Two events of note happened today: the anniversary of August Derleth’s birth rolled around again and my copy of Lovecraft: The Great Tales by John D. Haefele fell from the Outer Dark--like a planet-killer asteroid--into my mailbox. The two events are certainly related and, thus, must be a sign from the Great Old Ones.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, Haefele's A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos is--besides being an excellent examination of Derleth and the Cthulhu Mythos--probably the best volume dedicated to Lovecraft litcrit extant. Up until now, that is. With this new book, Haefele has delivered his magnum opus in regard to Lovecraft and Lovecraft's fiction.

As a disclaimer, I will state that I had pre-publication access to Haefele's tome. The same could be said of A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos as published by the Cimmerian Press. I had been won over by the Harksen edition of ALBtDM and was eager to help proofread etc, the Cimmerian Press edition. Thus, it was only natural that I would want to get in on the ground floor of this forbidden codex.

Lovecraft: The Great Tales is a beast of cyclopean proportions. The main text weighs in at over seven hundred pages. What else would one expect? Haefele starts with "Dagon" and doesn't stop until he's done with "The Haunter of the Dark". That is a lot of eldritchness to tear into.

Yours truly will be tearing into Haefele’s grimoire of secrets and hidden truths in the coming days. Blasphemous revelations--blasphemous to S.T. Joshi, at least--and darksome insights await. Haefele is possessed of an extraordinarily keen mind and has been pondering HPL's tales for decades.

The book is already selling well on Amazon. Feel free to push it higher. Here is the link.