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3/06/2014 10:36 am  #1


A. Merritt



A. Merritt

 
A. Merritt stands out as one of the most imaginative yet solidly based writers of weird and mysterious fiction. His main characters were often heroes, but they were men from the modern world (at least the modern world of the early 20th century). His stories are adventures, but the places these adventures occur, the societies, people and things that are encountered are as strange and compelling as any thought out by Lovecraft or CAS, and his heroes as brave as any written of by Howard. To me he seems overlooked, even more so than CAS, and yet his stories encompass enough in detail and provide inspiration for worlds undreamed.

 
(This bibliography is snagged mostly from wikipedia so I need to double-check its accuracy).

 
Novels
The Moon Pool (fix-up, 1919)
(The Moon Pool (1918) + Conquest of the Moon Pool (1919))
The Metal Monster (1920)
The Ship of Ishtar (1924)
Seven Footprints to Satan (1927)
The Face in the Abyss (fix-up, 1931))
(The Face in the Abyss (1923) + The Snake Mother (1930))
Dwellers in the Mirage (1932)
Burn Witch Burn! (1932)
Creep, Shadow! (1934)

 
Short Stories
Through The Dragon Glass (1917)
The People Of The Pit (1918)
Three Lines Of Old French (1919)
Prologue (The Metal Monster, 1920)
The Pool Of The Stone God (as W. Fenimore, 1923)
The Woman Of The Wood (1926)
The Women of the Wood (earlier version of The Woman Of The Wood, 1949)
The Drone (aka The Drone Man, 1934)
The Rhythm of the Spheres (original a chapter called The Last Poet And The Robots (aka The Last Poet & the Wrongness of Space) in the 1934 round robin novel titled Cosmos, revised in 1936 as a stand-alone work)
The Whelming Of Cherkis (excerpt from The Metal Monster, 1946)
When Old Gods Wake (fragment, 1948)
The White Road (fragment, 1949)
The Fox Woman (incomplete, 1949)
Pilgrimage, or, Obi Giese (1985)
Bootleg and Witches (fragment, 1985)
The Devil in the Heart (outline, 1985)
The Dwellers in the Mirage (original ending of the novel with same name, 1985)

 
Short story collections
The Fox Woman and Other Stories (1949)

 
Poems
Song for Wood Horns (aka The Wind Trail, 1910)
The Silver Birches (1940)
Old Trinity Churchyard (5 A. M. Spring) (1941)
Sylvane - The Silver Birches (1973)
In the Cathedral (1974)
2000 (The Triple Cities) (1985)
Song for Wood Horn... (1985)
Silvane—The Silver Birches (1985)
Madonna (1985)
The Ladies of the Walnut Tree (A Legend of Tuscany) (fragments, 1985)
Court of the Moon (fragment, 1985)
The Birth of Art (1985)
L'envoi to Life (1985)
Screens (1985)
Sir Barnabas (1985)
In the Subway (1985)
Runes (1985)
Eheu Fugaces . . . (1985)
A Song for Christmas (1985)
Comic Ragtime Tune (1985)
Behold the Night He Cometh (1985)
You Looked at Me (1985)
Dream Song (1985)
Castle of Dreams (1985)
I Wonder Why? (1985)
My Heart and I (1985)
Think of Me (1985)
The Ballad of the Cub (1985)
Piddling Pete (1985)
The Winged Flames (1985)

 
Collaborations
The Challenge from Beyond (round robyn short story, with C.L. Moore, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long, 1935)
Cosmos (round robin novel, chapter 11, 1932–34)
The Fox Woman and the Blue Pagoda (novel, Hannes Bok fused Merritt's unfinished story with his own conclusion, 1946)
The Black Wheel (novel, first seven chapters written by Merritt, completed by Hannes Bok, 1947)

 
Essays
A. Merritt on Modern Witchcraft (1932)
Concerning “Burn, Witch, Burn” (1932)
Letter (Weird Tales, November 1935) (1935)
Man and the Universe (1940)
A. Merritt (1940)
How We Found Circe (1942)
A Tribute (1942)
Letter to Mr. Louis De Casanova, July 23, 1931 (1985)
Letters and Correspondence (1985)
An Autobiography of A. Merritt (1985) with Walter Wentz
A. Merritt—His Life and Times (1985) with Jack Chapman Miske
What is Fantasy? (1985)
Background of "Dwellers in the Mirage" (1985)
Background of "Burn, Witch, Burn" (1985)
Background of "Creep, Shadow!" (1985)
A. Merritt's Own Selected Credo (1985)

 

3/06/2014 3:31 pm  #2


Re: A. Merritt

Jason, I believe you are absolutely correct about Merritt's ....uh, merit and the fact that he is overlooked. I came across Merely a few months ago as I have been going through Appendix N. I listened to a few audiobooks, free on Librivox, and found them extremely entertaining. The Moon Pool demonstrates Merritt's active imagination and creativeness... I love the Akka.


ravengodgames.blogspot.com ~ cartography, writing, game design
Author, Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess
 

3/06/2014 5:48 pm  #3


Re: A. Merritt

joseph wrote:

Jason, I believe you are absolutely correct about Merritt's ....uh, merit and the fact that he is overlooked. I came across Merely a few months ago as I have been going through Appendix N. I listened to a few audiobooks, free on Librivox, and found them extremely entertaining. The Moon Pool demonstrates Merritt's active imagination and creativeness... I love the Akka.

Thay are also amazingly appropriate for the basis of an AS&SH campaign. The Face in the Abyss is almost a ready-made adventure and I already adapted part of The People of the Pit.

     Thread Starter
 

3/06/2014 7:19 pm  #4


Re: A. Merritt

I've read a lot of Merritt, and his influence can be found througout the game: "The Shining One", "Kraken", "Valley of Mists", and "Xenadon", to name a few. I also paid homage to The Moon Pool in Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works

Right now I am reading Metal Monster. It starts off a bit contrived (how the characters happen to meet in the middle of nowhere), but Merritt's prose is exceptionally evocative. Yes, I do love A. Merritt, too, and I think his work is overlooked. Great work, Jason!


HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
 

3/06/2014 9:50 pm  #5


Re: A. Merritt



Great Merritt cover.

     Thread Starter
 

3/07/2014 1:54 pm  #6


Re: A. Merritt

     Thread Starter
 

3/07/2014 4:58 pm  #7


Re: A. Merritt

     Thread Starter
 

3/10/2014 9:55 am  #8


Re: A. Merritt

I love The Moon Pool. I thought Ship of Ishtar was decent, but it is pretty contrived. Definitely a worthwhile writer, though. I think my favorite cover of TMP is the one I have:



They were making some fantastic covers in the sixties.

 

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