Lovecraft Annual No. 20 [2026]

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• New Scholarship on H. P. Lovecraft Edited by S. T. Joshi
• ISSN 1935-6102
• ISBN 9781614985006
• August 2026
• 257 pp

The twentieth issue of this flagship journal of Lovecraft scholarship contains an abundance of material that substantially advances our understanding of Lovecraft. Donovan Loucks studies Lovecraft’s use of the Charter Street Burying Ground in Salem in his fiction, while Adam Bolivar reports on a trip to Devonshire where Lovecraft’s paternal ancestors lived. Duncan Norris probes Lovecraft’s role in the development of UFO mythology; Zachary Killebrew investigates the role of asexualism in Lovecraft’s tales; James Goho and Ron L. Johnson II study elements of “The Colour out of Space” and “The Dunwich Horror,” respectively.

Dylan Henderson ponders the autobiographical significance of “He,” while John P. Irish compares “The Music of Erich Zann” with Fitz-James O’Brien’s “The Lost Room.” Horace A. Smith adds to our understanding of Lovecraft’s scientific interests, and Kyle Gamache studies the use of asylums in Lovecraft’s fiction.

The issue concludes with a comprehensive index to issues 11–20.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Life “Among Scenes”:  Tracing an Asexual Lovecraftian Erotic / Zachary Killebrew

Entropy, Aging, and Death in H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour out of Space” / James Goho

Lovecraft and the Six Thermometers: More about Lovecraft’s First  Newspaper Appearance / Horace A. Smith

“The Unnamable” and  Salem’s Charter Street Cemetery / Donovan Loucks

“The Shadow over Innsmouth” and  Devolution in Early Twentieth-Century “Scientifiction” / Cecelia Hopkins-Drewer

“The Emptiness and Horror of Reality”: An Autobiographical Approach  to Lovecraft’s “He” / Dylan Henderson

Whispering in Darkness: Lovecraft and the Rise of UFO Mythology. / Duncan Norris

Invokes the Deadly Parallel / H. P. Lovecraft

Discoveries in Darkest Devon / Adam Bolivar

Putting a Face to the Great Race of Yith: Theodotides, Diodotus I, and “The Shadow out of Time” / Oliver D. Hoover

“The Colour out of Space”:  Influences and Impact / Ron L. Johnson II

Before Cthulhu: The Gradual Formation of Cosmicism in Lovecraft’s “Nathicana” and “A Garden” / Alysa Taylor

Vanishing Rooms, Vanishing Streets: Kantian Gothic Genealogies  from O’Brien to Lovecraft / John P. Irish

“Died Screaming in a Madhouse”: A Look at Asylums in Lovecraftian Fiction / Kyle Gamache

How to Read Lovecraft / A Column by Steven J. Mariconda

Reviews

Contributors

Index to The Lovecraft Annual 11–20

Briefly Noted