Original title Al Azif—azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos’d to be the howling of daemons. Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaá, in Yemen, who is said to…
He By H. P. Lovecraft
I saw him on a sleepless night when I was walking desperately to save my soul and my vision. My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration in the…
The Haunter of the Dark By H. P. Lovecraft
(Dedicated to Robert Bloch) I have seen the dark universe yawningWhere the black planets roll without aim—Where they roll in their horror unheeded,Without knowledge or lustre or name. —Nemesis. Cautious investigators will hesitate to challenge the common belief that Robert…
From Beyond By H. P. Lovecraft
Horrible beyond conception was the change which had taken place in my best friend, Crawford Tillinghast. I had not seen him since that day, two months and a half before, when he had told me toward what goal his physical…
The Festival By H. P. Lovecraft
“Efficiunt Daemones, ut quae non sunt, sic tamenquasi sint, conspicienda hominibus exhibeant.” —Lactantius. I was far from home, and the spell of the eastern sea was upon me. In the twilight I heard it pounding on the rocks, and I…
The Dunwich Horror By H. P. Lovecraft
“Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras—dire stories of Celaeno and the Harpies—may reproduce themselves in the brain of superstition—but they were there before. They are transcripts, types—the archetypes are in us, and eternal. How else should the recital of that which…
The Dreams in the Witch House By H. P. Lovecraft
Whether the dreams brought on the fever or the fever brought on the dreams Walter Gilman did not know. Behind everything crouched the brooding, festering horror of the ancient town, and of the mouldy, unhallowed garret gable where he wrote…
The Doom That Came to Sarnath By H. P. Lovecraft
There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath…
Dagon By H. P. Lovecraft
I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer;…
The Curse of Yig By H. P. Lovecraft for Zealia Bishop
In 1925 I went into Oklahoma looking for snake lore, and I came out with a fear of snakes that will last me the rest of my life. I admit it is foolish, since there are natural explanations for everything…
The Crawling Chaos By H. P. Lovecraft with Winifred V. Jackson
Of the pleasures and pains of opium much has been written. The ecstasies and horrors of De Quincey and the paradis artificiels of Baudelaire are preserved and interpreted with an art which makes them immortal, and the world knows well…
The Challenge from Beyond By C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long
George Campbell opened sleep-fogged eyes upon darkness and lay gazing out of the tent flap upon the pale August night for some minutes before he roused enough even to wonder what had wakened him. There was in the…