I am happy to announce the completion of not one, not two, but three important projects. First, I have finished a draft of H. P. Lovecraft: Nightmare Countries, the little (37,000 words) biography of Lovecraft commissioned by Becker & Mayer, a book packager in Bellevue, WA, designed for distribution through the Barnes & Noble bookstores. I have already revised the book several times, based on astute comments made by my contact at B&M, Kjersti Egerdahl. Probably a few more revisions will be needed as the book works its way through the system, and of course there will be the matter of securing suitable illustrations of all different sorts. The book is due out this fall.
Much more momentously, I have completed Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, a cumulative total of 312,000 words. I just sent the file of volume 2 to Pete Crowther of PS Publishing yesterday (January 29). In the final chapter, covering work of the past two decades, I singled out Caitlín R. Kiernan for especial praise, although I had discussions of such writers as Steve and Melanie Tem, Laird Barron, Jonathan Thomas, and several others. I didn’t run a temperature over Joe Hill or over certain other writers who seem to have garnered praise or attention (Simon Clark, Brian Hodge, Terry Lamsley, etc.). The preparation of the index to this monstrous tome fills me with horror and trepidation.
I have also completed the revision of Lovecraft’s The Ancient Track: Complete Poetical Works for Night Shade Books. This job took quite a bit more effort than I expected, but I think it was worth the effort. I added two appendices—one containing those poems that Lovecraft revised (including the hilarious poem beginning “My soul has the arms of an octopus”), and the other containing those poems that HPL in some manner responded to (the Latin texts of poems by Ovid and Horace that he translated; original versions of the poems that he revised, where they exist; poems that impelled him to write poems of his own, etc.). And, of course, I augmented the notes significantly. I need to look over the electronic file of the book (generously prepared by David E. Schultz) before I send it to the publisher. I received valuable assistance on various matters from my Swedish colleague, Martin Andersson.
Speaking of new editions, it appears that Hippocampus is set to issue revised editions of The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature (this has actually been ready for some time) and Lovecraft’s Library. I have made significant additions and revisions to the bibliography of the first book; and as for the second, it seems that we have found about 25 new titles that were in his library, based on mentions in letters and other sources. I am not sure when these new editions will appear, but probably they will come out this year.
I am not yet in receipt of the new Hippocampus titles—which should have come out in 2011 but were delayed by printing snafus—but I believe they will be reaching me soon. They include: Robert H. Waugh’s A Monster of Voices (essays on Lovecraft); Ann K. Schwader’s Twisted in Dream (collected weird poetry); Adam Niswander’s The Nemesis of Night (new Mythos novel); Lovecraft’s Letters to James F. Morton (gawd, what a lot of work that was!); and a collection of essays on J. S. Le Fanu. I understand that the Letters to James F. Morton is on a preliminary list for some kind of award at the HWA’s Bram Stoker Awards, and that Hippocampus Press itself will receive a special award at the World Horror Convention this spring.
An online interview of me with Bill Marx, talking about Ambrose Bierce, has appeared on a website called The Arts Fuse (http://artsfuse.org/49835/fuse-interview-s-t-joshi-on-ambrose-bierce-the-underappreciated-genius-of-being-grim/). A rather nice piece, I think, with some nice illustrations (I’m not referring to my “standard” author photo, now about ten years out of date). Another interview of me—a very extensive one on Lovecraft and related matters—conducted by Matthew Marczi will appear presently.
Work is progressing on the issuance of Black Wings II from PS Publishing. I believe the trade edition is on schedule for (late) March publication, although the signed/limited may not appear until April. Meanwhile, I am, as many readers know, assembling three other Mythos anthologies (not counting A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, now complete except for stories from Laird Barron and Jeff VanderMeer; to be published by Centipede Press, probably in the spring of 2013): Black Wings III (PS Publishing), and two anthologies for Titan Books. For all these volumes, I have received highly meritorious stories from Alan Dean Foster, Jason C. Eckhardt, Donald Tyson, and several others. In all honesty, however, I cannot encourage unsolicited submissions, both because of my chronic lack of time and because the volumes will probably be largely filled with “name” contributors, making it difficult for others to break in.
It would appear that my edition of H. L. Mencken’s selected short stories (which I have titled Bluebeard’s Goat and Other Stories) has been accepted by Dufour Editions (Chester Springs, PA). At least, I was so informed by an editor there, although I have yet to receive a contract. But I imagine it will come. I believe my edition of Mencken’s plays (now titled The Collected Drama of H. L. Mencken) will appear this spring from Scarecrow Press.
Happy New Year! The year has begun with its usual array of variegated work. I am proud to see the emergence of my 175th book, Dissecting Cthulhu, a new anthology of criticism on the Cthulhu Mythos published by Miskatonic River Press. It is a splendid-looking book and contains fine work by Robert M. Price, Steven J. Mariconda, Will Murray, Stefan Dziemianowicz, and many others. Other books by this publisher appear to be rolling off the press, and it seems destined to establish itself as a major venue for Lovecraftian fiction.
I am honoured to have received from the author a copy of the deluxe lettered edition ($99.00) of W. H. Pugmire’s Gathered Dust and Others (Dark Regions Press). It is a fine collection of both older and newer work by this inimitable author, one of the greatest prose-poets now writing. His current health problems notwithstanding, Wilum intends to continue writing as best he can, and several more volumes—including the Hippocampus Press edition of his collection Uncommon Places—will appear later this year. There is a signed and numbered edition of Gathered Dust selling for $40.00 from the publisher.
Wilum recently gave me a copy of a Ph.D. dissertation on Lovecraft, written by one Sean Elliot Martin and entitled H. P. Lovecraft and the Modernist Grotesque. This work was (apparently) self-published by the author in July of 2011. It looks like a fine piece of work. I would like to get in touch with the author, as I may wish to publish the book in an actual edition from Hippocampus Press.
Another colleague, Michael Saler, has just published a book, As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality (Oxford University Press, 2012), that contains a substantial and informative chapter on Lovecraft. I assisted the author minimally on the chapter. It also contains chapters on Arthur Conan Doyle and J. R. R. Tolkien, along with some general chapters on the subject. It is a fine treatise and should be digested by anyone interested in the weird and fantastic.
An Indian journalist named Pradeep Sebastian has just published an article on me, based on an interview, in the English-language journal The Hindu. I believe this is the first time that an article on me has appeared in my native country. It can be seen at: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/pradeep_sebastian/article2763441.ece.
Submissions are coming thick and fast to the various anthologies of Lovecraftian fiction that I am compiling this year—Black Wings III (for PS Publishing), Mountains of Madness (stories based on HPL’s At the Mountains of Madness), and The Madness of Cthulhu (a more general Lovecraftian anthology)—the latter two to be published by Titan Books. I have recently accepted some splendid stories by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Cody Goodfellow, and Will Murray, and more good material seems to have landed in my inbox.
Meanwhile, I am struggling to finish the reading for my history of weird fiction, Unutterable Horror. I expect to finish the volume by the end of January, so that the two-volume set can come out for the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto this fall. Currently I am digesting (at long last) the work of Laird Barron, and books by Joe Hill, John Langan, and others are awaiting perusal.
To my surprise, I continue to get requests for copies of my edition of Maurice Level’s Tales of the Grand Guignol, as the 100-copy hardcover edition from Centipede Press is already out of print. I have no more copies to dole out, and am urging the publisher to print another 100 or 200 hardcover copies. Let’s hope he follows through on the unexpected demand!