Donald Wandrei

"... one of the most important talents in the Lovecraft Circle comes into his own. Fans old and new will share delight in the weird and wondrous world of Donald Wandrei" -- Robert Bloch"At the time that Lovecraft died, Donald Wandrei was the most natural successor to him that I could think of. Wandrei's science fiction had a spectral quality to it and was an original achievement." -- Fritz Leiber This volume presents two novels by H. P. Lovecraft's friend and correspondent. DEAD TITANS, WAKEN is Donald Wandrei's only horror novel, later revised and published by Arkham House as THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND. Here Fedogan and Bremer provides the original form of the book-- the manuscript critqued and guided by Lovecraft himself, for his younger friend. While "Mythos" tales as pastiche became an entire genre as the years went by, this horror tale was written long before that trend took hold, and in fact the author didn't think of it as a "Mythos" story per se. Pulp horror at its finest is on display. The second novel is INVISIBLE SUN, written in the early 1930s but never published during the author's lifetime. Not only was it too raw for general audiences at the time, but also quite experimental by the standards of the time, and indeed in some ways seems remarkably modern in tone over eighty years later. As with Joseph Conrad, there are overtones of psychologic horror implicit in this story culminating in a passionate Jazz Age Minneapolis/St. Paul setting. Noted Weird Fiction and Pulp authority S. T. Joshi provides fulsome comments upon the novels. The notes are completely separated from the stories, so that the reader can enjoy the fiction without distraction. Interior illustrations are by Wandrei's frind, Rodger Gerberding. The cover art is by another of the author's friend, one-time Weird Tales artist Jon Arfstrom. The entire production reflects the strong Twin Cities connections of the Wandrei family. Originally released in a very limited print run in hardcovers by Centipede Press, this book is the first Trade Edition of these works.

Fritz Leiber remarked "At the time that Lovecraft died, Donald Wandrei was the most natural successor to him that I could think of." Robert Bloch called him "...on of the most important creative talents in the Lovecraft circle..." Surpisingly, however, his work was out-of-print for many years, after his break with Arkham House in the aftermath of co-founder August Derleth. This 416-page tome includes stories originally published in venues including Weird Tales, Astounding Stories, Fantasy Magazine, Argosy, and Esquire; some from The Minnesota Quarterly, and a number of pieces never published before this book was assembled. Here the reader can revel in the weird imagination of Donald Wandrei without collecting dozens of rare and scattered pulps or buying rare Arkham House volumes. Supplemented by non-fiction discussion by those who knew him, and introduced by the author's neighbor, Don't Dream complements Colossus (Wandrei's science fiction-- though the boundaries were fuzzy during the Golden Age ) to form a broad survey-- arguably the best of his fiction.

Mysteries of Time and Spirit is a collection of all the correspondence between Lovecraft and future Arkham-House co-founder Donald Wandrei. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.