Drafts to H. P. Lovecraft — Part 4 Essay

January 1935Only a fragment of the draft for this letter remains, which forms part of Lovecraft and Howard’s long-standing and wide-ranging argument on civilization versus barbarism.

It’s interesting that Howard should have decided to specify the “modern system” over “our civilization,” and the general tone of the changes evident in the final letter seems to be an effort to move past the civilization vs. barbarism argument.Text unique to the draft will be colored red, while text unique to the final letter will be colored blue. Formatting (paragraph breaks, etc.) have been freely distorted to more clearly show were sections of text match up most closely.Works CitedAMTF   A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.

P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (2 vols.)CL       Collected Letters of Robert E.

Howard (3 vols. + Index and Addenda)Bobby Derie is the compiler of the Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard – Index and Addenda (2015, Robert E. Howard Foundation) and the author of Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos (2015, Hippocampus Press).

Illustration by Daniel Serna

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3