Daniel Harms (ed.) – Encyclopedia Cthulhiana

[andydecker]

Daniel Harms (ed.) – Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (second ed.) (Chaosium 1994 and 1998, 274 or 423 p.)

This new second edition of Encyclopedia Cthulhiana has been extensively revised and contains over a hundred and fifty additional pages and scores of new entries. New features include thumbnail illustrations of the most important signs and symbols and a timeline of the Cthulhu Mythos spanning billions of years. Many entries have been revised to reflect our latest understanding of the Mythos, and the infamous Necronomicon appendix has been greatly expanded. Also present for the first time is "A Brief History of the Cthulhu Mythos", which examines the evolution of the genre from the 1920s to today.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA CTHULHIANA
The Cthulhu Mythos was created by H.P.Lovecraft (1890-1937), a Providence, RI, author considered by many to be the finest horror writer of the twentieth century. Lovecraft's tales are the blend of fantasy, science fiction, and especially horror. Some of his stories describe a pantheon of powerful beings from beyond the stars, the Great Old Ones – among them Cthulhu, the sleeper beneath the sea.
Since Lovecraft's time the Cthulhu Mythos has grown exponentially and has become increasingly difficult to keep track of, even for devoted fans. Many writers have contributed to it, including Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Stephen King and Brian Lumley. This book is the largest comprehensive guide to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos ever published.

Volume five of Chaosium's tomes of Cthulhiana. The foreword by editor Daniel Harms is a fair and even handed introduction to Lovecraft and Derleth and how the Mythos came to be. It sketches the different schools of thought – Lovecraft vs. Derleth – which have remain relevant in the two decades since its publication. Of course the book is redundant in parts as you can find the information on the Net in diverse wikis. Still there are a lot of entries which are well done. Browsing is fun, as it steers one to stories which maybe are unknown to the reader or to entries which have a different viewpoint as the online ressources.

[Jojo Lapin X]

I do not think I have this one! Thankfully.