HPLHS News & Events Spring 2020

On Recent Events

• June 12, 2020

Recent events have painfully reminded us that the HPLHS celebrates the works of an author whose opinions regarding race have no place in the modern world. We grapple constantly with the challenge of reconciling apprehensions about the man with appreciation for his artistic creations. We strive to recontextualize those creations for a new era. We fully agree that Black lives matter. We can’t change Lovecraft, but we can help change our world. We must evaluate the past unflinchingly, see the present honestly, and embrace changes to create a future that brings justice and equality to everyone. To pursue that change, the HPLHS is donating a portion of its profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Further, we’re redoubling our efforts to work with a diverse team of artists to ensure that the products we make are inclusive and welcoming to all.

Whisperer

• June 12, 2020

The newest episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre is now ready! The CDs/props are now shipping, and downloads are available.

This very special episode was produced under COVID-19 lockdown conditions. We had our table read via Zoom. During recording, we never had more than one person in a room at any one time. Some members of the cast recorded themselves at home. Some scenes were recorded over the phone. The character of B-67 was played by an actual synthesized voice. Thanks to everyone on the team for rolling with the punches and rising to the occasion.

Featured Member

• June 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for June, 2020 is Kathleen Dawson of Gypsum, Colorado.

Kathleen says: "I first found Lovecraft at 16, while sitting on the floor in the fantasy/scifi/horror section of the used bookstore near my high school. I grabbed one of his books off the shelf thanks to the creepy but awesome illustrations on the cover. I was hooked from then (I even spent my bus money for the next two days to buy the book. Luckily, my destination was only a couple of miles.) My favorite stories are At the Mountains of Madness and any of the Randolph Carter stories.

A few years later, I found the HPLHS through random internet browsing. The Dark Adventure Radio Theatre productions have been a constant companion ever since. The Dreams in the Witch House rock opera is also a perennial favorite!

I live in Colorado with my husband, cats, and dog. Someday I hope to convince my D&D friends to let me run a CoC campaign. I'm also an avid photographer and I hope to get back to New England to shoot a number of places. I'm sending a picture of bare trees that always put me in mind of The Color Out of Space."

You can see some more of Kathleen's photos in the Member Sanctum.

Catalina Dalager

• May 18, 2020

Everyone here at headquarters extends its deepest sympathies to Mike Dalager, Shipping Shoggoth Emeritus and artist behind Dreams in the Witch House: A Lovecraftian Rock Opera, on the death of his mother, Catalina Dalager.

Mike inspired all of us with his devotion and his ability to remain positive in the face of lingering illness. Our love and respect to him and his family.

Bishop Gallery

• May 3, 2020

This week's episode of our podcast Voluminous features a letter to Zealia Bishop that appears in our very own book The Spirit of Revision.

We took advantage of the opportunity to finally flesh out the web page for that book, which features a number of color versions of illustrations that are included in the book in black-and-white, as well as some scans of some of HPL's letters themselves. Check it out!

Featured Member

• May 3, 2020

Our Member of the Month for May, 2020 is Mark Saunders of Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

Mark says: "I first discovered Lovecraft through Stephen King. My parents had an old copy of Night Shift and the first story in that collection is "Jerusalem’s Lot". After I read that story, I discovered that it was inspired by a Lovecraft story. So, I sought out this story, "Rats in the Walls", and I was hooked. From there, I read every Lovecraft story I could get my hands on until I eventually read them all.

I was turned on to the HPLHS through my love of old radio dramas. When I was kid, I’d listen to the Sherlock Holmes, Shadow and Lights Out shows. I was absolutely delighted to find that someone was making quality audio dramas based on Lovecraft stories. From there, I took a deep dive down the rabbit hole of the HPLHS and the wider Lovecraft fandom.

The HPLHS showed me that there is a much larger group of Lovecraft fans than I ever thought there could be. Last summer I attended my first NecronomiCon. I met so many great people, including Andrew, Sean and Kevin, and even participated in the live version of "Mad Science". It has been an absolutely amazing experience.

I love being a member of the HPLHS and am always excited to see a new project in the works. I am looking forward to seeing what the Society will do next."

Whisperer!

• May 1, 2020

105 years ago today, Henry Wentworth Akeley recorded strange buzzing voices in the woods near his Vermont home on a cylinder phonograph.

Today we are announcing that the next episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre will be a special adaptation of "The Whisperer in Darkness". The current pandemic situation has forced us to make some changes to the usual procedure for producing Dark Adventure, and for this special show no two members of the cast or crew were ever in the studio at the same time. The show is now available for pre-order, and we expect the download to be available within a couple of weeks!

Featured Member

• April 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for April, 2020 is Kilian Wittebolle of Gent, Belgium.

Kilian says: "I was pretty much introduced to the work of Lovecraft at the age of 7 or 8, thanks to a friend of the family who filled the “slightly crazy but lovable uncle” position. We often watched movies together, and The Evil Dead and Re-Animator quickly became some of my favorites. Responsible choices for a boy that age or not, he helped me grow a love and fascination for horror and the unknown. I've also always been an avid reader, but my first real encounter with Lovecraft's tales was when I was 18 years old, after discovering a collection of his works in the local book store. I was hooked, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” being my absolute favorite. While visiting a convention a couple of years later, a friend and I discovered something we never expected. A book titled Masks of Nyarlathotep.

Ever since, the tabletop RPG has been my prime hobby. The mysteries and investigation, submitting your players to horrible, unspeakable evils and powerful cults... But most of all I enjoy making props for my players to discover. From somewhat realistic invitations to start the adventure, to custom character sheets for every adventure, to a handmade set of A3-sized Sedefkar Scrolls that took many, many hours to plan and make. There is little that pleases me more than seeing the look on my investigators' faces when they are handed such an item.

Enclosed you will find a couple of photos. I'm usually the one taking the pictures, so I don't quite have many of myself. For your entertainment, I have also included scans of my Sedefkar Scrolls. They are completely legible once you can decipher the script. They're written in a slight variation on the “Bullskrit” script used in an Evil Dead 2 collector's edition booklet, with an error or a forgotten letter here and there. I must mention that one paragraph is a children's song in Dutch I added on a dare. It really confused the couple of players trying to translate it."

You can see more of Kilian's props in the Member Sanctum!

Ave et Vale, Stuart Gordon

• March 25, 2020

It is with heavy hearts that the team at the HPLHS mourns the passing of a titan in the Lovecraft community: Stuart Gordon. A bold creative force in the Chicago theatre community, Stuart rocked the genre film world with his iconic 1985 cult film Re-Animator. A longtime Lovecraft fan, Stuart was instrumental in bringing Lovecraft from relative obscurity into the world of popular culture, a world HPL hasn’t left since. Stuart went on to create other memorable horror films including From Beyond, Dagon, Dreams in the Witch House, and more. In more recent years he brought horror back to the stage, with his unforgettable and delightful musical adaptation of Re-Animator and his collaboration with Jeffrey Combs, Nevermore…An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe.

For us here at the HPLHS, the loss is a personal one too. Way back in 2000 or thereabouts, the HPLHS produced its mockumentary of A Shoggoth on the Roof. We wrote in parts for Stuart Gordon and Christopher Sarandon to play themselves, and reached out to them through mutual friends. Stuart warmly embraced our request and invited us to film in his office in Burbank. He was a good sport and a great improviser.

Over the years our paths have crossed countless times at events like the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival or NecronomiCon in Providence. Stuart was always considerate, warm and supportive to those of us who followed in his footsteps, trying to create entertainment from the works of H.P. Lovecraft. In fact, it was an offhand comment from Stuart on just such a panel that led us to choose “Under the Pyramids” as a title for our Dark Adventure Radio Theatre series.

Our last visit with Stuart was in August. Sculptor Bryan Moore, a longtime mutual friend, brought him by HPLHS Headquarters to say hello. It was a delightful gathering of a bunch of aging nerds, sharing our mutual appreciation for all things Lovecraft. He still had a devious twinkle in his eye. Farewell, Stuart - we thank you and we’ll miss you.

Spring

• March 23, 2020

The arrival of spring slipped under the radar this week, but it's here!

These Difficult Times

• March 24, 2020

The HPLHS was required to temporarily close the doors at headquarters as part of the state of California's response to coronavirus. But the HPLHS is much more than just our headquarters and a store selling weird stuff. We are a global fellowship - likeminded weirdos from across the globe sharing a common passion. We urge you to to meet the challenges of the times with grace and kindness. We bid all of you and yours good health. Like one of Dr. West's patients, we'll be back, livelier than ever. We are working from home on new projects that will be available via download, and all of our existing downloadable products will continue to be fulfilled as normal. Orders requiring physical shipments will be delayed for at least a little while.

Sticking Together

• March 19, 2020

We're all in this together. Please stay safe and help others stay safe. We are working on fun diversions you can enjoy in your own homes!

Featured Member

• March 3, 2020

Our Member of the Month for March, 2020 is Mark O. Martin of Tacoma, Washington.

Mark says: "I was born in Compton, California, and raised in North Long Beach. To stay away from the bullies, I spent a lot of time in libraries. My older brother Jack was my literary guide, and he adored (and adores) all things Gothic. So when I was ten years old, Jack got me reading HPL. I was really, really taken by many of HPL's tales (while ignoring the unsavory things that appeared from time to time). "At the Mountains of Madness," "The Whisperer in Darkness," and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" remain my favorites.

I was never a gamer, and was always a bit of a loner, but HPL was always with me, and took me to Bierce, Machen, and Blackwood.

So after getting my degrees from UCLA and Stanford, I became a college professor, and am an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. My wife Dr. Jennifer Quinn is quite a 3D printing fan (and a fine mathematician), so she made me a bust of HPL, and even painted HPL using the bioluminescent bacteria that I study in my laboratory. Here in town, my friends Jason and Robyn Alexander love HPL and related topics, and have made their tiki cocktail bars reflect that, with cocktails like "The Terrible Old Dram," and "The Arkham Investigator." If you are ever in Tacoma, and visit either "Devils Reef" (for "The Third Oath") or their soon to open "Gilman House," I would be happy to buy you a powerful beverage and discuss all things eldritch!"

New Garments!

• February 18, 2020

We are very happy to announce some new garment designs just released in our online store.

First up is the second in what is planned as an ongoing series of shirts that feature "book cover" designs of classic Lovecraft tales. The first was The Dunwich Horror, now out of print. Artist Darrell Tutchton has returned to illustrate a book cover for At the Mountains of Madness, modeled in the photo above by our own Kevin Stidham. We've printed a limited run of these 4-color shirts and when they're gone we don't expect to make any more. Get them while you can!

And in response to popular demand we've released some Miskatonic "spirit wear". Our new t-shirt, sweatshirt and zip-up hoodie all sport the name and graphic for the Miskatonic Myrmidons, the mascot for the M.U. athletic department. You'll find them all here!

Our thanks to photographer (and former shipping shoggoth) Jacob Lyle for taking the photos seen here and a lot of other new pix to freshen up our garment offerings, and to his very friendly models, Brandon, Ali and Kiki, and our beloved shipping shoggoth Kevin!

The Commonplace Book

• February 18, 2020

Now being printed and shipping soon is our new typographical replica of Lovecraft's Notes & Commonplace Book.

A “commonplace book” is simply a collection of memorabilia, or a kind of privately-compiled encyclopedia. Lovecraft started his in 1919 when he began to turn from writing essays to writing fiction, using a blank cash account book. For the next fifteen years he added pencilled entries to this growing list of story ideas and inspirations—some of which came directly from his dreams—along with notes about his developing theories on writing weird literature.

In 1934, Lovecraft exchanged his well-used handwritten original commonplace book for a fresh typed version by his young Floridian friend Robert H. Barlow. HPL added more handwritten notations in his new “black book” for an additional year. Lovecraft kept another handwritten black book, using a recycled calendar for 1927. In this notebook he wrote out his own plot summaries of classic works of supernatural horror fiction by Poe, Machen, Dunsany, Blackwood, M.R. James and others, along with analytic lists of weird ideas and suggestions for how to write a weird tale. Barlow also prepared a typed transcription of this material in 1934. (Lovecraft’s originals and Barlow’s transcriptions are now in the collection of the John Hay Library at Brown University.)

In his final instructions, HPL named Barlow as his literary executor. Not long after Lovecraft’s death, Barlow found himself residing with the Beck family of Lakeport, California. The Becks had a small printing business, The Futile Press, that had printed small editions of works by Clark Ashton Smith. Barlow was eager to publish an edition of Lovecraft’s work and with the Becks combined elements from both “black books” to print seventy-five numbered copies of The Notes and Commonplace Book of H.P. Lovecraft in 1938. Two copies, numbered 9 and 10, were deposited at the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington D.C. After the Futile Press edition, the Commonplace Book was not printed again until Necronomicon Press released an edition in 1978, and another in 1987 edited and extensively annotated by David E. Schultz.

Quite recently, HPLHS member Robert S. Marshall visited the Library of Congress and took photos of the two copies of the Futile Press edition deposited there. He very kindly sent those photos to the Society for the benefit of his fellow members. As the Futile and Necronomicon Press editions are now both scarce and expensive (copies of the 1938 edition can go for tens of thousands of dollars), we thought perhaps the stars were right to warrant a new edition. We have created a painstakingly detailed typographic replica of the 1938 original, augmented with never-before-published material based on the original documents. Get yours here!

Stationery Treasures

• February 3, 2020

Our deepest thanks to member Robert S. Marshall for the insanely generous donation to the society's library that arrived today.

The treasure trove included vintage books about Gregg Shorthand, native Australians, Elbert Hubbard, and Demosthenes, plus an issue of the Argosy from the 1930s and other vintage periodicals. Also vintage hotel stationery, antique office supplies including exactly the kinds of blank pocket notebooks that HPL used to use to jot notes in, a beautiful vintage wooden ruler case from the Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. of Providence, and more! All accompanied by hand-typed letters and telegrams. It will take us some time to appreciate it all.

Our New Podcast!

• October 31, 2019

At last it can be told. We are releasing the very first HPLHS podcast, Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft. Each week Sean and Andrew will be reading one of Lovecraft's many thousands of fascinating letters, and then discussing it. If all goes as planned, you should be able to find it wherever you get your podcasts. You can also go check it out here!