Barnes and Noble's Cover Art for New H.P. Lovecraft Collection

At the recent H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, S.T. Joshi happily announced that the complete fiction of Lovecraft would soon be available in just two volumes (excluding revisions/collaboration works with other authors). What he was referring to remains somewhat ambiguous at this point--or, at least, online mentions of this episode are unclear. However, he was presumably not referring to H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction, the latest appearance of Lovecraft's classics in print from Barnes & Noble this month. The ubiquitous bookstore's release of this volume is a handsome addition for readers seeking to have all of Lovecraft's major tales in one place.

More interestingly, though, is the selection of cover art for this particular book. Barnes & Noble has gone with a very bold departure from most Lovecraft book adornments. Instead of ominous paintings (of the sort found on the Penguin editions), Cthulhu, or grotesque depictions of Lovecraftian nightmares, we find something else entirely: a peculiar swirl of colors semi-suggestive of nebulae and galaxies.

This may not be good marking (time, sales, and statistical study will tell). It may turn readers who judge books by their covers off. Yet, one thing is undeniable: someone in the rafters of Barnes & Noble has a thorough understanding of Lovecraft. This is the first cover I have ever seen on a volume by HPL truly evocative of Cosmic Horror and strangeness on a universal scale. It's a nice change from the typical art, even when the image doesn't lend itself to easy description. Then again, neither does Lovecraft's work. While the content on the pages within remains familiar to anyone holding a previous acquaintance with HPL, this cover art is a nice reminder of the greater literary value contained by the tales inside.

As S.T. Joshi confirmed, H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction won't be the last re-print of Lovecraft's stories. Instead, it may be the first to feature a clearly 21st century cover where the fuller value of Lovecraft's ideas are realized. This is an encouraging move with tantalizing implications, if subsequent publishers of Lovecraft follow Barnes & Noble and seek out atypical illustrations to ornament the fiction of the Providence author.

-Grim Blogger