H. P. Lovecraft: Tales is a 2005 collection of Lovecraft's fiction edited by Peter Straub and published by the Library of America, a nonprofit publisher that says it "champions our nation’s cultural heritage by publishing America’s greatest writing in authoritative new editions":
“ | Widely recognized as the definitive collection of American writing, Library of America editions encompass all periods and genres—including acknowledged classics, neglected masterpieces, and historically important documents and texts—and showcase the vitality and variety of America’s literary legacy.[1] | „ |
Lovecraft's inclusion in a roster that includes the likes of Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Herman Melville was taken as a sign of his literary acceptance; the Los Angeles Review of Books cited the Library of America volume as evidence that "literary critics...are finally beginning to pay attention to this defiantly unfashionable writer."[2]
Not everyone was pleased with Lovecraft getting this recognition. Newsweek's Malcolm Jones offered him as exhibit A in his argument that "the Library of America is running out of writers": "maybe it's cruel to label H. P. Lovecraft a second-tier writer, but maybe not so mean to call him a fringe author." Other examples Jones gave of dubious choices were Philip K. Dick and Shirley Jackson, a "writer mostly famous for one short story."[3]
Lovecraft was not the first writer of weird fiction to be included in Library of America's canon, however; previous volumes had been dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, both featured prominently in Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror in Literature.
Contents[]
The stories included in H. P. Lovecraft: Tales are:
- "The Statement of Randolph Carter"
- "The Outsider"
- "The Music of Erich Zann"
- "Herbert West--Reanimator"
- "The Lurking Fear"
- "The Rats in the Walls"
- "The Shunned House"
- "The Horror at Red Hook"
- "He"
- "Cool Air"
- "The Call of Cthulhu"
- "Pickman's Model"
- "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"
- "The Colour Out of Space"
- "The Dunwich Horror"
- "The Whisperer in Darkness"
- "At the Mountains of Madness"
- "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"
- "The Dreams in the Witch-House"
- "The Thing on the Doorstep"
- "The Shadow Out of Time"
- "The Haunter of the Dark"
References[]
- ↑ Library of America, "Overview".
- ↑ Los Angeles Review of Books, "Let’s Get Weird: On Graham Harman’s H.P. Lovecraft", by Brian Kim Stefans, April 6, 2013.
- ↑ Newsweek, "Is the Library of America Irrelevant?" by Malcolm Jones, April 6, 2010.