| REH, HPL and the Cthulhu Mythos by Glenn Lord |
The June 1930 issue of Weird Tales published as its Weird Story Reprint, H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the
Walls.” This prompted Robert E. Howard to write to editor Farnsworth Wright, praising the story and
commenting – Howard being a student of Celtic lore -- Lovecraft, based on evidence in the story, obviously
held to Edward Lluhd’s theory as to the settling of Britain by the Celts, as opposed to Cymric precedence,
which theory Howard favored.
Wright forwarded the letter to Lovecraft, who wrote Howard on July 20, 1930, thereby initiating a major
correspondence that continued until Howard’s death in 1936, and would fill four hundred closely-typed
pages. Selections from the Howard side of the correspondence appear in Selected Letters 1923-1930
(Necronomicon Press, 1989) and Selected Letters 1931-1936 (Necronomicon Press, 1991), while edited
portions of the Lovecraft side appear in the final three volumes of Arkham House’s editions of Selected
Letters.
Howard’s correspondence with Lovecraft covered a diversity of topics, including local, state, national and
international occurrences, historical and American West lore, praise for Lovecraft’s writing, and a lengthy,
sometime heated argument on the physical vs. the mental.
In his second letter to Lovecraft (circa August 1930), Howard wrote: “I have noted in your stories you refer
to Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, R’lyeh, Yuggoth, etc. Would it be asking too much to tell me the significance of
the above mentioned names or terms? And the Arab Alhazred and the Necronomicon. The mention of
these things in your superb stories have whetted my interest immensely. I would extremely appreciate any
information you would give me regarding them.”
Lovecraft, of course, informed Howard that these beings, alien worlds, and the mad Arab and his
blasphemous tome were but figments of his imagination; and, as he was wont to do, encouraged Howard to
utilize them in his stories.
Howard obviously required little encouragement, for only two months later, he wrote: “by the way, I recently
sold Weird Tales a short story, ‘The Children of the Night,’ in which I deal with Mongoloid-aborigine
legendry, touch cryptically on the Bran cult, and hint darkly and vaguely of the nameless things connected
with Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Tsathoggua and the Necronomicon; as well as quoting from Flecker’s ‘Gates of
Damascus’ and lending them a cryptic meaning which I’m sure would have astounded the poet remarkably.”
There would be only three stories in the Lovecraftian vein published in Howard’s lifetime. Of the second,
“The Black Stone,” which is considered his finest Mythos story, he wrote deprecatingly: “as for ‘The Black
Stone’ … since reading it over in print, I feel rather absurd. The story sounds as if I were trying, in my
feeble and blunderingly crude way, to deliberately copy your style. Your literary influence on that particular
tale, while unconscious on my part, was nonetheless strong. And indeed, many writers of the bizarre are
shoeing your influence in their work, not only in Weird Tales but in other magazines as well; earlier
evidence of an influence which will grow greater as time goes on, for it is inevitable that your work and art
will influence the whole stream of American weird literature, and eventually the weird literature of the
world.”
“The Thing on the Roof” was submitted to Weird Tales sometime in the Spring of 1931, and rejected by
Farnsworth Wright as “too erudite for the general reader.” Following rejections by Strange Tales and
Argosy, Wright asked to see the story again, accepting it in July 1931.
Upon the story’s publication in the February 1932 Weird Tales, Howard wrote to Lovecraft: “Please extend to
Mr. [W. Paul] Cook my greetings and best wishes, and my appreciation for his kind comments on my story.”
Lovecraft scribbled this notation” “’Thing on the Roof’ good. Must use Von Junzt & Geoffrey.”
Lovecraft did indeed use Von Junzt and his Nameless Cults in “The Dreams in the Witch-House which was
published in 1933. Howard wrote: “I feel honored that you should refer to Von Junzt’s accursed document
and thanks for the German of ‘Nameless Cults,’ which I’ll use in referring to it.”
On August 29, 1936, less than three months after Howard’s death, his father, Dr. I.M Howard wrote to agent
Otis Adelbert Kline: “there are three manuscripts ready to mail to Weird Tales … ‘Black Hound of Death,’
‘Fire of Asshurbanipal’ and ‘Dig Me No Grave.’ There was a notation on the back of the envelope directing
me to send these to Weird Tales in case of his death. … These were the last stories he wrote and were
mailed after his death …”
Dr. Howard was in error on “The Fire of Asshurbanipal” and “Dig Me No Grave,” under the title of “John
Grimlan’s Debt,” had been submitted to Ghost Stories in 1930, and rejected. Nothing is known about the
submission record of “The Fire of Asshurbanipal,” but this early manuscript does exist, and the original
version has been recently published in Robert M. Price’s anthology Nameless Cults (Chaosium, 2002).
Despite a few elements of the Mythos, the original version of the story is basically straight adventure, and it
may have been submitted to some of Howard’s potential markets like Argosy or Far East.
The denouement of “The Fire of Asshurbanipal” was extensively expanded and rewritten, adding many
more elements of the Mythos. It is probably safe to say that “John Grimlan’s Debt” was revised; certainly
the title was changed.
Robert E. Howard’s Lovecraftian Mythos period probably barely lasted nine months, if that. Nevertheless,
he did write several excellent stories and did contribute several elements to the Mythos, the most notable
being Von Junzt’s Nameless Cults (Unaussprechlichen Kulten). Other elements, like the Bran cult and the
Serpent Men of Valusia, were appropriated from Howard’s non-Mythos stories.
Copyright 2004 Glenn Lord
Walls.” This prompted Robert E. Howard to write to editor Farnsworth Wright, praising the story and
commenting – Howard being a student of Celtic lore -- Lovecraft, based on evidence in the story, obviously
held to Edward Lluhd’s theory as to the settling of Britain by the Celts, as opposed to Cymric precedence,
which theory Howard favored.
Wright forwarded the letter to Lovecraft, who wrote Howard on July 20, 1930, thereby initiating a major
correspondence that continued until Howard’s death in 1936, and would fill four hundred closely-typed
pages. Selections from the Howard side of the correspondence appear in Selected Letters 1923-1930
(Necronomicon Press, 1989) and Selected Letters 1931-1936 (Necronomicon Press, 1991), while edited
portions of the Lovecraft side appear in the final three volumes of Arkham House’s editions of Selected
Letters.
Howard’s correspondence with Lovecraft covered a diversity of topics, including local, state, national and
international occurrences, historical and American West lore, praise for Lovecraft’s writing, and a lengthy,
sometime heated argument on the physical vs. the mental.
In his second letter to Lovecraft (circa August 1930), Howard wrote: “I have noted in your stories you refer
to Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, R’lyeh, Yuggoth, etc. Would it be asking too much to tell me the significance of
the above mentioned names or terms? And the Arab Alhazred and the Necronomicon. The mention of
these things in your superb stories have whetted my interest immensely. I would extremely appreciate any
information you would give me regarding them.”
Lovecraft, of course, informed Howard that these beings, alien worlds, and the mad Arab and his
blasphemous tome were but figments of his imagination; and, as he was wont to do, encouraged Howard to
utilize them in his stories.
Howard obviously required little encouragement, for only two months later, he wrote: “by the way, I recently
sold Weird Tales a short story, ‘The Children of the Night,’ in which I deal with Mongoloid-aborigine
legendry, touch cryptically on the Bran cult, and hint darkly and vaguely of the nameless things connected
with Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Tsathoggua and the Necronomicon; as well as quoting from Flecker’s ‘Gates of
Damascus’ and lending them a cryptic meaning which I’m sure would have astounded the poet remarkably.”
There would be only three stories in the Lovecraftian vein published in Howard’s lifetime. Of the second,
“The Black Stone,” which is considered his finest Mythos story, he wrote deprecatingly: “as for ‘The Black
Stone’ … since reading it over in print, I feel rather absurd. The story sounds as if I were trying, in my
feeble and blunderingly crude way, to deliberately copy your style. Your literary influence on that particular
tale, while unconscious on my part, was nonetheless strong. And indeed, many writers of the bizarre are
shoeing your influence in their work, not only in Weird Tales but in other magazines as well; earlier
evidence of an influence which will grow greater as time goes on, for it is inevitable that your work and art
will influence the whole stream of American weird literature, and eventually the weird literature of the
world.”
“The Thing on the Roof” was submitted to Weird Tales sometime in the Spring of 1931, and rejected by
Farnsworth Wright as “too erudite for the general reader.” Following rejections by Strange Tales and
Argosy, Wright asked to see the story again, accepting it in July 1931.
Upon the story’s publication in the February 1932 Weird Tales, Howard wrote to Lovecraft: “Please extend to
Mr. [W. Paul] Cook my greetings and best wishes, and my appreciation for his kind comments on my story.”
Lovecraft scribbled this notation” “’Thing on the Roof’ good. Must use Von Junzt & Geoffrey.”
Lovecraft did indeed use Von Junzt and his Nameless Cults in “The Dreams in the Witch-House which was
published in 1933. Howard wrote: “I feel honored that you should refer to Von Junzt’s accursed document
and thanks for the German of ‘Nameless Cults,’ which I’ll use in referring to it.”
On August 29, 1936, less than three months after Howard’s death, his father, Dr. I.M Howard wrote to agent
Otis Adelbert Kline: “there are three manuscripts ready to mail to Weird Tales … ‘Black Hound of Death,’
‘Fire of Asshurbanipal’ and ‘Dig Me No Grave.’ There was a notation on the back of the envelope directing
me to send these to Weird Tales in case of his death. … These were the last stories he wrote and were
mailed after his death …”
Dr. Howard was in error on “The Fire of Asshurbanipal” and “Dig Me No Grave,” under the title of “John
Grimlan’s Debt,” had been submitted to Ghost Stories in 1930, and rejected. Nothing is known about the
submission record of “The Fire of Asshurbanipal,” but this early manuscript does exist, and the original
version has been recently published in Robert M. Price’s anthology Nameless Cults (Chaosium, 2002).
Despite a few elements of the Mythos, the original version of the story is basically straight adventure, and it
may have been submitted to some of Howard’s potential markets like Argosy or Far East.
The denouement of “The Fire of Asshurbanipal” was extensively expanded and rewritten, adding many
more elements of the Mythos. It is probably safe to say that “John Grimlan’s Debt” was revised; certainly
the title was changed.
Robert E. Howard’s Lovecraftian Mythos period probably barely lasted nine months, if that. Nevertheless,
he did write several excellent stories and did contribute several elements to the Mythos, the most notable
being Von Junzt’s Nameless Cults (Unaussprechlichen Kulten). Other elements, like the Bran cult and the
Serpent Men of Valusia, were appropriated from Howard’s non-Mythos stories.
Copyright 2004 Glenn Lord
| Website Copyright ©2008 by Damon C. Sasser. All Rights Reserved. |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
REH: Two-Gun Raconteur
The Definitive Howard Journal
The Definitive Howard Journal