“Azathoth.”
Projected novel (480 words extant); written June 1922. First published in Leaves(1938); first collected in Marginalia;corrected text in D. The surviving text notes that “When age fell upon the world, and wonder went out of the minds of men,” a man “travelled out of life on a quest into the spaces whither the world’s dreams had fled.” The man dwelt in a city “of high walls where sterile twilight reigned,” and as a reaction from this environment he began dreaming “the dreams that men have lost.”
HPL describes the work as a “weird Vathek-like novel” ( SL1.185), referring to the Arabian novel Vathek(1786) by William Beckford, which HPL first read in July 1921. HPL perhaps means that Azathothis an attempt both to capture Vathek’sair of dreamlike fantasy and to imitate its continuous flow of narrative and absence of chapter divisions (as with The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath). As early as October 1921 he had been thinking of writing “a weird Eastern tale in the 18th century manner” (HPL to Winifred Jackson, October 7, 1921; ms., JHL). After beginning the work, HPL commented: “The rest—for which this introduction prepares the reader, will be material of the Arabian Nightstype. I shall defer to no modern critical canon, but shall frankly slip back through the centuries and become a myth-maker with that childish sincerity which no one but the earlier Dunsany has tried to achieve nowadays. I shall go out of the world when I write, with a mind centred not in literary usage, but in the dreams I dreamed when I was six years old or less—the dreams which followed my first knowledge of Sinbad,of Agib,of Baba-Abdallah,and of SidiNonman” (HPL to Frank Belknap Long, June 9, 1922; AHT).
See Will Murray, “On ‘Azathoth,’” CryptNo. 53 (Candlemas 1988): 8–9; Donald R.Burleson, “On Lovecraft’s Fragment ‘Azathoth,’” LSNos. 22/23 (Fall 1990): 10–12, 23.
< previous page page_13 next page > < previous page page_14 next page >
Page 14
B
Babson, Eunice.
In “The Thing on the Doorstep,” a servant of Edward and Asenath Derby who, after being dismissed by Edward, appears to exact some kind of blackmail from him.
Baird, Edwin (1886–1957).
First editor of WT(March 1923–April 1924). Baird was a writer for the popular magazines during the early decades of the century (HPL presumably read some of his stories in the Munsey magazines). Owner J.C.Henneberger picked Baird to edit WT,even though he seemed to have no particular expertise in weird fiction. Baird accepted five of HPL’s stories when they were submitted in May 1923 (see SL1.227) but insisted that HPL resubmit them double-spaced; HPL grudgingly did so. Although ousted as editor of WT,Baird continued to edit Henneberger’s Detective Talesand in that capacity rejected, in July 1925, HPL’s “The Shunned House.”
Balbutius, Cn[aeus].
In “The Very Old Folk,” the legatus of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior (Spain), who does not wish to investigate reports of peculiar events in the hills above Tarraco but is ordered to do so by the proconsul, P.Scribonius Libo.
Baldwin, F[ranklin] Lee (1913–1987).
Weird fiction fan and correspondent of HPL (1933–36). Baldwin first wrote HPL in the fall of 1933 proposing to issue “The Colour out of Space” as a booklet. HPL revised the tale slightly for the prospective publication, but the plan never materialized. In early 1934 HPL put Baldwin in touch with Duane W.Rimel, who by coincidence lived in the same small town (Asotin, Washington). The two took turns reading HPL’s letters to each of them. Baldwin wrote two columns of news notes for the Fantasy Fan:“Side Glances” (April, May, September 1934) and “Within the Circle” (June, July, August, October, November 1934, January, February 1935), much of the informa
< previous page page_14 next page > < previous page page_15 next page >
Page 15
tion for which was derived from HPL’s letters to him, as was the significant early article, “H.P.Lovecraft: A Biographical Sketch,” originally scheduled to appear in the Fantasy Fanbut, following that magazine’s demise, published in Fantasy Magazine(April 1935). Baldwin later revised the article as “Some Lovecraft Sidelights” ( Fantasy Commentator,Spring 1948). Excerpts of one letter (now at JHL) were published as “Lovecraft as an Illustrator” ( Acolyte,Summer 1943). See Kenneth W.Faig, Jr., ed., Within the Circle: In Memoriam F.Lee Baldwin(Moshassuck Press, 1988).
“Ballade of Patrick von Flynn; or, The Hibernio-German-American England-Hater, Ye.” Poem (60 lines); written no later than April 23, 1915. First published in the Conservative(April 1916). A crude satire in which a group of anti-English Irishmen meet with some Germans, begin drinking, and threaten to join forces to slander England. HPL tactlessly sent the poem to the Irish-American John T.Dunn, whose reaction can be gauged by HPL’s comment: “I…am scarcely surprised that the ‘von Flynn’ ballad proved less than pleasing” (HPL to John T.Dunn, June 28, 1916; Books at Brown 38–39 [1991–92]:182). The poem is oddly prescient, as it was published at the very time of the Easter Rebellion in Dublin, when some Irish rebels joined forces with the Germans to overthrow British rule in Ireland. HPL continued to rant about the menace of unpatriotic Irish-Americans in “Lucubrations Lovecraftian” (1921).
Barlow, Robert H[ayward] (1918–1951).
Short-story writer, poet, artist, sculptor, publisher, collector, scholar, and HPL’s literary executor. When Barlow began corresponding with HPL in 1931, he concealed from HPL the fact that he was only thirteen. Among his early fantasy writings are “Annals of the Jinns” ( Fantasy Fan,October 1933–February 1935), “The Slaying of the Monster” (1933), and “The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast” (1933); the first were gathered as Annals of the Jinns(Necronomicon Press, 1978); the latter two (revised by HPL) as The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast and One Other(Necronomicon Press, 1994). Other tales appeared in various magazines of the NAPA, which Barlow joined at HPL’s suggestion; “Eyes of the God” ( Sea Gull,May 1933) won the story laureateship for that year. Barlow attempted to bind and distribute HPL’s The Shunned House(1928), but bound only a few copies (HPL’s was in leather). He invited HPL to visit him at his home in De Land, Fla., in the summer of 1934, and HPL stayed from May 2 to June 21. At that time the two wrote the spoof “The Battle That Ended the Century” and two poems under the general title “Bouts Rimés,” and HPL drew his celebrated portrait of Cthulhu. HPL revised Barlow’s “‘Till A’ the Seas’” ( Californian,1935) in January 1935, when Barlow was visiting colleagues in New York. Barlow again invited HPL to Florida in the summer of 1935, and HPL remained from June 9 to August 18. At that time they wrote an unfinished parody, “Collapsing Cosmoses,” and set type for Frank Belknap Long’s poetry collection, The Goblin Tower,which Barlow issued from his Dragon-Fly Press. Barlow also typed HPL’s “The Shadow out of Time.” He wrote a superb HPL-influenced tale, “A Dim-Remembered Story” ( Californian,Summer 1936; rpt. Necronomicon Press, 1980), apparently without HPL’s assistance. He visited HPL in Providence in the summer