The Statement Of Randolph Carter : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE STATEMENT OF RANDOLPH CARTER (1920) Again I say, I do not know what has become of Harley Warren, though I think--almost hope--that he is in peaceful oblivion, if there be anywhere so blessed a thing. It is true that I have for five years been his closest friend...
Polaris : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, POLARIS (1920) Into the north window of my chamber glows the Pole Star with uncanny light. All through the long hellish hours of blackness it shines there. And in the autumn of the year, when the winds from the north curse and whine, and the red-leaved trees...
Nyarlathotep : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, NYARLATHOTEP (1920) Nyarlathotep... the crawling chaos... I am the last... I will tell the audient void.... I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. The general tension was horrible. To a season of political and social upheaval was added...
The Cats Of Ulthar : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE CATS OF ULTHAR (1920) It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot...
Facts Concerning The Late Arthur Jermyn : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, FACTS CONCERNING THE LATE ARTHUR JERMYN AND HIS FAMILY (1921) I Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous. Science, already oppressive with its...
The Terrible Old Man : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN (1921) It was the design of Angelo Ricci and Joe Czanek and Manuel Silva to call on the Terrible Old Man. This old man dwells all alone in a very ancient house on Water Street near the sea, and is reputed to be both exceedingly rich...
The Tree : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE TREE (1921) On a verdant slope of Mount Maenalus, in Arcadia, there stands an olive grove about the ruins of a villa. Close by is a tomb, once beautiful with the sublimest sculptures, but now fallen into as great decay as the house. At one end of that tomb, its...
The Moon Bog : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE MOON-BOG (WEIRD TALES, 1926) Somewhere, to what remote and fearsome region I know not, Denys Barry has gone. I was with him the last night he lived among men, and heard his screams when the thing came to him; but all the peasants and police in County Meath could...
Previous : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE DUNWICH HORROR (WEIRD TALES 1929) "Gorgons and Hydras, and Chimaeras - dire stories of Celaeno and the Harpies - may reproduce themselves in the brain of superstition - but they were there before. They are transcripts, types - the archetypes are in us...
The Music Of Erich Zann : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN (1922) I have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet have never again found the Rue dAuseil. These maps have not been modern maps alone, for I know that names change. I have, on the contrary, delved deeply into all...
Memory : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, MEMORY (1919) In the valley of Nis the accursed waning moon shines thinly, tearing a path for its light with feeble horns through the lethal foliage of a great upas-tree. And within the depths of the valley, where the light reaches not, move forms not meant to be...
The Call Of Cthulhu : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE CALL OF CTHULHU (WEIRD TALES, 1928) "Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival... a survival of a hugely remote period when... consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing...
The Picture In The House : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE (1919) Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places. For them are the catacombs of Ptolemais, and the carven mausolea of the nightmare countries. They climb to the moonlit towers of ruined Rhine castles, and falter down black cobwebbed...
He : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, HE (WEIRD TALES, 1926) I saw him on a sleepless night when I was walking desperately to save my soul and my vision. My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration in the teeming labyrinths of ancient streets...
The Doom That Came To Sarnath : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH (1920) Written on December 3, 1919. Published June 20 in "The Scot". There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream, and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore the mighty...
Untitled : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE DUNWICH HORROR (WEIRD TALES 1929) "Gorgons and Hydras, and Chimaeras - dire stories of Celaeno and the Harpies - may reproduce themselves in the brain of superstition - but they were there before. They are transcripts, types - the archetypes are in us...
The Colour Out Of Space : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE (1927) West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint...
In The Vault : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, IN THE VAULT (1925) There is nothing more absurd, as I view it, than that conventional association of the homely and the wholesome which seems to pervade the psychology of the multitude. Mention a bucolic Yankee setting, a bungling and thick-fibred village undertaker...
Dagon : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, DAGON (1919) I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer; and shall cast myself from this garret...
The Nameless City : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE NAMELESS CITY (1921) When I drew nigh the nameless city I knew it was accursed. I was traveling in a parched and terrible valley under the moon, and afar I saw it protruding uncannily above the sands as parts of a corpse may protrude from an ill-made grave. Fear...
What The Moon Brings : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, WHAT THE MOON BRINGS (1923) I hate the moon - I am afraid of it - for when it shines on certain scenes familiar and loved it sometimes makes them unfamiliar and hideous. It was in the spectral summer when the moon shone down on the old garden where I wandered;...
The Tomb : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE TOMB (1922) In relating the circumstances which have led to my confinement within this refuge for the demented, I am aware that my present position will create a natural doubt of the authenticity of my narrative. It is an unfortunate fact that the bulk...
The White Ship : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE WHITE SHIP (1919) THE WHITE SHIP was first published in The United Amateur (Volume 19) #2, November 1919. I am Basil Elton, keeper of the North Point light that my father and grandfather kept before me. Far from the shore stands the gray lighthouse, above sunken...
Ex Oblivione : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, EX OBLIVIONE (1921) When the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water that torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victims body, I loved the irradiate refuge of sleep. In my...
Hypnos : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, HYPNOS (1923) Written March 1922. Published May 1923 in "The National Amateur", Vol. 45, No. 5, pages 1-3. "Apropos of sleep, that sinister adventure of all our nights, we may say that men go to bed daily with an audacity that would be incomprehensible if we did not...
Celephais : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, CELEPHAIS (1922) In a dream Kuranes saw the city in the valley, and the seacoast beyond, and the snowy peak overlooking the sea, and the gaily painted galleys that sail out of the harbour toward distant regions where the sea meets the sky. In a dream it was also th...
The Street : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE STREET (1920) There be those who say that things and places have souls, and there be those who say they have not; I dare not say, myself, but I will tell of the Street. Men of strength and honour fashioned that Street: good valiant men of our blood who had come...
Beyond The Wall Of Sleep : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP (1919) I have often wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong. Whilst the greater number of our nocturnal visions are perhaps...
Pickman's Model : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, PICKMAN'S MODEL (WEIRD TALES, 1927) You needn't think I'm crazy, Eliot- plenty of others have queerer prejudices than this. Why don't you laugh at Oliver's grandfather, who won't ride in a motor? If I don't like that damned subway, it's my own business; and we got...
Cool Air : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, COOL AIR (1928) You ask me to explain why I am afraid of a draught of cool air; why I shiver more than others upon entering a cold room, and seem nauseated and repelled when the chill of evening creeps through the heat of a mild autumn day. There are those who say I...
The Lurking Fear : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE LURKING FEAR (1923) I. THE SHADOW ON THE CHIMNEY There was thunder in the air on the night I went to the deserted mansion atop Tempest Mountain to find the lurking fear. I was not alone, for foolhardiness was not then mixed with that love of the grotesque...
The Horror At Red Hook : * An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology, THE HORROR AT RED HOOK (WEIRD TALES, 1927) I Not many weeks ago, on a street corner in the village of Pascoag, Rhode Island, a tall, heavily built, and wholesome-looking pedestrian furnished much speculation by a singular lapse of behaviour. He had, it appears, been...