Collected Essays Volume 5: Philosophy, Autobiography & Miscellany by HP Lovecraft edited by ST Joshi (book review).

In some ways, this volume of the excellent perhaps even essential ‘Collected Essays’ series is the most difficult to review objectively. While HP Lovecraft’s thoughts on astronomy and urban architecture, covered in earlier volumes in the series, were generally benign and frequently insightful, his views on the human condition were and remain difficult to handle. While he espoused a philosophical worldview rooted in scientific materialism, he also held beliefs about race, democracy and even alcohol consumption that are problematic today.

The very first essay sets the tone for some of what follows. Describing WW1 as ‘The Crime Of The Century’, Lovecraft frames the war as a ‘fratricide’ between the Germans and the English, the two races that he believes sit at the very top of the human order. The essay itself is lively and well-written and, if you accept his point of view, Lovecraft makes a compelling case for the pointlessness of warfare between civilised nations. But at the same time, he cannot help being at best dismissive of the other nations involved, like the French and Italians, whom he regards as showing all the signs of ‘national degeneracy’.

Similarly, a later essay, ‘Americanism’, tackles issues that are as relevant today as they were in 1919, but does so through the lens of someone who idolises British civilisation and sees the United States as a product of the Anglo-Saxon colonists who created their liberty through ‘toil and bloodshed’. Lovecraft recognises that many immigrants to the United States come from places other the British Isles and accepts that some have become ‘valuable acquisitions to the population’. Yet he draws parallels with the European nations that are not Anglo-Saxon or Germanic in nature and considers immigration from such lands as akin to alloying English gold with alien brass, unlikely ‘to produce an alloy superior or even equal’ to the original.

Yet, it would be unfair to characterise Lovecraft as entirely reactionary in nature. A long and unpublished draft of a letter intended for the ‘Providence Journal’ is a spirited defence of Roosevelt’s New Deal from someone who declares himself drawn from an ‘hereditarily Republican’ background. The central argument is that he and the readers of ‘The Journal’ were living in such complicated times, the old solutions simply won’t work. Instead, a degree of experimentation has to be tolerated and, even if not all the programmes the Democrats were trying would work, at least they recognised the need for innovation.

His ‘Defence Of Dagon’ is one of the best know essays in the book. Even those who haven’t read the essay itself will have heard references to it, since it’s one the clearest encapsulations of Lovecraft’s worldview. Written for one of the amateur press journals, the ‘Defence’ ranges across such themes as art for art’s sake, materialism and the oblivion that exists after death. It’s an effective piece, explaining his disinterest about telling stories about characters or in providing morally uplifting fables.

While almost half of the book contains an assortment of philosophical and political discussions such as those outlined above, the remainder is a mix of autobiographical and miscellaneous pieces that Lovecraft wrote at different times throughout his life. These include the famous ‘Commonplace Book’ where he wrote down various story ideas as they came to him. Some were developed into stories and there’s a considerable degree of fun to be had here spotting those.

There are also the notes he used while writing some of his stories. The ones for ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ included Lovecraft’s own sketches of the Elder Things, while the notes for ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ provides such details as the name of the narrator, never given in the published novella and a map of Innsmouth.

The autobiographical lists and notes include all sorts of curiosities and, it has to be said, underline the difference between his sometimes unpleasant political and philosophical beliefs and the actual man himself. So, alongside brief autobiographies, there are advertisements for his ghost-writing services; notes on clothing stores indicating his tastes and budgetary limitations; and, most endearingly of all, a simple comment from the back of a business card for ‘John’s Spaghetti House’, ‘my favourite restaurant’.

This last line is a good place to wrap up this review. As mentioned at the start, it’s hard to approach Lovecraft’s philosophical beliefs in an entirely neutral way. He was, at best, narrow-minded in many ways: fearful of people who looked and sounded different and hopelessly deluded by his own sense of the social superiority of the aristocratic class he felt he belonged to. At the same time, those who knew him liked him and the autobiographical essays and outlines in this collection do much to explain why.

Editor ST Joshi does a good job providing brief commentaries to the material in this collection that helps to put them in context, but leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions. I think that’s wise, as it leaves Lovecraft to do the talking exactly as he is: a man of his time. Overall, an excellent collection of material that rounds out the ‘Collected Essays’ series very nicely indeed.

Neale Monks

January 2024

(pub: Hippocampus Press, 2023. 384 page small enlarged paperback. Price: $25.00 (US). ISBN: 978-0-97615-923-0)

check out website: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/sources/ce5.aspx