"older than mankind & wider than the known universe"

[eldritchhobbit]

Today is the birthday of H.P. Lovecraft!

I've posted several things about Lovecraft in the past. Here are a couple of posts that may still be of interest:
* Pictures of My Tour of Lovecraftian Providence
* Neil Gaiman's Writings Inspired by Lovecraft's work

Some of my favorite Lovecraft sites include the following:
* The H.P. Lovecraft Archive
* Index of The Works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft
* H.P. Lovecraft’s Library
* The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society
* "H.P. Lovecraft" by S.T. Joshi


And in other news...

* Congratulations to this year's worthy winners of The Mythopoeic Awards!

* Last Sunday the Hickory Daily Record ran "Welcome to LRU," an article about the transition of Lenoir-Rhyne College to Lenoir-Rhyne University. This is the school where my husband is Provost; the change, which will be official this Saturday, is the biggest in the institution's 117-year history.

* Also this Saturday is "Are We Alone?," a talk and reception at the Catawba Science Center and Planetarium featuring Dr. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer with the SETI Institute in California and Chair of the International Academy of Astronautics SETI Permanent Group. It should be a fascinating evening! I'm looking forward to attending. If anyone is in the area and interested, I hope you'll check out the event.


"In a rear vestry room beside the apse Blake found a rotting desk and ceiling-high shelves of mildewed, disintegrating books. Here for the first time he received a positive shock of objective horror, for the titles of those books told him much. They were the black, forbidden things which most sane people have never even heard of, or have heard of only in furtive, timorous whispers; the banned and dreaded repositories of equivocal secret and immemorial formulae which have trickled down the stream of time from the days of man's youth, and the dim, fabulous days before man was. He had himself read many of them - a Latin version of the abhorred Necronomicon, the sinister Liber Ivonis, the infamous Cultes des Goules of Comte d'Erlette, the Unaussprechlichen Kulten of von Junzt, and old Ludvig Prinn's hellish De Vermis Mysteriis. But there were others he had known merely by reputation or not at all - the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the Book of Dzyan, and a crumbling volume of wholly unidentifiable characters yet with certain symbols and diagrams shuddering recognizable to the occult student. Clearly, the lingering local rumours had not lied. This place had once been the seat of an evil older than mankind and wider than the known universe."
- from The Haunter of the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft

Comments

[euclase.livejournal.com]

OMG YAY! *jumps up and down*

I love me some Lovecraft. Har har har, see my winning way with random t-shirt slogans.

Oh hey, I got your card in the mail--and the gorgeous bookmarks! Thank you so much, dear! *hugs*

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

LOL! Yay! *hugs* Happy birthday!

[homespunheart.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday to the master!!! A cool rainy day, a warm quilt and a book of Lovecraft stories is my idea of perfection!!! Thank you for the awesome tour of Providence! The Shunned House gives me shivers.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

A cool rainy day, a warm quilt and a book of Lovecraft stories is my idea of perfection!!!

Add a mug of hot chocolate and I am there. :)

[serpentcoils.livejournal.com]

I always love to reread Neil's thoughts on Lovecraft. <3

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Me too! :)

[travisprinzi.livejournal.com]

Great quote from Haunter in the Dark. I always love those moments in Lovecraft's stories where he subtly ties his various stories together with hints at the "sinister" and "blasphemous" and lurking fear of hidden but organized, just-under-the-surface, dark ritual.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I know exactly what you mean. I love those passages!

Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but...

[abbie (from livejournal.com)]

Oh my! I contemplated listening to a Lovecraftian tale tonight in honor of the occasion, but hadn't gotten around to it yet...A while ago I put iTunes on shuffle, left the room for a while, and when I came back I heard this creepy low voice talking. Naturally, it freaked me out a bit. I looked at what was playing -- a narration of The Call of Cthulhu. I thought I had previously checked the box that says "skip when shuffling" for that one...

How delightfully and appropriately creepy!

Re: Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but...

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

LOL! That's so absolutely perfect. From beyond the grave, he's reaching out to you... courtesy of iTunes. :)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I loved the pictures of your tour. Such a lovely and interesting area! I wonder whose idea it was to decorate the Fleur de Lys Studio the way they did. I certainly can understand why Lovecraft used the setting.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for checking out my pictures! I had way too much fun doing all of that. The Fleur de Lys Studio is the most eccentric and fascinating building. When I took the students there, before I could even point it out (from amid the other buildings) or explain its significance, they were already pointing, saying, "What's up with that place?" It's just stunning. You're right: it's a perfect setting for his work. Who wouldn't have crazy dreams living there?