In about a month John D. Haefele’s third article for the newly revived Crypt of Cthulhu will hit the eldritch and squamous streets — covering August Derleth’s various published commentaries on the magazine Weird Tales. The mag where a teenaged Derleth sold the first of many stories, where H.P. Lovecraft made his name.
I blurbed Haefele’s first article in Crypt 110, let notice of the second one go. The three articles aren’t a trilogy as such, so it doesn’t matter which order you read them in. Haefele tells me that the most recent article’s “main claim to fame is that it is one of the original chapters trimmed from the economical Redux.” It was tentatively slated for that limited edition monograph, but if you squeeze too much material in, a monograph is a monograph no more — maybe not a full book, but definitely not a monograph.
In any event, having a run of items in Crypt of Cthulhu is cool, too.
Plus I notice that Deuce Richardson just had a “Haefele Day” of sorts over on the DMR blog. He cogently explains why Haefele’s debut on the Lovecraftian litcrit scene shook things up.
If you read the Deuce bit, you’ll notice at least a couple of references to how I personally talked Deuce into giving Haefele’s first edition hardcover a shot, even though it retailed at around sixty bucks. Deuce was wailing about that sixty pazoor layout, but he bravely forked it over — and I did tell him (and I was serious) that if he didn’t think the book was all I said it would be, I’d take the copy off his hands at full cost.
That first edition hardback published by Henrik Harksen now is a rarity and you’ll seldom see one on the block. Maybe a couple of months ago I happened to notice that a seller on Amazon had put one up at the original $60 price, told Haefele about it — and at that moment he was corresponding with a serious Derleth collector who wanted one. Instant sale. The one copy offered in months, gone.
And at a ridiculously low price.
I wonder if I can trick Deuce into selling me his copy for sixty bucks and turn it around for a couple hundred?
