The selected letters of Howard Phillips Lovecraft comprise the most varied and extensive group of writings conceived by this renowned American fantasist. Lovecraft was a brilliant epistolarian whose effortlessly erudite correspondence created lasting friendships among many individuals whom he would never meet in person, including August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, C.L. Moore, and countless others. The unlimited extent of Lovecraft's intellectual curiosity is accurately preserved in this illustrated edition, in letters dealing with details of autobiography, fantastic literature, philosophical speculation, dreams and fancies, social commentary, and innumerable other subjects, ranging from the history and vestiges of colonial New England to the outermost abysses of the universe, beyond known space and conjectured time. Cosmic mythmaker, antiquarian recluse, philosophic materialist -- here are the most memorable epistolary writings by this extraordinary gentleman from Providence, who in the years since his death has become a legend.