title: Collected Essays of H. P. Lovecraft: Literary Criticism
author: H. P. Lovecraft
description: Lovecraft's writings in the realm of literary criticism are unfailingly acute and cover a surprisingly wide range. Besides his authoritative early essay on "The Literature of Rome" (1918), other works condemn free verse and simple spelling, and devote attention to neglected poets. Discovering weird fiction as his chosen field, he produced such scintillating essays as "Lord Dunsany and His Work" (1922) and "Supernatural Horror in Literature" (1927), along with essays on Frank Belknap Long and Clark Ashton Smith. Late in life Lovecraft codified his grasp of weird literature by writing such trenchant pieces as "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction" (1933) and "Some Notes on Interplanetary Fiction" (1934). One of his last writings, "Suggestions for a Reading Guide" (1936), is a comprehensive discussion of world literature. <br /><br />H. P. Lovecraft has belatedly received world renown as the twentieth centurys premier author of supernatural fiction; but during his lifetime he wrote far more essays than stories. This edition gathers Lovecrafts complete nonfictional output for the first time, arranged in broad thematic groupings. S. T. Joshi, the world's leading authority on Lovecraft, exhaustively annotates all texts, also providing critical and bibliographical notes.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  H. P. LOVECRAFT
  
  
  COLLECTION
  
  
  
  
  
  THE SILVER KEY
  
  
  When Randolph Carter was thirty he lost the key of the gate of dreams. Prior
  to that time he had made up for the prosiness of life by nightly excursions to
  strange and ancient cities beyond space, and lovely, unbelievable garden lands
  across ethereal seas; but as middle age hardened upon him he felt those
  liberties slipping away little by little, until at last he was cut off
  altogether. No more could his galleys sail up the river Oukranos past the
  gilded spires of Thran, or his elephant caravans tramp through perfumed
  jungles in Kled, where forgotten palaces with veined ivory columns sleep
  lovely and unbroken under the moon.
  
  
  
  
  
  He had read much of things as they are, and talked with too many people. Well-
  meaning philosophers had taught him to look into the logical relations of
  things, and analyse the processes which shaped his thoughts and fancies.
  Wonder had gone away, and he had forgotten that all life is only a set of
  pictures