wdg3rd Wrote:My usual recommendation to someone just starting out with Lovecraft is the story "The Rats in the Walls". Although "Pickman's Model" can also be a good intro for a virgin.
Yup, I just reread them over at DagonBytes. Along with "The Picture in the House" which I think is the first Lovecraft story I ever read, it being first in that Lancer anthology I started with over forty years ago.
It's important to remember that Lovecraft was the first author with a "shared universe". He invited every writer he corresponded with (and he wrote more letters than fiction) to come and play. And a bunch of other "Weird Tales" writers answered the call. It continues into this century. For instance, Brian Lumley writes incredible horror stories from his own twisted brain, but he also writes better Lovecraft than Lovecraft did. Lovecraft was never really a professional writer, merely an extremely gifted amateur who sold a few of his stories to magazines that were barely above amateur status at the time. More of his work was published posthumously than during his unfortunately short lifetime. (As with Robert E. Howard, who lived an even shorter span, but was a real professional writer during his brief career in numerous genres -- Howard was one of the contributors to the Cthulhu Mythos, but of course he is best remembered for his heroic fantasy stories set in the Hyborean Age).