Fungi from Yuggoth

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>H. P. Lovecraft's </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Fungi from Yuggoth</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is a remarkable achievement. Written in little more than a week (December 27 1929-January 4 1930) the cycle of 36 sonnets is a compact encapsulation of the essence of Lovecraft's imaginative vision. Its central motifs-the lure of hidden worlds cosmic alienation the terrors lurking behind the placid surface of life-are those that structured Lovecraft's greatest weird tales.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>David E. Schultz has spent decades preparing this annotated edition of the </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Fungi.</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> He discusses the origin of the poem (including the influence of Donald Wandrei's similar cycle </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Sonnets of the Midnight Hours</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>) its connections with Lovecraft's fiction Lovecraft's changing thoughts on natural expression in poetry and the complex history of the poem's publication-both as individual sonnets and as a unity. Schultz also provides penetrating annotations on every poem.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This volume features the superlative artwork of longtime Lovecraftian artist Jason C. Eckhardt who has produced a poignant cover perhaps more </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Lovecraftian</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> than most seen of late and illustrated each poem in a separate full-page edition. Readers are also treated to a reproduction of Lovecraft's handwritten manuscript of the </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Fungi</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> which shows how carefully he revised each sonnet in the course of composition and Harold S. Farnese's sheet music for two of the sonnets most of it never published previously.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This edition takes its place as a landmark contribution to Lovecraft studies-one that allows readers to appreciate Lovecraft's most famous poem as never before.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>David E. Schultz</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is the editor of an annotated edition of Lovecraft's </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Commonplace Book</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> (1987) and coeditor with S. T. Joshi of numerous editions of Lovecraft's letters including </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> (2009) and </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Dawnward Spire Lonely Hill: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> (2017). Schultz's revised and annotated edition of </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>H. P. Lovecraft: Commonplace Book</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is forthcoming from Hippocampus Press.</span></p>