"The Lovecraft Annual (No. 1)" Reviewed

Hippocampus Press has done the Lovecraftian community an immense favor by picking up the torch of published scholarship on H.P. Lovecraft. Their recently released booklet of the year's best essays and reviews, The Lovecraft Annual, is both timely and satisfying. Scholarly works about HPL appearing in hard print have been lacking the last few years, particularly after the apparent demise of S.T. Joshi's brilliant journal from the earlier years of this decade, "Lovecraft Studies." Fortunately, it appears The Lovecraft Annual will live up to its name: appearing once a year as an archive of intelligent developments in the world of Lovecraft, and even the broader realm of weird literature.

While the new anthology succeeds in fulfilling a need, it also goes beyond in quality and vision. An impressive array of personalities well known by every serious student of HPL shine: Darrell Schweitzer, David Schulz, and S.T. Joshi weigh in as seasoned heavyweights, displaying new observations and skills. Joshi's judicious selection of submissions proves he hasn't lost his editorial edge, and may well be continuing to improve it. Joshi and Schulz combine their abilities to produce a lengthy production of Lovecraft's correspondence with Minister, historian, and fellow writer Lee McBride White. As always, the weird master's correspondence is sufficiently cleaned up for the best readability--more than enough to make these lesser known letters a point of interest for both casual collectors and budding students of HPL's life and thought. Schweitzer's brief piece on Lovecraft's possible digestion of James Francis Dwyer's The City of the Unseen is thought provoking, and a suitable extension of previous attempts to understand the character of Lovecraft's literary influences. Robert H. Waugh's comparative research presented in this book on "The Colour Out of Space" and D.H. Lawrence's novel St. Mawr provoke a good deal of literary questions, and even suggests answers to a few of them.

Meanwhile, the well written and well thought works of scholars less known than the giants noted above is heartening and impressive. Jeff Lacy and Steven J. Zani capably examine Lovecraft through the lens of literary critic and translator Walter Benjamin, while Martin H. Kopp's "Memories of Sonia H. Greene Davis"serves as an excellent historical footnote in the intriguing drama of H.P. Lovecraft's brief marriage. Vigorous attention turned to the fictional texts of Lovecraft constitutes the pieces by Phillip A. Ellis and Peter Levi. The two effectively break new ground in less charted Lovecraft country, with Ellis' observations on "The Fungi from Yuggoth," and Levi's study of ties between the revision work "The Mound" and fantasist A. Merritt's "The Face in the Abyss." Finally, not one, but two essays exploring the ever vibrant and fascinating links between H.P. Lovecraft and Thomas Ligotti round out the volume. Matt Cardin's engrossing "The Master's Eyes Shining with Secrets" re-appears; an apt look at the tug of Lovecraft on both the life and fiction of Mr. Ligotti. This is joined by a groundbreaking rumination on symbolism and allegory in Ligotti's "The Last Feast of Harlequin."

The $15 admission price of this brainy collection of erudite Lovecraftiana makes it irresistible to the collector and student. The 160 page anthology is easily like two or three journals from the previous standards of "Crypt of Cthulhu" or "Lovecraft Studies." Several reviews by Joshi and others stuck at the end are a wonderful bonus conclusion to the cognizant featured articles. The insights of this first volume of The Lovecraft Annual will slide nicely onto the shelves of anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of HPL and weird fiction.

-Grim Blogger