H. P. Lovecraft: The Fiction

Introduction by S. T. Joshi.

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the city where he lived most of his life. He began writing poetry and fiction while an adolescent and contributed significantly to amateur press publications. In 1923, he made his first professional sale to Weird Tales, the pulp magazine that would publish most of his fiction. Five years later, Lovecraft published "The Call of Cthulhu," a story that crystallized his concept of cosmic horror through its depiction of otherworldly monsters that represent the incomprehensible alienness of the universe to human thinking. In "The Dunwich Horror," "The Whisperer in Darkness," "The Haunter of the Dark," "The Shadow out of Time," "At the Mountains of Madness," and other stories, Lovecraft further developed this unique approach to horror fiction, and created an elaborate mythology of alien creatures, forbidden books, and haunted New England towns to give it shape. The Shadow over Innsmouth, the sole book of his fiction published in his lifetime, appeared in 1936. Since his death, Lovecraft has become recognized as the greatest American writer of supernatural fiction after Edgar Allan Poe, and a leading influence on the modern weird tale.

In the 1920s and '30s, H.P. Lovecraft pioneered a new type of weird fiction that fused elements of supernatural horror with the concepts of visionary science fiction. Lovecraft's tales of cosmic horror revolutionized modern horror fiction and earned him the reputation of the most influential American writer of weird tales since Edgar Allan Poe.

This omnibus collects for the first time in a single volume all of Lovecraft's groundbreaking fiction: "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Dreams in the Witch House," "The Haunter of the Dark," "At the Mountains of Madness," "The Shadow out of Time," "The Shadow over Innsmouth," the full-length novels The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, and many others.

H. P. Lovecraft: The Fiction is part of Barnes & Noble's Library of Essential Writers. Each title in the series presents the finest works — complete and unabridged — from one of the greatest writers in literature in magnificent, elegantly designed hardback editions. Every volume also includes an original introduction that provides the reader with enlightening information on the writer's life and works.

Contents:

• Introduction by S. T. Joshi
• The Beast in the Cave
• The Alchemist
• The Tomb
• Dagon
• A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson
• Polaris
• Beyond the Wall of Sleep
• Memory
• Old Bugs
• The Transition of Juan Romero
• The White Ship
• The Street
• The Doom That Came to Sarnath
• The Statement of Randolph Carter
• The Terrible Old Man
• The Tree
• The Cats of Ulthar
• The Temple
• Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
• Celephaïs
• From Beyond
• Nyarlathotep
• The Picture in the House
• Ex Oblivione
• Sweet Ermengarde
• The Nameless City
• The Quest of Iranon
• The Moon-Bog
• The Outsider
• The Other Gods
• The Music of Erich Zann
• Herbert West — Reanimator
• Hypnos
• What the Moon Brings
• Azathoth
• The Hound
• The Lurking Fear
• The Rats in the Walls
• The Unnamable
• The Festival
• Under the Pyramids
• The Shunned House
• The Horror at Red Hook
• He
• In the Vault
• Cool Air
• The Call of Cthulhu
• Pickman's Model
• The Silver Key
• The Strange High House in the Mist
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
• The Colour out of Space
• The Descendant
• History of the Necronomicon
• The Very Old Folk
• Ibid
• The Dunwich Horror
• The Whisperer in Darkness
• At the Mountains of Madness
• The Shadow over Innsmouth
• The Dreams in the Witch House
• Through the Gates of the Silver Key
• The Thing on the Doorstep
• The Evil Clergyman
• The Book
• The Shadow out of Time
• The Haunter of the Dark
• Appendix: Juvenilia
• The Little Glass Bottle
• The Secret Cave
• The Mystery of the Grave-yard
• The Mysterious Ship (short version)
• The Mysterious Ship (long version)
• Discarded draft of "The Shadow over Innsmouth"
• Supernatural Horror in Literature
• About the Author