August Derleth

"The mythical cycle of Cthulhu is expanded and enriched in this one-volume edition of tales.". "Conjuring myth out of horror, Derleth maps perilous journeys into an arcane world from a legend-haunted Arkham, Massachusetts - there the eldritch deity Yog-Sothoth lurks in a New England wood and the bodiless Lloigor breaks an occult contract to horrifying effect; there Dr. Laban Shrewsbury begins his probe into the unspeakable secrets of the Ancient One - to the drowned city of R'lyeh, where Cthulhu waits, dreaming."--BOOK JACKET.

This special illustrated and annotated edition of August Derleth's complete Mythos stories (aside from the Lovecraft collaborations) makes available for the first time all of the author's solo writings on the subject. It includes as well the three 1931 Mythos tales ("Lair of the Star Spawn," "Spawn of the Maelstrom," and "The Horror from the Depths") which Derleth wrote jointly with his Sauk City boyhood friend Mark Schorer. Along with "The House in the Oaks," left unfinished by Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Cimmerian and King Kull), completed and published by Derleth in 1971, the year of his own death. The bulk of In Lovecraft's Shadow, however, consisting entirely of Derleth's own Mythos stories, gives clear evidence of his skill and ingenuity at devising fresh - even provocative variations on Lovecraft's original idea. For instance, in "Those Who Seek" (the author's very first Mythos tale) and "Something from Out There," he sets the Mythos abroad, discovering Cthulhu horrors in English abbey ruins. By contrast, in both "Beyond the Threshold" and "The Thing That Walked on the Wind," the locale remains American, with Ithaqua, the Great Old One, stalking the North Woods of Wisconsin and Canada in pursuit of his prey. But, by far, most of Derleth's Mythos stories take place on familiar Lovecraft soil, in or near the decaying New England seaport towns of Arkham and Innsmouth. As do "The Return of Hastur" and "The Sandwin Compact" - both examples of his early work - in which canny old New Englanders, not so futilely, try to renege on obligations to the Great Old Ones, and - from the author's later period - the five-part Dr. Laban Shrewsbury series recounting the "blind but sighted" scholar's efforts to find and destroy Cthulhu's secret island lair, by means of an atomic bomb, if that proves necessary! Also included here are the 1962 essay, "A Note on the Cthulhu Mythos" (Derleth's succinct "last word" on the Mythos phenomenon) and some rare but relevant poetry: the never before reprinted "Incubus" (from a 1934 issue of Weird Tales); "Providence: Two Gentlemen Meet at Midnight" (a 1948 double homage to both Lovecraft and Poe); and "On Reading Old Letters. For H.P.L.," a newly discovered heart-felt tribute to his dead mentor, found among Derleth's papers and published here for the first time.

Monsters / Ed McBain -- The lemures / Steven Saylor -- The adventure of the dead cat / Ellery Queen -- The odstock curse / Peter Lovesey -- The theft of the Halloween pumpkin / Edward D. Hoch -- Hallowe'en for Mr. Faulkner / August Derleth -- Deceptions / Marcia Muller -- [Black Cat]( / Edgar Allan Poe -- Omjagod / James Grady -- The cloak / Robert Bloch -- What a woman wants / Michael Z. Lewin -- Yesterday's witch / Gahan Wilson -- Walpurgis night / Bram Stoker -- Trick or treat / Judith Garner -- One night at a time / Dorothy Cannell -- Night of the goblin / Talmage Powell -- Trick-or-treat / Anthony Boucher -- Pork pie hat / Peter Straub.

This is the sixth and last major collection of the Pontine series. However much the reader may regret bidding goodbye to a cherished friend of more than forty years' constance, the ten tales presented here make for a fine and fitting exit. The range and variety of the puzzle-problems are wide. There is the classic flight-and-pursuit motif of the espionage thriller, The Adventure of the Orient Express. The strangeness of The Adventure of the Benin Bronze and the grim search in The Adventure of the Missing Tenants are matched by the long and tangled web behind The Adventure of the Red Leech. Whether enjoyed as pure entertainment, or for the exercise of nimble minds in an attempt to outwit Solar Pons, the reader will find in these pages an additional reward: the easy flow of a prose style that is the hallmark of a superior craftsman.

CONTENTS: Introduction. What hath light wrought? / by Isaac Asimov Visitation. The midnight embrace / by Matthew Lewis The Frankenstein theme. The transformation / by Mary Shelley Dream state. The bold dragoon / by Washington Irving Drug addiction. Levana and our ladies of sorrow / by Thomas de Quincey Sorcery. The magician / by Lord Lytton Morphia influence. [Berenice]( / by Edgar Allan Poe Schizophrenia. The drunkard's dream / by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Claustrophobia. The man in the reservoir / by C.F. Hoffman The blood drinker. Haceldama / by Lafcadio Hearn Hallucination. The ensouled violin / by Madame Blavatsky Morbidity. Visions of the night / by Ambrose Bierce The legendary dream. The soldier's rest / by Arthur Machen A trauma of war. The bureau d'échange de Maux / by Lord Dunsany Psychic experience. The silver mirror / by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The occultist. The testament of Magdalen Blair / by Aleister Crowley Visionary. A dream of Armageddon / by H.G. Wells Ghostly visitation. A school story / by M.R. James Obsession. The grimoire / by Montague Summers Recluse. The evil clergyman / by H.P. Lovecraft Nightmare. The slayers and the slain / by August Derleth Fear of illness. The shifting growth / by John Gawsworth Arachnophobia. Along came a spider / by Algernon Blackwood Night fantasy. The head hunter / by Robert Bloch A waking dream. The haunting of the new / by Ray Bradbury The future. The curse / by Arthur C. Clarke

The summer job that was supposed to keep two boys out of trouble leads them instead into the middle of a small town mystery.

A biography which emphasizes the thoughts and words of the 19th century American philosopher.

poems wood cuts by frank utpatel

When two boys decide to investigate reports of a "monster" seen in the woods, they find themselves in more danger than they expected.

The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians is a Christmas story about an eccentric collector of Dickensiana, one Ebenezer Snawley, who dresses in nineteenth-century clothing and undergoes harassment from a man who bawls street cries near his dwelling. The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians" is one of two Pons stories published separately, the other being "The Adventure of the Orient Express," which was illustrated by Henry Lauritzen and published by Candlelight in 1965. Both stories were later collected in The Chronicles of Solar Pons. Because it was a short double-pastiche, specially illustrated, Derleth published The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians as a chapbook, in wrappers. The dedication describes the market for which the story was intended: For the Irregulars of Baker and Praed Streets—and all Dickensians: may their company increase!

This book is an associational item, for the growing numbers of Praed Street Irregulars, for whom Solar Pons has proved to be an entertaining latterday Sherlock Holmes. Here are the marginal writings concerning the beginnings of Solar Pons—the sources of the tales —Dr. Parker's background—the favorite pastiches of some readers and critics. Here also is a rich source of material about life at 7B, Praed Street—From the Notebooks of Dr. Lyndon Parker—in which we learn something of Solar Pons's inductive methods and certain minor cases brought to Pons's attention—the Park Lane housebreaking affair, the Morris will fraud, the Merstham Tunnel murder, the Foster assault, and, longest of all, The Adventure of the Bookseller's Clerk, a lesser adventure nowhere else published.

The boys find a youth tied up in an abandoned mill who tells them that he is a visiting prince and has been kidnapped from his Chicago hotel. Steve goes to the Windy City to investigate.