Cold Print (short story)

Cold Print (short story)
Author	Ramsey Campbell
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror Short Fiction
Date of writing	1969

"Cold Print" is a short story by English horror writer Ramsey Campbell that first appeared in the anthology Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (Arkham House, 1969). One of the first stories in the Cthulhu Mythos to deal seriously with sexual themes, it is offered by critic Bobby Derie as evidence that "there can be a story that is truly Lovecraftian that is also sexually aware."

Synopsis

A man with a very specific taste in reading is lured to an obscure bookstore on the promise of finding a new source to feed his obsession. There he meets an evil entity searching for someone to be his next High Priest . . . or meal.

Characters

• Sam Strutt, a schoolteacher with a penchant for sado-masochistic literature.
• The Man, a terrified former bookbuyer who has read too much.
• Y'golonac, a Great Old One who has taken on the form of a bookseller he consumed.

Publication History

Written in 1969, "Cold Print" was included in the Ramsey Campbell collection of the same name in 1985 by Scream/Press. It has also appeared in his Dark Feasts: The World of Ramsey Campbell (Robinson, 1987), Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961–1991 (Arkham House, 1993), and Visions from Brichester (PS Publishing, 2015).

Mythos Connections

• "Cold Print" is set in Brichester, part of the fictional Severn Valley created by Campbell as a setting for many of his Mythos stories. The Severn Valley village of Goatswood is also referred to.
• The story is the first appearance of the Great Old One Y'golonac, described as a towering headless figure with wet red mouths on the palms of its hands.
• The story makes reference to several Mythos entities, including Cthulhu and Shub-Niggurath, and Campbell's creations Glaaki, Eihort, Byatis and Daoloth.
• Sam Strutt reads from The Revelations of Glaaki, another Campbell contribution. Ultimate Press, its publisher, is also mentioned in Campbell's story "Potential"; the press's forthcoming book by Johannes Henricus Pott is described in Campbell's "The Mine on Yuggoth" as "the horrible untitled Johannes Henricus Pott book."
• The character of Roland Franklyn from "The Franklyn Paragraphs" is mentioned, although "Cold Print" was written four years earlier.
• Both H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth are mentioned as authors whose books are sold in Y'golonac's bookstore.