695.9 Plattsburg] A training camp for army officers was established at Plattsburg, New York, during World War I.
716.19 lich] Corpse.
724.28–29 Comte d’Erlette’s . . . Mysteriis] Robert Bloch (1917–1994) invented Cultes des Goules in his story “The Grinning Ghoul,” and attributed it to the Comte d’Erlette, a name Lovecraft used to refer to August Derleth in his correspondence. Bloch invented Ludvig Prinn in “The Secret in the Tomb,” in which he gave the title of Prinn’s book as Mysteries of the Worm; Lovecraft then devised a Latin version of the title.
732.33–34 lepidodendra, and sigillaria] Lepidodendron and sigillaria were two genera of giant club moss trees that flourished during the Carboniferous period, 360 to 286 million years ago. They grew to over 100 feet in height.
745.18 Tcho-Tchos] A cannibalistic race in the story “The Lair of the Star-Spawn” by August Derleth and Mark Schorer (1908–1977).
745.24 empire of Tsan-Chan] Lovecraft had previously mentioned the empire of Tsan-Chan in his story “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” (1919).
745.28–29 Lomar . . . Inutos] Lomar and the Inutos appeared in Lovecraft’s story “Polaris” (1918).
745.33 the 14th Dynasty] The dynasty ruled part of the Nile Delta during the 17th century B.C.
745.39 archimage] A great magician.
746.2–3 Cimmerian] Cimmeria is the homeland of the warrior chieftain Conan in a series of stories by Robert E. Howard.
747.34–35 rhamphorhynci] Rhamphorhyncus was a genus of Jurassic flying reptiles.
751.15 Eltdown Shards as Yith] The Eltdown Shards were invented by Richard F. Searight (1902–1975) in his story “The Sealed Casket” (1934). Lovecraft suggested the name “Yith” to Duane Rimel for use in his poem cycle “Dreams of Yith” (1934).
755.36 Warburton’s path of 1873] Colonel Peter Egerton Warburton (1813–1889) left Alice Springs in central Australia with six men and 17 camels on April 15, 1873. The expedition reached the Oakover River on December 5 and later made its way down the river to the northwestern coast.
784.2 (Dedicated to Robert Bloch)] Lovecraft and Bloch began corresponding in 1933, and Bloch dedicated his story “The Shambler from the Stars,” published in Weird Tales in September 1935, to Lovecraft. The narrator of the story, a writer of weird fiction, obtains a copy of De Vermis Mysteriis (see note 724.28–29) and then travels to Providence to enlist the help of an unnamed older colleague, “a writer of notable brilliance and wide reputation among the discriminating few” with “long years of occult experience,” in translating the Latin text. Despite initial misgivings, the older writer invokes a spell from the book for summoning “unseen servitors from beyond the stars,” and is killed by an entity that drains his body of blood before disappearing.
784.7 Nemesis.] A poem written by Lovecraft in 1917.
792.18 Liber Ivonis] Lovecraft’s Latin title for the Book of Eibon; see note 655.11–12.
792.22 Book of Dzyan] A purported ancient book that the theosophist Madame Blavatsky claimed to have studied in Tibet.
797.38 Aklo] See note 399.22.
798.19 Khem . . . Nephren-Ka] Khem is the name of an Egyptian god, and also a name for Egypt. The pharaoh Nephren-Ka was invented by Lovecraft.
806.31 Yaddith] A planet first mentioned by Lovecraft in his sonnet cycle “Fungi from Yuggoth” (1929–30).
807.8–9 620 East Knapp Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin] Robert Bloch’s address in 1935.
THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA SERIES
THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA, a nonprofit publisher, is dedicated to publishing, and keeping in print, authoritative editions of America’s best and most significant writing. Each year the Library adds new volumes to its collection of essential works by America’s foremost novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and statesmen.
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1. Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi
2. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches
3. Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose
4. Harriet Beecher Stowe: Three Novels
5. Mark Twain: Mississippi Writings
6. Jack London: Novels and Stories
7. Jack London: Novels and Social Writings
8. William Dean Howells: Novels 1875–1886
9. Herman Melville: Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick
10. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels
11. Francis Parkman: France and England in North America, vol. I
12. Francis Parkman: France and England in North America, vol. II
13. Henry James: Novels 1871–1880
14. Henry Adams: Novels, Mont Saint Michel, The Education
15. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures
16. Washington Irving: History, Tales and Sketches
17. Thomas Jefferson: Writings
18. Stephen Crane: Prose and Poetry
19. Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales
20. Edgar Allan Poe: Essays and Reviews
21. Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It
22. Henry James: Literary Criticism: Essays, American & English Writers
23. Henry James: Literary Criticism: European Writers & The Prefaces
24. Herman Melville: Pierre, Israel Potter, The Confidence-Man, Tales & Billy Budd
25. William Faulkner: Novels 1930–1935
26. James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales, vol. I
27. James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales, vol. II
28. Henry David Thoreau: A Week, Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod
29. Henry James: Novels 1881–1886
30. Edith Wharton: Novels
31. Henry Adams: History of the U.S. during the Administrations of Jefferson
32. Henry Adams: History of the U.S. during the Administrations of Madison
33. Frank Norris: Novels and Essays
34. W.E.B. Du Bois: Writings
35. Willa Cather: Early Novels and Stories
36. Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men
37a. Benjamin Franklin: Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body, & Early Writings
37b. Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard, & Later Writings
38. William James: Writings 1902–1910
39. Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works
40. Eugene O’Neill: Complete Plays 1913–1920
41. Eugene O’Neill: Complete Plays 1920–1931
42. Eugene O’Neill: Complete Plays 1932–1943
43. Henry James: Novels 1886–1890
44. William Dean Howells: Novels 1886–1888
45. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832–1858
46. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859–1865
47. Edith Wharton: Novellas and Other Writings
48. William Faulkner: Novels 1936–1940
49. Willa Cather: Later Novels
50. Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs and Selected Letters
51. William Tecumseh Sherman: Memoirs
52. Washington Irving: Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra
53. Francis Parkman: The Oregon Trail, The Conspiracy of Pontiac
54. James Fenimore Cooper: Sea Tales: The Pilot, The Red Rover
55. Richard Wright: Early Works
56. Richard Wright: Later Works
57. Willa Cather: Stories, Poems, and Other Writings
58. William James: Writings 1878–1899
59. Sinclair Lewis: Main Street & Babbitt
60. Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays 1852–1890
61. Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays
1891–1910
62. The Debate on the Constitution: Part One
63. The Debate on the Constitution: Part Two
64. Henry James: Collected Travel Writings: Great Britain & America
65. Henry James: Collected Travel Writings: The Continent
66. American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 1
67. American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 2
68. Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies
69. Sarah Orne Jewett: Novels and Stories
70. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Collected Poems and Translations
71. Mark Twain: Historical Romances
72. John Steinbeck: Novels and Stories 1932–1937
73. William Faulkner: Novels 1942–1954
74. Zora Neale Hurston: Novels and Stories
75. Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings
76. Thomas Paine: Collected Writings
77. Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1938–1944
78. Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1944–1946
79. Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels
80. Raymond Chandler: Later Novels and Other Writings
81. Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays
82. Henry James: Complete Stories 1892–1898
83. Henry James: Complete Stories 1898–1910
84. William Bartram: Travels and Other Writings
85. John Dos Passos: U.S.A.
86. John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings 1936–1941
87. Vladimir Nabokov: Novels and Memoirs 1941–1951
88. Vladimir Nabokov: Novels 1955–1962
89. Vladimir Nabokov: Novels 1969–1974
90. James Thurber: Writings and Drawings
91. George Washington: Writings
92. John Muir: Nature Writings
93. Nathanael West: Novels and Other Writings
94. Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s
95. Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s
96. Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose
97. James Baldwin: Early Novels and Stories
98. James Baldwin: Collected Essays
99. Gertrude Stein: Writings 1903–1932
100. Gertrude Stein: Writings 1932–1946
101. Eudora Welty: Complete Novels
102. Eudora Welty: Stories, Essays, & Memoir
103. Charles Brockden Brown: Three Gothic Novels
104. Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959–1969
105. Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1969–1975
106. Henry James: Complete Stories 1874–1884
107. Henry James: Complete Stories 1884–1891
108. American Sermons: The Pilgrims to Martin Luther King Jr.
109. James Madison: Writings
110. Dashiell Hammett: Complete Novels
111. Henry James: Complete Stories 1864–1874
112. William Faulkner: Novels 1957–1962
113. John James Audubon: Writings & Drawings
114. Slave Narratives
115. American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Vol. 1
116. American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Vol. 2
117. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories 1920–1922
118. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings
119. Tennessee Williams: Plays 1937–1955
120. Tennessee Williams: Plays 1957–1980
121. Edith Wharton: Collected Stories 1891–1910
122. Edith Wharton: Collected Stories 1911–1937
123. The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence
124. Henry David Thoreau: Collected Essays and Poems
125. Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories and Other Writings
126. Dawn Powell: Novels 1930–1942
127. Dawn Powell: Novels 1944–1962
128. Carson McCullers: Complete Novels
129. Alexander Hamilton: Writings
130. Mark Twain: The Gilded Age and Later Novels
131. Charles W. Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays
132. John Steinbeck: Novels 1942–1952
133. Sinclair Lewis: Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth
134. Paul Bowles: The Sheltering Sky, Let It Come Down, The Spider’s House
135. Paul Bowles: Collected Stories & Later Writings
136. Kate Chopin: Complete Novels & Stories
137. Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1941–1963
138. Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1963–1973
139. Henry James: Novels 1896–1899
140. Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy
141. Saul Bellow: Novels 1944–1953
142. John Dos Passos: Novels 1920–1925
143. John Dos Passos: Travel Books and Other Writings
144. Ezra Pound: Poems and Translations
145. James Weldon Johnson: Writings
146. Washington Irving: Three Western Narratives
147. Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America
148. James T. Farrell: Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy
149. Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories I
150. Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories II
151. Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories III
152. Kaufman & Co.: Broadway Comedies
153. Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Riders, An Autobiography
154. Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches
155. H. P. Lovecraft: Tales
156. Louisa May Alcott: Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys
157. Philip Roth: Novels & Stories 1959–1962
158. Philip Roth: Novels 1967–1972
159. James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, A Death in the Family
160. James Agee: Film Writing & Selected Journalism
161. Richard Henry Dana, Jr.: Two Years Before the Mast & Other Voyages
162. Henry James: Novels 1901–1902
163. Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1944–1961
164. William Faulkner: Novels 1926–1929
165. Philip Roth: Novels 1973–1977
166. American Speeches: Part One
167. American Speeches: Part Two
168. Hart Crane: Complete Poems & Selected Letters
169. Saul Bellow: Novels 1956–1964
170. John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley and Later Novels
171. Capt. John Smith: Writings with Other Narratives
172. Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater
173. Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s
174. Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957–1960
175. Philip Roth: Zuckerman Bound
176. Edmund Wilson: Literary Essays & Reviews of the 1920s & 30s
177. Edmund Wilson: Literary Essays & Reviews of the 1930s & 40s
178. American Poetry: The Seventeenth & Eighteenth Centuries
179. William Maxwell: Early Novels & Stories
180. Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose, & Letters
181. A. J. Liebling: World War II Writings
182. American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau
183. Philip K. Dick: Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s
184. William Maxwell: Later Novels & Stories
185. Philip Roth: Novels & Other Narratives 1986–1991
186. Katherine Anne Porter: Collected Stories & Other Writings
187. John Ashbery: Collected Poems 1956–1987
188. John Cheever: Collected Stories & Other Writings
189. John Cheever: Complete Novels
190. Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings
191. A. J. Liebling: The Sweet Science & Other Writings
192s. The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now
193. Philip K. Dick: VALIS & Later Novels
194. Thornton Wilder: The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Other Novels 1926–1948
195. Raymond Carver: C
ollected Stories
196. American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps
197. American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now
198. John Marshall: Writings
199. The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works
200. Mark Twain: A Tramp Abroad, Following the Equator, Other Travels
201. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Journals 1820–1842
202. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Journals 1841–1877
203. The American Stage: Writing on Theater from Washington Irving to Tony Kushner
204. Shirley Jackson: Novels & Stories
205. Philip Roth: Novels 1993–1995
206. H. L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series
207. H. L. Mencken: Prejudices: Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Series
208. John Kenneth Galbraith: The Affluent Society and Other Writings 1952–1967
209. Saul Bellow: Novels 1970–1982
210. Lynd Ward: Gods’ Man, Madman’s Drum, Wild Pilgrimage
211. Lynd Ward: Prelude to a Million Years, Song Without Words, Vertigo
212. The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It
213. John Adams: Revolutionary Writings 1755–1775
214. John Adams: Revolutionary Writings 1775–1783
215. Henry James: Novels 1903–1911
216. Kurt Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963–1973
217. Harlem Renaissance: Five Novels of the 1920s
218. Harlem Renaissance: Four Novels of the 1930s
219. Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Dictionary, Tales, & Memoirs
220. Philip Roth: The American Trilogy 1997–2000
221. The Civil War: The Second Year Told by Those Who Lived It
222. Barbara W. Tuchman: The Guns of August & The Proud Tower
223. Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1964–1982
224. Thornton Wilder: The Eighth Day, Theophilus North, Autobiographical Writings
225. David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s & 50s
226. Kurt Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1950–1962
227. American Science Fiction: Four Classsic Novels 1953–1956
228. American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956–1958
229. Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books, Volume One
230. Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books, Volume Two
231. Jack Kerouac: Collected Poems
232. The War of 1812: Writings from America’s Second War of Independence
233. American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation