Which Lovecraft book or story...

By The Old Man, in Arkham Horror Second Edition

best gives the background or texture of Arkham Horror?

There's no single story, since the game is based on his work as a whole. It would be more of a list of stories.

Veet said:

The internet's an amazing thing. Does this violate copyright, or is Lovecraft's work, as I suspect, in the public domain?

The Old Man said:

The internet's an amazing thing. Does this violate copyright, or is Lovecraft's work, as I suspect, in the public domain?

All his works should be in public domain, now

Joseph_Lavode said:

I've found that the H.P. Lovecraft collection from the Library of America seems to cover the essentials.

http://www.amazon.com/H-P-Lovecraft-Library-America/dp/1931082723/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286833680&sr=8-1

This one includes everything he wrote (the fiction, anyway). The list price of $13 for a 1100 page hardback is a steal. Although at $7, it's pretty much a must buy. It's even got introductions to every story by S.T. Joshi.

Lovecraft placed his oeuvre in the public domain during his lifetime. That's one of the reasons there are so many games, comics, etc. based on it. I like that, myself: never been a huge fan of proprietary creativity.

Brine said:

This one includes everything he wrote (the fiction, anyway). The list price of $13 for a 1100 page hardback is a steal. Although at $7, it's pretty much a must buy. It's even got introductions to every story by S.T. Joshi.

That is impressive, and I now need to aquire a copy. I do stand by the quality of the one I linked however. The Library of America editions are rediculously high quality editions.

Yep, I've got the Barnes and Noble one and I take it pretty much everywhere where I could have extra time to read. I'm only halfway through too!

It is a really, really good deal.

How about Cthulhu Mythos stories not written by H.P. Lovecraft? I've got the Barnes and Noble volume that's been mentioned here, but I'd like to read other mythos stories as well, i.e. The Curse of Yig, etc. Has anyone found a good place to read those online or in book form?

I posted this link in a thread in the "reference material" section, but maybe here more people will notice it:

http://www.centipedepress.com/masters/lovecraftmwt.html

an interesting - and exhaustive / exhausting - anthology of most of HPL works. Not the cheapest one, probably, but maybe some of some interest for somebody

Julia, who wants to win the national lottery in order to buy this book and his little brothers (Blackwood, Poe, and friends)