Courtesy of Bruce Sterling’s “Beyond the Beyond,” a transcript of HP Lovecraft’s commonplace book (the technical term for a notebook that writers use to jot down their ideas). I’ve always considered Boing Boing to be my commonplace book — I love that it’s searchable and annotated, but I miss the homey, handwritten nature of a print commonplace book. Wish I could see Lovecraft’s handwritten edition here (though I’m grateful for the transcript).
1 Demophon shivered when the sun shone upon him. (Lover of darkness = ignorance.)2 Inhabitants of Zinge, over whom the star Canopus rises every night, are always gay and without sorrow. [x]
3 The shores of Attica respond in song to the waves of the Aegean. [x]
4 Horror Story
Man dreams of falling–found on floor mangled as tho’ from falling from a vast height. [x]5 Narrator walks along unfamiliar country road,–comes to strange region of the unreal.
6 In Ld Dunsany’s “Idle Days on the Yann”
The inhabitants of the antient Astahan, on the Yann, do all things according to antient ceremony. Nothing new is found.
“Here we have fetter’d and manacled Time, who wou’d otherwise slay the Gods.” [x]7 Horror Story
The sculptured hand–or other artificial hand–which strangles its creator. [x]8 Hor. Sto.
Man makes appt. with old enemy. Dies–body keeps appt.9 Dr. Eben Spencer plot. [x]
10 Dream of flying over city. [Celephaïs]
11 Odd nocturnal ritual. Beasts dance and march to musick. [x]
H. P. Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book