Baby’s First Mythos by C. J. Henderson and Erica Henderson, © 2004 hard paper covers, Z Man Games
This is the 13th in my series of Forgotten Books
Baby's First Mythos
H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos were among the first horror I encountered once I moved to San Antonio in 1967. One of my classmates, Richard, had a copy of THE DUNWICH HORROR AND OTHER TALES from Lancer Books. It was seriously mind warping material. I read Lovecraft and Howard. I discovered Robert W. Chambers and August Derleth and Robert Bloch and Frank Belknap Long and the other acolytes of HPL at about the same time.
In college I ran into Joe Pumilia and Bill Wallace, the founders of the Esoteric Order of Dagon of which I was a charter member, but left shortly thereafter finding the rigors f doing a regular amateur press ‘zine were more than my time and money could allow.
But the wonderment of it all stayed with me these 43 years.
As I was looking for a book to do for Forgotten Books I gravitated toward another novel from the 1960’s, since people have responded well to those and it is enjoyable to go back and revisit those old friends. But this week I got sidetracked with ArmadilloCon and other things like work. So I went with something a little newer but decidedly weirder and fun.
BABY’S FIRST MYTHOS is a simple little volume, reminiscent of those old Golden Books or other children’s books that helped us learn about our world. The cover speaks for itself. When you open it up, you find the first simple rhyme, a meme to help young ones keep the Elder Gods straight so as to not cause any unfortunate … events,
D is for Dagon
A is for AZATHOTH,
Who dwells in the center,
Dreaming us from a place
That we cannot enter.”
Accompanied by a suitably outré illustration from Erica Henderson to accentuate the works of her father. The book covers the entire alphabet, the Eldritch numbers 1 though 9 and 0 as well as a haunting little counting rhyme beginning “1 little Old one sitting in a tree…”
So, for those of you out there with “exceptional children” who need this type of learning, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Good knows the schools and day care facilities have forgotten the lessons which the Old ones taught us and consequently send uneducated heathens out into the world. You might use it to teach your children well, or, even those friends who might appreciate the cosmic horror of it all. Others are best left uneducated since their only role in the scheme of things is as fodder.
Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.
Scott, my old friend,
I read previous installments of your Forgotten Books with pleasure, either fondly remembering the book in question, or making a mental note of another good read to look out for. But with this entry, so appropriately the 13th in the series, I find myself needing the book. It will so complement the A Young Mad Scientist’s First Alphabet Blocks that my son and now daughter-in-law gave me last year!
[Sorry for the double-post if this is one -- I didn't see any indication that my first comment was successful; perhaps my html was malformed?]
Guy – The book is pretty available from Amazon and Z Gaming for cover price or less, which was $9.99. I am going to have to check out the blocks for some scientist type friends. They sound like fun.
This is the first I’ve heard of this Mythos book, but I like it! Robert Bloch also wrote some fine stories in this vein. I also enjoyed THE LOVECRAFT PAPERS by P. H. Cannon.
Having met Henderson, he does seem to be precisely the kind of fellow to whom it would occur to to produce this book…and to his credit and presumably joy, he’s helped produce a talented daughter to collaborate with him (but is she actually Eroca, as your headline suggests?). And, as George was too gentlemanly to note, he’s rounding up the “forgotten” this week while Patti’s on vacation.
I will continue to contend that Robert Bloch and Fritz Leiber, among HPL’s corresponding “Circle,” were the writers who really picked up what was important about his work, essentially: existential horror, and ran with it…and did so in much better prose, once Bloch found his own voice (Leiber, being older and better-educated in good prose, and Shakespeare’s verse and more, was less prone to slavish imitation). The best of the Lovecraftians since have been those who have made the tradition their own…Ramsey Campbell (another young slavish pastiche artist at first) and Fred Chappell, Thomas Ligotti and the (now-silent?) TED Klein, and A. A. Attanasio. Hell, Bloch even intended STRANGE EONS to be an End to slavish Lovecraftianism, but that was a goal no novel could achieve.
Todd – Thanks for the additional background info. The writers you have cited are all great, particularly TED Klein and THE CEREMONIES. As to Eroca, it was supposed to be Erica and I saw it yesterday. I went in to edit the title and made a change, Unfortunately, I am a Luddite in terms of blogs and I have fat fingers, I found that if I clicked on the title it would change but in regular use it came up wrong. One day this will all seem elementary to me. And it was late when I posted it to the website dashboard. Not a good excuse but the actuality of the events.
Thanks for the head’s up on the misspelling. This is now fixed.
This does indeed look very good, and I’ll be hunting it up. Not that I need any mythos books, there are a few here already. Speaking of which, there have been some collections of Mythos stories, or so-seeming, from small horror presses, such as the disappointing HIgh Seas Cthulhu, which were wan attempts. Not recommended.
I believe I shall be purchasing this book, thanks!