SCIENCE PRIMERS. BOTANY - H.P. LOVECRAFT'S COPY, SIGNED [Lovecraft, H.P.] Hooker, J.D Association Copies,Science Fiction & Fantasy

16mo. (16cm); flexible brown cloth boards, with titling and publisher's logo stamped in black on spine and covers; x,[9]-129 + [13]pp ads, with numerous black and white illustrations throughout. H.P. Lovecraft's copy, with his name and address rubber-stamped in purple ink at upper right corner of front endpaper, with his holograph name and address appearing directly beneath in black ink: "H.P. Lovecraft / 598 Angell St / Providence, R.I. / U.S.A." Holograph shelf numbers (7.1 / 349) appear in black ink at upper left corner of front pastedown and front endpaper. Light wear to spine ends and extremities, touch of foxing to upper edge of textblock, else a clean, Near Fine copy. A charming botanical primer from the library of American weird fiction author H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). In his 2020 dissertation "Providence Lost: Natural and Urban Landscapes in H.P. Lovecraft's Fiction," Dylan Henderson notes Lovecraft's supreme understanding that, "when telling a weird tale, setting matters. That is, if the story is to succeed, if it is to excite "in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers," it usually needs more than a frightening monster: it needs a frightening place" (p.1). In addition to building cities, Lovecraft build landscapes that were both beautiful and eerie. In his 1927 story "The Colour Out of Space," he displays his enthusiasm for botany, mentioning numerous varieties of flowering plants. In his description of Tempest Mountain in "The Lurking Fear" (1923), he describes a foul place infested with misshapen plants and populated with grotesque people. His 1922 prose poem "What the Moon Brings" he describes an endless garden with narcotic flowers and lotos blossoms, and in "The Shunned House" (1924), he mentions both strange weeds and foul-smelling phosphorescent fungi. A curious volume on a subject which clearly informed Lovecraft's fiction.