I Am Providence: The H.P. Lovecraft Thread 3 3

[OtherEric]

Avon Fantasy Reader #14, from November 1950.  This issue reprints "The Curse of Yig", the revision for Zealia Bishop.  The story got reprinted a LOT, with the ISFDB showing 10 publications just through 1960. 

[OtherEric]

Fantastic Novels from January 1941, with a reprint of "The Cats Of Ulthar".  Included are the Bok illustrations for the story.

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/18/2021 at 1:37 PM, OtherEric said:

Glad you're enjoying them!  Sadly, I've only got a couple weeks more worth of books to do. 

Today I'm backtracking, this one really should have been between the second and third issues of The Arkham Sampler.  But I didn't get the book until last night.

Avon Fantasy Reader 6, from May 1948, with a reprint of "Beyond the Wall of Sleep".  ISFDB doesn't have a credit for the cover, anybody know who it might be?

One of my favorite Fantasy Reader covers with a nude Mrs. Brubaker melting away into a Blob-like existence. The artist is uncredited anywhere but the scared dude in the left corner is a swipe from the April 15, 1940 Shadow pulp cover (not my copy) which makes this at least the 2nd Fantasy Reader that's a swipe (#2 is swiped from multiple sources) There's some similarity in the shading and line work to The Lurking Fear Avon #136 paperback which is an A.R. Tilburne swipe of a Weird Tales cover by Finlay. Based on these and Tilburne's own Weird Tales covers, I wouldn't be surprised if Fantasy Reader 2-6 are all by him, maybe with some other swiping activity going on

 

 

[OtherEric]

March 1951 Famous Fantastic Mysteries, with a reprint of "The Music of Erich Zann".  They were playing with an odd format at this time, slightly larger than a digest but smaller than a pulp, with no illustrations.  The pulps were, in retrospect, starting to be on their way out around this time, although they hung around a few more years.

[Surfing Alien]

8 hours ago, OtherEric said:

March 1951 Famous Fantastic Mysteries, with a reprint of "The Music of Erich Zann".  They were playing with an odd format at this time, slightly larger than a digest but smaller than a pulp, with no illustrations.  The pulps were, in retrospect, starting to be on their way out around this time, although they hung around a few more years.

You wouldn't expect Lovecraft in this if you were looking at it on the newsstand! She looks like a Jon Whitcomb glamour girl from the slick magazines but she's sporting a spectacular pair straight off of an early 50's sleaze digest  None of which seems to have anything to do with the dude menacing her with the spear

[OtherEric]

November 1951 Weird Tales, with a reprint of "Dagon".

[OtherEric]

Avon Fantasy Reader 17 from November 1951, with a reprint of "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", co-written with E. Hoffmann Price:

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

27 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

Avon Fantasy Reader 17 from November 1951, with a reprint of "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", co-written with E. Hoffmann Price:

Interesting there were two sources of Lovecraft on the stands this month!

[OtherEric]

December 1951 Famous Fantastic Mysteries, with a reprint of "The Outsider" featuring a very nice Bok illustration:

[FoggyNelson]

Nice meditation cover above ‼️‼️ Don’t see those to often👍‼️

[OtherEric]

Avon Science Fiction Reader 3 from January 1952, with a reprint of "In the Walls of Eryx" by Lovecraft and Kenneth Sterling.  This is the last issue of the title.

[FoggyNelson]

Funny looking robot above but fine looking lady ❤️❤️👍‼️😷

[OtherEric]

Avon Fantasy Reader 18 from March 1952, which reprints "Out of the Eons", a reprint of a revision Lovecraft did for Hazel Heald.  This is the last issue of the title, it also features a new story from Robert E. Howard.

[OtherEric]

And now for one I debated including... July 1954 Weird Tales, with the "Posthumous Collaboration" with August Derleth, "The Survivor".  I ultimately decided to post this one for a few reasons.  The Derleth stories like this deserve at least a mention in any look at Lovecraft's work, even if only to reject them.  It's the last time Lovecraft showed up in the original run of Weird Tales, the next to last issue of the series.  And from what I've been able to find out, this one is actually slightly more deserving of the collaboration label than most of the others, being based on an outline and notes left by Lovecraft rather than just Derleth throwing a paragraph or two from one of Lovecraft's letters into an otherwise completely original story.

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

2 hours ago, OtherEric said:

And now for one I debated including... July 1954 Weird Tales, with the "Posthumous Collaboration" with August Derleth, "The Survivor".  I ultimately decided to post this one for a few reasons.  The Derleth stories like this deserve at least a mention in any look at Lovecraft's work, even if only to reject them.  It's the last time Lovecraft showed up in the original run of Weird Tales, the next to last issue of the series.  And from what I've been able to find out, this one is actually slightly more deserving of the collaboration label than most of the others, being based on an outline and notes left by Lovecraft rather than just Derleth throwing a paragraph or two from one of Lovecraft's letters into an otherwise completely original story.

I like that they kept their classic logo until the end!

[FoggyNelson]

6 hours ago, OtherEric said:

And now for one I debated including... July 1954 Weird Tales, with the "Posthumous Collaboration" with August Derleth, "The Survivor".  I ultimately decided to post this one for a few reasons.  The Derleth stories like this deserve at least a mention in any look at Lovecraft's work, even if only to reject them.  It's the last time Lovecraft showed up in the original run of Weird Tales, the next to last issue of the series.  And from what I've been able to find out, this one is actually slightly more deserving of the collaboration label than most of the others, being based on an outline and notes left by Lovecraft rather than just Derleth throwing a paragraph or two from one of Lovecraft's letters into an otherwise completely original story.

Great cover ‼️Mean looking dog-Wolf 😰😰

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/24/2021 at 12:54 PM, OtherEric said:

Avon Fantasy Reader 17 from November 1951, with a reprint of "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", co-written with E. Hoffmann Price:

Harry Barton cover on this one, one of the few sci-fi fantasy that he did.

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/26/2021 at 12:52 PM, OtherEric said:

Avon Science Fiction Reader 3 from January 1952, with a reprint of "In the Walls of Eryx" by Lovecraft and Kenneth Sterling.  This is the last issue of the title.

Earle K. Bergey cover on this one

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/25/2021 at 12:40 PM, OtherEric said:

December 1951 Famous Fantastic Mysteries, with a reprint of "The Outsider" featuring a very nice Bok illustration:

This Bok illo was used by Eric Kramer for his logo for Fantasy Archives on 8th Avenue in New York back in the 1980's. I worked for him one summer there. It was a bit creepy but he had a huge loft space, filled floor to ceiling with 1st edition Sci Fi and Fantasy books, pulps, fanzines, everything. He had literally everything, in multiple copies, including all the tough Arkhams and Weird Tales, letters from Lovecraft and many others. He was always bragging about the things he had that Currey didn't. I'll never forget (and sometimes use) the saying he would tell people who tried to bargain him down from his high prices on very rare items... "How many copies do you have to sell me?"

[Surfing Alien]

Quite stoked to get this killer copy of the Avon #136 with cover by Tilburne that I mentioned above in the Fantasy Reader #6 post. I posted it in the paperback thread but, well, yeah, I figure it's cool to post it here as well. Compare how he shades the beard and fingers of this ghoul with the mans hair and fingers and the melting flesh of Mrs. Brubaker  and you'll see what I mean. He's a very likely candidate imho.

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