Prose nonfiction was among the earliest forms of literary expression for H. P. Lovecraft. Over the course of his career, he addressed a wide array of other topics in essays that reveal his perspicacy and his gift for language. This volume is the first in nearly 25 years to present a comprehensive selection of Lovecraft’s best and most representative essays. As he became a pioneering author of weird fiction, Lovecraft assessed the foundations of his chosen genre in such essays as “Notes on Writing Weird Fiction”; he also wrote keen essays on Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard, and other leading figures. Much of his weird fiction is based on his deeply held philosophical views, and he expounds those views in “In Defence of Dagon” and other pieces. The wide travels that Lovecraft undertook in the 1920s and 1930s are reflected in exhaustive and poignant travel essays that exhibit his absorption of the antiquarian wonders from New England to Florida. Among the most affecting of his essays are autobiographical forays, such as “Notes on Writing Weird Fiction,” “A Confession of Unfaith” (a frank account of his developing atheism), and “Cats and Dogs,” a half-satirical vaunting of his favorite species, the cat, over the lowly dog. The volume has been assembled by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on Lovecraft and the editor of his collected fiction, essays, poetry, and letters.