When The Stars Are Right: H. P. Lovecraft and Astronomy by Edward Guimont and Horace A. Smith (book review).

Before he published his fiction in the amateur press, H.P. Lovecraft wrote his own astronomy journal and had pieces published in local newspapers. Although he never received much formal education in science, he never lost his interest in astronomy, and his fiction, particularly his later works, is suffused with an appreciation for the scale and majesty of the cosmos. This appreciation takes many forms.

‘When The Stars Are Right’ guides the reader through Lovecraft’s career, starting from his youthful studies of the night sky with a small telescope, all the way through to his largely negative speculations on alien life. Even though Lovecraft wrote very little serious astronomy as an adult, he always strove to get the details right in his fiction and, later in life, attempted to train other writers, such as Frank Belnap Long, to be similarly precise.

Over the years, numerous essays have been written about Lovecraft’s interest in the stars, planets, and the advances in cosmology being made during his time. What really makes this volume stand out is the depth and authority of what’s provided on its pages. Edward Guimont, an historian, and Horrace A. Smith, a professor of astronomy, ensure that this isn’t mere speculation. Their comments, especially on the technical aspects like the optical limits of Lovecraft’s telescope in the first chapter, carry significant weight. The book even includes a delightful appendix describing the authors’ own observations through an ‘Excelsior’ telescope, the same type and vintage as Lovecraft’s.

Subsequent chapters assess Lovecraft’s astronomical equipment and books, his letters to the staff of the Ladd Observatory at Brown University, and several chapters on his observations and speculations about Venus, Mars, and the Moon. For instance, the first chapter on Venus focuses on his newspaper columns and letters, revealing his scientific skepticism and resistance to astrology, which he considered charlatanry for the gullible. Despite much of Lovecraft’s fiction involving magic and stars being in the ‘right’ places, he held a deep antipathy towards those who believed in such things.

The second chapter on Venus takes a different approach, focusing on the competing hypotheses of planet formation prevalent in Lovecraft’s time. The nebular hypothesis, which implied that the outer planets were formed first, is a key element in several of Lovecraft’s stories. This is notably evident in ‘The Shadow Out Of Time,’ where the Yithians flee a dying Earth in the far future, inhabiting the bodies of ‘bulbous vegetable entities of Mercury.’ In the same story, relative to our species, the Yithians have transferred minds with beings from Jupiter that lived millions of years in the past and with minds from Venus that ‘would live incalculable epochs to come.’

The chapter on ‘In The Walls Of Eryx,’ perhaps the longest piece of pure science fiction Lovecraft wrote, is also noteworthy. The authors compare the work to existing science fiction stories set on Venus, drawing parallels with Heinlein’s ‘Logic Of Empire’ and C.S. Lewis’ ‘Perelandra.’ Common themes like steamy swamps and reptilian inhabitants feature in these Venusian stories.

Chapter 11 turns from our own Solar System to the universe beyond. It delves into the full ‘cosmic horror’ aspect of Lovecraft’s work, stemming from the realization that our world and humanity itself are insignificant in the grand scale of the universe. The authors start with the concept of the Big Dumb Object, such as the megastructure in Larry Niven’s ‘Ringworld’ series, and draw parallels with ‘At The Mountains Of Madness,’ where ancient ruins of a lost space-faring civilization are discovered. They explore whether Lovecraft’s fiction could be considered ‘future history’ in the same vein as the works of Heinlein, Niven, or Arthur C. Clarke. They acknowledge the criticism directed at Lovecraft in the 60s and 70s for his reliance on dreams or mental projection rather than spaceships, but they also highlight his influence on modern science fiction, including ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek.’ They argue that some of Lovecraft’s stories align with Carl Sagan’s famous Pale Blue Dot declaration, albeit with a less optimistic conclusion.

Overall, Guimont and Smith do a fantastic job of portraying Lovecraft as a keen, yet ultimately frustrated, astronomer and elevating him to the top rank of early 20th-century science fiction authors. It’s refreshing to see a book on Lovecraft that doesn’t dwell on his philosophical beliefs or the Cthulhu mythos. Separated from his, at best, problematic attitudes towards race and politics, this deep and revealing digest of his astronomical writings is an absolute pleasure to read and comes highly recommended to any Lovecraft fan.

Neale Monks

December 2023

(pub: Hippocampus Press, 2023. 412 page enlarged paperback. Price: $25.00 (US). ISBN: 978-1-61498-407-8)

check out websites: www.hippocampuspress.com and www.hippocampuspress.com/other-authors/nonfiction/when-the-stars-are-right-h.-p.-lovecraft-and-astronomy