The Survivor and Others

The Survivor and Others

Jacket illustration by Ronald Clyne for The Survivor and Others
Author August Derleth (inspired by notes by H.P. Lovecraft)
Cover artist Ronald Clyne
Country United States
Language English
Genre Fantasy, Horror
Publisher Arkham House
Publication date
 1957
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 161 pp

The Survivor and Others is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by August Derleth, Lovecraft's literary executor billed himself as a "posthumous collaborator" with the other writer. It was released in an edition of 2,096 copies. It was reissued in paperback by Ballantine Books in 1962 and 1971. The stories written after Lovecraft's death in 1937, were based on and inspired by unused ideas of Lovecraft's and billed as "posthumous collaborations" with him.

Contents

  1. "The Survivor"
  2. "Wentworth's Day"
  3. "The Peabody Heritage"
  4. "The Gable Window"
  5. "The Ancestor"
  6. "The Shadow Out of Space"
  7. "The Lamp of Alhazred"

Notes

Except as noted, the stories were original to this volume. "The Survivor" had been published originally in the July 1954 issue of Weird Tales. "The Gable Winow" had appeared in the May 1957 issue of the science fiction/fantasy pulp Saturn under the title of "The Murky Glass".[1]

Reception

Anthony Boucher noted wryly that "I can't help feeling that H.P.L. knew very well what he was doing when he left the outlines uncompleted,"with the exception of"The Lamp of Alhazred," in which, according to him, "with a flash of inspiration" Derleth introduced Lovecraft as a character and produced "a warmly moving tribute."[2] Avram Davidson concluded that Derleth "does his best to conjure up the late master's prose from its essential salts, but he doesn't make it [...] because he is as sane as they come, and Lovecraft was as nutty as a five-dollar fruitcake."[3]

Everett F. Bleiler, noting that several of these pastiches were modeled on published Lovecraft stories, found all were "routine" except the "much more interesting 'The Lamp of Alhazred' ".[4]

References

  1. ↑ Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections
  2. ↑ "Recommended Reading," F&SF, July 1957, p.92.
  3. ↑ "Books", F&SF, January 1963, pp.48-50
  4. ↑ E. F. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Kent State University Press, 1983, p.327-28
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