HPLHS - The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society

Lovecraft Illustrated Volume 10

The Mound

An interesting book with helpful essays by S.T. Joshi, Peter Cannon and Pete Von Sholly. The illustrations, however, might not work for everyone.

Overall: B B B B B
Quality: Q Q Q q Q
Value: V V v V V
The Lovecraft Library Series
The Pulps Library - PS Publishing, Hornsea, England
Published by Arrangement with, and Corrected Texts by, S. T. Joshi
Illustrated by Pete Von Sholly
Price: £20

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Review by Chris Lackey

January 5, 2017

Lovecraft Illustrated Volume 10, "The Mound": PS Publishing has produced their tenth illustrated volume of HP Lovecraft’s work, this time tackling ‘The Mound.’ I have not seen any of the other volumes, so I can’t compare this to the previous works.

This hardback volume contains a good introduction from S.T. Joshi which, I believe, can only be read in this book. It goes into Lovecraft’s ‘revision’ work and his writing "The Mound" for Zealia Bishop. The introduction mostly has information I was familiar with, but also with some tidbits that I wasn’t. I enjoy Joshi’s writing style, so found this a good read.

The book also contains a short essay by Peter Cannon and another by the artist of the book, Pete Von Sholly. My major issue with this book, however, is the illustrations. I’m a fan of fantasy artwork, and an artist myself, so I don’t usually criticize something as unique and personal as someone else’s work and style, but for me, Von Sholly’s paintings didn’t work. And for an illustrated volume of Lovecraft, I would be buying it for the artwork.

The book itself is well made and will be a welcome edition on my shelf, but I can not recommend it (unless it was to an avid collector) for the £20 price point.