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

Dust Jacket Text

This third volume of Lovecraft’s collected essays presents his complete published writings in the realm of science, chiefly those of astronomy, but also including some essays on anthropology and folklore. Science was one of Lovecraft’s earliest interests, and he frequently testified that his discovery of astronomy at the age of 11 led to the formation of his distinctively cosmic vision. His first published work was a letter to the Providence Sunday Journal on a point of astronomy; shortly thereafter, he began writing two separate astronomy columns, for the Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner (1906) and the Providence Tribune (1906–08), the latter containing hand-drawn star-charts. After a hiatus, he wrote an extensive monthly astronomy column for the Providence Evening News (1914–18), in which the dry recitation of astronomical phenomena for the month was enlivened by elucidations of the Greek myths behind the names of the constellations, discussions of important astronomical discoveries over the centuries, and snippets of Lovecraft’s poetry. His “Mysteries of the Heavens” is a compact survey of the entire realm of astronomy, written for the Asheville (N.C.) Gazette-News in 1915. As a whole, this volume displays Lovecraft’s devotion to science as the ultimate arbiter of truth and as the solid foundation of his cosmic voyagings in the realm of weird fiction. 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
  
  
• My Opinion as to the Lunar Canals
• No Transit of Mars
• Trans-Neptunian Planets
• The Moon
• The Earth Not Hollow



• [Astronomy Articles for the Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner]
• The Heavens for August
• The Skies of September
• Is Mars an Inhabited World?
• Is There Life on the Moon?
• An Interesting Phenomenon
• October Heavens
• Are There Undiscovered Planets?
• Can the Moon Be Reached by Man?
• The Moon
• [Untitled]
• The Sun
• The Leonids
• Comets
• December Skies
• The Fixed Stars
• Clusters—Nebulae
• January Heavens


• [Astronomy Articles for the Providence Tribune]
• In the August Sky
• The September Heavens
• Astronomy in October
• The Skies of November
• The Heavens for December
• The Heavens in January
• The Heavens in February
• The Heavens in March
• April Skies
• The Heavens in May
• The Heavens in June
• Astronomy in August
• The Heavens for September
• The Skies of October
• The Heavens in November
• Heavens for December
• The Heavens in January
• February Skies
• The Heavens in Month of March
• Solar Eclipse Feature of June Heavens


• Third Annual Report of the Prov. Meteorological Station



• Celestial Objects for All
• Venus and the Public Eye



• [Astronomy Articles for the Providence Evening News]
• The January Sky
• The February Sky
• The March Sky
• The April Sky
• May Sky
• The June Sky
• The July Sky
• The August Sky
• The September Sky
• The October Sky
• The November Sky
• The December Sky
• The January Sky
• The February Sky
• The March Sky
• April Skies
• The May Sky
• The June Skies
• The July Skies
• The August Skies
• September Skies
• October Skies
• November Skies
• December Skies
• January Skies
• February Skies
• March Skies
• April Skies
• May Skies
• June Skies
• July Skies
• August Skies
• September Skies
• October Skies
• November Skies
• December Skies
• January Skies
• February Skies
• March Skies
• April Skies
• May Skies
• June Skies
• July Skies
• August Skies
• September Skies
• October Skies
• November Skies
• December Skies
• January Skies
• February Skies
• March Skies
• April Skies
• May Skies


• [Science versus Charlatanry]
• Science versus Charlatanry
• The Falsity of Astrology
• Astrology and the Future
• Delavan’s Comet and Astrology
• The Fall of Astrology
• [Isaac Bickerstaffe’s Reply]



• Mysteries of the Heavens Revealed by Astronomy
• I. The Sky and Its Contents
• [II.] The Solar System
• III. The Sun
• IV. The Inferior Planets
• V. Eclipses
• VI. The Earth and Its Moon
• VII. Mars and the Asteroids
• VIII. The Outer Planets
• [The Outer Planets, Part II]
• IX. Comets and Meteors
• Comets and Meteors [Part II]
• X. The Stars
• [The Stars, Part II]
• XI. Clusters and Nebulae
• [Clusters and Nebulae, Part II]
• XII. The Constellations
• [The Constellations, Part II]
• XIII. Telescopes and Observatories
• [Telescopes and Observatories, Part II]



• Editor’s Note to “The Irish and the Fairies” by Peter J. MacManus
• Brumalia
• The Truth about Mars
• The Cancer of Superstition
• [Some Backgrounds of Fairyland]



• Appendix
  • Does “Vulcan” Exist?
  • Astronomical Notebook
  • [Astronomy Articles by J. F. Hartmann]
  • Astrology and the European War
  • [Letter to the Editor]
  • The Science of Astrology
  • A Defense of Astrology
  • Lovecraft’s Juvenile Scientific Manuscripts
  
  
• Index

Bibliographic Information

Collected Essays, Volume 3: Science. By H.P. Lovecraft, Edited by S.T. Joshi. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press; 2005; ISBN 0-9748789-7-9 (hardcover) 0-9748789-8-7 (paperback), 357 pages.

Purchasing This Book

This book may be purchased in hardcover from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, in paperback from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, or directly from the publisher, Hippocampus Press.