Monday, January 4, 2010

Enduring Lovecraft

There is something touching about this.

Here is a short story, handwritten in parts, by H.P. Lovecraft. It is a submission copy.

Which means this is the actual manuscript he sent in to a publisher hoping it would be bought for publication. His address is in the top corner (along with a request to "please return").

This happens to be one of my favorite of his stories, so I know it does get published, though perhaps not by the person to whom he sent this particular copy.

Lovecraft was one of those writers whose genius was not discovered by the mainstream until long after his death.  He struggled monetarily all his life.

This manuscript here was just sold on eBay for over $2,000.

I wonder if he ever made half that much on his writing himself.  I hope, wherever he is, he's amused.

2 comments:

  1. I'm sure he is. One of my favorite publishing stories was told by an author who in one day found his book in two separate places: Ebay for $60.00 for a review copy (and it sold for that) and a yardsale copy he had authographed for a couple of friends a year before. When he asked the yardsaler how much the man looked at it and made the remark "some ***hole wrote in it, so you can have it for a quarter".

    Thanks for sharing and have a great day.

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  2. ROFL! What a story! Thank you for telling us. :)

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