H. P. Lovecraft's generous tutelage of younger literary colleagues earned him their lifelong devotion and admiration. Few profited more by his assistance than Robert Bloch, who went on to become the celebrated author of "Psycho" and other classic works of horror and suspense. Establishing a correspondence with Lovecraft when he was sixteen, Bloch learned so much about the craft of writing-and about other matters-that he later stated: "Lovecraft was my university."
This volume brings together Lovecraft's complete extant correspondence with Bloch as well as with such other young writers, editors, and fans of the 1930s as Kenneth Sterling (who collaborated with Lovecraft on "In the Walls of Eryx"), Donald A. Wollheim (editor of the "Phantagraph" and a leading figure in science fiction in the decades that followed), Willis Conover (whose "Lovecraft at Last" is one of the most poignant books ever written about the Providence writer), and others.
As in all previous volumes in the "Collected Letters" series, these letters have been meticulously edited by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi, two of the leading authorities on Lovecraft. Also included are many rare and pertinent writings by the various correspondents, which shed light on their relationship to Lovecraft. An exhaustive bibliography and a comprehensive index conclude the volume.