Mantichore 21 Apr 2011Part1

8/6/2019 Mantichore 21 Apr 2011Part1

1/9

Mantichore 6, No 2 (Whole Number 21).****Edited by Leigh Blackmore

for the SSWFT(Apr 30, 2011/41st mailing), &

Esoteric Order of Dagon (Apr 30,2011/

154th mailing)Amateur Press Associations.***78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2500.

Australia.***

After Austin Osman Spare 2011 Margi Curtis


2/9

MANTICHOREMANTICHOREMANTICHOREMANTICHORE 21212121

Leigh BlackmoreContact [email protected]

Official Website: Blackmausoleum http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/

Latest SSWFT news at: http://sswftapa.blogspot.com/

LB at Australian Horror Writers Association: http://www.australianhorror.com/member_pages.php?page=86 LBs library : http://www.librarything.com/profile/666777

Contents This IssueContents This IssueContents This IssueContents This Issue

Mantic Notes...2

Reports on the Death of April Rose Derleth.5

The Joshi-Blackmore Letters Part 1.6

THIS ISSUE IN MEMORIAMTHIS ISSUE IN MEMORIAMTHIS ISSUE IN MEMORIAMTHIS ISSUE IN MEMORIAM

APRIL ROSE DERLETHAPRIL ROSE DERLETHAPRIL ROSE DERLETHAPRIL ROSE DERLETH

(9 AUG 1954(9 AUG 1954(9 AUG 1954(9 AUG 1954----21 MAR 2011)21 MAR 2011)21 MAR 2011)21 MAR 2011)

PRESIDENT AND C.E.O. OF ARKHAM HOUSEPRESIDENT AND C.E.O. OF ARKHAM HOUSEPRESIDENT AND C.E.O. OF ARKHAM HOUSEPRESIDENT AND C.E.O. OF ARKHAM HOUSE

DAUGHTER OF AUGUST DERLETHDAUGHTER OF AUGUST DERLETHDAUGHTER OF AUGUST DERLETHDAUGHTER OF AUGUST DERLETH

R.I.P.R.I.P.R.I.P.R.I.P.

Mantic Notes(Pronunciation:'man-tik. Etymology: Greek mantikos, from mantis: of, relating to the faculty of divination; prophetic).

This issues cover is by Margi Curtis, based on a piece

by the great occultist and automatic/trance artist, Austin

Osman Spare. Thanks Margi!

The whole of Feb and March were taken up for me by

an eight week course, the Cert IV in Small Business

Administration, which I completed at Wollongong IteC,

preparatory to setting up my own business, Proof Perfect

Editorial Services. I enjoyed the course greatly and am now in

the process of gathering clients for proofreading, copyediting

and manuscript assessment work on an ongoing basis.

The release of Midnight Echo 5, from the Australian

Horror Writers Association, (edited by me), dragged on

interminably through the early part of the New Year, but the

PDF version was finally released in late February. (The print

version has proved a further complication but is now in print).

Copies will be mailed to contributors in early May. Im very

proud of the issue, whose cover is pictured here. As

mentioned last time, the issue contains a plethora of weird

poems as well as stories, and work by several EOD/SSWFT

members including John Goodrich, Mollie L. Burleson and

Fred Phillips is included. Heres the official blurb:


3/9

Midnight Echo 5 is jam-packed with dark fiction, poetry and art. It includes the winners of the AHWA's

2010 Short Story competition and Flash Fiction Competition (stories by Christopher Green and Jason

Fischer), with brand new stories by Terry Dowling, Chandler Kaiden, E. Albert Banstrom, Blair Kelly,

Bryce J. Stevens, Mollie Burleson, Christopher Sequeira, Aaron Polson, Felicity Dowker, Rick Kennett,

Juliet Bathory, George Ivanoff, Damien Giles, Robert Mammone and John Goodrich. The issue includes

horrific and weird verse by such poets as Kyla Ward, Richard L. Tierney, Fred Phillips, Charles

Lovecraft, Michael Fantina, Rosa Christian, Ann K. Schwader, Phillip A. Ellis, Margi Curtis, Joyce

Frohn, Mike Berger, Guy Belleranti, Adrienne J. Odasso, John Grey, Ron T. Wilkins and Terrie Leigh

Relf. Dark art by international artists include works by Carl Schaller, Martin Blanco (cover), Shane

Ryan, Gaston Locanto, Wayne Palesado, and Tony Karnes.As an added bonus, this issue features an

eight-page graphic story by Mark Farrugia and Greg Chapman.

You can buy the magazine from the AHWA online shop at:

http://www.shop.australianhorror.com/

I continued my part-time I Ching readings at Lotus Bookshop and have also had time

to advance my Robert Bloch letters project somewhat. I really havent written much other

than contributing some reviews to the next issue of Dead Reckonings. It looks, though, as

though I will have some poetry and perhaps a story in one or two of the forthcoming Arkhamhouse anthologies. I am rather chuffed, also, to report that one of my critical essays (Marvels

and Horrors: Terry Dowlings Clowns at Midnight, in Danel Olsen

(ed), 21st Century Gothic , Scarecrow Press) was nominated for the

William Atheling Award for Criticism in Australias Ditmar Awards. It

didnt win but it was an honour to be nominated, anyway.

At right is the cover of The Crossing , a first novel by my old

mate Baz Radburn, who edited The Australian Horror and Fantasy

Magazine back in the 1980s. I was pleased to help the publisher out

with some blurbs in my role as President of the AHWA as I greatly

enjoyed his book. (It wont be released until May). (One of my blurbs

is on the front cover, but the image is not big enough to read here).Margi celebrated her birthday on Feb 5, and we travelled to

Sydney to have dinner with young Rohan, who is now working as an

IT help person for KPMG in Sydney. Graham and I gave Margi a new

camera for her present and Im sure well all be using it heaps! Feb 27 was the occasion of my

brother Kents 50th birthday and Margi, Graham and I travelled again to Sydney to celebrate

with my family. We continued rehearsing our band, Third Road, though apart from

recording a four-track sampler CD we have done little live gigs wont resume until after

Easter. Due to being overwhelmed with business-course work, I was unable to attend a

Sydney gig played by Hawkwind, though Danny Lovecraft and Perry Grayson made it, and I

believe Phillip A. Ellis might also have attended. On the 19th of March was another Sydney

50th birthday party (Hawaiian-themed) for Jacqui Sequeira, wife of my colleague Chris;Margi, Graham and I attended and had a good time catching up with many old mutual

friends including Pete Wilson from the ska band Backy

Skank and Chris brother Mark who plays in a band

called The Prehistorics. The less said about the NSW

State Election in late March, the better.

On April 10 I attended another brilliant gig,

The Churchs A Psychedelic Symphony. This

momentous concert, in which the band was

accompanied by the symphony of the Sydney

University, at the Sydney Opera House, was truly

magnificent and a worthy 30th birthday celebration forthe band. (They have long been my favourite Aussie rock band I first saw them in 1980 and


4/9

have tried to see them as often as possible ever since). As I write, we have just returned from

a trip to Victorian over Easter (Eostre) to attend a Witchcamp. (See

http://witchcamp.australiareclaiming.org.au/). I was not supposed to run anything there but

ended up being unable to resist jumping into the fray and offering an impromptu workshop

on the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram for a dozen people, plus did a Thelemic

circle-casting for a major ritual of the event. It was great to get away from the four walls for awhile.

I would have loved to see Bob Dylan live (he has just played Australia) but the price

of a ticket, and the timing, made it impossible. By the time this issue reaches you I should be

in business, as Proof Perfect, and will probably be busier than ever. Meanwhile, Margi

participated in an art exhibition with a group of women friends who go under the moniker of

the Tin Shed Gallery. The couple of weeks before Easter were very busy for her as she and

Graham framed her work and readied the exhibition. The show went really well and Margi

sold several pieces. Danny & Margaret Lovecraft, and Kyla Ward, were amongst the visitors.Below: I thought it would be amusing to run these three photos side by side. They are all taken

at the Van Wickle Gates of Brown University, the ornamental entrance to the main campus area at the

corners of College Street and Prospect Street in Providences College Hill. The photo of Lovecraft

appears in Arkham Houses Selected Letters Vol 3 facing p. 134, where it is notoriously miscaptioned

H.P. Lovecraft in Brooklyn. The photo of me at the same place where Lovecraft sat was taken during

the H.P. Lovecraft Centennial Conference in 1990; I was all of thirty at the time! The photo of S.T. Joshi

in the same location was taken, I believe, a couple of years ago. I wonder what Lovecraft would think

about having acolytes who emulate him to the extent of having their portraits taken at locations dear to

him!

.

HPL

LDB

STJLeft: Dreams of the Fishermans Wife by Masami Teraoka - a modern

interpretation of the octopus sex theme in Japanese art. Teraoka seems to have

done a number of paintings on this rather Lovecraftian theme (though I am not sure

Lovecraft would have approved of the overt eroticism.) I may run other examples

of his work in future issues.


5/9

Longtime operator of publishing firm dies

Posted: Monday, March 28, 2011 12:17 pm

April Derleth, the operator of Sauk City's Arkham House publishing firm since the 1980s,

died Monday at the age of 56.

Derleth was the daughter of the late August Derleth, a Sauk City native who wrote books

featuring life in the Wisconsin River Valley, including "Walden West." August Derleth

founded Arkham House, a science-fiction publishing house that was the country's first to

publish the poet and fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft, said August Derleth's widow, Sandra

Kiser.

Kiser said their daughter was a very forceful person. Like her father, Kiser said, "when she

entered a room, you noticed her right away."

Derleth, who still lived on the wooded 10-acre property of the publishing house her fatheroperated until his death in 1971, enjoyed hiking and other outdoor activities, her mother said.

She enjoyed travelling and visited Hawaii every summer in recent years with Kiser and their

family. Kiser said she traveled frequently when she was vice president of Mueller Sports

Medicine in Prairie du Sac. She also loved dogs, and "took in every dog there was," Kiser said.

No service has been scheduled for Derleth.

Wisconsin State Journal

Arkham House announces the passing of April Derleth(Sauk City, WI) - April Rose Derleth, President and C.E.O. of Arkham House Publishers, Inc.,

passed away on Monday, March 21, 2011, at her home in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Derleths

death was unexpected and an autopsy

showed she died of natural causes. The

daughter of renowned Wisconsin author

August Derleth, April was born on August

9, 1954. April and her brother, Walden

Derleth acquired Arkham House Publishers

after their fathers passing in 1971. The

senior Derleth was a prolific writer who co-founded Arkham House Publishers in 1939

with author Donald Wandrei for the sole

purpose of publishing the works of H.P.

Lovecraft. April earned a Bachelor of Arts

degree in English from the University of

Wisconsin-Madison in 1977. She became majority stockholder, President, and CEO of

Arkham House in 1994. She remained in that capacity until her passing. She was known in

the community as a naturalist and humanitarian. April Derleth is survived by her brother,

Walden, her children, Damon Derleth and Danielle Jacobs, and her Aunt Hildred Anderson.She is also survived by her mother, Sandra Kiser, Tracy Kiser, Kathryn Kiser Goss, Valerie


6/9

Kiser Shore, and Margaret Kiser Normoyle. A private memorial service for friends will be

held on Saturday, April 2, 2011. The children have asked that in lieu of flowers that a

donation is made to The April Derleth Memorial Fund, % Bank of Prairie du Sac, P.O. Box

130, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin 53578.Arkham House has temporarily suspended operations

and plans to reopen at a date yet to be determined. An announcement will be made and fans

of Arkham House can watch for future developments at ArkhamHouse.com.

The Joshi-Blackmore Letters: Part 1

It occurred to me recently

that some of the correspondence I

have from some 25 years ago or

more with Lovecraftians may be

of interest to reprint. I first

thought of reprinting my letters to

and from ST Joshi, although it

seems that while most of my

letters from STJ survive, I have no

copies of most that I wrote him.

(They were probably largely insignificant). But Joshis letters have historical significance since

he is one of our most important critics. ST has kindly given me permission to reprint these

letters, so Im making a start here with my two earliest letters from him, from 20 April and 7

May, 1983. (I hope hell forgive me for including the pic of him from around that era; in my

defense, I am including a bespectacled pic of myself from the same period).

S.T. is a year older than I am, being born in 1958, so at this time he would have been

approaching a tender 25 years of age, while I was 24. A Lovecraftian pioneer from the word

go, Joshi had already published such works on Lovecraft as H. P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft

Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1981) (a volume

only recently superseded by his completely updated/revised edition: H.P. Lovecraft: A

Comprehensive Bibliography (University of Tampa Press, 2009);An Index to the Selected Letters of

H.P. Lovecraft (Necronomicon Press, 1980; 2nd ed, 1991), and H. P. Lovecraft (StarmontReader's Guide 13) (Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1982). And he had edited

Lovecrafts Uncollected Prose and Poetry (with Marc A. Michaud) (3 vols, Necronomicon Press,

19781982) , H. P. Lovecraft in "The Eyrie" (with Marc A. Michaud) (Necronomicon Press,1979)

and H. P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio State University Press,1980).

In 1983 and 1984 I was attending Sydney University, undertaking a never-to-be-

completed degree in Semitic Studies and English. Having been obsessed by Lovecraft since

the age of 13 when I discovered his writings while at high school in Newcastle NSW, I had

also become obsessed with collecting every possible printing of Lovecrafts work (and of

work about him), which naturally led to contacting S.T. to propose a bibliographic update to

his 1981 Kent State University bibliography. (The update was eventually published by

Necronomicon Press). I had published a few trifling essays on Lovecraft in the small press

and was living in a caravan in my parents back yard while doing my tertiary studies. I was

also playing in my band Worm Technology at the time, as well as working on TheAustralian

Horror and Fantasy Magazine. Ah, how long ago it all was!

I believe these letters will interest serious Joshi enthusiasts and scholars as showing

some of the development of STs early work and some strains of his thinking at that time.


7/9

Below: Some ads from Don Boyds magazine Australian Futuristic Science, placed

when I was trying to contact kindred Lovecraftian spirits in the early 1980s.

Below: Three illustrations done by Rama Mithiran for The Australian Horror and Fantasy

Magazine but which were never used there. Mithiran was one of Barry Radburns art

discoveries but vanished,

leaving no trace, about 1985


8/9

Mantichorus: Mailing CommentsSSWFT #40 (Feb 2, 2010)Vole (Ellis): Quite a few book purchases there, my son! On your Ramsey Campbell study, Id

be happy to help out with texts. I have all RCs novels and collections up until about 2005 (I

missed a couple since then). Right now reading his Grin of the Dark. Ive been in touch with

Gary Crawford re: the essay collection and it appears Ill be contributing an essay on dolls &

puppets in Campbell. Looking forward to your other essays. Condolences re: your recent loss

of your stepfather.

Dalriadic (Sheaffer): Congrats on Brianes pregnancy! The TZ material was of great interest,

as usual.

Sercon (Phillips): I agree with you that detailed studies of Druidry could hardly be written by

any one scholar. Nevertheless there are several excellent works in my collection which are

fairly comprehensive I particularly recommend those volumes edited by John Matthews,

several of which collect important source documents. And an excellent compilation of the

Druidic wisdom is The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg (J. Williams ab Ithel, ed; Samuel Weiser,

2004). It combines medieval Welsh bardic traditions with the innovative approach of the

Regency Welsh bard Morganwg. MythosCon sounds wonderful I only wish I could have

been there! And congrats on your 70th birthday! I am gradually reading FROM THE

CAULDRON, savouring its delicious antiquities and varied moodsYou have been

multifariously active of late!

Snow Queen (Dea Phillips): Your visit to Copenhagen and Odense sounds delightful So glad

you were able to meet Henrik and family. So your ancestry is Danish?

Hyperborean (Andersson): Envy your wide reading and purchasing, as ever. Enjoyed your

description of Mythoscon. Thanks for all the news on forthcoming Lovecraftian titles. Well-

spotted about the Dunsany glitch!

Hesperia (Haefele): I enjoyed your Smith piece in Weird Fiction Review 1 (and commented on it

in my review of WFR1 for Dead Reckonings) Id love the EOD to go over to e-mailings but I

believe our esteemed O.E. feels that it would not go over well with the bulk of the

membership.

EOD # 153 (Candlemas/Feb 2, 2010)Welcome to the three new members, Chris Jarocha-Ernst, Tom Lynch and Larry Roberts. I

hope you enjoy your participation in the APA.

Potpourri (Drake):I always enjoy your tales of the research for your books. Gives me some

ideas for research for the thriller Im currently planning.

Performers (Everts): Fascinating material on Cunha.

Morgan & Rice (Burlesons): Ah cats! Who can resist them? We have three Hades,

Persephone and Beltane. Sorry you didnt get to Mythoscon. Glad you were able to read a bit

of the CyrillicWraiths (Hall): Thanks for reviews, and for the Derleth letter to Wandrei. I always appreciate

the chance to read such correspondence.

Criticaster (Walker): Good notes on Letters to Alfred Galpin. Id love to get the DVD series of

Thriller. Enjoyable miscellany, as ever.

Raw (Goodrich): Good luck with your new studies, John. And I always enjoy your reviews.

Redux (Livesey): Your zine always stretches my brain out of its comfort zone a bit but I enjoy

that. Lovecrafts approach to materialism is a fertile ground for discussion.

Aurora (Andersson). Thanks for transcribing that newspaper piece. I thought I would have to

get my magnifying glass out to pore over it! A curious early mention of HPL.

Hesperia (Haefele) See comments under SSWFT above.

Kommati & Snow Queen (Phillipses) see comments under SSWFT above.Crier (Roberts?) Welcome, and thanks for the Miskatonic River Press info.


9/9

Dark Entries (Briggs) : Scott, Ive owed you a letter for WAY too long!

Anyway, lots of good stuff in your zine. It looks like del Toro might NOT

get to make AtMoM, which is tragic. I hope the project can be

resurrected (though, without Tom Cruise would be good). Ive always

thought Peter Weller (pictured, the star of Naked Lunch and the Robocop

movies) would make an excellent HPL lookalike in some movie. He would be great cast asthe narrator of AtMoM (if it were up to me). Thanks for your flattering and extensive

comments on my poetry collection a few issues back; I think I neglected to thank you earlier.

Re: Todd Rundgren, Im happy to burn you any or all his albums if you like. You absolutely

must have A WIZRAD A TRUE STAR and a couple of the Utopia albums as well, they are

crucial! ARENA is the best of his recent albums though they are all brilliant with a unique

quirky difference from one to the next. Let me know if you want Cds and Ill run you off a

bunch. Its hard for me to single out a list of must-have Todd, theyre all great but I would

highly recommend LIARS, NEARLY HUMAN and NO WORLD ORDER. Others of the early

greats include INITIATION, HEALING and TODD (1974 double album).

Sidereal (Dapkus): I enjoyed the Candlemas theme. You may like to know that in the

Thelemic tradition, which I practice, Candlemas (or Imbolc) is celebrated as The Feast of theStars. February 2 is assigned to the letter alpha , the pentagram. The sun is passing through

Aquarius, corresponding to the element of Air. The pertinent god-form is that of Nuit-Isis,

represented by the presiding officer, Mater Coeli./ I really enjoyed the Ganley and Phillips

poems.

Anything? (Joshi) : Thanks for the intro to the new compilation of HPLs favourite horror

stories. I am particularly looking forward to Unutterable Horror, and as an inveterate reader of

bibliographies to those you have in progress on Smith, Bradbury, Machen and Campbell. So

many books streaming from your editorial handThe Morton letters to HPL and the joint

Smith/ Lovecraft letters are also awaited with bated breath.

Left: One of the signed books from my collection. I metDouglas Adams in approx 1995 when Dymocks Bookstore in

Sydney, where I ran the sf department, hosted a signing for

him which celebrated the release of his CD-ROM game Starship

Titanic. Adams died some five or six years later.

Mantichore 21 Apr 2011Part1

Documents

Transcript of Mantichore 21 Apr 2011Part1