The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft
Compiled and edited by S. T. Joshi. Cover art by Kenneth Waters.
H. P. Lovecraft is best known for his fiction, but he spent a great portion of his creative energy on his poetry. The Ancient Track collects the complete poetry of one of the twentieth centuries most iconic writers. The great majority of these poems were written between 1914, and 1920, the period of Lovecraft's heaviest concentration on poetry.
Lovecraft's poetry may be regarded as the lesser of his literary output, but it merits collection precisely because it is an important ancillary to his other more well known forms of creative endeavor. Prior to the publication of The Ancient Track, Lovecraft's poetry had been scattered across several different volumes whose textual accuracy has not always been exemplary, while several poems had been uncollected.
"This is an essential tome for every self-respecting Lovecraftian..." – Publishers Weekly
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937) is a well known American horror, fantasy and science fiction author. He is especially known for creating the Cthulhu Mythos.
H. P. Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, but his reputation has grown over the decades and he's regarded as one of the greatest and most influential horror writers of the 20th century. Lovecraft's short stories have inspired many authors, artists and directors.
Book Reviews
The Ancient Track is an excellent collection of H. P. Lovecraft's poems. S. T. Joshi has done a great job by collecting all the possible poems to this collection. It's great that Night Shade Books published this collection, because Lovecraft's poems are difficult to find. I loaned this book from a fried of mine a couple of years ago, but now I finally decided to buy it. I'm glad that I bought it, because it's nice to have a good collection of Lovecraft's poems. In my opinion the second category of this collection, Fantasy and Horror, contains the best and most famous poems. His weird poems are fascinating and the writing style is excellent. I can recommend The Ancient Track to all Lovecraft fans. If you enjoy reading Lovecraft's short stories, you'll probably like his poems too.