HP Lovecraft's unpublished astrology essay for Harry Houdini

[Aaron Vanek]

Alas, I don't know who won this auction, but I hope they publish the
paper:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120404416969

See it now before the page falls off ebay.

Here's what Joshi sez in "Collected Essays, vol. 3":

"In 1926 the magician Harry Houdini hired Lovecraft and his friend C.
M. Eddy, Jr., to write an entire book combating superstition. This
work -- perhaps analogous to Houdini's own previous work, A Magician
Among the Spirits (1924), a debunking of spiritualism -- was to be
called The Cancer of Superstition. Houdini had earlier asked Lovecraft
to write a rush article on astrology, for which he paid $75; this
article apparently does not survive. A detailed synopsis prepared by
Lovecraft for The Cancer of Superstition does survive, as do three
chapters of the treatise written by Eddy; but Houdini's sudden death
on 31 October 1926 derailed the plans, as his widow did not wish to
pursue the project."

Aaron

[Jeffrey Alsip]

Marvelous!

Some of the scans are almost readable.

[Al Smith]

It's gone now.

-Al-

[Jo...@qusoor.com]

On Apr 20, 1:47 am, Al Smith <inva...@address.com> wrote:
>
> It's gone now.
>
> -Al-

I didn't have any trouble accessing the now-closed auction from the
above link.

It's a very interesting find. And as Aaron said, let's hope the new
owner is willing to let the Lovecraftians see it.

John Goodrich

[Al Smith]

That's funny. when I tried, I got a "page no longer accessible" or
some such message.

-Al-

[Aaron Vanek]

It still works for me (seconds before posting this).

Aaron

[cynick]

The auction listing includes this information:-

Lovecraft was Houdini's ghost writer for three articles in "Weird
Tales" magazine:
"The Spirit of Fakers of Hermannstadt"
"The Hoax Of The Spirit Lover"
"Imprisoned With The Pharaohs"

Have the first two ever been reprinted anywhere? I can't find them
listed in the contents of the Collected Essays books (still haven't
got them...)

[wolfie1]

Aaron Vanek wrote:
> It still works for me (seconds before posting this).
>
> Aaron

Going to the page with JavaScript off gets the not found message. Switch
JavaScript on in your browser and you'll get the page.

Martin.

[Al Smith]

On 4/20/2009 4:32 PM, Aaron Vanek wrote:
> It still works for me (seconds before posting this).
>
> Aaron

It was my browser. I was trying to look at the page with Mozilla, in
which I have cookies and Java Script turned off. Page wouldn't
display. I switched to Opera, and it displayed fine.

-Al-

[Al Smith]

Yup. I discovered that, also.

-Al-

[Al Smith]

On 4/20/2009 4:32 PM, Aaron Vanek wrote:

> It still works for me (seconds before posting this).
>
> Aaron

I was just looking at Lovecraft's outline. It would be possible to
reconstruct the book (as Lovecraft conceived it) from that outline,
I would think. It's seems quite detailed.

-Al-

[Magister]

I don't think HPL had a hand in those at all. They appear in no
bibliographies that I have seen.

Yrs
Martin

[Magister]

On 23 Apr, 07:51, Apollia <xerxes...@aol.com> wrote:

> Thank you so much for posting this.  Ever since first hearing about
> that essay, I've been curious about it and wondered what ever happened
> to it, since astrology and Lovecraft are two of my favorite things to
> read about. :-)
>

If you like astrology, you probably won't like what Lovecraft had to
say about it. ;-)

Yrs
Martin

[Dan Clore]

The star were not right for him--

--
Dan Clore

My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"

[Evans]

A possible update:
http://www.yog-sothoth.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=164062#164062

[Aaron Vanek]

> A possible update:http://www.yog-sothoth.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1...

Thanks!

Aaron

[Benoit Meulle-Stef]

Lovecraft was Houdini's ghost writer for three articles in "Weird
> Tales" magazine:
> "The Spirit of Fakers of Hermannstadt"
> "The Hoax Of The Spirit Lover"
> "Imprisoned With The Pharaohs"
>
> Have the first two ever been reprinted anywhere? I can't find them
> listed in the contents of the Collected Essays books (still haven't
> got them...)

I the French edition of the entire Lovecraft work, I think there is
only the last one but I can check again.
Benoit

[Wargamer66]

I was just at the Conduit SF convention in Salt Lake City, where I saw
scans of this document. The guy who bought the chapter is one of the
Lovecraft gurus in Utah and is on every Lovecraft panel at various
conventions. He bought it because he recognized the historical
significance. Interestingly, this chapter was unknown for so long
because magic collectors were passing it around because it has
Houdini's signature on it. They didnt know what they had. So no
worries, the chapter is safe :) Paul said that he might sell it to
the Brown U Lovecraft collection.

[Al Smith]

Here's a question for you (and anyone else in the know) -- is it
possible that the unknown essay on astrology that Lovecraft wrote
for Houdini, for which Joshi says he was paid $75, is a chapter of
this unfinished book that was to be written for Houdini by Lovecraft
and Eddy? Or is it certain that the essay is unconnected with the
projected book?

-Al-

[essentialsaltes]

Is there any update on the whereabouts or potential publication of the manuscript?

I know if my consortium had won the auction, I would have spent a few months just rubbing the pages over my naked body, but ultimately I wanted to publish it in some form.

--Mike