosium that focus on Hastur/the King in yellow:

The Hastur Cycle

Cassilda's Song

Edit: spelling and grammar

The best books in my opinion are the 3 Penguin Classics editions with his major works in their corrected state and explanatory notes by S.T. Joshi (the foremost scholar of Lovecraft).

Another option with corrected texts and all of his fiction (excluding revisions and collaborations) is the Barnes and Noble edition: The Complete Fiction (make sure it's the corrected 2nd edition which you can see by its purple ribbon marker and silver gilt on the edges) .

edit: There are also a lot of his stories that are in the Free Domain and you can read some of them here and this site has also a bibliography which you can consult when you ask yourself which edition(s) you should purchase.

This is not written by Lovecraft, but I really enjoyed it. Collection of short stories by different authors, good ones. Sherlock Holmes crossover as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Baker-Street-Michael-Reaves/dp/0345455282

Yes the 55 dollar shipping charge is huge. You might get a better shipping deal thru amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Am-Providence-Times-Lovecraft-VOLUMES/dp/0982429673/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288927447&sr=8-1

Now, to the question of if it is worth it. I would say yes. You will not get a better understanding of Lovecraft through any other book. These two tomes gets you closer to the man than anything else.

Dunno if it's the best, but I have this one, which has some pretty nice illustrations.

https://www.amazon.com/Petersens-Field-Guide-Cthulhu-Monsters/dp/0933635486

In that case you may want to check out some of the annotated editions. I know ST Joshi's Annotated Lovecraft (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) are popular here. This annotated collection by Klinger looks solid as well, and includes more illustrations than Joshi's. Neither of these are 100% complete collections but are pretty close and cover all of the best/most popular/most influential writings. I'm not sure there are any annotated editions that include all of his works.

Absolutely. If you're interested in the friendship between them, the collected letters between them have been published in a two-volume set by Hippocampus Press. They're 55 bucks together, but you can sometimes get them for less on eBay, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Means-Freedom-Letters-Lovecraft-Robert/dp/0984480293
http://www.hippocampuspress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_5&products_id=7&zenid=1cd889d3e25ff2304aff7d03300ab221

Some of Howard's best stories are set in the Lovecraft Mythos. Check out stories like "Worms of the Earth" and "The Black Stone." I'd suggest The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard if you're like to read more, though most are available-ish in the public domain:

http://www.amazon.com/Horror-Stories-Robert-E-Howard/dp/0345490207

Here's a great book to check out: H.P. Lovecraft's Favorite Weird Tales -- it's wonderful.

Cthulhu, Les Créatures du Mythe All the best illustrations are in this book. They're amazing, specially The flying polyps. It's in french though. I have this one.

Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters English book by same author, not sure about the content and illustrations, don't know at all if they're the same. Don't own this one.

​

Edit: added details.

You can get Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe together in one volume for only ten bucks! I'm really grateful to Penguin for releasing this, since both books had been out of print before this.

The thing I love about Ligotti, is that he took the monsters and mystery of writers like Lovecraft and brought them into the workaday world. So many of his stories center around the drudgery and banality of trying to earn a living and what it can do to you internally, both physically and emotionally. I've always credited Ligotti as having invented the Creature In The Gray Flannel Suit genre of fiction.

This is only a dollar for the kindle edition, $25 for the hardback. I got a digital copy of his complete works just to be sure I had everything and then bought the prettiest looking hardcover collection I could find, some of the commonly omitted works are really only worth reading through once or twice anyway.

Edit: fixed link

I'd suggest buying The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft Volume I & Volume II. It has everything you could really want. I own Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales as well, which is really nice but doesn't have as much as the previously listed books.

I am a huge Robert E. Howard fan. If you do decide to pick up any of his books make sure to get the Del Rey editions. They are the only complete and unedited collections of his stories.

For the other Authors I listed I cannot speak of their other works but the stories listed are all worth a read.

There is a scene near the end of Moore and Burroughs “Providence” book that touches on what a fourth-dimensional experience would be like. I highly recommend the whole series.

https://www.amazon.com/Providence-Act-1-Alan-Moore/dp/1592912818

Edit: added link

Both of those are contained in this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songs-Dreamer-Grimscribe-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143107763/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543345502&sr=8-1&keywords=songs+of+a+dead+dreamer+and+grimscribe

Great value for that book. I also highly recommend Teatro Grottesco by Ligotti. It's the book that got me into him.

I know of a few that have a sort of an organized-crime (or more general noir) vibe to them, such as Kim Newman's "Big Fish" and Ran Cartwright's "Flesh and Scales" [the latter more fits the organized crime aspect than the former, but I found the former to be a better overall story].

However, something I know by name but not by exact content that might be worth looking into is the James Ambeuhl edited collection Hardboiled Cthuhlu (http://www.amazon.com/Hardboiled-Cthulhu-Two-fisted-Tentacled-Terror/dp/0975922971/). It's a book I've been meaning to buy and thumb through one of these days but simply haven't, yet.

Mostly none of it. But there's an excellent anthology of Lovecraft/Holmes crossover stories, Shadows over Baker Street.

You say that, but recent animated films don't really cost that much to produce, in comparison to large scale movies. For example, last year's Batman: The Killing Joke cost only 3.5 million, whereas GDT wanted more than a hundred million to produce his version of ATMOM. Sure, if we go for Pixar-style 3D animation it would cost an immense amount, but if we went with traditional 2D animation, it wouldn't actually cost that much to produce, and would play out like a graphic novel, I'd imagine it being a similar style to the At the Mountains of Madness graphic novel.

Amazon is the easy way.

Yep. He has finished writing it and it is now with the editor. Should be released shortly before Halloween. Amazon has it available for preorder

S.T. Joshi has written one that is generally well regarded

Richard Corben did an HPL 3-parter for Marvel around 2011.
3-part limited series "Yuggoth Creatures" from Avatar (IIRC).
One-shot "Cthulhu Tales" from Boom Studios.

If you have the money: https://www.amazon.ca/Art-H-P-Lovecrafts-Cthulhu-Mythos/dp/1589943074

As far as kind of general artbooks, there's this:

Gothic Dreams: Cthulhu (mostly devoted to Cthulhu)

and unfortunately out of print

The Art of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (a collection of illustrations from Fantasy Flight's Call of Cthulhu CCG).

First act is due for release in English in May: http://www.amazon.com/Providence-Act-Limited-Edition-Hardcover/dp/1592912818

I know S.T. Joshi did a couple of annotated volumes. Lots of historical references.

The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

This is my copy and it has all three you are looking for. 10 stories in all. The book itself is less than 350 pages when including introduction and about the author and all that

https://www.amazon.com/Petersens-Field-Guide-Lovecraftian-Horrors/dp/1568820836

http://www.amazon.com/This-Book-Full-Spiders-Seriously/dp/0312546343/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332928233&sr=8-1

He's done with it, coming out October 2nd.

I've been looking for the same thing. From what I've found, the audiobook was made for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. The edition of the book read from was Tales of H.P. Lovecraft (edited and selected by Joyce Carol Oates) (http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Lovecraft-Joyce-Carol-Oates/dp/0061374601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449328310&sr=8-1&keywords=tales+of+hp+lovecraft). The link is to the 2007 edition, but the reading is from the 1997 edition. The recording was done in April 2002.

Of all the Lovecraft readers I've heard, Feininger is my favorite. Sadly, I haven't found a complete recording of the book anywhere.

If you haven't already, check out Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature" for some of his inspirations, along with this pretty swell collection: https://www.amazon.ca/H-P-Lovecrafts-Favorite-Weird-Tales/dp/1593600569

Not quite. At the Mountains of Madness is available on Amazon.

Charles Dexter Ward will be available in the US in April or so next year. I might have to buy it while I'm over in the UK now, knowing that it won't be in the US when I return!

>I just want illustrations

Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1568820836

It's more or less a coffee table book but you're going to need to get over your weird 'no names' restriction.