15

A Contribution by Leigh Blackmore for the Sword

& Sorcery & Weird Fiction Terminus (Oct 31, 2009/

35th mailing), & Esoteric Order of Dagon (Oct 31,

2009/ 148th mailing) amateur press associations.

Leigh Blackmore, 78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong,

NSW 2500. Australia.

Mantichore 4, No 3 (WN 15)

Email: lvxnox@gmail.com

Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Blackmore

Official Website: Blackmausoleum –

http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/

IN MEMORIAM

BEN INDICK

(1923-2009)

‘Sabbatic HPL’ by Leigh Blackmore

Contents this issue

Mantic Notes………………………………..……….…1

Books By My Bedside…………………………………5

A Few Notes on Ben Indick…………………………..6

Mantichorus: Mailing Notes………………………….7

Mantic Notes (Pronunciation:'man-

tik. Etymology:

Greek mantikos, from

mantis : of, relating to

the faculty of

divination; prophetic).

I fear this

issue may be a bit

meagre, not for

want of material

backed up in my

files, but because I’m assembling it only a

week or two before deadline. The last

three months I have been focussing on my

thesis to the exclusion of nearly all else. As

I write, it’s just a few days since I handed

it in for examination. It consists of two

parts: the critical component

(“Individuation, ‘Mytho-realism’ and

Surrealistic Traces in Terry Dowling’s Tom

Rynosseros Cycle”) and the creative

component (a 35,000 word novella called

‘Ghosts in the House of Life”). It seems the

critical piece may find a home next year in

S.T. Joshi’s new journal from

Hippocampus Press, Weird Fiction Annual.

I will be seeking a home in print for the

novella as well but haven’t yet decided

where to send it; in any case, I intend

developing it into a full-length novel.

My reading has been restricted

due to the thesis – I have spent months

reading nothing but Jungian, Surrealist

and Pre-Raphaelite works – but I can now

return to the consumption of fiction, and

hopefully will have some reviews to offer

next issue. I haven’t even had time yet to

read Ken Faig’s The Unknown Lovecraft nor

LB at Conflux 6

Richard Tierney’s Drums of Chaos, both of

which I received some time ago although I

managed to squeeze in ST Joshi’s Classics

and Contemporaries, which I vastly enjoyed.

Presumably I will now graduate in

December, finally having a degree at age

50. I intend looking for work in publishing

or editing next year, after fulfilling a

couple of other writing commitments

between now and Christmas – a story for

an American anthology, and a critical

piece for another American book.

I can’t refrain from publishing

here the comments author M. John

Harrison made about my essay on his

work which appeared in Studies in the

Fantastic No 2. In an email to me after I

provided him a copy of the published

essay, he said: “broadly, I think it is

exceptional in its recognition of what I’m

doing and how. After so many years in a

wilderness, it’s such a relief when you

know that people out there are getting it. I

would say that “Undoing the

Mechanisms” is more incisive than many

of the texts it quotes –more incisive, too,

than some of the criticism in Parietal Games

[ed: a collection of criticism on MJH in

which I wish I had been included!]. I feel

that the books are well served by it, and in

terms of its sense of authority and clarity

of angle-of-attack, I’d place it with Chris

Moyle’s Lacanian “Sex as Exile:

Postmodern Metamorphosis and Erotic

Dystopia” and David Punter’s Gothic

“Light: Shadows of Modernity.”

Given that I admire Harrison

more than any other living fiction writer

save perhaps Ligotti, these appreciative

comments made me very very happy! I

also feel that my critical ambitions are on

the right mark and that perhaps I can

further develop in that direction….

I received copies of Lovecraft

Annual No 3, containing my essay on “The

Transition of Juan Romero” and many

other excellent essays on HPL. It’s a

handsome production – this issue also

contains my review of Joshi’s The Rise and

Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos – and I have

scraped together enough money to order

the two back issues, plus all the issues of

Dead Reckonings, which I have not yet seen

at all. I also received Ben Szumskyj’s essay

collection Robert Bloch: the Man Who

Collected Psychos (McFarland) in which I

have an essay. It’s a well put-together

volume and I look forward to reading all

of it shortly.My story in Gaslight Grotesque

should be out in November, and I’m

awaiting the anthology with bated breath

– my first Holmes story in print, my first

in an overseas anthology, and my first

Canadian appearance! Also, I think, my

highest-paying story in print as yet. I may

have mentioned last time that I appeared

on television in a special edition of the

Australian book program ‘Jennifer Byrne

Presents’, entitled ‘Monsters and

Bloodsuckers’. While I would have

preferred to talk modern horror and

Lovecraft, the show focussed on ‘classic’

horror novels – ‘Dracula and so on – but

we managed to sneak a few references to

Lovecraft in under the radar, since the

show’s editor was also a Lovecraft fan.

The program screened in Australia in

September and I had quite a number of

positive comments from people who had

seen it. For anyone who wants to see it

and missed the original broadcast, you can

go to the following site:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/jbp/

. Simply click on the picture next to the

‘Jennifer Byrne Presents: Monsters and

Bloodsuckers’ heading and you will be

taken to the vodcast window, then just

press the ‘Play’ arrow. We made a trip to

Woori Yallock in Victoria in September (a

round trip of some 2000 miles) to gather

with a group of Reclaiming Tradition

witches. On the

way down we

saw Margi’s

cousin Denise at

her farm at

Spring Valley

near Goulburn,

the ‘ancestral

place’ of most of

Margi’s folks, and

explored the Margi & Graham at

Spring Valley

cemetery there. In Victoria, we had a

good couple of days meeting the people

and doing some interesting ritual with

them, and it may lead to further work. I

am also currently considering rejoining

the OTO, my former magical order, in

which I haven’t been active since the mid-

1990s.

En route to Victoria, we visited

many small country bookshops in towns

such as Holbrook, Goulburn, Euroa,

Benalla,

Wangaratta

and Albury.

I had a few

good finds

including a

first of

Witches

Three

(containing

Lieber’s Conjure Wife)

The

band I have

been rehearsing

in with Margi

and Graham,

now dubbed

‘Third Road’, is

going well. We

have perfected

2-3 hours of material to play live and will

be doing a ‘dress rehearsal’ gig at a small

hall locally in Wollongong on the 7th

November for friends. Our first semi-

public gig will be for a wedding in early

December. Next year we hope to play local

clubs and bring in some money.

In

October

Margi,

Graham

and I

attended

Conflux sf

convention in Canberra, now an annual

tradition and the marker of the fifth

anniversary of our polyamorous triad.

Usually Margi and I run a workshop on

magick and appear on panels, but due to

my time-consuming thesis, we took it

easier this year and simply relaxed around

the con. We also got out to see the

National Art Gallery and the National

Library in Canberra (the latter featuring

the excellent exhibition on the work of

muso Nick Cave). One day we had lunch

with one of the co-editors of Studies in

Australian Weird Fiction, James Doig. James

took us to Tilley’s, an atmospheric eating

place, and then on to a great secondhand

bookshop ,Canty’s, where as well as

finding a couple of good books, I ran into

an old compadre from my magical lodge,

the OTO, David Bottrill. It’s a small world!

In family news, my stepson Rohan

is about to turn 21, and we are hosting a

party for him and his friends at Kuleto’s

Cocktail Bar in Newtown, Sydney, near

where he lives. Work on the property

progresses, with Graham having hired a

digger to flatten the earth near our back

creek where we intend re-fencing next

year. Margi is loving her painting and

drawing classes and is turning out many

artworks. Graham had a major coup with

a commission some time ago to design the

fonts for the intertitles of a re-release of the

classic version of the silent horror film

Nosferatu. He received the finished copy

from America recently and is very happy

with the result.

It was with sadness that I learned

of the passing of founding EOD member

Ben Indick recently. I never met Ben but

always appreciated his contributions to

the EOD. (Danny Lovecraft met him while

in the US a few years back). I pay a small

tribute to Ben this issue with some notes

about his output.

I have been giving serious thought

to the project of assembling Robert Bloch’s

Selected Letters, for which I have obtained

approval from the Bloch Estate. I imagine

this will take at least the next year or two

and will keep me out of mischief! Danny

Lovecraft may be collaborating with me

on this project, for which there is no

publisher as yet.

LB standing next to weird roadside

sculpture near Goulburn, NSW

Playing bass at home

in Third Road

Leigh & Margi at Conflux 6

I seem to have encouraged our

esteemed EOD friend Fred Phillips about

publishing a collection of his poetry to the

extent that Hippocampus Press has

apparently now committed to assembling

a volume of his verse next year, for which

I have provided a blurb.

In my few idle moments I have

found time to improve many Wikipedia

entries relating to Arkham House and its

authors (such as H. Russell Wakefield,

Carl Jacobi, etc). Most of the changes have

been left alone by the invisible ‘Big

Brothers’ of Wikipedia, so they must have

been OK. The ST Joshi page has also been

considerably improved. Some

investigation around Arkham House’s

recent history leads me to discover that

Peter Ruber (who became editor there in

1997) must have bowed out due to ill

health around 2002 or so…and now

Robert Weinberg and George

Vanderburgh seem to be about to take the

editorial reins. Of course, this is probably

old news to some of you (such as John

Haefele, who seems to be abreast of

everything concerning Arkham House)

but it was exciting to me to learn of a

possible new injection of direction and

impetus at the venerable publisher.

I managed to watch some movies,

though mostly in the last week or so. They

were a mixed bag. Two were particularly

disappointing. I have been collecting the

movies of Christopher Lee, inspired by

reading the excellent and comprehensive

volume by Jonathan Rigby, Christopher Lee:

The Authorised Screen History (Reynolds &

Hearn, 2001). The film Funny Man (1993)

should really be titled ‘Unfunny Man’ or

even ‘Stupid Dickhead Man’. Lee’s

appearances in it are restricted to a few

minutes of footage in which he peers

through a house of cards or recites bits of

Lewis Carroll. The setting, a real disused

lunatic asylum, is impressive, but the

laboured script, in which Tim James’

character (described aptly by Rigby as ‘a

repulsive, wisecracking combination of

Harlequin, Freddy Krueger and Mr

Punch) messily picks off characters about

whom one doesn’t care a whit, is terrible.

And why does this Punch character speak

with a Welsh accent? Rigby also refers to

the film’s “lager-lout surrealism” and “a

hit-or-miss stream of vulgar vaudeville

routines.” A bloody awful film which I

didn’t enjoy at all. There’s a much more

menacing jester-capped troll in the final

segment of the 1985 Stephen King

adaptation Cat’s Eye.

I was also disappointed by The

Spirit, based on the Will Eisner character

and scripted and direct by comics legend

Frank Miller. While the production design

is gorgeous, the acting is uniformly

wooden (and that includes the usually

excellent Samuel L. Jackson), the comedy

doesn’t work, many scenes are incredibly

stagy and talky (not least that in which the

captured Spirit is lectured by Jackson’s

Octopus character dressed as a Nazi), and

the use of anachronism is grating

(characters dress 1940’s style but use

laptops and employ phrases like “lighten

up” and “bling”). The brilliant title

sequence of the film is all you really need

to see; the rest is like wading through

treacle.

The best movie I’ve seen recently

is David Lynch’s extraordinary Inland

Empire – definitely worth the wait after

five or six years since Lost Highway. Lynch

has a lot in common with novelist

Christopher Priest with their common

usage of identity switches, interest in the

double and the doppelganger, etc. Inland

Empire is obscure, and at a three hours, a

trifle overlong, but is another haunting

production from Lynch that will stand the

test of time.

The movie I really want to see

next is Terry Gilliam’s newie, The

Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, which opens

in Australia this

week.

I got to the

local Lifeline Bookfair

in October, and had a

few good finds,

probably the best of

which was Alfred

My cat Beltane, a.k.a.

The Snuffler from the

Stars

Metraux’s classic book Voodoo, first ed in

dustjacket, for a mere $3. Holding up that

role as an emissary for Fred Phillips’

Antient and Honourable Order of the

Drowned Rat!

Just as this issue goes out, Margi

and I will be attending some workshops

run by renowned American ceremonial

magician and author Lon Milo DuQuette,

presented by the Sydney OTO. We can’t

go to them

all, but will

be

attending

the lecture

on

Enochian,

and doing

the all-day

workshops

on

Crowley’s Thoth Tarot and on Qabalah. I

got my copies of DuQuette’s books signed,

and the workshops were fantastic. I had

hoped this issue to present interviews

with Joe S. Pulver and with Dave Carson,

but with any luck they will appear next

time.

Needless to say, I have many and

multifarious plans for the future…but I

will speak of them when the stars are

right.

Here’s the cover of a curious kids’

book I picked up secondhand recently. It

was published by

Ward Lock, 1957.

A prime

candidate for a

detournement featuring

Lovecraftian tentacles

menacing those

innocent children…

Books By My Bedside

As mentioned, I have finished

very few books lately, but the actual pile

by my bed, which I hope to tackle soon,

includes the following books, new and

old: J.G. Ballard – The Four-Dimensional

Nightmare; Samuel Delany – Atlantis: Three

Tales; Dennis O’Neill – Batman: Knightfall;

Umberto Eco – Foucault’s Pendulum;

Gillian Polack – Life Through Cellophane;

Garth Nix – Sabriel; Kim Stanley Robinson

– A Short, Sharp Shock (Robinson will be

GoH at next year’s Worldcon, to be held in

Melbourne – I met him once before, in

Hobart in 1995); J. Daniel Gunther –

Initiation in the Aeon of the Child; Brian

Aldiss – Romance of the Equator: Best

Fantasy Stories; Thomas Disch – The

Businessman; Roddy Doyle – Paddy Clarke

Ha Ha Ha; Keith Stevenson (ed) X6: Six

Journeys Beyond the Borders of the Real.;

Algernon Blackwood – Incredible

Adventures; Douglas Ezzy – Practicing the

Witch’s Craft: Real Magic Under a Southern

Sky; and Jeremy Dyson – Bright Darkness:

The Lost Art of the Supernatural Horror Film.

I’ve already dipped into many of these

and look forward to completing them. I

will also be reading Phillip Ellis’s thesis on

poet Christopher Brennan, and some

novel manuscripts for my literary agencies

(being free to do this again now my thesis

is concluded).

And just as I was preparing this

issue, a swag of stuff from Hippocampus

Press turned up for me – the two-volume

Essential Solitude (Lovecraft-Derleth letters)

which I almost missed out on by leaving

my order so late; plus all five issues of

Dead Reckonings and all three of Lovecraft

Annual. A feast of reading to keep me

busy!

Lon Milo DuQuette after his

workshop on the Qabala in Sydney,

with LB.

A Few Notes on Ben Indick

(1923-Sept 28, 2009)

Unfortunately I never met Ben Indick but I

knew of him through the mailings of the

EOD. A founder member, he was

contributing to EOD when I was in the

order back in the mid-1980s, and was still

contributing when I rejoined a few years

ago, his enthusiasm obviously undinted.

His death will sadden many members of

the EOD, as it will his friends who knew

him personally. I want to pay a small

tribute to him by simply listing some of

his works; this does not pretend to be a

comprehensive bibliography Indick was

also an early member of REHUPA, the

Robert E. Howard apa. In addition to the

items listed below, Indick reviewed for

Shaw Studies, New York Review of Science

Fiction, and Dead Reckonings. He provided

intros to at least two books: Robert H.

Knox’s H.P. Lovecraft: Illustrated in Ichor

Niekas Publications, Center Harbor, NH,

1984. and Hannes Bok: Drawings and

Sketches Certo, Nicholas J.

(editor/publisher) Mugster Press,

Circleville, 1996. He conducted an

interview with Nelson Bond available

online at:

http://www.arkhamhouse.com/bondinterv

iew.htm.

The First Fandom Awards were presented

at Anticipation to honour those with long-

standing in the fannish community. Aug

2009. recipients were James Gunn and Ben

Indick

Books

The Drama of Ray Bradbury (1977).

Revised reprint as Ray Bradbury,

Dramatist.(Borgo press, 1989; also Paupers

Press and Wildside press editions).

Geo. Alec Effinger: From Entropy to

Budayeen (with Daryl F. Mallett) (Wildside

Press, 1993)

Essays

[essay] in Kingdom of Fear:

The World of Stephen King

(ed Chuck Miller)

(Underwood-Miller,

1986).

“Come Out Here and Take Your

Medicine!” in Don

Herron, ed. Reign of Fear.

(LA: Underwood-Miller,

1988).

“Fantasy in the Theatre”

(review of Patrick D.

Murphy, ed. Staging the

Impossible: The Fantastic Mode in Modern

Drama). in Science Fiction Studies #61, Vol

20, Part 3 (Nov 1993) Reprinted in

Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction

and Fantasy 53. Greenwood Press, 1992.

Online at:

http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/review_essay

s/indick61.htm

“A Gentleman from Providence Pens a

Letter”. Madison, WI: Strange Co, 1975

wraps. (100 copies, booklet).

“The History of the EOD”. Scream Factory

#9 (Summer, 1992); revised and reprinted

Ben Indick in centre between

Peter Cannon (left) and Darrell

Schweitzer (right) (photo:

Kathryn Cramer from Flickr)

in “James Van Hise Presents ‘The Fantastic

Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft’”. Revised and

reprinted online at:

http://www.qusoor.com/EOD/EODhistory

.html

“HPL as Decadent: A Consideration of St

Armand’s Essay”. Ibid No 14 (May 1976)

pp 8-9 . (A reply to St Armand’s HP

Lovecraft: New England Decadent, noting

that the Decadent school was only one of

the many influences upon Lovecraft’s

thought).

“H. Russell Wakefield: The Man Who

Believed in Ghosts.” In Discovering Classic

Horror Fiction 1, edited by Darrell

Schweitzer, pp. 73-93. San Bernardino,

Cal.: The Borgo Press, 1992. Online at:

http://www.bookrags.com/criticism/herber

t-russell-wakefield_10/

“In Memoriam: Frank Belknap Long”.

Lovecraft Studies No 30 (Spring 1994): 3-4.

"King and the Literary Tradition of Horror

and the Supernatural" in Tim Underwood

and Chuck Miller Fear Itself The Early

Works of Stephen King, (Underwood-Miller,

Inc) 1982.

“Lovecraft’s Ladies” Xenophile 2, No 6 (Oct

1975). Reprinted in Darrell Schweitzer, ed.

Essays Lovecraftian (Baltimore: TK

Graphics, 1976).

“Lovecraft’s POElar Adventure” Crypt of

Cthulhu 32 (St John’s Eve 1985): 25-31.

“Spooks and Worse: New King, Old

Classics” The Blood Review (Apr 1990).

“The Western Fiction of Robert E.

Howard” in Don Herron (ed) The Dark

Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard:

A Critical Anthology. (Wildside Press, 1984)

"What Makes Him So Scary," in

Discovering Stephen King, ed Darrell

Schweitzer, Starmont House, Inc., 1985,

pp. 9-14.

Stories

• * Bluegrass Reunion, (ss) Eldritch Tales

#25 1991 100 Wicked Little Witch

Stories, ed. Stefan Dziemianowicz,

Robert Weinberg & Martin H.

Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 1995

• * Expiration Notice, (vi) Eldritch Tales

#18 1989

• * A Flash of Silver, (vi) Horrors! 365

Scary Stories, ed. Stefan R.

Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg &

Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble

1998

• * Quiz: Break a Leg!, (qz) Twilight Zone

Jul/Aug 1985

• * The Road to Dunwich,

(ss) Ibid Jun 1973 The

Dunwich Cycle, ed.

Robert M. Price,

Chaosium 1996

• * The Rose Cavalier, (ss)

100 Vicious Little

Vampire Stories, ed.

Robert Weinberg, Stefan

Dziemianowicz & Martin H.

Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 1995

MANTICHORUS: MAILING

NOTES SWWFT Mailing #33 (Aug 2, 2009)

John Howard, Change-Winds:

Useful index to the Mammoth Books of Best

New Horror, John. An author index would

double the usefulness. I’ve collected the

series since its inception, though to my

annoyance I lack Vols 9 and 16, and don’t

yet have 19. There are a couple of curious

Australian reprints you may want to know

about for bibliographic completeness.

Magpie Books London published in 1993

The Giant Book of Best New Horror, a

selection from the first three vols of Best

New Horror (not in your checklist); this

was reprinted in Oz by The Book

Company (n.d., but c. 1994). The first two

of my editions of the series are Carroll and

Graf hardcovers; I don’t know if C&G

produced more than these two in hc. One

minor point of interest is that around the

time of Vol 6, Robinson Books was using

the imprint Raven books, hence Vol 6 and

7 appear as published by Raven, with a

Raven logo on the spine instead of the

different bird used by Robinson. The

related volume The Mammoth Book of Terror

edited by Jones for Robinson in 1991 was

reprinted in hc in Australia as The

Anthology of Horror Stories (1994). I believe

both this and the Book Company reprint

mentioned above were unlicensed reprints

of the UK books. I once sent Stephen Jones

copies for his records and got a nice

thanks card back.

Re: the Bloch book, your essay

appears therein (I assume you have your

copy now) so I hope you’re happy with

the version that appears! I enjoyed your

collaboration with Mark Valentine in The

Game’s Afoot! I confess that sadly I’ve

never read Van Vogt. I have a bio of Baron

Corvo, though.

Scott Shaeffer, Dalriadic: Really enjoyed

the piece on Serling’s war service and its

relation to “The Purple Testament’. I

recently acquired the DVD of Serling’s

Night Gallery, (Season 1) and revisited a

number of episodes I saw when growing

up, plus some I’d never seen, including

the adaptation of CA Smith’s “Return of

the Sorcerer” and a brilliant Fritz Lieber

story, “The Dead Man.” I’ve taken your

recommendation on changing the font on

title of The Nameless Cylinder for easier

readability.

Re EOD & SSWFT, my only

experience comes from being an EOD

member back in the 1980s. But I think the

two apas are quite similar in focus; while

nominally EOD focusses more strongly on

Lovecraft, it allows a broader spectrum of

writing on horror and fantasy; and SSWFT

does that by definition. I recently invited

members of EOD to join SSWFT as well,

but no-one’s taken up the offer, so I guess

Fred Phillips and Martin Andersson

remain the only members (apart from

myself) to belong to both.

Glad you enjoyed the essay on

Lovecraft’s “Juan Romero.” You’re right –

it wasn’t written for university, hence

probably lacked the dense theoretical

terminology so beloved of academics…

Mark Valentine, Opharion: I like

your taste for reading pre-twentieth

century fiction. I’m rather inclined that

way myself, though I try to keep up with

at least some current horror authors. I

really want to read all of Blackwood (I

have a near-complete run of his books)

and of Machen, and of all the Arkham

House volumes which are on my shelves.

Certainly not interested in reading

Charlaine Harris and all those currently

popular vampire things that sell by the

bucketload. I enjoyed your revised essay

on Carnacki. Many years ago I was in

contact with Ian Bell when he was trying

to instigate a Hodgson revival; whatever

happened to him? He’d be pleased to see

Night Shade Books complete series and

the volumes Tartarus Press have issued

(not that I have those – the prices are way

out of my league). Do you have 472 Cheyne

Walk, co-authored by me mate Rick

Kennett and UK’s Chico Kidd? Well worth

having in a Hodgson collection. Anyway, I

rather like the fact Carnacki’s cases are not

always supernatural; it rings true to me

that some would turn out to be able to be

explained by rationalistic means. I wonder

why no-one reprints the Flaxman Low

stories? (I have a set of the original

Pearson’s Magazine in which those tales

appeared). And I’ve always thought

someone should write a Carnacki meets

Jorkens story; maybe I’ll do it myself some

time. I like your interpretation of the

Carnacki tales as not merely concerned

with “ghost-finding” but with a fight

against the vast dark cosmic gulfs and

their predatory abominations. Your phrase

“insignificant physical condiment” on the

last page strikes me as odd, though – is

“condiment” an error? Makes Carnacki

sound a bit like a salt-shaker! But you

must have meant it, for the same phrase

appears on p. 28 of your essay’s original

appearances in Voyages and Visions….

Martin Andersson, Hyperborean:

Re: Dunsany, I just read ST’s intro

to his edition of In the Land of Time and

other Fantasy Tales. Makes me realise I

need to get all of ST’s editions, even

though I sometimes have other editions of

the authors, because he provides such

succinct overviews of the writer’s output

and of criticism that has been done on the

given writer. I’m lucky that I decided

some time ago that I would not collect

either Dunsany or Howard; in fact I had

rather large collections of their stuff which

I parted with (Danny Lovecraft now has

my Dunsany holdings). I have my hands

full with so many other authors! As usual,

Martin, your acquisitions list (and reading

list) tends to the mind-boggling. Can I

recommend you use LibraryThing? That

way we could compare libraries. Of

movies you list, I’ve seen Taken (good),

Watchmen (wonderful), Star Trek

(entertaining), Wolverine (pretty cool) but

not the others, though I want to see Dean

Spanley. Congrats on becoming an uncle!

I’m looking forward to reading ST’s

review of Tour de Lovecraft. Your Tolkien

trip sounds cool. Sad that Charles N.

Brown died. I met him in about 2005 when

he was out here for a gathering with some

local sf folks, at a party in Newtown. A

strange little gnome-like man, with bare

feet and painted toenails. But who can

deny his lasting influence in establishing

Locus magazine? Your Google translations

of Lovecraft were at least amusing.

Reminds me of some of those Chinese

packaging instructions one gets on

products sometimes.

I’ll be interested to see if you said

anything of my story in Eldritch Horrors

when I receive my swag of Dead

Reckonings from Derrick Hussey. I think

your speculation that there may be a

connection between “Juan Romero” and

‘The Mound” may well be correct, but

“Juan Romero” is a very dim adumbration

of a later theme, and in fact the political

and sociological themes of “The Mound”,

commenting as they do on the decline of

Western civilisation, place it closer to a

story like “At the Mountains of Madness.”

But yes, that Indian element in both

stories, leading to the discovery of

underground aliens or bizarre

phenomena, certainly links “Juan

Romero” and “The Mound” at least

superficially. Thanks for that correction

about Lovecraft hearing Dunsany lecture.

As you rightly point out, it happened

during Dunsany’s lecture tour of US, not

at an amateur convention. I may have had

in mind the fact that Lovecraft was

introduced to Dunsany’s actual published

work by an amateur – Alice M. Hamlet.

But whoops! My error has made it

through into the version of my essay in

Lovecraft Annual No 3. I must be more

rigorous in checking my facts!

Mike Barrett, Koshtra Belorn:

Enjoyed your article on Sturgeon, Mike. I

had Sturgeon’s stories in the 5-vol

collected edition but had to sell them a few

years ago when I was poor. I still have a

number of his novels, though. Your

reviews were all interesting, though I’ve

read none of the books you discuss.

Phillip Ellis, Elegant

Amusement: Before I comment, I’ll just

say that wavy background you used

makes the pages hard to read when

printed out. I’d suggest changing it next

time. But wow! A full-length essay on a

single ‘Fungus’ from Lovecraft’s sonnet

sequence. Re: the question of Lovecraft’s

sonnets as “pseudo-sonnets,”(as he

himself referred to them), I see no reason

why their hybrid mixture of the

Petrarchan and the Shakespearean forms

should not be known as “the Lovecraftian

sonnet.” (I’d have to check whether

Wandrei also used this form). I’m not

sufficiently familiar with the theory of

primary, secondary and tertiary stresses in

verse to fully understand what you’re

saying about stress in this poem.

Nevertheless, an interesting analysis. I’m

not certain whether your conclusion that

“the patterns are not accidental but part of

the poem’s design” is accurate or not.

Lovecraft referred to “grinding out” the

various Fungi; and did so in a short time;

although he had sufficient metrical and

poetic knowledge to construct poems in

the vein of those he had read, I think we

should be wary of attributing to him

greater poetical powers than he possessed.

Many of the perceivable patterns in

“Zaman’s Hill” may simply be

coincidental or accidental. It depends on

the strength of Lovecraft’s ‘ear’ for such

things as consonance and assonance.

Perhaps a separate paper on Lovecraft’s

demonstrable skills as a poet would cast

light on this. Interesting to know of your

project of the livre compose on Lovecraft.

James Doig, Via Occulta:

Fascinating material on the Penny Bloods

and the old booksellers, James! I wonder if

Barry Ono was any relation to Yoko (lol☺)

Dorothea Phillips, Betwixt the

Books: Entertaining account of your

Canadian Rockies adventure with Fred. I

would have loved to have seen the

Robertson Davies play; I’m a great fan of

his writing. Nice poem from Fred, too.

Fred Phillips, Sercon: Nice

account of ferreting for books, Fred.

Smoley’s book on Gnosticism is worth

having, though there are other equally

good books on the subject. I must say the

name of the literary salon FISTFA sounds

vaguely obscene to me, but perhaps that’s

just my dirty mind.

Baron von Nederlinger’s haul of volumes

sounds most intriguing. I’m a sucker for

sliding panels revealing hidden recesses!

But I fear this is one of your elaborate leg-

pulls, for I can find no reference elsewhere

to the Baron, to the Liber Ignotus, or to ‘Dr

Obadiah Jessup’.

EOD mailing #147 (Aug 2, 2009)

Randy Everts, Performers:

Interesting material on Holly (if somewhat

marginal to horror and fantasy interests).

Laurence Bush, Pleasures of

Death: There’s an entry on R Murray

Gilchrist by Brian Stableford in the St

James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic

Writers, and one by Jack Sullivan in The

Penguin Encyc of Horror and the

Supernatural. Odd stories by him appear in

anthologies edited by EF Bleiler and Hugh

Lamb. Good luck with the thesis! Good

info on “Olalla” too.

John Haefele, Hesperia: I

appreciate your work on Derleth and

Arkham House, John; your depth of

knowledge is admirable. The Chronology

of the assemblage of HPL’s Selected Letters

was informative. I was fortunate to start

collecting Arkham House books back in

1973, when the Selected Letters volumes

were first issued. At that time I also

collected most of Derleth’s mainstream

fiction and poetry, including the Hawk

and Whippoorwill material, though I later

sold this material as too diffuse to

concentrate on the weird material issued

by Arkham House.

Don & Mollie Burleson, Morgan

Rice Gazette: Don, in your comment to

Steve Walker you refer to “chemistry, or

its forebear, [as being] a mess of

outlandish gibberish called alchemy.” It

surprises me that you are dismissive of

alchemy, especially since you have written

of Jungian mythic archetypes and would

be aware of Jung’s uses of the

psychological implications of alchemical

motifs. It’s true that modern chemistry

developed from alchemy, and that

alchemy was oft-times obscure; but I don’t

believe that makes it outmoded. Alchemy

is a fascinating and complex subject and is

as much a “real” science (certainly in

regard to psychology) as any other;

though maybe you are demonstrating here

your preference for the “hard” rather than

the “soft” sciences. I don’t believe it would

be accurate to say the “soft” sciences are

not “real” sciences. They simply operate

differently and are not as easily

measurable as chemistry, physics etc. Glad

you liked my essay on “Romero.” Yes, I

actually exchanged a brief email with

Marc Michaud and he tells me he hopes to

revive Necronomicon Press “one day” I

always enjoy your accounts of yours and

Don’s doings, Mollie. Good poetry, too,

both of you…

T.R. Livesey, Redux: Good piece

on Lovecraft and Sir James Jeans. I myself

don’t see the necessity to inhabit a world

of belief ruled by either “emotional myth-

belief” or “cosmic indifferentism”,

attitudes which are often posited

unnecessarily as diametrically opposed.

There is deep truth in myth and esoteric

knowledge which can inform us about life

and the universe, no less than in the

cosmic attitude. I believe we should avail

ourselves of the latest scientific

information while recognising that science

is limited in its abilities to penetrate the

deep mysteries, some of which are

approached more usefully through other

modalities of experience and knowledge.

Scott Connors, Continuous

Commentaries: I haven’t attempted to

collect any of the Night Shade Smith

volumes as yet, as I have all the Arkham

House editions, but I will probably get

them later for completism. (I only have

Vol 3 of Hippocampus Press complete

poetry set, and need to get Vols 1 and 2 of

that first). Great detective work tracking

down that description of Smith’s 1927

exhibition! I like the casual way you

mention you “picked up” a signed copy of

Wandrei’s Dark Odyssey poetry collection;

I bet that cost a pretty penny. I would be

exceedingly keen to see any unreprinted

material from Howard and Donald

Wandrei, and Carl Jacobi from the

Minnesota Review. Good reprints by Price

and Wandrei – the latter made me laugh

out loud. And the piece on Smith in

Carmel was very interesting.

Fred Phillips, Sercon: See comments in

SSWFT (above).

John Goodrich: Raw, New Things:

Enjoyed the reviews, John. Re: ST’s

coverage of Mythos fiction in his book, he

says explicitly that he is not attempting to

cover everything, and wouldn’t want to.

Perhaps someone should write a separate

book covering the whole field and its

exemplars, reviewing them individually? I

really enjoy Charles Stross and think he’s

done some great work utilising the

Mythos. The mushrooming of the Mythos

field makes it unlikely that any one book

could cover it all. I agree with you that

Dan Harms’ Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia is

a reference more useful for the writer than

the casual reader. When I was in high

school I started to compile a thing called

The Lovecraft Companion (never finished). It

served much the same purpose as Harms’

book. I look forward to your review of

Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales.

Ben Indick, Ibid 147: Well, here’s a sad

issue to comment on, for as we all know,

Ben passed away recently and so this is his

last zine. He had complained of the font

size in my zines, and I had planned to

please him by restoring a readable size

this issue (which I have done) but

unfortunately he’s no longer with us to

appreciate it. I wonder what will happen

to Ben’s papers and effects? Does anyone

know if anything has been organised? I

enjoyed Ben’s story ‘The Traveller” here,

and also went back to read his “The Road

to Dunwich” in Price’s The Dunwich Cycle,

which I think was an effective Mythos tale

told without the usual trappings of

eldritch names and books of brain-

shattering lore.

Sean McLachlan: Notes from the XIIth

Legion: You seem super busy with your

writing on weaponry and military history,

Sean. Glad you enjoyed your time with

Martin Andersson during the Tolkien

gathering.

S.T. Joshi, What is Anything? : Hope you

enjoyed the HP Lovecraft Film Festival;

one day I may make it back to the States

and participate in one of these events,

which of course started up after my only

overseas trip (to the Lovecraft Centennial

back in 1990). I didn’t know you’d written

a book on bestsellers (every mailing seems

to reveal some new project you have

undertaken)! Glad to know Robert

Reginald and Borgo Press are still around.

It seems that A Means to Freedom has now

appeared, though it will be some little

time before I can afford to buy it. I am

highly excited by the prospect of the

unabridged Lovecraft biography coming

out; and of course, by the imminence of

the new/updated Lovecraft bibliography,

which Martin Andersson reveals in his

mailing for this month’s SWFFT (which

has just reached me) has now gone to the

printers and will be out shortly. I

remember that back in Providence in 1990

some fellow was proposing to update the

Lovecraft biblio and seeking your input,

and you made a comment to him whose

gist was that such a project didn’t hold

much attraction for you; you evidently

changed your mind in recent years! The

new historical anthology of horror poetry

sounds intriguing, and naturally I am

flattered to be included. I hope that

Mythos books will issue it within a

reasonable time once you hand it in. Do

you know, by the way, of any complete

extant listing of Mythos Books’ catalogue?

There doesn’t seem to be one, and requests

to David Wynn seem to fall into a bit of a

black hole. I enjoyed the intro to your

edition of the DH Lawrence horror tales.

The other editions (Underwood, Level etc)

sound worthwhile too. Ye gods! One can

hardly keep up as a buyer and a reader

with your output, and once again I gape

slack-jawed at the prodigious output from

your editorial desk.

David Drake, Potpourri: I’ve never read

Wellman’s Hok stories Piazo Publications

book edition of them sounds like a good

idea.

Ken Faig, EOD letter: More fascinating

sources for the ethnic names in “Dreams

in the Witch House’. Good material on the

Lovecraft copyrights, which has long been

a confusing issue. Glad you liked my

“Romero” essay. I should have more

essays in future issues on Lovecraft stories

about which too little has been written.

Martin Andersson, Hyperborean: You

should get some kind of award for noting

all those textual errors in the Barnes &

Nobel edition! Re: “Romero,” I suppose

that that narrator reminds one somewhat

of Sir Richard Francis Burton, although

Burton died in 1890. But I think there were

many British officers in India who held the

attitude of being comfortable with the

natives, and Lovecraft’s narrator is simply

a generic example of this. Re: Tierney’s

new poetry collection, Savage Menace and

Other Poems (from P’rea Press), this should

appear in early 2010. Danny Lovecraft has

had some difficulty obtaining copyrights

permissions from, for instance, the J K

Rowling rights-holders (for poems Tierney

has written in ‘homage’ to her characters)

though it seems he has gotten permission

for some Tolkien-related ones. The rights

issue is interesting and raises the question

of the distinction between ‘plagiarism’ and

‘homage’. Apparently even in cases of

homage a piece of writing utilising

another writer’s characters may be

considered to infringe the original writer’s

rights. Go figure.

John Navroth, Lovecraftiana: An

enjoyable coverage of references to

Lovecraft in Fate magazine, John. One of

these days I intend to update my long

article on Lovecraft and occultism that

appeared in Shadowplay and Dagon

magazines in the 1980s. I was not a

practicing occultist when I wrote it, but

have now been one since about 1990, so

my perspective in the rewrite will be a

little different than in the original.

Gavin Smith, Kornflake Killer: Nice to

hear your views about Dean Spanley. I still

haven’t caught the movie but will do so

via DVD shortly. (Ah, thank Cthulhu my

thesis is over!).

Steve Walker, Criticaster: That PDF

search engine is interesting, I’ll check it

out. Have you ever looked at Scribd?

There are some decent Lovecraft-related

essays there published by academics as

well as amateurs. Interesting speculations

on origins for the name “Dunwich”; I

hadn’t known of the reference in Matthew

Lewis’ poem before. Re: “Romero,” I think

HPL’s use of the Aztec god-name

‘Huitzilopochtli’ was, as you suggest, to

‘introduce a touch of exotic strangeness’,

much as he used the names ‘Atys’ and

‘Magna Mater’ in “The Rats in the Walls”

without fully grasping the nature of these

ancient cults. (Magna Mater, for instance,

the ‘Great Mother’, is only a name of dark

portent if one goes along with the very

common demonisation of goddess-based

pagan cults by later, patriarchal religions

including Christianity. But to HPL, it no

doubt had a whiff of dark and ancient

mystery, and that was enough for him).

The Aztec name in “Romero” serves no

obvious central purpose in the story

(unless, as I suggested in the essay, HPL is

trying to hint that Romero himself is

somehow connected via bloodline with

the ancient Aztec gods. In any case, HPL

didn’t make a very good job of that

suggestion). Whether the story has an

unreliable narrator is debatable. The

witnesses disputing of the events may

indicate that the events are simply beyond

understanding, either by the witnesses or

by the narrator. The tale ends in mystery,

and HPL provides no satisfactory

explanation. I agree with you that in

“Romero”, the ‘vagueness is the story’. I

think HPL was still developing his

fictional technique at that time, and hadn’t

yet learned how to tie all the elements

together that he wished to include. But he

always had a penchant for the

unexplained exotic name, as those

intriguing phrases muttered by Danforth

at the conclusion of “At the Mountains of

Madness” demonstrate. This was a very

effective technique, I think, which makes

the reader imagine what might lie behind

the phrase – a sort of “Shunned-House”-

type linguistic elbow (or “Under the

Pyramids”-type monstrous linguistic

forepaw) that merely suggests the true

extent of a given horror. Anyhow, yes, the

old “it was all a dream” bromide is one

way of interpreting “Romero” according

to the internal evidence of the text, and

that hackneyed fact makes it very much a

lesser tale in the scale of Lovecraft’s

literary achievement. Re: your excursus on

evolution and devolution in Lovecraft, I

agree that this is one of the most

widespread and potent themes in

Lovecraft. Occultists such as Kenneth

Grant have picked up on this, naturally

comparing it to the ‘atavistic resurgence’

theories of such esoteric artists as Austin

Osman Spare, who sought to ‘unleash the

inner beast’ in many of his artworks. One

could write a decent essay exploring

evolution and devolution as opposite

spectrums or poles of the same biological

impulse, and even link this with HPL’s

fascination with the laws of time.

Juha-Matta Rahali, Nonconformist: The

annotated Lovecraft correspondence is

much appreciated. I’m not clear, though –

are these letters which are not (or will not

be) in the volumes of Lovecraft

correspondence being issued by

Hippocampus? Are you feeding your

sources to ST?

REQUEST FOR COPIES OF STUDIES

IN WEIRD FICTION

I lack the following numbers of Studies in

Weird Fiction and would be willing to pay

for photocopies or originals. Can anyone

help? I need the following issues:

8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 20. I also need the

final two issues – Summer 2003 (which

was erroneously numbered 25; it should

have been 26); and Spring 2005 (numbered

27).

I have photocopies of Issues 11 and 12 but

would like to buy originals.

REQUEST FOR COPIES OF

LOVECRAFT STUDIES

Due to the years I was away from

Lovecraft studies, I missed a number of

issues of the journal Lovecraft Studies and

am finding them difficult to obtain as they

rarely come up on Ebay. If anyone in the

EOD can help with copies for sale, or even

photocopies of the following issues, I

would be happy to pay. I need the

following issues:

25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 40.

I have photocopies of the following issues

but would be glad to buy originals: 24, 28,

42/43.

Also, does anyone know if an Index to

Lovecraft Studies after issue 25 exists? (LS

26 published an Index to Issues 1-25).

REQUEST FOR COPIES OF ROBERT

BLOCH LETTERS

I have initiated a project of compiling the

Selected Letters of Robert Bloch, and the

Bloch Estate has given me permission to

pursue this, under the auspices of Bloch’s

living daughter. I have already obtained

copies of some Bloch letters from various

library holdings in the US, but would be

grateful for leads from EOD members,

especially if anyone has copies of letters

from Bloch they may be willing to share.

Please contact me if you can help in any

way.

“The Rats in the Walls” by Phillip Cornell,

from The Australian HP Lovecraft Centennial

Calendar (Sydney: Borderland Press, 1990).

“The Haunter of the Dark” by Neil

Walpole (from the Australian HP Lovecraft

Centennial Calendar).

INVITATION TO MEMBERS OF E.O.D.

TO JOIN S.S.W.F.T APA

I have already emailed all EOD members

to invite them to join the apa for which I

am now Official Editor, the Sword and

Sorcery and Weird Fiction Terminus apa

(founded by Benjamin J. Szumskyj) but

will repeat the invitation here. SSWFT has

been running just over eight years and

currently has about 12 or 13 members. I

would like to see it grow to 20 or more

members. Fred Phillips and Martin

Andersson belong to both EOD and

SSWFT and so there is a precedent for this

idea. SWWFT requires no annual dues if

you accept files in PDF format. Because it

is run from Australia this is the easiest

way for it to operate. If you wish to join,

you would simply email to me (as editor

of SSWFT) the same material you circulate

in a given mailing of the EOD. (SSWFT’s

quarterly deadlines have been brought in

line with those of the EOD to facilitate

this). Minac is similar to Eod

requirements. If you require hardcopies

there is an annual fee; please enquire if

you want more details. SSWFT members

also receive the benefits of having their

publishing and activity news published

online at the SWWFT blog:

http://sswftapa.blogspot.com/

If you wish to join, please email Leigh

Blackmore at: lvxnox@gmail.com.