Frank Belknap Long (Sr. & Jr.)

Lovecraft was fond of Frank Belknap Long, Jr.  So much so, he often called him “Belkapius”.  It is somewhat unfair to look at an individual only through the eyes of HPL, so here’s a little extra information that might round out the long career of the weird tale writer.

Long, Jr. grew up in a relatively privileged environment, since his father was a dental surgeon in New York.

One supposes it all started a few years after Frank Belknap Long, Sr. graduated from the New York College of Dentistry (10 March 1892).  On  20 November 1895, Dr. Long and his dear bride, Miss May Mansfield Doty, joined hands and were wed.  The bride wore a gown of heavy white satin with flounces of point lace.

As nature took its course, Frank, Jr, came along on 27 April 1901.  Sadly we lost him in 1994, but he lived a long and productive life.

At first, he was a champion and practitioner of the weird tale.  While Lovecraft remained to his last day challenged to write the ultimate weird tale, time marched on and the atomic era dawned.  While the venerable Weird Tales hung on for several decades, the new rage was Scientifiction (later Sci-Fi, coined allegedly by Forest J. Ackerman).

Long embraced the new writing style, and for a time put out both weird tales, horror, and Scientifiction.  It is little known that he also wrote neo-gothic stories with the pseudonym Lyda Belknap Long.

After HPL died, Long missed him. As the years moved by, he thought of his long-ago friend and finally came out with a very readable memoir. Sadly, it has never been reprinted, and like so much of Lovecraftiana, it is hard to acquire, and expensive. In it he told a classic few stories.

Once, HPL was sitting in a cemetery with Long, and Long said, “Look, Howard.” In the coolness of the crepuscular darkness, wisps of moisture coiled. Long thought they resembled ghosts. Lovecraft pshawed this notion, and went into a scientific explanation that added a different kind of chill to the supernatural evening. However, HPL was just as quick to conjure weird out of the mundane. Once he went to a museum with Long, and upon touching part of an Egyptian exhibit went rapturous over evil and long dead Egyptians on a rampage.

Just as some have “heroes of the faith”, we honor the antiquarian thread of horror as it twists and turns through history, time and space. On this occasion, today, we celebrate a firmly woven thread of the tapestry: Frank Belknap Long, Jr.

Below are a few title of Frank Belknap Long, Jr. we have available at Miskatonic Books

Click on any of the cover arts below to get more information on the title

The Chapbooks Published by Roy A. Squires

Beginning in 1962 through 1979, Roy Squires, literary executor for Clark Ashton Smith, produced a series of small chapbooks featuring verse from some of today’s most notable authors.

Letterpress publishers, particularly those publishing poems by speculative fiction authors, can be a bit snobbish when it comes to letting new publishers into their inner cadre. However, letterpress publisher Rollin Milroy of Heavenly Monkey has been hard at work on a book about Roy A. Squires publishing and hopes to bring to light their beautiful productions and exquisite design to other letterpress publishing enthusiast.

Each of his publications are works of art. All are printed on fine parchment, with letterpress type and hand sewn wraps. Some were signed by the authors.

Below is a bibliography of Roy A. Squires publications:

• 1. The Hill of Dionysus/A Selection by Clark Ashton Smith 1962
• 2. The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury 1964
• 3. Nero / An Early Poem by Clark Ashton Smith 1964
• 4. Donde Duemes, Eldorado  y Otros Poemas 1964
• 5. The Demons of the Upper Air by Fritz Leiber 1969
• 6. Memory by H. P. Lovecraft 1969
• 7. Ex Oblivion by H. P. Lovecraft 1969
• 8. Nyarlathotep by H. P. Lovecraft 1970
• 9. What the Moon Brings by H. P. Lovecraft 1970  (Items 6-9 were first offered only as a complete set by subscription. August Derleth gave notice of them in the Arkham Collector. The very first order for the series came from Tim Powers.)
• 10. the Tartarus of the suns by Clark Ashton Smith 1970
• 11. The Palace of Jewels by Clark Ashton Smith 1970
• 12. In the Ultimate Valley by Clark Ashton Smith 1970
• 13. To George Sterling by Clark Ashton Smith 1970
• 14. Hail, Klarkash-Ton! by H. P. Lovecraft 1971
• 15. Old Ahab’s Friend, And Friend To Noah, Speaks His Peace by Ray Bradbury 1971
• 16. The Mortuary by Clark Ashton Smith 1971
• 17. The Road To Rome by Robert E. Howard 1972
• 18. Black Dawn by Robert E. Howard 1972
• 19. Sadastor by Clark Ashton Smith 1972
• 20. Night of the Demon by Phil Garland 1972
• 21. A Song of the Naked Lands by Robert E. Howard 1973
• 22. From the Crypts of Memory by Clark Ashton Smith 1973
• 23. The Gold and the Grey by Robert E. Howard 1974
• 24. That Son of Richard III by Ray Bradbury 1974
• 25. Altars and Jester, An Opium Dream by Robert E. Howard 1974
• 26. The Titans In Tartarus by Clark Ashton Smith 1974
• 27. A Song From Hell by Clark Ashton Smith 1975
• 28. The Potion of Dreams by Clark Ashton Smith 1975
• 29. The Ghost, That Bride of Time by Ray Bradbury 1976
• 30. The Fanes of Dawn by Clark Ashton Smith 1976
• 31. Seer of the Cycles by Clark Ashton Smith 1976
• 32. The Marriage of Sir John de Mandeville by 1976
• 33. Up, John Kane! & Other Poems by Robert E. Howard 1977
• 34. The Burden of the Suns by Clark Ashton Smith 1977
• 35. Prince Alcouz and the Magician by Clark Ashton Smith 1977
• 36. Sonnets to Jonquil and All by Fritz Leiber 1978
• 37. The Cats of Ulthar by H. P. Lovecraft 1979
• 38. The Aqueduct (A Martian Chronicle) by Ray Bradbury 1979

We recently purchased a collection of these chaps and will be adding some to the Miskatonic Bookstore over the next few weeks.  Below are some editions already put up. Click on any of the covers for a list of what is currently available. If you are looking for something specific from Squires press but don’t see it up please email us at Arcanewisdom@me.com an we might have it available but just not up on the site.

Frank Belknap Long (Sr. & Jr.)

Lovecraft was fond of Frank Belknap Long, Jr. So much so, he often called him “Belkapius”. It is somewhat unfair to look at an individual only through the eyes of HPL, so here’s a little extra information that might round out the long career of the weird tale writer.

Long, Jr. grew up in a relatively privileged environment, since his father was a dental surgeon in New York.

One supposes it all started a few years after Frank Belknap Long, Sr. graduated from the New York College of Dentistry (10 March 1892). On 20 November 1895, Dr. Long and his dear bride, Miss May Mansfield Doty, joined hands and were wed. The bride wore a gown of heavy white satin with flounces of point lace.

As nature took its course, Frank, Jr, came along on 27 April 1901. Sadly we lost him in 1994, but he lived a long and productive life.

At first, he was a champion and practitioner of the weird tale. While Lovecraft remained to his last day challenged to write the ultimate weird tale, time marched on and the atomic era dawned. While the venerable Weird Tales hung on for several decades, the new rage was Scientifiction (later Sci-Fi, coined allegedly by Forest J. Ackerman).

Long embraced the new writing style, and for a time put out both weird tales, horror, and Scientifiction. It is little known that he also wrote neo-gothic stories with the pseudonym Lyda Belknap Long.

After HPL died, Long missed him. As the years moved by, he thought of his long-ago friend and finally came out with a very readable memoir. Sadly, it has never been reprinted, and like so much of Lovecraftiana, it is hard to acquire, and expensive. In it he told a classic few stories.

Once, HPL was sitting in a cemetery with Long, and Long said, “Look, Howard.” In the coolness of the crepuscular darkness, wisps of moisture coiled. Long thought they resembled ghosts. Lovecraft pshawed this notion, and went into a scientific explanation that added a different kind of chill to the supernatural evening. However, HPL was just as quick to conjure weird out of the mundane. Once he went to a museum with Long, and upon touching part of an Egyptian exhibit went rapturous over evil and long dead Egyptians on a rampage.

Just as some have “heroes of the faith”, we honor the antiquarian thread of horror as it twists and turns through history, time and space. On this occasion, today, we celebrate a firmly woven thread of the tapestry: Frank Belknap Long, Jr.

Below are a few title of Frank Belknap Long, Jr. we have available at Miskatonic Books

Click on any of the cover arts below to get more information on the title

Two New Centipede Titles Up, One Shipping and One Advance-Order

We have two fantastic additions from Centipede Press now up at Miskatonic Books.

THE DARK by James Herbert (Signed Limited Edition)

A few years after The Fog, James Herbert again decided to tackle the idea of a impenetrable thick substance that drives people to madness and evil. Unlike The Fog, however, The Dark takes time to discuss, on a philosophical level, the nature and problem of evil. The result is one of Herbert’s best novels, with solid characterization, excellent suspense, and thoughtful meditations on the nature of man.

The Dark is an ambitious novel, here reprinted with a fine new introduction by Brian Hodge, a cover by Gustav Klimt, the original Signet paperback art, a bonus short story by Herbert, and a long interview with Herbert from 1984.

This is a big, thick book with a lot of art, marbled endsheets, ribbon marker, printed front cloth, and beautiful back cloth from Europe. Signed by James Hebert and Brian Hodge, limited to just 150 copies for sale.

MASTERS OF THE WEIRD TALES: Frank Belknap Long edited by John Pelan (Signed Limited Hardcover)

The largest collection of Frank Belknap Long stories ever collected in one volume, including many stories here reprinted for the first time ever since their publication in the pulps over 50 years ago.

With original illustrations by Allen Koszowski, Randy Broecker, and others, and an illuminating introduction by John Pelan. We also include a gallery of old paperback and hardcover covers of previous editions of Frank Belknap Long books, and photographs of the author. The essential collection of Long’s work, with the complete short novel The Horror from the Hills, and heavily illustrated in both color and black & white. Bound in cloth with a full cloth slipcase.

The edition is limited to 200 signed and numbered copies, and the book is signed by Randy Broecker, Swiss artist Gwabryel, Allen Koszowski, and editor John Pelan.

The book is bound in cloth with a printed front panel with a ribbon marker, translucent overlay on the title page, gorgeous spine and back cover cloth, and comes wrapped in a two-tone cloth slipcase.