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I Am Providence: The H.P. Lovecraft Thread
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And here we have the October 1937 Weird Tales, with the first publication... but not the first printing... of "The Shunned House".  The story was actually printed in a very limited edition almost a decade earlier, but other than a very few copies that went to the people creating it, it was not actually distributed at that time.  Eventually Arkham House wound up getting the unbound pages and releasing them several years later.

Weird_Tales_1937_10.jpg

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On 5/3/2021 at 12:05 PM, OtherEric said:

June 1936 Astounding, with the first publication of "The Shadow Out of Time".  This is the first Lovecraft pulp I ever owned, my favorite Lovecraft story, and possibly my all-time favorite pulp cover, to the point where I had it made into a t-shirt.  What's not to love about a cover that features Lovecraftian monstrosities who are also librarians?

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I don't know why "The Shadow Out of Time" is not rated as highly as "The Call of Cthulhu." I think it's superior to the latter.

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4 minutes ago, Sarg said:

 

I don't know why "The Shadow Out of Time" is not rated as highly as "The Call of Cthulhu." I think it's superior to the latter.

I'm guessing it's because Cthulhu is just a mind-blowingly great image.  And Call has one of the all-time classic opening lines to any story, not just Lovecraft.

Otherwise, I'm not sure.  Shadow Out of Time seems to be very much a love it or hate it story, the love it crowd is definitely the larger group... but the people who don't like it REALLY don't like it.

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February 1938 Weird Tales.  Under the stunning Finlay cover are two Lovecraft stories.  The first is the revision of "The Diary of Alonzo Typer" for William Lumley.  Other than a few poems in The Fantasy Fan, I believe this is his only published credit, at least in the SF/ fantasy realm.

Speaking of The Fantasy Fan, this issue also has the first professional publication of a story that first appeared over there, "From Beyond". 

While I don't have a lot of the issues, Weird Tales was really going all-in on Lovecraft after his passing.  From July 1937 to December 1939, there are only two issues without something by Lovecraft; although in many cases they were reprints or poems.

Weird_Tales_1938_02.jpg

Edited by OtherEric
forgot the scan
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November 1938 Weird Tales, with "The Nameless City".  First professional publication of the story I'm aware of, although it had appeared twice before in an amateur magazine and a fanzine.  I'm somewhat surprised it took this long to get a mass market release, as it's a fairly key story in terms of introducing Mythos concepts.

Even by my low standards, I would like to upgrade this one... it's been trimmed pretty drastically.  Was still super happy to get it when I did, it was one of my earliest pulps with Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (who has a poem in the issue.)

Weird_Tales_1938_11.jpg

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On 5/13/2021 at 6:24 PM, OtherEric said:

The September 1938 issue of Weird Tales.  Has a poem by Lovecraft, "The Wood"

 

Weird_Tales_1938_09.jpg

Always had a soft spot for this cover. When I obtained my first copy, a ratty one, many years ago, I thought someone had used pencils on it, until I realized it was a noose, and suddenly the cover made sense!

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On 5/17/2021 at 9:50 AM, OtherEric said:

The February 1939 Weird Tales has two of the "Fungi from Yuggoth" sonnets: The Lamp and Zaman's Hill.  This one also has the poem "The King and the Oak" with Kull by Howard, so arguably the most famous items from this issue are all poems.

Weird_Tales_1939_02.jpg

The cover story by Bloch is great too, but then I’m a sucker for elephant horror!

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April 1939 Weird Tales.  Two Lovecraft stories in this one, a reprint of "The Curse of Yig" with Zealia Bishop, and the first publication of "The Wicked Clergyman", more commonly published as "The Evil Clergyman."  It's one of the most minor Lovecraft stories, but it still blew my mind when I found a copy of the issue for $5 a few years ago.  One of the most dramatic demonstrations of how pulp values and comic values are totally different I've ever seen.

Weird_Tales_1939_04.jpg

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Weird Tales for June-July 1939.  A triple dose of Lovecraft in this one, it has "The Howler", one of the Fungi From Yuggoth sonnets.  It has the first professional publication of Celephaïs, which first appeared in the fanzine "The Rainbow" in 1922 and the semi-prozine "Marvel Tales" in 1934.  And it has a reprint of "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs", which is still officially credited to Houdini but has an introduction explaining that the actual writing was by Lovecraft.  I think this is the only time Weird Tales printed two Lovecraft stories in the same issue where they acknowledged his authorship on both of them.

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October 1939 Weird Tales, with the first publication of "In the Walls of Eryx".  The story was originally written by Kenneth Sterling, who sent a copy to Lovecraft to read and got back a nearly completely rewritten story.  Sterling went on to become a medical researcher; his Wikipedia page is actually more about his medical career than his writing.

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November 1940 Weird Tales, with "The Mound", a revision by Lovecraft for Zealia Bishop.  I don't suppose anybody knows how well known it was that Lovecraft did revisions at this point?  I suspect the idea was at least somewhat out there after Weird Tales admitted Lovecraft actually wrote the story for Houdini and he had a shared credit with Kenneth Sterling, but I don't know if anybody connected Bishop with Lovecraft until "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" came out in 1943.

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May 1941 Weird Tales, with part 1 of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward".  I'm always amazed they didn't have the cover reflect the story, given how large they printed Lovecraft's name.  My copy of the issue is from Leigh Brackett & Edmond Hamilton's collection.  It also wasn't the last of the Lovecrafts, despite what the cover says... although it is the last new Lovecraft story to first appear in Weird Tales, unless you count "The Survivor" with Derleth, which most people don't.

Weird_Tales_1941_05.jpg

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