Dreams from R'lyeh

Dreams from R'lyeh is a collection of poems by Lin Carter. The book was released in hardcover by Arkham House in 1975[1] in an edition of 3,152 copies. It was Carter's only book published by Arkham House.[2][3][4][5] The title sequence of sonnets, "Dreams from R'lyeh", has also been reprinted in Robert M. Price's The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter (Chaosium, 1997).

Dreams from R'lyeh
Jacket illustration of first edition
AuthorLin Carter
Cover artistTim Kirk
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genrepoetry
PublisherArkham House
Publication date
1975
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pagesxv, 72
ISBN0-87054-067-X
OCLC1323872
811/.5/4
LC ClassPS3553.A7823 D7

Background

Carter conceived the sonnet cycle Dreams from R'lyeh as early as 1959, as revealed by a note in his 1959 publication Letter to Judith, where the cycle is announced as forthcoming. Most of the poems were written in the mid-late 1960s, with some appearing in The Arkham Collector and most appearing across four issues of Amra. The sequence of numbered poems wasn't initially the same as depicted in the Arkham House volume.

Summary

The sonnet cycle Dreams from R'lyeh, which comprises the first two-thirds of the book, consists of poems inspired by H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos. Unlike Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth, where the sonnets don't tell a continuous story, Dreams from R'lyeh from start to finish clearly narrates the story of Wilbur Nathaniel Hoag, from his childhood to just before his disappearance in late 1944. Mental (and perhaps physical) degeneration are apparent near the last sonnet.

The remainder of the verses are on various topics, celebrating other fantasy authors or reflecting on fantastic themes. "Diombar's Song of the Last Battle" is a heroic poem set in the prehistory of Carter's "Thongor" novels, and "Death-Song of Conan the Cimmerian" an end-of-life summation of Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero Conan, written from the perspective of the character himself.

Contents

Reception

Fritz Leiber, reviewing the collection in Fantastic, cites "[o]ne poem, "Shard," [as] very nice," and comments on the "delightfully Cthulhu-cultish cover by Tim Kirk, best current Arkham artist," while otherwise singling out isolated lines from various of its poems for approval or disapproval.[6]

The collection was also reviewed by W. N. MacPherson in The Science Fiction Review, May 1975, Daniel Bailey in Myrddin, August 1975, Stuart David Schiff in Whispers #6/7, June 1975, and #8, December 1975, and C. D. Whateley in Crypt of Cthulhu #13, Roodmas 1983.[1]

Notes
  1. Dreams from R'lyeh title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  2. Jaffery, Sheldon (1989). The Arkham House Companion. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, Inc. pp. 112–113. ISBN 1-55742-005-X.
  3. Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. pp. 135–136.
  4. Joshi, S.T. (1999). Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. pp. 125–127. ISBN 0-87054-176-5.
  5. Nielsen, Leon (2004). Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 120–121. ISBN 0-7864-1785-4.
  6. Leiber, Fritz. Review in Fantastic, v. 25, no. 3, May 1976, pages 116-117.
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