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Reader and Collector, v. 3, issue 6, January 1946
Page 21
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21. in their stories. In America, however, there has been an interesting merging of the tales into a form which almost makes a consistent mythology. The development of this form was inspired in great part by Howard P. Lovecraft and his United Amateur Press Association. The Association in the early 1920's brought together most of America's fantastic writers, and their practice of exchanging and judging each other's works led to a unified subject matter. Among the motives and the influences behind this work were both the occult and the scientific. Lovecraft in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature," writes: For those who relish speculation regarding the future, the tale of the supernatural horror provides an interesting field. Combated by a mounting wave of plodding realism, cynical flippancy, and sophisticated disillusionment, it is yet encouraged by a parallel tide of growing mysticism, as developed both through the fatigued reaction of "occultists" the stimulation of wonder and fancy by such enlarged vistas and broken barriers as modern science has given us with its intra-atomic chemistry, advancing astro-physics, doctrines of relativity, and probings into biology and human thought. At the present moment the favoring forces would appear to have somewhat of an advantage; since there is unquestionably the best of Arthur Machen's work fell on the stony ground of the smart and cocksure nineties. Ambrose Bierce, almost unknown in his own time, has now reached something like general recognition.1 Both Machen and Bierce added their ideas to the mythology of Lovecraft, who is considered a master of the field by the modern readers of fantastic pulp magazines. Lovecraft serves well as an example of the whole group. The story of his life shows clearly the type of questionings which were aroused in the "sensitive" men after the Victorian breakdown. The development of his style and mythos is parallel to that of the whole American group, both because of like external influence, and because of his influence on them through the Association. August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, fantastic writers of Lovecraft's group, have taken the job of properly presenting Lovecraft to the world. Most of his work had been originally published in Weird Tales, from 1923 until his death in 1938. Derleth and Wandrei have had his poems, stories and notes, as well as the __________________ 1. The Outsider and Others, p. 553.
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21. in their stories. In America, however, there has been an interesting merging of the tales into a form which almost makes a consistent mythology. The development of this form was inspired in great part by Howard P. Lovecraft and his United Amateur Press Association. The Association in the early 1920's brought together most of America's fantastic writers, and their practice of exchanging and judging each other's works led to a unified subject matter. Among the motives and the influences behind this work were both the occult and the scientific. Lovecraft in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature," writes: For those who relish speculation regarding the future, the tale of the supernatural horror provides an interesting field. Combated by a mounting wave of plodding realism, cynical flippancy, and sophisticated disillusionment, it is yet encouraged by a parallel tide of growing mysticism, as developed both through the fatigued reaction of "occultists" the stimulation of wonder and fancy by such enlarged vistas and broken barriers as modern science has given us with its intra-atomic chemistry, advancing astro-physics, doctrines of relativity, and probings into biology and human thought. At the present moment the favoring forces would appear to have somewhat of an advantage; since there is unquestionably the best of Arthur Machen's work fell on the stony ground of the smart and cocksure nineties. Ambrose Bierce, almost unknown in his own time, has now reached something like general recognition.1 Both Machen and Bierce added their ideas to the mythology of Lovecraft, who is considered a master of the field by the modern readers of fantastic pulp magazines. Lovecraft serves well as an example of the whole group. The story of his life shows clearly the type of questionings which were aroused in the "sensitive" men after the Victorian breakdown. The development of his style and mythos is parallel to that of the whole American group, both because of like external influence, and because of his influence on them through the Association. August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, fantastic writers of Lovecraft's group, have taken the job of properly presenting Lovecraft to the world. Most of his work had been originally published in Weird Tales, from 1923 until his death in 1938. Derleth and Wandrei have had his poems, stories and notes, as well as the __________________ 1. The Outsider and Others, p. 553.
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