In this first volume, Lovecraft's relations to one of his most prominent colleagues and disciples, August Derleth (1909-1971), are recounted in the hundreds of letters they exchanged beginning in 1926. The youthful Derleth first wrote to Lovecraft, via i]Weird Tales /i] magazine, in regard to an obscure work of weird fiction, and their subsequent correspondence deals extensively with the history of weird fiction, the two authors' ongoing attempts to publish stories in pulp magazines, Derleth's evolution into a sensitive writer of regional fiction and of detective stories, and debates over...

In this second volume of the letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, the two authors-now noted luminaries in Weird Tales and the world of pulp magazines-continue to write letters on an almost weekly basis. Lovecraft, however, is plagued with self-doubt as a result of the rejection of i]At the Mountains of Madness /i] by i]Weird Tales /i] and other professional setbacks. Meanwhile, Derleth is beginning to make a name for himself in the realm of detective fiction with the creation of Solar Pons; he has also begun sensitive mainstream writing that is finding placement in prestigious...