Frank Belknap Long
Encyclopedia
Frank Belknap Long was a prolific American writer of horror fiction
, fantasy
, science fiction
, poetry
, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including early contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos
. During his life, Long received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement
(at the 1978 World Fantasy Convention
), the Bram Stoker Award
for Lifetime Achievement (in 1987, from the Horror Writers Association
), and the First Fandom
Hall of Fame Award (1977).
in 1901, and grew up in the Harlem
area of Manhattan
. His father was a prosperous dentist and his mother was May Doty. The family resided at 823 West End Avenue
in Manhattan. A lifelong resident of New York City, he was educated in the New York City public school system
. As a boy he was fascinated by natural history
, and wrote that he dreamed of running "away from home and explore the great rain forests of the Amazon
." He developed his interest in the weird by reading the Oz
books, Jules Verne
, and H.G. Wells. Though writing was to be his life's work, he once commented that as "important as writing is, I could have been completely happy if I had a secure position in a field that has always had a tremendous emotion and an imaginative appeal for me—that of natural history."
In his late teens, he was active in the United Amateur Press Association
(UAPA) in which he won a prize from The Boy's World (around 1919) and thus discovered amateur journalism. His first published tale was "Dr Whitlock's Price (United Amateur, March 1920). Long's story "The Eye Above the Mantel" (1921) in UAPA caught the eye of H. P. Lovecraft
, sparking a friendship and correspondence that would endure until Lovecraft's death in 1937.
Long attended New York University
from 1920 to 1921, studying journalism
but later transferred to Columbia, leaving without a degree. In 1921, he suffered a severe attack of appendicitis
, leading to a ruptured appendix and peritonitis
. He spent a month in New York's Roosevelt Hospital, where he came close to dying. Long's brush with death propelled him into a decision that he would leave college to pursue a freelance writing career.
In 1923, at the age of 22, he sold his first short story, "The Desert Lich", to Weird Tales
magazine. Throughout the next four decades, Long was to be a frequent contributor to pulp magazines, including two of the most famous: Weird Tales (under editor Farnsworth Wright) and Astounding Science Fiction (under editor John W. Campbell
). Long was an active freelance writer, also publishing many non-fiction articles. His first book, the scarce volume A Man from Genoa and Other Poems, was published in 1926. His second published book was also a volume of fantastic poetry - The Goblin Tower (1928).
In the late 1930's, Long turned his hand to science fiction, writing for Astounding Science Fiction. He also contributed horror stories to Unknown
, later called Unknown Worlds. His later science fiction works include the story collection John Carstairs, Space Detective (1949), and the novels Space Station 1 (1957), Mars is My desination (1962) and It Was the Day of the Robot (1963).
In pulps such as Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories during the 1940s, Long sometimes wrote using the pseudonym 'Leslie Northern.' What Long characterized as a "minor disability" kept him out of World War II
and writing full time during the early 1940s.
He also wrote comic book
s in the 1940s , including horror stories for Adventures Into the Unknown
(ACG), and scripts for Planet Comics
, Superman
, Congo Bill, DC
's Golden Age Green Lantern
, and the Fawcett Comics
Captain Marvel
.
Ever versatile as a writer, Long changed with the times. In the 1950s he was uncredited associate editor on The Saint Mystery Magazine and Fantastic Universe
. He was associate editor on Satellite Science Fiction
, 1959; on
Short Stories
, 1959-60; and on Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine until 1966.
After the decline of the pulps, he moved into writing science fiction and gothic romance novels (and even a Man from UNCLE story The Electronic Frankenstein Affair, which appeared under the pen name Robert Hart Davis in the Man from UNCLE Magazine).
"The Horror from the Hills" (1963), one of Long's best known-works, was based on a dream related to him by H.P. Lovecraft
Long wrote nine modern Gothic
novels, starting with So Dark a Heritage in 1966 (published under his own name), eight of which were published as by 'Lyda Belknap Long' (a combination of his wife (Lyda Arco Long)'s first name and his middle name and surname. All were entirely his own work and were workmanlike products intended to support him and his wife rather than to be of high literary quality. According to Elsa J. Radcliffe, Crucible of Evil (1974) is "a very clumsy tale both in plot and writing style. Much of the suspense seems contrived and the plot tediously simplistic."
Long also published collections of his short stories (such as The Hounds of Tindalos
and Night Fear) and poetry (including In Mayan Splendor
), a biography of H. P. Lovecraft, Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside
, and his own Autobiographical Memoir (Necronomicon Press, 1986). Illumination on his own life and work is also provided by his introduction to The Early Long
(1975), a collection of his best early stories.
He married Lyda Arco,a Russian descended from a line of actors in the Yiddish theatre who ran a salon in Chelsea, NY, in 1960. They stayed together till Long's death in 1994, but had no children. Long described himself as an "agnostic." Referring to Lovecraft, Long wrote that he "always shared HPL's skepticism . . . concerning the entire range of alleged supernatural occurrences and what is commonly defined as 'the occult.'"
Long died on January 3, 1994 at the age of 92, survived by his wife, Lyda. Due to his poverty, he was interred in a potter's field for indigents. Friends and colleagues, on learning of this indignity, had his remains moved and reinterred at New York City's Woodlawn Cemetery
, in a family plot near that of Lovecraft's grandparents. Despite a seven-decade career as a writer, he had died impoverished after many years living in the Chelsea District of Manhattan; Long's fans contributed over $3000 to have his name engraved upon the tombstone of his family plot. Lyda died shortly after Frank and her ashes were scattered on his grave.
Frank Belknap Long left behind a body of work that included twenty-nine novels, 150 short stories, eight collections of short stories, three poetry collections, and numerous freelance magazine articles and comic book scripts. Author Ray Bradbury
summed up Long's career: "Frank Belknap Long has lived through a major part of science fiction history in the U.S., has known most of the writers personally, or has corresponded with them, and has, with his own writing, helped shape the field when most of us were still in our early teens."
H. P. Lovecraft
was a close friend and mentor to Frank Belknap Long, with whom he came in contact in 1920 when Long was but nineteen. Lovecraft found Long a stimulating correspondent especially in regard to his aesthetic tastes, focussing on the Italian Renaissance and French literature. Lovecraft published some of Long's early work in his Conservative (e.g. Felis: A prose Poem [July 1923], about Long's pet cat) and paid tribute to Long in a flattering article, "The Work of Frank Belknap Long, Jun.," published anonymously in the United Amateur (May 1924) but clearly by Lovecraft.
They first met when Lovecraft visited New York in April 1922.
They saw each other with great frequency (especially during Lovecraft's Brooklyn residence in New York City from 1924 to 1926), at which time they were the chief members of the Kalem Club and wrote to each other often. Long's family apartment was always Lovecraft's residence and headquarters during his periodic trips from Providence to New York. Long writes that he and Lovecraft exchanged "more than a thousand letters, not a few running to more than eighty handwritten pages" before Lovecraft's death in 1937. Some of their correspondence has been reprinted in Arkham House
's Selected Letters series, collecting the voluminous correspondence of Lovecraft and his friends. Long's Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Night Side was extensively edited by James Turner.
During the 1930s, Long and Lovecraft were both members of the Kalem Club (named for the initials of the surnames of original members—K, L, or M). Long was also part of the loosely associated "Lovecraft Circle" of fantasy writers (along with Robert Bloch
, August Derleth
, Robert E. Howard
, Henry Kuttner
, Clark Ashton Smith
, C. M. Eddy, Jr.
, and Donald Wandrei
) who corresponded regularly with each other and influenced and critiqued each other's works.
Long wrote a brief preface to the stillborn edition of Lovecraft's The Shunned House (1928). Lovecraft, in turn, ghostwrote for Long the preface to Mrs William B. Symmes' Old World Footprints (W. Paul Cook/The Recluse Press, 1928), a slim poetry collection by Long's aunt. Long's short novel The Horror from the Hills (Weird Tales, Jan and Feb-March 1931; published in book from 1963) incorporates verbatim a letter by Lovecraft recounting his great 'Roman dream' of Hallow'een 1927. Long teamed with Lovecraft in a revision service with Lovecraft in 1928. Long's parents frequently took Lovecraft on various motor trips between 1929 and 1930, and Lovecraft visited Long at Christmas between 1932 and 1935 inclusive. Lovecraft helped set type for Long's second poetry collection, The Goblin Tower (1935), correcting some of Long's faulty metre in the process. Lovecraft's letters to Long after 1931 have all been lost, with the letters up to that date existing primarily in transcriptions prepared by Arkham House
.
The Long/Lovecraft friendship was fictionalized in Peter Cannon
's 1985 novel Pulptime: Being a Singular Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, Lovecraft, and the Kalem Club as if Narrated by Frank Belknap Long, Jr.. Long was a Guest of Honour at the Lovecraft Centennial Conference in Providence in 1990.
Long wrote a number of early Cthulhu Mythos
stories. These included "The Hounds of Tindalos" (the first Mythos story written by anyone other than Lovecraft), The Horror from the Hills
(which introduced the elephantine Great Old One Chaugnar Faugn to the Mythos), and "The Space-Eaters" (featuring a fictionalized HPL as its main character). A later Mythos story, "Dark Awakening", appeared in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. The story betrays the influence of Long's pseudonymous romantic fiction, and the final paragraph was added by the editor at Long's suggestion.
The Hounds of Tindalos are Long's most famous fictional creation. The Hounds were a pack of foul and incomprehensibly alien beasts "emerging from strange angle
s in dim recesses of non-Euclidean
space before the dawn of time" (Long) to pursue travelers down the corridors of time. They could only enter our reality via angles, where they would mangle and exsanguinate
their victims, leaving behind only a "peculiar bluish pus
or ichor
" (Long). The Hounds of Tindalos have been used or referenced by many later Mythos writers, including Ramsey Campbell
, Lin Carter
, and Brian Lumley
. Long's Hounds of Tindalos have also inspired a number of metal and electronic music artists, such as Metallica, Epoch of Unlight
, Edith Byron's Group, Beowulf, Fireaxe/Brian Voth, and Univers Zero, all of whom have recorded tracks based upon the story.
's speech from the convention.
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
, fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including early contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
. During his life, Long received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement
World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement
This World Fantasy Award is presented to individuals for their outstanding service to the fantasy field, and decided by a panel of judges at the World Fantasy Convention.-1984:* L. Sprague de Camp* Richard Matheson* E. Hoffmann Price* Jack Vance* Donald Wandrei...
(at the 1978 World Fantasy Convention
World Fantasy Convention
The World Fantasy Convention is an annual convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. It places emphasis on literature and art, while de-emphasizing dramatic presentation, gaming, masquerade, and the like. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the...
), the Bram Stoker Award
Bram Stoker Award
The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association for "superior achievement" in horror writing. The awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA...
for Lifetime Achievement (in 1987, from the Horror Writers Association
Horror Writers Association
The Horror Writers Association is a worldwide non-profit organization of professional writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting the interests of Horror and Dark Fantasy writers. It was formed in the 1980s with the help of many of the field's greats, including Joe Lansdale, Robert...
), and the First Fandom
First Fandom
First Fandom is an association of experienced science fiction fans.In 1958 a number of fans at Midwestcon realized amid table-talk that they all had been active in fandom for more than 20 years. This inspired the creation of an organization for longstanding fans under the initial chairmanship of...
Hall of Fame Award (1977).
Biography
Frank Belknap Long was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1901, and grew up in the Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
area of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. His father was a prosperous dentist and his mother was May Doty. The family resided at 823 West End Avenue
West End Avenue
West End Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, not far from the Hudson River.West End Avenue originates at West 59th Street; the continuation of the street below 59th Street is called Eleventh Avenue. It runs from 59th Street to its...
in Manhattan. A lifelong resident of New York City, he was educated in the New York City public school system
New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. It is the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,700 separate schools...
. As a boy he was fascinated by natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, and wrote that he dreamed of running "away from home and explore the great rain forests of the Amazon
Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...
." He developed his interest in the weird by reading the Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
books, Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, and H.G. Wells. Though writing was to be his life's work, he once commented that as "important as writing is, I could have been completely happy if I had a secure position in a field that has always had a tremendous emotion and an imaginative appeal for me—that of natural history."
In his late teens, he was active in the United Amateur Press Association
Amateur press association
An amateur press association is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.-Organisation:...
(UAPA) in which he won a prize from The Boy's World (around 1919) and thus discovered amateur journalism. His first published tale was "Dr Whitlock's Price (United Amateur, March 1920). Long's story "The Eye Above the Mantel" (1921) in UAPA caught the eye of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
, sparking a friendship and correspondence that would endure until Lovecraft's death in 1937.
Long attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
from 1920 to 1921, studying journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
but later transferred to Columbia, leaving without a degree. In 1921, he suffered a severe attack of appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
, leading to a ruptured appendix and peritonitis
Peritonitis
Peritonitis is an inflammation of the peritoneum, the serous membrane that lines part of the abdominal cavity and viscera. Peritonitis may be localised or generalised, and may result from infection or from a non-infectious process.-Abdominal pain and tenderness:The main manifestations of...
. He spent a month in New York's Roosevelt Hospital, where he came close to dying. Long's brush with death propelled him into a decision that he would leave college to pursue a freelance writing career.
In 1923, at the age of 22, he sold his first short story, "The Desert Lich", to Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
magazine. Throughout the next four decades, Long was to be a frequent contributor to pulp magazines, including two of the most famous: Weird Tales (under editor Farnsworth Wright) and Astounding Science Fiction (under editor John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
). Long was an active freelance writer, also publishing many non-fiction articles. His first book, the scarce volume A Man from Genoa and Other Poems, was published in 1926. His second published book was also a volume of fantastic poetry - The Goblin Tower (1928).
In the late 1930's, Long turned his hand to science fiction, writing for Astounding Science Fiction. He also contributed horror stories to Unknown
Unknown (magazine)
Unknown was an American pulp fantasy fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1943 by Street & Smith, and edited by John W. Campbell. Unknown was a companion to Street & Smith's science fiction pulp, Astounding Science Fiction, which was also edited by Campbell at the time; many authors and...
, later called Unknown Worlds. His later science fiction works include the story collection John Carstairs, Space Detective (1949), and the novels Space Station 1 (1957), Mars is My desination (1962) and It Was the Day of the Robot (1963).
In pulps such as Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories during the 1940s, Long sometimes wrote using the pseudonym 'Leslie Northern.' What Long characterized as a "minor disability" kept him out of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and writing full time during the early 1940s.
He also wrote comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s in the 1940s , including horror stories for Adventures Into the Unknown
Adventures Into the Unknown
Adventures Into the Unknown was a horror and supernatural comic series from the Golden Age of Comic Books. The title was released in the fall of 1948 by B&I Publishing and enjoyed a run of 174 issues for nearly two decades, ceasing publication in August 1967...
(ACG), and scripts for Planet Comics
Planet Comics
Planet Comics was a science fiction comic book title produced by Fiction House and ran for 73 issues from January 1940 to Winter 1953. Like many of Fiction House's early comics titles, Planet Comics was a spinoff of a pulp magazine, in this case Planet Stories, which featured space operatic tales...
, Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, Congo Bill, DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
's Golden Age Green Lantern
Green Lantern
The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...
, and the Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s...
Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
.
Ever versatile as a writer, Long changed with the times. In the 1950s he was uncredited associate editor on The Saint Mystery Magazine and Fantastic Universe
Fantastic Universe
Fantastic Universe was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishing in the 1950s in the United States, and was moderately...
. He was associate editor on Satellite Science Fiction
Satellite Science Fiction
Satellite Science Fiction was a science fiction digest-sized magazine that was published in the United States in the late 1950s.The first edition of Satellite Science Fiction was published in October 1956. It published a total of 18 editions and ceased publication after the May 1959 edition.The...
, 1959; on
Short Stories
Short Stories (magazine)
-Origin of Short Stories:Short Stories began its existence as a literary periodical, carrying work by Rudyard Kipling,Emile Zola, Bret Harte, Ivan Turgenev and Anna Katharine Green. The magazine advertised...
, 1959-60; and on Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine until 1966.
After the decline of the pulps, he moved into writing science fiction and gothic romance novels (and even a Man from UNCLE story The Electronic Frankenstein Affair, which appeared under the pen name Robert Hart Davis in the Man from UNCLE Magazine).
"The Horror from the Hills" (1963), one of Long's best known-works, was based on a dream related to him by H.P. Lovecraft
Long wrote nine modern Gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
novels, starting with So Dark a Heritage in 1966 (published under his own name), eight of which were published as by 'Lyda Belknap Long' (a combination of his wife (Lyda Arco Long)'s first name and his middle name and surname. All were entirely his own work and were workmanlike products intended to support him and his wife rather than to be of high literary quality. According to Elsa J. Radcliffe, Crucible of Evil (1974) is "a very clumsy tale both in plot and writing style. Much of the suspense seems contrived and the plot tediously simplistic."
Long also published collections of his short stories (such as The Hounds of Tindalos
The Hounds of Tindalos (book)
The Hounds of Tindalos is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories by author Frank Belknap Long. It was released in 1946 and was the author's third book...
and Night Fear) and poetry (including In Mayan Splendor
In Mayan Splendor
In Mayan Splendor is a collection of poems by Frank Belknap Long. It was released in 1977 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,947 copies. The book is illustrated by Stephen E...
), a biography of H. P. Lovecraft, Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside
Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside
Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside is a biography of H. P. Lovecraft written by Frank Belknap Long, a longtime friend of Lovecraft. It was released in 1975 and by Arkham House in an edition of 4,991 copies. It was one of three biographies of Lovecraft released in 1975. The...
, and his own Autobiographical Memoir (Necronomicon Press, 1986). Illumination on his own life and work is also provided by his introduction to The Early Long
The Early Long
The Early Long is a collection of stories by Frank Belknap Long. Released in 1975, more than 50 years after the start of Long's career, it contains some of Long's best stories, together with an introduction which casts light on his early life and work...
(1975), a collection of his best early stories.
He married Lyda Arco,a Russian descended from a line of actors in the Yiddish theatre who ran a salon in Chelsea, NY, in 1960. They stayed together till Long's death in 1994, but had no children. Long described himself as an "agnostic." Referring to Lovecraft, Long wrote that he "always shared HPL's skepticism . . . concerning the entire range of alleged supernatural occurrences and what is commonly defined as 'the occult.'"
Long died on January 3, 1994 at the age of 92, survived by his wife, Lyda. Due to his poverty, he was interred in a potter's field for indigents. Friends and colleagues, on learning of this indignity, had his remains moved and reinterred at New York City's Woodlawn Cemetery
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark.A rural cemetery located in the Bronx, it opened in 1863, in what was then southern Westchester County, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874.The cemetery covers more...
, in a family plot near that of Lovecraft's grandparents. Despite a seven-decade career as a writer, he had died impoverished after many years living in the Chelsea District of Manhattan; Long's fans contributed over $3000 to have his name engraved upon the tombstone of his family plot. Lyda died shortly after Frank and her ashes were scattered on his grave.
Frank Belknap Long left behind a body of work that included twenty-nine novels, 150 short stories, eight collections of short stories, three poetry collections, and numerous freelance magazine articles and comic book scripts. Author Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
summed up Long's career: "Frank Belknap Long has lived through a major part of science fiction history in the U.S., has known most of the writers personally, or has corresponded with them, and has, with his own writing, helped shape the field when most of us were still in our early teens."
Friendship with Lovecraft
The Genius of Mr. Long is a spontaneous and self-expressive one.
—H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
was a close friend and mentor to Frank Belknap Long, with whom he came in contact in 1920 when Long was but nineteen. Lovecraft found Long a stimulating correspondent especially in regard to his aesthetic tastes, focussing on the Italian Renaissance and French literature. Lovecraft published some of Long's early work in his Conservative (e.g. Felis: A prose Poem [July 1923], about Long's pet cat) and paid tribute to Long in a flattering article, "The Work of Frank Belknap Long, Jun.," published anonymously in the United Amateur (May 1924) but clearly by Lovecraft.
They first met when Lovecraft visited New York in April 1922.
They saw each other with great frequency (especially during Lovecraft's Brooklyn residence in New York City from 1924 to 1926), at which time they were the chief members of the Kalem Club and wrote to each other often. Long's family apartment was always Lovecraft's residence and headquarters during his periodic trips from Providence to New York. Long writes that he and Lovecraft exchanged "more than a thousand letters, not a few running to more than eighty handwritten pages" before Lovecraft's death in 1937. Some of their correspondence has been reprinted in Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
's Selected Letters series, collecting the voluminous correspondence of Lovecraft and his friends. Long's Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Night Side was extensively edited by James Turner.
During the 1930s, Long and Lovecraft were both members of the Kalem Club (named for the initials of the surnames of original members—K, L, or M). Long was also part of the loosely associated "Lovecraft Circle" of fantasy writers (along with Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
, August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
, Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
, Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror.-Early life:Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915...
, Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...
, C. M. Eddy, Jr.
C. M. Eddy, Jr.
Clifford Martin Eddy, Jr. was an American author best known for his horror and supernatural short stories. He is best remembered for his work in Weird Tales magazine.- Career :...
, and Donald Wandrei
Donald Wandrei
Donald Albert Wandrei was an American science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction writer, poet and editor. He wrote as Donald Wandrei. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei...
) who corresponded regularly with each other and influenced and critiqued each other's works.
Long wrote a brief preface to the stillborn edition of Lovecraft's The Shunned House (1928). Lovecraft, in turn, ghostwrote for Long the preface to Mrs William B. Symmes' Old World Footprints (W. Paul Cook/The Recluse Press, 1928), a slim poetry collection by Long's aunt. Long's short novel The Horror from the Hills (Weird Tales, Jan and Feb-March 1931; published in book from 1963) incorporates verbatim a letter by Lovecraft recounting his great 'Roman dream' of Hallow'een 1927. Long teamed with Lovecraft in a revision service with Lovecraft in 1928. Long's parents frequently took Lovecraft on various motor trips between 1929 and 1930, and Lovecraft visited Long at Christmas between 1932 and 1935 inclusive. Lovecraft helped set type for Long's second poetry collection, The Goblin Tower (1935), correcting some of Long's faulty metre in the process. Lovecraft's letters to Long after 1931 have all been lost, with the letters up to that date existing primarily in transcriptions prepared by Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
.
The Long/Lovecraft friendship was fictionalized in Peter Cannon
Peter Cannon
Peter H. Cannon is an H. P. Lovecraft scholar and an author of Cthulhu Mythos fiction.Cannon first made his name in Lovecraft studies with his graduate theses written in the 1970s - A Case for Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Lovecraft's New England...
's 1985 novel Pulptime: Being a Singular Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, Lovecraft, and the Kalem Club as if Narrated by Frank Belknap Long, Jr.. Long was a Guest of Honour at the Lovecraft Centennial Conference in Providence in 1990.
Long wrote a number of early Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
stories. These included "The Hounds of Tindalos" (the first Mythos story written by anyone other than Lovecraft), The Horror from the Hills
The Horror from the Hills
The Horror from the Hills is a horror novel by author Frank Belknap Long. It was published by Arkham House in 1963 in an edition of 1,997 copies. The novel is part of the Cthulhu Mythos....
(which introduced the elephantine Great Old One Chaugnar Faugn to the Mythos), and "The Space-Eaters" (featuring a fictionalized HPL as its main character). A later Mythos story, "Dark Awakening", appeared in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. The story betrays the influence of Long's pseudonymous romantic fiction, and the final paragraph was added by the editor at Long's suggestion.
The Hounds of Tindalos are Long's most famous fictional creation. The Hounds were a pack of foul and incomprehensibly alien beasts "emerging from strange angle
Angle
In geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle.Angles are usually presumed to be in a Euclidean plane with the circle taken for standard with regard to direction. In fact, an angle is frequently viewed as a measure of an circular arc...
s in dim recesses of non-Euclidean
Non-Euclidean geometry
Non-Euclidean geometry is the term used to refer to two specific geometries which are, loosely speaking, obtained by negating the Euclidean parallel postulate, namely hyperbolic and elliptic geometry. This is one term which, for historical reasons, has a meaning in mathematics which is much...
space before the dawn of time" (Long) to pursue travelers down the corridors of time. They could only enter our reality via angles, where they would mangle and exsanguinate
Exsanguination
Exsanguination is the fatal process of hypovolemia , to a degree sufficient enough to cause death. One does not have to lose literally all of one's blood to cause death...
their victims, leaving behind only a "peculiar bluish pus
Pus
Pus is a viscous exudate, typically whitish-yellow, yellow, or yellow-brown, formed at the site of inflammatory during infection. An accumulation of pus in an enclosed tissue space is known as an abscess, whereas a visible collection of pus within or beneath the epidermis is known as a pustule or...
or ichor
Ichor
In Greek mythology, Ichor is the ethereal golden fluid that is the blood of the gods and/or immortals.-In classical myth:Ichor originates in Greek mythology, where it is the ethereal fluid that is the Greek gods' blood, sometimes said to retain the qualities of the immortal's food and drink,...
" (Long). The Hounds of Tindalos have been used or referenced by many later Mythos writers, including Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell
John Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction author.Since he first came to prominence in the mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", while S. T...
, Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
, and Brian Lumley
Brian Lumley
Brian Lumley is an English horror fiction writer.Born in County Durham, he joined the British Army's Royal Military Police and wrote stories in his spare time before retiring with the rank of Warrant Officer Class 1 in 1980 and becoming a professional writer.He added to H. P...
. Long's Hounds of Tindalos have also inspired a number of metal and electronic music artists, such as Metallica, Epoch of Unlight
Epoch of Unlight
Epoch of Unlight is a melodic death metal band from Memphis, Tennessee. The band formed in 1990, playing under a variety of different names including Enraptured and Requiem up until 1994, when they officially settled on Epoch of Unlight.-Biography:...
, Edith Byron's Group, Beowulf, Fireaxe/Brian Voth, and Univers Zero, all of whom have recorded tracks based upon the story.
Poetry
- A Man from Genoa (1926) (Athol, MA: W. Paul Cook)
- The Goblin Tower (Cassia FL: Dragon-Fly Press, 1935; New Collectors Group, 1945. Note: Due to the somewhat misleading publisher's introduction to the 1945 edition, it is often mis-catalogued as a reprint of the 1935 Dragon-Fly Press edition. In fact, the selection of poems differs; the New Collectors Group edition drops four, "When Chaugner Wakes," "Exotic Quest," "West Indies" and "Martial: The Vacationist" and adds three, "The Prophet," "Prediction" and "Walt Whitman."
- On Reading Arthur Machen (Pengrove: Dog and Duck Press, 1949)
- The Marriage of Sir John de Mandeville (Roy A. Squires, 1976)
- When Chaugnar Wakes (Fantome Press, 1978)
- In Mayan SplendorIn Mayan SplendorIn Mayan Splendor is a collection of poems by Frank Belknap Long. It was released in 1977 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,947 copies. The book is illustrated by Stephen E...
(Arkham House, 1977; includes contents of A Man from Genoa and The Goblin Tower plus additional poems) - The Darkling Tide: Previously Uncollected Poetry (Tsathoggua Press, 1995; edited by Perry M. Grayson)
Novels
- Space Station 1 (1957)
- Mission to a Distant Star (Satellite SF magazine serial in 5 parts)
- Woman from Another Planet (1960)
- The Horror Expert (1961)
- The Mating Center (Chariot Books,1961)
- Mars is My Destination (1962)
- The Horror from the Hills (1963); expanded edition as Odd Science Fiction (1964)
- Three Steps Spaceward (1963)
- It Was the Day of the Robot (1963)
- The Martian Visitors (1964)
- Mission to a Star (1964)
- Lest Earth Be Conquered (1966); reissue as The Androids, 1969
- This Strange Tomorrow (1966)
- So Dark a Heritage (Lancer Books,1966)
- Journey Into Darkness (1967)
- ...And Others Shall Be Born (1968) (bound with The Thief of Thoth by Lin CarterLin CarterLinwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
) - The Three Faces of Time (1969)
- To the Dark Tower (Lancer Books, 1969) (as by Lyda Belknap Long)
- Monster From Out of Time (1970)
- Survival World (1971)
- The Witch Tree (Lancer Books, 1971) (as by Lyda Belknap Long)
- Fire of the Witches (Popular Library, 1971) (as by Lyda Belknap Long)
- The Shape of Fear (Beagle Books, July 1971) (as by Lyda Belknap Long)
- The Night of the Wolf (1972)
- House of the Deadly Nightshade (Beagle Books, March 1972) (as by Lyda Belknap Long)
- Legacy of Evil (Beagle Books, June 1973) (as by Lyda Belknap Long)
- Crucible of Evil (Avon, 1974)(as by Lyda Belknap Long)
- The Lemoyne Heritage (Zebra Books, 1977)(as by Lyda Belknap Long)
- Rehearsal Night (1981)
- Ghor Kin-Slayer (Long has one episode in this round-robin sequence; Necronomicon Press, 1997)
Story collections
- The Hounds of Tindalos (1946)
- John Carstairs: Space Detective (1949)
- The Horror from the HillsThe Horror from the HillsThe Horror from the Hills is a horror novel by author Frank Belknap Long. It was published by Arkham House in 1963 in an edition of 1,997 copies. The novel is part of the Cthulhu Mythos....
(1963) - Odd Science Fiction (1963)
- The Dark Beasts and Eight Other Stories from the Hounds of Tindalos (1964)
- The Rim of the UnknownThe Rim of the UnknownThe Rim of the Unknown is a collection of stories by author Frank Belknap Long. It was released in 1972 and was the author's second collection of stories published by Arkham House...
(1972) - The Early LongThe Early LongThe Early Long is a collection of stories by Frank Belknap Long. Released in 1975, more than 50 years after the start of Long's career, it contains some of Long's best stories, together with an introduction which casts light on his early life and work...
(1975) - Night Fear (1979)
- Escape from Tomorrow: Three Previously Unreprinted Weird Tales (1995)
- The Man Who Died Twice & Three Others (Wildside Press, 2009)
Recordings
Audio recording of author panel discussion from First World Fantasy Convention, Providence, 1975. Long's voice was preserved on a flexi-disc record of this speech issued with the fanzine Myrrdin Issue 3 (1976). The other side of the flexi-disc contains a recording of Robert BlochRobert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
's speech from the convention.
Memoirs of H.P. Lovecraft
- "Random Memories of H.P. Lovecraft" (MarginaliaMarginaliaMarginalia are scribbles, comments, and illuminations in the margins of a book.- Biblical manuscripts :Biblical manuscripts have liturgical notes at the margin, for liturgical use. Numbers of texts' divisions are given at the margin...
) - "H.P.L. in Red Hook" (in The Occult Lovecraft, ed. Anthony Raven, 1975)
- Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Night Side (Arkham House, 1975). (Exhaustively revised by James TurnerJames TurnerJames Turner was the 12th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1802 to 1805. He later served as a U.S. senator between 1805 and 1816....
).
Awards
- First Fandom Hall of Fame awardFirst Fandom Hall of Fame awardFirst Fandom Hall of Fame award is an annual award for contributions to the field of science fiction dating back more than 30 years. Contributions can be as a fan, writer, editor, artist, agent, or any combination of the five. It is awarded by First Fandom and is usually presented at the beginning...
(1977). - World Fantasy AwardWorld Fantasy AwardThe World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
for Life Achievement (at the 1978 4th World Fantasy Convention), - Bram Stoker AwardBram Stoker AwardThe Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association for "superior achievement" in horror writing. The awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA...
for Lifetime Achievement (in 1987, from the Horror Writers Association),
Further reading
- Leigh BlackmoreLeigh BlackmoreLeigh David Blackmore is an Australian horror writer, critic, editor, occultist and musician. He served as the second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association . His work has been nominated twice for the Ditmar Award, once for fiction and once for criticism...
. "On the Rim of the Unknown: A Visit with Frank and Lyda Belknap Long". Shoggoth No 1 (1992). - Peter CannonPeter CannonPeter H. Cannon is an H. P. Lovecraft scholar and an author of Cthulhu Mythos fiction.Cannon first made his name in Lovecraft studies with his graduate theses written in the 1970s - A Case for Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Lovecraft's New England...
Long Memories: Recollections of Frank Belknap Long, Stockport: British Fantasy Society, 1997. Afterword by Ramsey CampbellRamsey CampbellJohn Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction author.Since he first came to prominence in the mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", while S. T... - Tom Collins. "Frank Belknap Long on Literature, Lovecraft and the Golden Age of 'Weird Tales'"". Twilight Zone 1, No 10 (Jan 1982)
- Grayson, Perry M. "Frank Belknap Long: Fantasist of Multiple Dimensions: A Preliminary Critical & Historical Overview."
- Grayson, Perry M. "Frank Belknap Long, Jr (1903-1994): Six Decades of Night Fear in the Eyes of 'The Young Man with Spectacles': A Selected Bio-bibliography". Yawning Vortex 1, No 1 (Summer 1994).
- Grayson, Perry M. "Frank Belknap Long Pioneers the Unknown". Other Dimensions: The Journal of Multimedia Horror No 3 (date?). On Long's contribution to the early horror comics.
- Grayson, Perry M. "Hail Francis, Lord Belknap!". Intro in Escape from Tomorrow (Necronomicon Press, 1995)
- Grayson, Perry M. "The Lyda Books". Yawning Vortex 2, No 2 (Aug-Sept 1995)
- Ben P. Indick. "In Memoriam: Frank Belknap Long". Lovecraft Studies No 30 (Spring 1994)
- Joshi, S. T. “Frank Belknap Long: The Gods Are Dead,” chapter 6 in Emperors of Dreams: Some Notes on Weird Poetry. Sydney: P’rea Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9804625-3-1 (pbk) and ISBN 978-0-9804625-4-8 (hbk).
- Joshi, S. T. "Things from the Sea: The Early Weird Fiction of Frank Belknap Long". Studies in Weird Fiction No 25 (Summer 2001).
- [Locus Editors] Obituary: Long, Frank Belknap, Locus v32:2 No.397 Feb 1994
- Long, Frank Belknap, Autobiographical Memoir, Necronomicon Press, 1986.
- Long, Frank Belknap, The Early Long: the Hounds of Tindalos, Jove Books, 1978.
- Long, Frank Belknap, Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Night Side, Arkham House, 1975.
- Longhorn, David. "A Short Long Life". (review of Peter Cannon's Long Memories (see above). Necrofile No 27 (Winter 1998), 19-20.
- Price, Robert M (ed). Crypt of Cthulhu No 42 (1986) is a special issue devoted to Long.
External links
- Frank Belknap Long: Fantasist of Multiple Dimensions (biographical essay by Perry M. Grayson)
- Long's gravesite at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx County }
- Frank Belknap Long Bibliography (w Photo)