By R.H. Barlow
Edited by S.T. Joshi, Douglas A. Anderson, and David E. Schultz

Back Cover Text

R.H. Barlow (1918–1951) was in every way a remarkable individual. An enthusiast of fantasy and horror fiction since childhood, he came in touch with H.P. Lovecraft when he was only 13. He was already attempting to write short fantasy tales, and Lovecraft took considerable pains to tutor Barlow in the principles of fiction writing. This volume, which for the first time gathers Barlow’s substantial body of weird fiction and poetry, contains all six of Barlow’s collaborations with Lovecraft, including such celebrated works as “The Battle That Ended the Century” and “The Night Ocean” (which new research has shown to be almost entirely Barlow’s work). Barlow went on to write superb short stories without Lovecraft’s assistance, including “A Dim-Remembered Story,” “The Root-Gatherers,” and “Return by Sunset.” In the 1940s, when Barlow moved to Mexico (where he became a noted anthropologist), he turned to poetry, producing such scintillating volumes as Poems for a Competition (1942) and View from a Hill (1947). Barlow’s life was tragically cut short by suicide, but this volume shows that he had already fulfilled the promise of his early work by producing tales of a substance, maturity, and depth that few of Lovecraft’s colleagues could match. The gathering together of his collected weird fiction and poetry is an event that should be welcomed by all lovers of the weird and fantastic.

Contents

• Introduction
• Fiction
  • The Slaying of the Monster (with H.P. Lovecraft)
  • Eyes of the God
  • Annals of the Jinns
    1. The Black Tower
    2. The Shadow from Above
    3. The Flagon of Beauty
    4. The Sacred Bird
    5. The Tomb of the God
    6. The Flower God
    7. The Little Box
    8. The Fall of the Three Cities
    9. The Mirror
    10. The Theft of the Hsothian Manuscripts
    11. An Episode in the Jungle
  • The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast (with H.P. Lovecraft)
  • The Battle That Ended the Century (with H.P. Lovecraft)
  • The Fidelity of Ghu
  • The Inhospitable Tavern
  • The Misfortunes of Butter-Churning
  • “Till A’ the Seas” (with H.P. Lovecraft)
  • The Temple
  • The Adventures of Garoth
  • The Experiment
  • Collapsing Cosmoses (with H.P. Lovecraft)
  • The Bright Valley
  • The Priest and the Heretic
  • The Summons
  • A Dream
  • A Memory
  • Pursuit of the Moth
  • The Root-Gatherers
  • A Dim-Remembered Story
  • The Night Ocean (with H.P. Lovecraft)
  • Origin Undetermined
  • The Swearing of an Oath
  • The Questioner
  • The Artizan’s Reward
  • Return by Sunset
• Poetry
  1. Poems 1936–1939
     • [Untitled]
     • Sonnet V
     • Sonnet VI
     • Sonnet VII
     • Song
     • [Untitled]
     • Sonnet
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • R.E.H.
     • St. John’s Churchyard
     • Dirge for the Artist
     • Alcestis
     • N.Y.
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • Altamira
     • Cycle from a Dead Year
     • H.P.L.
       • I. March 1937
       • II. March 1938
       • [Untitled]
       • [Untitled]
       • H.P.L.
       • H.P.L.
     • March
     • [Untitled]
     • The Unresisting
     • Shub-Ad
     • Who Will Not Know
     • To Bacchus
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • Winter Mood
     • Burlesque
     • Frustration
     • To a Companion
     • Dawn Delayed
     • To a Wayfarer
     • [Untitled]
     • Fragments
     • To Alta, On Her Original American Sonnet
     • Sonnet
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • Fragments
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • Quetzalcoatl
     • Quetzalcoatl
     • Out of the Dark
     • Prophecy
     • A Gull From a Cliff
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • To Sleep
     • [Untitled]
     • Isolde
  2. Poems for a Competition (1942)
     • Date Uncertain
     • Nostalgia
     • For D.
     • Lines to Diana
     • The Gods in the Patio
     • The School Where Nobody Learns What
     • For Leon Trotzky and Huitzilopochtli
     • Sacre du Printemps
     • In Black and White
     • Explanation to M.
  3. [Statement about Poetry]
  4. View from a Hill (1947)
     1. For D.
        1. From This Tree
        2. Air for Variations
        3. New Directions
        4. To a Friend on Sailing
        5. To One Rescued
     2. Fresco of Priests and Beans
        • On a Feather Poncho
        • The Chichimecs
        • Stela of a Mayan Penitent
        • Tepuzteca, Tepehua
        • The Conquered
     3. For Rosalie
        • blotted a beetle
        • Table Set for Sea-Slime
     4. Five Years
        • First Year: Sebastian
        • Second Year: Dream While Paris Was Threatened
        • Third Year: About a Mythical Factory-Area
        • Fourth Year: Letter to My Brother
        • Fifth Year: Viktoria
     5. For E. and For W.
        • “¿Que Quieres? ¿Mis Costillas?” (For E.)
        • Chili Sin Carne (For W.)
     6. View from a Hill
        • To the Builders of a Dam
        • View from a Hill
        • Recantation
        • On the Lights of San Francisco
        • A Escoger
        • In Order to Clarify
        • We Kept on Reading “Tuesday”
     7. For Barbara Mayer
        • On Leaving Some Friends at an Early Hour
  5. A Stone for Sisiphus (1949)
     • Sonnet to Siva
     • Anniversary
     • Invocation
     • Evening
     • The Coming Fructification by Night of Our Cyrus
     • Of the Names of the Zapotec Kings
     • Framed Portent
     • Orientation to the West
  6. Miscellaneous Poems
     • Mourning Song
     • Admittance
     • The City
     • A Tapestry
     • Warning to Snake Killers
     • [Untitled]
     • Mythological Episode
     • Rainy-Day Pastime
     • The Heart
     • Mozart’s G. Minor
     • [Miscellaneous Lines]
     • Letter for Last Christmas
     • [Untitled]
     • Colors
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • [Untitled]
     • Poema de Salida
     • Intimations of Mortality
• Bibliography
• Index of Poetry Titles
• Index of First Lines

Bibliographic Information

Eyes of the God: The Weird Fiction and Poetry of R.H. Barlow. By R.H. Barlow, Edited by S.T. Joshi, Douglas A. Anderson, and David E. Schultz. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press; 2002; ISBN 0-9673215-4-9; Softcover, 210 pages.

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