Lovecraft and a World in Transition: Collected Essays on H. P. Lovecraft [N.F. - Essays, Literature, Horror] by Joshi S. T

Author:Joshi, S. T. [Joshi, S. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Essays, Nonfiction, Literature, Horror, Lovecraft
Publisher: Hippocampus Press
Published: 2015-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

B. Revisions and Collaborations

1. “Collapsing Cosmoses.” A.Ms., 3 pp.

The work is a collaboration between Lovecraft and Barlow, where each author wrote every other paragraph or so. The work is apparently incomplete.

Its first appearance was in Leaves (1938), which clearly followed the A.Ms., making few errors. All subsequent printings have followed the Leaves text. In my edition of the text in Uncollected Prose and Poetry II (1980) I have indicated precisely which portions were written by each author.

2. “Composite Story.” A.Ms., [3] + 9 pp.

This is Lovecraft’s segment of the round-robin tale, “The Challenge from Beyond.” The text consists of three pages of notes and illustrations (first published in Lovecraft Studies No. 9 [Fall 1984]: 72–73) and nine pages of text. Presumably Lovecraft prepared a T.Ms. and sent it to Fantasy Magazine for publication there (September 1935).

The Fantasy Magazine text does not follow the A.Ms. very well, deleting some words and phrases. Some of these deletions were corrected in a copy of Fantasy Magazine (John Hay Library). All subsequent appearances have followed the (uncorrected) Fantasy Magazine text.

3. “The Diary of Alonzo Typer.” A.Ms., 20 pp.

The A.Ms. is written in a very late script with extremely small characters and many revisions and interlineations. The tale was ghostwritten for William Lumley; Lumley’s version survives, and examination of it proves that Lovecraft wholly recast the story, retaining only a few phrases of the original. It is probable that Lovecraft had Lumley prepare the T.Ms. (even though he states that he would prepare it himself; see Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, 21 October 1935; OFF 299), since the first appearance (Weird Tales, February 1938) makes many curious errors that cannot well be attributed to editorial emendation. All subsequent appearances derive from the Weird Tales text.

4. “In the Walls of Eryx.” T.Ms., [2] + 45 pp.

The T.Ms. is one of two carbon copies made of the collaboration; the other carbon and the original T.Ms. (as well as the presumable A.Ms. by Lovecraft) are not to be found. The tale is credited to “Kenneth Sterling and H. P. Lovecraft”; and although it is clear that Lovecraft wrote most of it (though perhaps less so than in his other revisions and collaborations), it is probable that he himself recommended that the names be listed in this way. The T.Ms. is presumably by Sterling, since it is in a wholly unfamiliar typewriter face. The text appears to be fairly accurately copied from the theoretical A.Ms. It was sent to Astounding Stories, Blue Book, the Argosy, Wonder Stories, and possibly Amazing Stories (all these names, save the last, are crossed out on a covering page of the ms). Finally it was taken by Weird Tales for the October 1939 issue. The Arkham House editions derive from the T.Ms. and bear few divergences from it.

5. “Medusa’s Coil.” T.Ms., 48 pp.

The T.Ms. is presumably by Frank Belknap Long, working from a probable A.Ms. by Lovecraft. In some places Long does not appear to have been able to read Lovecraft’s handwriting, and the text is garbled.

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