Houby z Yuggothu / Fungi from Yuggoth – Lovecraft Howard Phillips (2019)

The collection of poems Fungi from Yuggoth is an exceptional book. It is the only known collection of poetry by Lovecraft. It consists of a wreath of sonnets, thirty-six thematically and narratively interconnected texts, stylistically between Petrarch and Shakespeare, mostly written over nine days at the turn of 1929 and 1930. Today it functions both as a metatext, that is, poetry derived thematically and in specific images from other preceding prose texts by Lovecraft, and as a prototext, which offers motifs and images for further use. The direct and looser references do not only point to H. P. Lovecraft but also to his peers in the horror genre, such as Lord Dunsany or Robert W. Chambers. The collection was created at a time when Lovecraft's specific fictional world was developing, coloring, and becoming more concrete - yet it was by no means finished. The individual pieces of the collection are elaborate, narrative, connect with each other, and build up, so in the end, the book gives the impression of a story rather than a poetic work in the format of a sonnet. The fungi are closer to Lovecraft's prose than it might outwardly seem. The book is published in a bilingual format, with each poem accompanied by illustrations by František Štorm.