The Lovecraftian Poe

Essays on Influence, Reception, Interpretation, and Transformation

Contributions by Alissa Burger, Michael Cisco, Dan Clinton, Brian Johnson, S. T. Joshi, John Langan, Murray Leeder, Juan L. Pérez de Luque, Sławomir Studniarz, Miles Tittle, Robert H. Waugh, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Ben Woodard Edited by Sean Moreland

Not available to order

Publication date:

24 May 2017

Length of book:

276 pages

Publisher

Lehigh University Press

ISBN-13: 9781611462418

H.P. Lovecraft, one of the twentieth century’s most important writers in the genre of horror fiction, famously referred to Edgar Allan Poe as both his “model” and his “God of Fiction.” While scholars and readers of Poe’s and Lovecraft’s work have long recognized the connection between these authors, this collection of essays is the first in-depth study to explore the complex literary relationship between Lovecraft and Poe from a variety of critical perspectives. Of the thirteen essays included in this book, some consider how Poe’s work influenced Lovecraft in important ways. Other essays explore how Lovecraft’s fictional, critical, and poetic reception of Poe irrevocably changed how Poe’s work has been understood by subsequent generations of readers and interpreters. Addressing a variety of topics ranging from the psychology of influence to racial and sexual politics, the essays in this book also consider how Lovecraft’s interpretations of Poe have informed later adaptations of both writers’ works in films by Roger Corman and fiction by Stephen King, Thomas Ligotti, and Caitlin R. Kiernan. This collection is an indispensable resource not only for those who are interested in Poe’s and Lovecraft’s work specifically, but also for readers who wish to learn more about the modern history and evolution of Gothic, horror, and weird fiction.
The Lovecraftian Poe is an illuminating collection of scholarly essays on the two major titans of horror fiction.... Many a volume of forgotten lore has been devoted to these two authors, and yet this one manages to bring plenty of fresh insights to the table and is thus strongly recommended for all students of fantastic, weird and horrific literature.