See John Strysik, “The Movie of Erich Zann and Others,”
In “The Tree,” the sculptor who poisons his friend Kalos in order that he might win the competition they are engaged in to create a statue of Tyché for the Tyrant of Syracuse. He is killed and his sculpture destroyed by a limb from the tree at Kalos’ tomb that breaks off in a storm. The name means “son of the Muses” in Greek.
Mwanu.
In “Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family,” he is the chief of the Kaliri tribe in the Congo. It is he who confirms to Arthur Jermyn the legends that Arthur has heard about his ancestry. “My Favourite Character.”
Poem (36 lines in 6 stanzas); written on January 31, 1925. First published in the
This comic poem—in which HPL examines numerous characters in classic and contemporary works of literature, but then decides that, in regard to determining his favorite, “I’ll frankly give myself the nomination”—was written for a Blue Pencil Club meeting, in which amateurs were asked to prepare literary contributions on a stated topic.
“Mysteries of the Heavens Revealed by Astronomy.”
Series of astronomy columns for the
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tions” (April 27 and May 1); XIII. “Telescopes and Observatories” (May 11 and 17). However, the first installment announced the series as consisting of fourteen sections, so it appears that section XIV and, probably, the final segment of XIII are lost. Librarians at the Asheville Public Library report that several issues following May 17 are missing, and it is likely that the missing segments appeared here. In the first installment HPL describes the series as “designed for persons having no previous knowledge of astronomy. Only the simplest and most interesting parts of the subject have here been included.” HPL’s boyhood friend Chester P.Munroe (at this time working in Asheville) probably arranged to have HPL write the articles for the local paper, although there is no documentary evidence to support this assertion. Late in life HPL unearthed the articles and remarked: “…their obsoleteness completely bowled me over. The progress of the science in the last twenty or thirty years had left me utterly behind…” (
“Mysterious Ship, The.”
Juvenile story (460 words); written 1902. First published in
A “strange brig” docks at various ports, with the result that various individuals are found to have disappeared. The ship goes all over the world and deposits its kidnapped individuals at the North Pole. At this point HPL relates a “geographical fact” that “At the N. Pole there exists a vast continent composed of volcanic soil, a portion of which is open to explorers. It is called ‘No-Mans Land.’” Some unnamed individuals find the kidnapped individuals, who then go to their respective homes and are showered with honors.
HPL has prepared this story as a twelve-page booklet, with the imprint: “The Royal Press. 1902.” He is clearly aiming for dramatic concision: some of the nine chapters of the story are no more than twenty-five words in length. A revised or elaborated version of the story has recently been found in the HPL materials collected by August Derleth at Arkham House. This version (still unpublished) fleshes out each chapter to about seventy-five to one hundred words each, so that the total comes to 780 words, almost twice the length of the original.
“Mystery of Murdon Grange, The.”
Round-robin serial tale; apparently “published” in a typewritten manuscript magazine,