Case 1
My collection is growing into a marvelous album of nightmare! *
H. P. Lovecraft to Robert Bloch, 1933 December
In this delicate pencil drawing, Robert Bloch portrays Shub-Niggurath, an “Outer God” or “Great Old One” within Lovecraft’s pantheon and a deity that appears regularly within the stories of the Cthulhu mythos. The monstrous creature is a fertility goddess whose attributes include tentacles, slime-dripping orifices, goat-like legs, and a thousand young depicted around her. Characters in the tales frequently call upon her through incantations similar to the exclamation Bloch wrote as the title of his drawing: “Iä! Sub-Niggurath!” (“The Whisperer in Darkness,” 1930).
Bloch conceives Lovecraft’s creation as more of a reptilian creature, illuminating both his interest in paying homage to his mentor’s work and his own youthful imagination. Late in 1933, he folded the drawing to envelope size and enclosed it, along with an illustration of “Black Yaddith,” a mythos species that is known to worship Shub-Niggurath, in a letter to Lovecraft. Lovecraft responded with words of praise and encouragement, informing the aspiring fictioneer that he was saving all of the artwork he received and imparting sincere analyses of the images:
“Your recent bulletin proved, as usual, highly interesting—and I was quite captivated by the monstrous forms of Black Yaddith and Shub-Niggurath. My collection is growing into a marvelous album of nightmare! I envy your ability— + fancy that your earlier training in conventional design has a good deal to do with the vividness and disturbing substantiality of your Nameless Things. Dwyer appreciates your drawings immensely, being an aspirant in the same line himself. Has he showed you any of this things? For sheer grotesque imagination you’re in the lead.”
H. P. Lovecraft to Robert Bloch, 1933 December
Case contents:
Robert Bloch (Chicago, Illinois 1917-1994 Los Angeles, California)
IÄA. Shub-Niggurath Y’A
Circa 1933
Pencil on paper
John Hay Library. Star Collection. RARE 3-S PS3523.O82 Z98 L7
H. P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft (Providence, Rhode Island 1890-1937 Providence, Rhode Island)
Letter to Robert Bloch
1933 December
Autograph letter signed (four pages on two sheets)
John Hay Library. Howard P. Lovecraft Collection, 1894-1971. MS.Lovecraft
First page of a four-page letter written from Providence, Rhode Island.