Of an October evening, as I prep the house for All Hallow’s Eve—water the pumpkin patch and marinade the eyes of newts—I take great comfort in listening to those wonderfully ghoulish tales of horror as told by the likes of Vincent Price or Boris Karloff on the old gramophone. Most recently, I have been attuned to the stories of H. P. Lovecraft as narrated by Roddy McDowall.

Roddy McDowall? The child star of Lassie Come Home and My Friend Flicka? Hardly a name one would associate with the master of the unnameable H. P. Lovecraft.

In his later years, McDowall did star in some jolly decent horror movies like The Legend of Hell House and Fright Night. But in 1966 when he recorded these two readings of Lovecraft’s “The Outsider” and “The Hound,” he was still best known for films like That Darn Cat! or Lord Love a Duck or the stage musical Camelot.

Yet, McDowall is almost a perfect choice to give life to Lovecraft’s words. Though he is not sinister, his light boyish charm seems to fit with the weird and reclusive Lovecraft. His intonation causes a growing disquiet and a dreadful sense of unease. If these stories had been read by Vincent Price or Boris Karloff, we would know what to expect. With McDowall we don’t. Only the nature of the stories alerts expectation. 
 

 
Lovecraft published his eerie fiction in magazines like Weird Tales and Astounding Stories. He only had one book The Shadow Over Innsmouth published during his lifetime. He died young, at the age of 46, and it was only through the dedication of his family, friends and admirers like August Derleth that his work gained the attention and success it richly deserved.

“The Outsider” is one of Lovecraft’s best known tales. It has been adapted for radio and television and included in numerous anthologies. The story owes much to the writing of Edgar Allan Poe. Lovecraft described the story as representing his “literal though unconscious imitation of Poe at its very height.”

“The Hound” deals with ghoulish grave robbing and contains the first mention of Lovecraft’s famous fictional text the “forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred.” Though there are elements of M. R. James here, the story owes more to Huysmans’ A rebours. McDowall’s reading of this tale is particularly effective.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Boris Karloff & Roddy McDowall go batshit crazy in this wild 50s TV version of ‘Heart of Darkness’
Roddy McDowall: Hollywood Home Movies from 1965
‘Planet of the Apes’: A behind-the-scenes home movie of the 1968 classic film
Ghouls, H.P. Lovecraft & beyond the beyond: The deeply creepy creations of artist John Holmes
For H. P. Lovecraft’s birthday: Mark E. Smith reads ‘The Color Out of Space’
For your HP Lovecraft-themed Thanksgiving: The Cthurkey, octopus-stuffed turkey with crab legs
A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft action figure
I squid you not: H.P. Lovecraft inspired tentacle dildos are a thing
H.P. Lovecraft HATED T.S. Eliot
Nightmarish sculptures of H.P. Lovecraft’s terrifying cosmic entities

 
Are you a fan of H. P. Lovecraft? Or, maybe just seeking that perfect something for the Lovecraftian in your life? Then look no further than John Coulthart’s Lovecraftiana Calendar for 2016, which contains twelve sumptuous illustrations of some of Lovecraft’s best known creations.

Coulthart is an artist, designer, writer and curator of the website {feuilleton}—an essential compendium of his interests, obsessions, and passing enthusiasms. Coulthart earliest artwork was for the album Church of Hawkwind in 1982. Since then, he has created a splendid oeuvre of artwork for books, magazines, comics and albums—for the likes of Steven Severin, Cradle of Filth, Melechesh and many, many others. Coulthart illustrated the “definitive” edition of Lovecraft’s The Haunter of the Dark and Other Grotesque Visions, and was involved in creating the legendary and infamous comic Lord Horror published by Savoy Books. He also has the “dubious accolade of having an earlier Savoy title, Hard Core Horror #5, declared obscene in a British court of law.”

With the Lovecraftiana Calendar, Coulthart has brought together a selection of his mixed media illustrations of such mythical figures as Hastur,  Night Gaunt, Shoggoth, and locations such as the lost city of R’lyeh to powerful effect. And if this product twists your melon, then you can order your calendar here.
 

 

JANUARY: Necronomicon (digital, 2015)

FEBRUARY: The Yellow King (acrylics on board, 1996)

MARCH: Nyarlathotep II (digital, 2009)

 
More ‘Lovecraftiana’ after of the jump…

”They say music should be fun / like reading a story of love / but I wanna read a horror story.”

Readers, if this post seems disjointed and disordered—if I sometimes lose the eldritch thread that knits together the all-too-discrete patches of this bafflingly incoherent holiday quilt—it is because I am slowly going mad with terror as I write these words. You see, I’ve just watched Mark E. Smith read H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour out of Space,” filmed in 2007 as part of BBC Collective’s Christmas festivities. And indeed, what better way to celebrate the birth of our Lord?

If you haven’t read “The Colour out of Space,” it’s basically the same story as O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” The main difference is that, instead of the woman selling her hair for a watch chain and the man selling his watch for some combs, there’s an extraterrestrial plague that kills the livestock, blights the crops, and drives everyone mad with terror. Merry Christmas! If you think about it, Mark E. Smith is kind of like Santa Claus, too, except instead of a bottomless sack of prezzies, he carries around a ruined stomach full of bile.

MES explained how he selected this festive text at the BBC Collective site:

I’ve been a fan of HP Lovecraft since I was about 17. I chose to read this story because it’s very unusual for him; it’s not like his other tales. They are usually about people who live underground, or threats to humanity - which I like as well - but The Colour Out Of Space is quite futuristic. He wrote it in 1927, which is weird.

I’m writing my own book at the moment. It’s supposed to be my autobiography, but I’ve put a few short stories in it too. It’s out in April 2008. My stories are very much like Lovecraft’s actually. Everyone wants me to write about dark and doomy things, like my lyrics. But some of my stories are quite cheerful.

 
The latest short film from Norwegian artist Prins Preben was inspired by a quote from H. P. Lovecraft:

The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination.

Simple, hypnotic and effective—like a moving Rorschach inkblot where we can picture our own demons.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

‘Alien or Satan’: A short film by artist Prins Preben

 
A hand-molded H.P. Lovecraft action figure by Alex CF.

According to the website, it’s not available yet, but will be soon. You can contact merrylinhouse AT gmail.com for all inquires.

Via Super Punch

 
The family home featured in H. P. Lovecraft’s story “The Shunned House” is up for sale. Situated at 135 Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, this south-facing house was built circa 1764, and offers: 

Original wideboard floors, period details, 1/3 acre landscaped garden, 4 terraced areas, pergola, koi pond, 2 car garage with potting shed

All of which can be yours for $925,000, details here.

Lovecraft’s story describes the mansion house on Benefit Street, as the building where Edgar Allan Poe:

...the world’s greatest master of the terrible and the bizarre was obliged to pass a particular house on the eastern side of the street; a dingy, antiquated structure perched on the abruptly rising side hill, with a great unkempt yard dating from a time when the region was partly open country. It does not appear that he ever wrote or spoke of it, nor is there any evidence that he even noticed it. And yet that house, to the two persons in possession of certain information, equals or outranks in horror the wildest fantasy of the genius who so often passed it unknowingly, and stands starkly leering as a symbol of all that is unutterably hideous.

Interestingly, it was a house in New Jersey that inspired Lovercraft’s tale, though 135 Benefit Street does have its own strange history:

Because of its policy of religious tolerance, early Providence had no common burying ground, no single place where everyone agreed to bury their dead. So, in accordance with the practice of the day, each family had a plot on their own land which served as a family graveyard. To us, this might seem a bit ghoulish, but it was just business as usual in colonial America.

Around the time of the Revolution, Back Street was widened and straightened and renamed Benefit Street, to relieve the heavy traffic along the Towne Street (now South Main) and to be “a Benefit for All.” The remains in all those little family plots were removed to North Burial Ground, then just recently opened. Allegedly, though, some of the bodies were left behind, and still remain buried here to this day. And, according to local legend, a Huguenot couple lived, died, and was buried on the site of #135, and were among the bodies that were missed.

When Stephen Harris built this house, his family fell on hard times. Harris was a well-to-do merchant in Providence, and owned several merchant vessels; it is said that a few of those vessels were lost at sea shortly after the completion of the house. This led to other financial problems. Mrs. Harris also had a hard time—several of her children died, and others were stillborn. (I was told by the current resident, who has done her own research into the house’s history, that there was never a live birth in the house.) Probably the most (melo)dramatic part of the legend, however, is Mrs. Harris’s descent into madness, and her confinement to an upstairs room. She was occasionally heard to shriek out the window of this room, but in French—a language she didn’t know. Where could she have picked it up? Dead Huguenots, anyone?

Read H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Shunned Room” here.
 

 

 

Recently got a look at the gigantic coffee table book A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. 400 pages, 400 dollars (though discounted everywhere), and honking huge hardback containing big renditions of Lovecraft-inspired art from H. P.‘s day until now. A truly terrifying and awe-inspiring thing to behold…!

Millipede Press is pleased to announce A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. This huge tome is four hundred pages long and features the work of over forty artists, including J.K. Potter, H.R. Giger, Raymond Bayless, Ian Miller, Virgil Finlay, Lee Brown Coye, Rowena Morrill, Bob Eggleton, Allen Koszowski, Mike Mignola, Michael Whelan, John Coulthart, Harry O. Morris, John Jude Palencar, and dozens of others, as well as twenty thousand words of original essays.

This is an art book unlike anything ever published. Many works have never before seen publication, many are printed as special multi-page fold-outs, and several have detail views. A thumbnail gallery allows you an overview of the entire contents of the book and provides notations on each artist, work title, publication information, size, and location.

Because of its sheer size and scope, A Lovecraft Retrospective will never be reprinted and will sell out very quickly. Twenty years down the road, people will be paying huge prices for this book because of its range and the quality of reproductions. This is the H.P. Lovecraft fan’s dream come true.

(Link here.)