In addition to his classics of horror fiction, it is estimated that Lovecraft wrote 100,000 letters — or roughly 15 every day of his adult life — ranging from one-page diaries to seventy-page diatribes. Perhaps 20,000 of those letters have survived, in the hands of private collectors and at the John Hay Library in Providence.
In each episode of this podcast, we'll read one of these letters (or part of it) and then discuss it. In his letters HPL reveals an amazing breadth of knowledge of philosophy, science, history, literature, art and many other subjects, and forcefully asserts some highly considered opinions (some of which can be upsetting).
And of course his letters offer a fascinating window into his personal life and times. Although we've been working with Lovecraftian material for over 30 years, we still find interesting new things in his letters, and while we don't claim to be experts we look forward to sharing them with a wider audience.
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RSS Feed- Episode 23
- Posted March 29, 2020
Pornography!
In which Lovecraft opines to his young friend Frank Belknap Long about the perils of pornography and includes a ribald cautionary poem in an 18th century style to drive the point home. Yes, this episode is safe for work.
Music by Troy Sterling Nies. Our thanks to Arkham House for their Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft.
Our thanks to John Locke, author of The Thing's Incredible! for his history of the early years of Weird Tales.
HPL may not have cared for pornography, but Anthony Comstock really hated it....
