By H.P. Lovecraft
Edited by S.T. Joshi

Dust Jacket Text

H.P. Lovecraft has now received world renown as an author of supernatural fiction; but during his lifetime he wrote far more essays than stories. This edition gathers Lovecraft’s complete nonfictional output for the first time, arranged in broad thematic groupings. In this volume, Lovecraft’s prolific writings on amateur journalism are collected. Discovering the amateur press in 1914, Lovecraft immediately flooded the many small papers of his friends and colleagues with contributions discussing the nature, purpose, and future of amateur journalism. He also edited his own magazine, The Conservative (1915–23), filling it with additional essays. In these articles Lovecraft discusses such issues as the conflicting motives of the United Amateur Press Association and the National Amateur Press Association; the halcyon days of the amateur movement (1885–95); and the needs and betterment of the amateur cause. We read of bitter feuds with such individuals as William J. Dowdell and Graeme Davis; of Lovecraft’s exhaustive criticisms of amateur writing in his “Department of Public Criticism” and “Bureau of Critics” columns; and, most poignant of all, his touching affirmation of “What Amateurdom and I Have Done for Each Other,” in which he concludes simply: “What Amateur Journalism has given me is – life itself.” All texts are exhaustively annotated, with critical and bibliographical notes, by S.T. Joshi.

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) has belatedly achieved universal recognition as the twentieth century’s premier author of supernatural fiction. Poet, essayist, philosopher, and man of letters, Lovecraft’s work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and is widely available in numerous annotated editions.

S.T. Joshi is a leading authority on Lovecraft and the author of an exhaustive biography, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996). He has prepared many annotated editions of Lovecraft’s fiction, poetry, essays, and letters, along with such critical studies as H.P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West (1990) and A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of H.P. Lovecraft (1996). He has also done critical and editorial work on Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, Ambrose Bierce, and H.L. Mencken.

Contents

• Introduction by S.T. Joshi
  
  
• A Task for Amateur Journalists
• Department of Public Criticism (November 1914)
• Department of Public Criticism (January 1915)
• Department of Public Criticism (March 1915)
• What Is Amateur Journalism?
• Consolidation’s Autopsy
• The Amateur Press
• Editorial (April 1915)
• The Question of the Day
• The Morris Faction
• For President—Leo Fritter
• Introducing Mr. Chester Pierce Munroe
• [Untitled Notes on Amateur Journalism]
• Department of Public Criticism (May 1915)
• Finale
• New Department Proposed: Instruction for the Recruit
• Our Candidate
• Exchanges
• For Historian—Ira A. Cole
• Editorial (July 1915)
• The Conservative and His Critics (July 1915)
• Some Political Phases
• Introducing Mr. John Russell
• In a Major Key
• Amateur Notes
• The Dignity of Journalism
• Department of Public Criticism (September 1915)
• Editorial (October 1915)
• The Conservative and His Critics (October 1915)
• The Youth of Today
• An Impartial Spectator
• [Untitled Notes on Amateur Journalism]
• Little Journeys to the Homes of Prominent Amateurs: II. Andrew Francis Lockhart
• Report of First Vice-President (November 1915)
• Department of Public Criticism (December 1915)
• Systematic Instruction in the United
• United Amateur Press Association: Exponent of Amateur Journalism
• Introducing Mr. James Pyke
• Report of First Vice-President (January 1916)
• Editorial (February 1916)
• Department of Public Criticism (April 1916)
• Among the New-Comers
• Department of Public Criticism (June 1916)
• Department of Public Criticism (August 1916)
• Department of Public Criticism (September 1916)
• Among the Amateurs
• Concerning “Persia—in Europe”
• Amateur Standards
• A Request
• Department of Public Criticism (March 1917)
• Department of Public Criticism (May 1917)
• A Reply to The Lingerer
• The United’s Problem
• Editorially
• The “Other United”
• Department of Public Criticism (July 1917)
• Little Journeys to the Homes of Prominent Amateurs: V. Eleanor J. Barnhart
• News Notes (July 1917)
• President’s Message (September 1917)
• President’s Message (November 1917)
• President’s Message (January 1918)
• Department of Public Criticism (January 1918)
• President’s Message (March 1918)
• Department of Public Criticism (March 1918)
• President’s Message (May 1918)
• Department of Public Criticism (May 1918)
• Comment
• President’s Message (July 1918)
• Amateur Criticism
• The United 1917–1918
• The Amateur Press Club
• Les Mouches Fantastiques
• Department of Public Criticism (September 1918)
• Department of Public Criticism (November 1918)
• News Notes (November 1918)
• [Letter to the Bureau of Critics]
• Department of Public Criticism (January 1919)
• Department of Public Criticism (March 1919)
• Winifred Virginia Jordan: Associate Editor
• Helene Hoffman Cole—Litterateur
• Department of Public Criticism (May 1919)
• Trimmings
• For Official Editor—Anne Tillery Renshaw
• Amateurdom
• Looking Backward
• For What Does the United Stand?
• The Pseudo-United
• The Conquest of the Hub Club
• News Notes (September 1920)
• Amateur Journalism: Its Possible Needs and Betterment
• Editorial (November 1920)
• News Notes (November 1920)
• News Notes (January 1921)
• The United’s Policy 1920–1921
• What Amateurdom and I Have Done for Each Other
• News Notes (March 1921)
• The Vivisector (March 1921)
• [Letter to John Milton Heins]
• Lucubrations Lovecraftian
• News Notes (May 1921)
• The Vivisector (June 1921)
• The Haverhill Convention
• News Notes (July 1921)
• Within the Gates
• The Convention Banquet
• Editorial (September 1921)
• News Notes (September 1921)
• A Singer of Ethereal Moods and Fancies
• News Notes (November 1921)
• [Letter to John Milton Heins]
• Editorial (January 1922)
• News Notes (January 1922)
• Rainbow Called Best First Issue
• News Notes (March 1922)
• The Vivisector (March 1922)
• News Notes (May 1922)
• [Letter to the N.A.P.A.]
• President’s Message (November 1922–January 1923)
• President’s Message (March 1923)
• Bureau of Critics (March 1923)
• Rursus Adsumus
• The Vivisector (Spring 1923)
• President’s Message (May 1923)
• Lovecraft’s Greeting
• President’s Message (July 1923)
• [Untitled Notes on Amateur Journalism]
• The President’s Annual Report
• Trends and Objects
• Editorial (May 1924)
• News Notes (May 1924)
• Editorial (July 1925)
• News Notes (July 1925)
• A Matter of Uniteds
• The Convention
• Bureau of Critics (December 1931)
• Critics Submit First Report
• Verse Criticism
• Report of Bureau of Critics
• Bureau of Critics Comment on Verse, Typography, Prose
• Bureau of Critics (June 1934)
• Chairman of the Bureau of Critics Reports on Poetry
• Mrs. Miniter—Estimates and Recollections
• Report of the Bureau of Critics (December 1934)
• Report of the Bureau of Critics (March 1935)
• Lovecraft Offers Verse Criticism
• Dr. Eugene B. Kuntz
• Some Current Amateur Verse
• Report of the Executive Judges
• Some Current Motives and Practices
• [Letter to the N.A.P.A.]
• [Literary Review]
• Defining the “Ideal” Paper
  
  
• Appendix
  • [Miscellaneous Notes in the United Amateur]
  • Official Organ Fund
  • [Untitled Note on Amateur Poetry]
  • [On Notes High and Low by Carrie Adams Berry]
  • A Voice from the Grave
  
  
• Index

Bibliographic Information

Collected Essays, Volume 1: Amateur Journalism. By H.P. Lovecraft, Edited by S.T. Joshi. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press; 2004; ISBN 0-9721644-1-3 (hardcover) 0-9721644-2-1 (paperback), 440 pages.

Purchasing This Book

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