Marginalia (collection)

Marginalia is a collection of Fantasy, Horror and Science fiction short stories, essays, biography and poetry by and about the American author H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in 1944 and was the third collection of Lovecraft's work published by Arkham House. 2,035 copies were printed.

Marginalia
Dust-jacket illustration by Virgil Finlay for Marginalia
AuthorH. P. Lovecraft
Cover artistVirgil Finlay
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy, Horror, Science fiction short stories, essay, biography, poetry
PublisherArkham House
Publication date
1944
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pagesx, 377 pp

The contents of this volume were selected by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. The dust-jacket art is a reproduction of Virgil Finlay's illustration for Lovecraft's story "The Shunned House."

Contents

Marginalia contains the following:

  1. "Foreword," by August Derleth & Donald Wandrei
  2. "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" (with Harry Houdini)
  3. "Medusa's Coil" (with Zealia Brown (Reed) Bishop)
  4. "Winged Death" (with Hazel Heald)
  5. "The Man of Stone" (with Hazel Heald)
  6. "Notes on the Writing of Weird Fiction"
  7. "Some Notes on Interplanetary Fiction"
  8. "Lord Dunsany and His Work"
  9. "Heritage or Modernism: Common Sense in Art Forms"
  10. "Some Backgrounds of Fairyland"
  11. "Some Causes of Self-Immolation"
  12. "A Guide to Charleston, South Carolina"
  13. "Observations on Several Parts of North America"
  14. "The Beast in the Cave"
  15. "The Transition of Juan Romero"
  16. "Azathoth"
  17. "The Book"
  18. "The Descendant"
  19. "The Very Old Folk"
  20. "The Thing in the Moonlight"
  21. "Two Comments"
  22. "His Own Most Fantastic Creation" by Winfield Townley Scott
  23. "Some Random Memories" by Frank Belknap Long
  24. "H. P. Lovecraft: An Appreciation" by T. O. Mabbott
  25. "The Wind That Is in the Grass: A Memoir of H. P. Lovecraft" by R. H. Barlow
  26. "Lovecraft and Science" by Kenneth Sterling
  27. "Lovecraft as a Formative Influence" by August Derleth
  28. "The Dweller in Darkness" by Donald Wandrei
  29. "To Howard Phillips Lovecraft" by Clark Ashton Smith
  30. "H.P.L." by Henry Kuttner
  31. "Lost Dream" by Emil Petaja
  32. "To Howard Phillips Lovecraft" by Francis Flagg
  33. "Elegy: In Providence the Spring ..." by August Derleth
  34. "From the Outsider: H. P. Lovecraft" by Charles E. White
  35. "In Memoriam: H. P. Lovecraft" by Richard Ely Morse

Reception

New York Times reviewer Marjorie Farber said Marginalia "should cause intense satisfaction among the disciples of the late great Master of Necrology", commenting that Lovecraft's "whole career seems an effective protest against 'natural laws', against genuine scholarship and against literary craftsmanship".[1] E. F. Bleiler noted that "The guest memoirs and essays are of varying interest", but that "Lovecraft's fiction is juvenile or minor. His essays are more significant".[2] Lovecraft bibliographer Francis T. Laney described the volume as "a glorified fan magazine in book format. . . . [presenting] an unforgettable composite view of Lovecraft as a man".[3]

References
  1. "Poesque Doodles", The New York Times Book Review, February 25, 1945, p.9
  2. E. F. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Kent State University Press, 1983 (p.324)
  3. "Banquets for Bookworms", The Acolyte, Spring 1945 (#10), p.26
  • Jaffery, Sheldon (1989). The Arkham House Companion. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, Inc. pp. 9–10. ISBN 1-55742-005-X.
  • Nielsen, Leon (2004). Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 52–54. ISBN 0-7864-1785-4.
  • Joshi, S.T. (1999). Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. pp. 25–26. ISBN 0-87054-176-5.
  • Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. pp. 27–28.
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