Goddamnit, Howie.

Nyarlathotep is the god of global warming, stock market crashes, nuclear bombs, and dust bowls. He is also the god of black holes, colliding galaxies, and the eventual heat death of the universe. He is the ONE TRUE GOD who nothing can defy in the end.

And here it is. My last Lovecraft story post. Three short pieces, two of them co-written, one of them a Lovecraft original.

"The Transition of Juan Romero" was written in 1919, so this is another early, pre-Sonya piece. Not as early as "The Mysterious Ship," but still. It was published in 1944 by Arkham House, the tribute-publisher created by August Derleth and several other Lovecraft friends and admirers after Lovecraft's death.

"The Mysterious Ship" was written in 1902. No, this isn't going to be a joke post like "The Little Glass Bottle." While nobody writes anything GOOD at age twelve, I feel like that's around the age where literary talent starts to take shape and show signs of coherence and thoughtfulness. So, there's a chance this might actually show some early seeds of things we'll recognize.

Meanwhile, "The Beast in the Cave," the second story Lovecraft ever published, was written just three years after this. So, we've seen Lovecraft's writing as of age seven, and as of age fifteen. Let's see how his abilities developed during the time between those ages!

:3

This story, it seems, is actually not solely a Lovecraft creation. HPL collaborated with another United Amateur author named Anna Crofts, schoolteacher, poet, and classicist.

Humans Are Bastards

I’m just not buying this.

They're following a color-changing bird now. That's a really cool mental image.

"Dagon" might be one of the most important stories in the history of the horror genre. Which is ironic, because if my memory is anything to go by it’s bad.

So, let's snicker at it.

Unlike the previous stories, this is one that I've already read, though not since my teens. I wish I could say I recall "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" fondly, but unfortunately I remember it as the first time in my life that I looked up from a book with a dazed, haunted look in my eyes and muttered "What the fuck did I just read?"

The United Co-Operative sounds like some massive international agency. Actually, it was a tiny, short-lived side project undertaken by Lovecraft and a few of his new friends from The Vagrant. Lovecraft was one of the joint editors of this ostentatiously named writing mini-zine, and this short vignette of his appeared in its first issue in 1919.

Let's see if fifteen year old Lovecraft can outwrite Christopher Paolini; my money is on "yes," but we'll find out.

"Samuel Johnson" is another story I'd never heard of until now, so this will be another blind readthrough. It was published in 1917, in the next fall issue of The United Amateur. Unlike "The Alchemist" this one was written in the months leading up to publication, and was intended for United Amateur from the beginning.

Lovecraft’s first ever published story, featuring crumbling castles, morose noble scions, evil sorcerers, and discount Edgar Allan Poe phrasing.