Rare Lovecraft Essay Sells On Ebay

An ebay auction closed not long ago where one unknown collector must've certainly sated their thirst for rare Lovecraftiana. The item in question, which sold for more than a solid five grand, is a rare astrological treatise by H.P. Lovecraft commissioned as part of his three article Harry Houdini set written for "Weird Tales" magazine in the 1920s. A large number of other relevant correspondence written to Lovecraft and further supporting documentation was also included in the nearly fifty page file. All of the HPL authored material is handwritten, and appears to contain a quite lengthy, diagram laden article where Lovecraft refutes spiritualism, astrology, and magic.

What remains on paper, so far as anyone can tell, is a coherent rough draft or in depth outline of an as yet unpublished H.P. Lovecraft piece. This curiosity also raises the interesting question of how many unknown Lovecraft letters, essays within correspondence, and other written works might be circulating under the radar in private collectors' hands. Given the immense volume of epistles and other material Lovecraft produced for friends and acquaintances during his lifetime, it's not unreasonable to assume that there are very interesting texts out there not yet known.

While the chance of a new story or poem turning up is near impossible, the prospect of further non-fiction notes like this one surfacing is rather good. Weird fiction scholar S.T. Joshi has stated plans are underway to publish a many volumed set of H.P. Lovecraft's complete correspondence. Fortunately, as only the first couple volumes are anywhere close to publication, there's still plenty of time to incorporate any new works that may arrive over the years to come--some of which is bound to have escaped even the watchful eye of Joshi and other Lovecraft scholars.

-Grim Blogger