In “The Eyrie” of the March 1924 issue of Weird Tales, H. P. Lovecraft wrote, “Popular authors do not and apparently cannot appreciate the fact that true art is obtainable only by rejecting normally and conventionality in toto, and approaching a theme purged utterly of any usual or preconceived point of view.”[1] A bold statement, to say the least, especially in a magazine whose byline is The Unique Magazine. But Lovecraft demanded his fiction to be unconventionally ‘other than,’ and as original as possible. For him, crafting a story was an art form. In this same letter, Lovecraft goes on to declare:
Wild and ‘different’ as they may consider their
quasi-weird products, it remains a fact that the bizarrerie is on the surface
alone; and that basically they reiterate the same old conventional values and
motives and perspectives. Good and evil, teleological illusion, sugary
sentiment, anthropocentric psychology—the usual superficial stock trade, and
all shot through with the eternal and inescapable commonplace.[2]
Had Lovecraft accepted the job as editor when J. C. Henneberger offered it to him back in 1924, he would have likely been a harsh editor, and the magazine would have taken a decidedly different path. Much of the fiction Edwin Baird and Farnsworth Wright accepted would have, no doubt, been rejected by Lovecraft. But alas, we were rewarded the benefit of Lovecraft the writer. There is no telling exactly which stories or authors Lovecraft was disparaging in this letter to Weird Tales’ editor at the time, Edwin Baird. They may have not been Weird Tales’ authors, though it is likely most were. Even so, Lovecraft is making a valid point regarding breaking away from conventional story writing, creating an original tale, thinking outside the box. At least his creative mind demanded as much. Something he also expected, or at least wanted other writers to do. Some of the readers of The Unique Magazine demanded the same, at least they demanded their stories weird, if not ‘original.’
 |
| H. P. L |
So, in an effort to
promulgate something weird and original, Lovecraft made this suggestion: “Take
a werewolf story, for instance—who ever wrote one from the point of view of the
wolf, and sympathizing strongly with the devil to whom he has sold himself?”[3]
Those
of us who love the pulps and their writers (we all have our favorites, of
course), probably know that H. Warner Munn attempted to answer Lovecraft’s
request with, “The Werewolf of Ponkert,” Munn’s first published short story.
About Munn’s story, Farnsworth Wright claimed, “It was the popularity of Mr.
Quinn’s werewolf story[4] that led us to feature The Werewolf of Ponkert, by H. Warner
Munn, in last months’ issue.”[5] (italics is Wright’s) “The
Werewolf of Ponkert” was the cover story for the July 1925 issue of Weird Tales, the same issue in which Robert E.
Howard made his debut with “Spear and Fang.”
Lovecraft,
as far as I’ve been able to determine, never responded to Munn’s story in “The
Eyrie” of any of the subsequent Weird
Tales issues. It’s possible that when “The Werewolf of Ponkert” was first
published, Lovecraft did not put two and two together and notice that his March
1924 letter in “The Eyrie” was Munn’s inspiration. In fact, it may be that
Lovecraft never knew that fact until after he met Munn, and Munn confessed as
much. However, there is some evidence from Munn himself that Lovecraft may have
recognized Munn’s efforts on behalf of Lovecraft’s letter:
Thinking about the first-person idea tendered in Weird Tales, a tale formulated; I wrote it down, sending it to Weird Tales’ editor Farnsworth Wright, and he bought at [sic] for the usual price of a penny a word. I got a check for $65.00. Bingo! I was now a writer. And as a result of the tale, I received a congratulatory note from the man who had written the letter suggesting my story.[6]
Munn was 22 at the time
and up to that point he had only had a few poems published but no fiction.
Which means his first time at the proverbial home plate of short fiction
resulted in a cover story home-run. The “note” that Lovecraft wrote Munn, as
far as we know, no longer exists, so it is impossible to know if it was written
merely to congratulate Munn for writing a good cover story, or for using
Lovecraft’s idea from his March 1924 letter. Moreover, Munn does not further
elaborate on the contents of the note.
 |
| Lovecraft and Cook |
It was W.
Paul Cook, a close friend of Munn’s, who alerted Munn about Lovecraft’s March 1924 Weird Tales. Cook, a jack-of-all trades,
was “a printer, an amateur writer, a book publisher, and several times
president of the Amateur Press Association.”[7] Shortly after Munn’s story
published in Weird Tales, Munn showed
Cook the note he received from Lovecraft. Because of Cook’s associations in
amateur journalism at the time, he was a friend of Lovecraft’s. So, Cook asked
Munn if he’d like to meet Lovecraft, an offer Munn quickly accepted. Munn
traveled with Cook from Athol Massachusetts (where he was born and raised) to
Providence, RI to visit Lovecraft. This trip took place almost two years after
Lovecraft’s congratulatory note to Munn, in the summer of 1927. Lovecraft
detailed the visit to Clark Ashton Smith in an August 2, 1927 letter:
My other guests were very welcome, too—Morton, Long
& his parents, Cook and Munn. Munn is a very promising youth of the blond,
muscular type. He will probably develop into a romancer rather than
fantaisiste, & thus have a better chance of professional success.[8]
Of course, Munn continued
writing weird fiction (mostly horror), and while not as successful nor as
prolific as Lovecraft, he did manage to write some very memorable stories that
are still being read today. Some of the more notable stories are from his
werewolf series called Tales of the
Werewolf Clan. From this initial meet and greet, a
lengthy friendship and continual correspondence ensued between the two writers,
along with more occasional trips between their home towns to see one another.
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| Unknown October 1939 |
Munn was prone to write
more historical adventure and romance stories with traditional Gothic themes
such as werewolves and the like, something Lovecraft thought was mostly junk.[11] For instance, regarding
Munn’s story from the December 1930 Weird
Tales, “Tales of the Werewolf Clan: The Master Strikes,” Lovecraft
declared, “The trouble with Munn’s tale is that it subscribes too much to the
traditional of swashbuckling romance—the Stanley J. Weyman cloak & swordism
of 1900.”[12]
This was simply a literary tradition Lovecraft did not care for. But, it was
one in which Munn preferred and with which he managed some measure of success. Regardless
of Lovecraft’s preferences, he supported Munn’s efforts (at least to his face)
though he did confess to August Derleth about some issues he had with Munn’s Gothic tales:
Yes—Munn does get into arid and sterile regions when
he tries to hitch his romantic-adventure mood and technique to the domain of
the weird. He is drawing the poor Master out to such lengths that one cannot
keep track of the creature's nature and attributes—indeed, the impression is
that he merely retains the supernatural framework as a matter of duty—or
concession to Wright—whereas he really wants to write a straight historical
romance. But the kid's young, and we can well afford to give him time. Let him
get Ponkertian werewolves out of his system, and see what he can do with a fresh
start![13]
In between writing his Werewolf Clan stories, Munn
managed to create some lively strange tales such as “The City of Spiders” (1926),
“The Chain” (1928), “A Sprig of Rosemary,” (1933), and “Dreams May Come” (1939),
his first new market story published in the October 1939 Unknown magazine. Aside from the earliest two (which are well worth
reading), none surpassed the quality of the stories in his Werewolf Clan
series. The last thing Munn wrote, possibly due to marriage and family obligations,
was a four-part series that Weird Tales
published between the September to December 1939 issues titled, “King of the
World’s Edge.” In this series, Munn works within the historical context of
exploration and Roman history to weave a stunning tales of new world
discoveries, barbaric empires, and fish-monsters. It is a kind of sword &
sorcery story but in an actual historical context and setting which includes
monsters, magic, and swordplay, what’s not to like? The series, in a nut shell,
is about a document, written by Ventidius Varro, a British-Roman legionnaire.
It was discovered after a hurricane in the southern Florida Keys. The events in
the discovered document take place during the height of King Arthur’s reign,
but Arthur is defeated in battle, and this is the final days of Roman
occupation in Britain. Soldiers, along with Arthur and a mage named Myrdhinn,
are isolated and left to fight the invading Saxon marauders. At the point
Arthur is defeated, Myrdhinn and the remaining legionnaires set sail for a
place to hide and end up in the new world where they experience strange lands,
new people (tribes), and odd creatures. In this new world, they attempt to
create a new civilization but must first overcome certain adversities.
On January 14, 1930, Munn married Malvena Ruth Beaudoin. She
eventually accompanied her husband and Cook on various excursions to visit
Lovecraft and would host Lovecraft when he visited the Munns. To better
understand their conversations, Malvena read several of Lovecraft’s stories.
Munn declared that Malvena “found it difficult to understand some of his
stories, but when he visited us, he did make a conscious effort to speak simply
and easily.”[14]
About Lovecraft, Malvena once said: “He talks as though he had swallowed a
dictionary.”[15]
The Munns had their first child (John Warner) in 1931, and another (James
Edward) in 1936. With new responsibilities and an inability to publish enough
stories to support a growing family, Munn stepped away from writing for nearly
30 years and worked various conventional jobs. However, he continued to write and
publish for 9 years after he married, he also continued his friendship with
both Cook and Lovecraft.
At
one point, Cook gave Munn his entire library, which apparently was the envy of
Lovecraft, who admitted as much in a letter to R.H. Barlow:
Cook gave most of his library to H. Warner Munn. He
has virtually nothing now—except perhaps a few stray items up at his sister’s
in New Hampshire. Yes—it was full of fantastic stuff—the best library of the
sort I ever encountered. Munn, of course, now has the best collection.[16]
The loss of Cook’s
library to Munn was a progressive road to hardship and a nervous collapse
beginning with the death of his wife in 1930. Over the next few years, Cook
lost his job when the company closed due to the Great Depression. Cook
explains:
I suddenly found myself struck down
from a comfortable condition of life with an income of about $5000 to a grade
of no income and in debt about $1000. I have discarded everything; have given
away or thrown away everything, including my job, my real estate, my household
furnishings, and my library.[17]
 |
| H. Warner Munn |
Cook retained a few
select volumes, and likely gave Munn his library for sake-keeping. Shortly
after 1934, Munn began to slowly ignore his correspondence, failing to respond
to letters, and Lovecraft became a bit frustrated by this. During this period, Lovecraft
once declared, “As for Munn, he’s the most notorious neglectful person in the
gang . . . his negligence amounting to a positive psychological defect.”
Lovecraft continues, “For example—Fantasy
Magazine wants to get a hold of the long & important article on popular
bizarre fiction which he wrote for Cook’s defunct Recluse, yet letters from its editor remain unanswered.”[18] Lovecraft likely heard
about this from Cook, who apparently was also unable to get in touch with Munn at this time. It is
uncertain why Munn was non-responsive during this period. He even took a break
from publishing between 1933 and 1939. By July of 1934, Cook apparently told
Lovecraft that Munn had become “religious,” and it was possibly this that had
led to Munn’s despondency toward publishing as well as ignoring Cook and
Lovecraft. About this, Lovecraft told R. H. Barlow:
Cook says he’s going to get after Munn in person &
give him hell. Munn has a lot of Cook’s property in his custody, & won’t
respond to any enquiries about it. Cook now advances the theory that Munn’s
religious fanaticism is responsible for his boorish silence—that he has wiped
all atheists off his books & won’t have anything to do either with us or
with any interests with which we’re connected. That sounds far-fetched though
to me.[19]
Apparently, Cook was
needing access to the library he, a year earlier, gave Munn, and it was being
denied him for some unknown reason. From this point, Lovecraft became a bit embittered
at Munn and began disparaging him in his letters, calling him the “elusive and invisible
Werewolf of Ponkert,”[20] and “the Werewolf.”[21] In the Autobiographical Writings of R.H. Barlow,
in the section titled, “Memories of Lovecraft 1934,” Barlow recalled, “H.
Warner Munn has such a belief in the supernatural as to have caused him to
become Catholic after his marriage; and almost repudiate his earlier work as
morbid and not nice. Recently he wrote a thing L. [Lovecraft] contemned (“The
Wheel” is an old thing) and said Munn was getting seedy.”[22]
Other than Lovecraft’s
letters, there is no explanation of why Munn was absent from both his friends
and from publishing during this time. It may have been because of religious
commitments, for a time Munn was a council member at Ascension Lutheran Church.[23] However, I have not found
any evidence that he converted to Roman Catholicism at any time in his life
(other than Barlow’s reference to it) It may have been that Munn needed to give
his family more attention. It’s possible it was a combination of
both. Whatever the case, and it is pure speculation at this point until further
information about it surfaces, Munn did not resurface until 1939 when he
submitted his “King of the World’s Edge” series to Weird Tales. Afterward he went back into seclusion, this time probably
actually due to family responsibilities, with two children and a wife to
support (and two more kids born in the 1940s). And, as mentioned earlier, Munn
did not reappear in the publishing industry until the 1960s. Additionally, when
Lovecraft died in March of 1937, Munn was surprisingly quiet about it.
Be that as it may, Lovecraft and Munn were good friends
for many years. And, in the winter of Munn’s life, he wrote a two-part
reminiscence of his old friend for the fanzine Whispers, detailing fond memories he had visiting, traveling, and carrying
on lengthy conversations with Lovecraft. And, even though Lovecraft did
not prefer traditional Gothic stories, he complimented some of these same works and others by Munn to his writing peers. Lovecraft was especially fond of two of Munn’s
earlier works, “The City of Spiders” and “The Chain.” Lovecraft admits to
August Derleth that “‘The Chain’ is certainly his masterpiece to date.”[24] Moreover, “City of
Spiders” was a favorite of Robert E. Howard’s, who admitted so in a 1934 letter
to Lovecraft: “I remember his ‘City of Spiders’ as one of the most striking and
powerful stories I have ever read; and his “Tales of the Werewolf Clan” had the
real historic sweep.”[25]
Regarding
Munn’s story, “The Werewolf of Ponkert,” Lovecraft once confessed in a letter
to Robert Bloch:
I had a letter in the Eyrie in 1923 [the letter was
actually in the March 1924 issue] in which I called for the ghoul’s or
werewolf’s point of view, but nobody seemed to get the point. H. Warner Munn thought he was following out my idea
when he wrote his “Werewolf of Ponkert” (told by a man who was involuntarily
became a werewolf, & who regrets his nocturnal deeds), but in reality he
wholly missed it. His sympathies were still with mankind—whereas I called for sympathies
wholly disassociated from mankind & perhaps violently hostile to it.[27]
It is true, in the March
1924 letter to “The Eyrie,” Lovecraft added the caveat, “. . . and sympathizing
strongly with the devil to whom he has sold himself.”[28] Munn had dropped the ball
on that aspect of Lovecraft’s request, but the readers still got a first-rate
weird horror story with “The Werewolf of Ponkert.” Moreover, since Lovecraft
established the parameters of the requested story, one wonders why he did not
write it himself. “The Outsider” was the closest Lovecraft came to satisfying
that idea. Interestingly, Lovecraft, in that same letter to Bloch, indicated
that Bloch’s story, “Nocturne Macabre”[29] was the first thing he
had read that fit the bill.
[Thanks to Bobby Derie
for fact checking this article and providing a few helpful insights]
Notes:
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
Ibid.
[4] This
is possibly "The Werewolf of St. Bonnot" (WT May-Jun-Jul 1924), but it’s
more likely "The Phantom Farmhouse" (WT Oct 1923).
[5] Wright,
Farnsworth. “The Eyrie.” Editorial. Weird
Tales, August 1925.
[6] Munn,
H. Warner. “HPL.” Whispers, Whole
Number 9, Vol. 3, no. 1 (December 1976): 24.
[7]
Ibid.
[8] Lovecraft, H. P., and Clark Ashton Smith. “1927.”
In Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The
Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, edited by David E.
Schultz and S. T. Joshi, 139. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press, 2017.
[9] Lovecraft,
H. P., and Clark Ashton Smith. “1930.” 220.
[10]
Bobby Derie in personal correspondence, 5/21/2018.
[11]
See Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The
Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, 248.
[12] Lovecraft,
H. P., and Clark Ashton Smith. “1930.” 245.
[13] Lovecraft,
H. P., and August Derleth. "1930." In Essential Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth:
1926-1931, 305. Vol. 1. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press, 2013.
[14] Munn,
H. Warner. “HPL: A Reminiscence” Whispers,
Whole Number 13-14, Vol. 4, no. 1-2 (December 1976): 24.
[15]
Ibid.
[16] Lovecraft, H. P., and R. H. Barlow,
"1934." In O Fortunate
Floridian: H. P. Lovecraft's Letters to R. H. Barlow, edited by S. T. Joshi
and David E. Schultz, 54. Tampa, FL: University of Tampa Press, 2016.
[17] W.
Paul Cook to Donald Wandrei, 23 Aug 1931, quoted in W. Paul Cook: The Wandering Life of a Yankee Printer 40. (Donnelly,
Sean (ed.) (2007). W. PAUL COOK: The
Wandering Life of a Yankee Printer. NY: Hippocampus Press)
[18]
Ibid. 105
[19]
Ibid. 155.
[20]
Ibid. 164.
[21]
Ibid. 173.
[22]
Ibid. 404.
[23] See: Reginald, R. Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Vol. 2. Detroit MI: Gale
Research Company, 1979. Entry for H. Warner Munn.
[24] Lovecraft,
H. P., and August Derleth. "1932." In Essential Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth:
1932-1937, 475. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press, 2013.
[25] Howard, Robert E., and H. P. Lovecraft.
"1932." In A Means to Freedom:
The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard: 1930-1932, edited by
S. T. Joshi, David E. Schultz, and Rusty Burke, 292. New York, NY: Hippocampus
Press, 2009.
[26]
See Reginald, R. Science Fiction and
Fantasy Literature. Vol. 2. Detroit MI: Gale Research Company, 1979. Entry
for H. Warner Munn.
[27] Lovecraft,
H. P., and Robert Bloch. "Letters to Robert Bloch." In Letters to Robert Bloch and Others,
edited by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi, 49-50. New York, NY: Hippocampus
Press, 2015.
[28] Lovecraft,
H. P. “The Eyrie.” Editorial. Weird Tales,
March 1924.
[29]
This story no longer exists.
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