Edited by Robert H. Waugh

Back Cover Text

Recognized as a major innovator of the weird story, H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an author whose influence was felt by nearly every writer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction in the second half of the twentieth century. Considered one of the leading writers of gothic horror, Lovecraft and his work continue to inspire writers today.

In Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors, Robert H. Waugh has assembled essays that are vast in scope, ranging from the Bible through the Edwardian period and well into the present. This collection is devoted to authors whose work had an impact on Lovecraft—Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lord Dunsany—and those who drew inspiration from him, including William S. Burroughs, Ramsey Campbell, Thomas Ligotti, and Stephen King.

A fascinating anthology, Lovecraft and Influence will appeal to aficionados of classic horror, fantasy, and science fiction and those with an interest in modern authors whose works reflect and honor Lovecraft’s enduring legacy.

ROBERT H. WAUGH is professor emeritus in the English department at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is a leading Lovecraft scholar, and his books include The Monster in the Mirror: Looking for H.P. Lovecraft (2006) and A Monster of Voices: Speaking for H. P. Lovecraft (2011).

Contents

Abbreviations
Introduction by Robert H. Waugh
1. Lovecraft’s Predecessors
1. Biblical Bits in Lovecraft by Robert M. Price
2. Queen Anne Is [Not] Dead: Lovecraft and the Augustans by J. D. Worthington
3. The Shape of Darkness: Origins for H. P. Lovecraft within the American Gothic Tradition by James Goho
4. Hawthorne’s Influence on Lovecraft by Donald R. Burleson
5. “Hearken . . . I Can Tell You the Whole Story”: Monologues and Confessions in the Early Works of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe by Alex Houstoun
6. Lovecraft’s Debt to Lord Dunsany by Darrell Schweitzer
7. A Reprehensible Habit: H. P. Lovecraft and the Munsey Magazines by Gavin Callaghan
8. Green Storm Rising: Lovecraft’s Roots in Invasion Literature by T. R. Livesey
2. Lovecraft’s Successors
9. What Stays in Lovecraft’s Sieve Once Frank Belknap Long Is Strained Through It by Norm Gayford
10. From the Cosmic to the Human: H. P. Lovecraft’s Influence on Ramsey Campbell by S. T. Joshi
11. Lovecraft’s Influence in Science Fiction: The Tides of His Dark Star in the Works of Arthur C. Clarke, Fritz Leiber, and Philip K. Dick by Robert H. Waugh
12. Reanimator and Exterminator: H. P. Lovecraft and William S. Burroughs by Michael Cisco
13. Nature’s Other, Ghastly Face: H. P. Lovecraft and the Animal Sublime in Stephen King by John Langan
14. Easy as Falling off Logic: A Consideration of Lovecraft and Ligotti as “Weird Realists” by Steven J. Mariconda
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Contributors
About the Editor

Bibliographic Information

Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors. Edited by Robert H. Waugh. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press; 2013; ISBN 978-0-8108-9115-9; hardback; 210 pages.

Purchasing This Book

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