Gary Gygax was a great admirer of the works of A. Merritt, highlighting several of his works for particular mention in his Appendix N. One of these is The Dwellers in the Mirage. The story was first published as a serial in Argosy in early 1932 before being its installments were collected together into a novel later that same year. Among other things, Dwellers is notable for including an homage to Lovecraft in the form of Khalk'ru the Kraken, an ancient octopoid entity similar to Cthulhu.
While Merritt and his works are largely unknown to most fantasy fans these days, that wasn't the case back in the earliest days of the hobby. Issue #45 of Dragon (January 1981) included the following entry in the magazine's "Bazaar of the Bizarre" column, inspired by The Dwellers of the Mirage.
By coincidence, I am re-reading Dwellers in the Mirage. It is one of my favorite novels.
ReplyDeleteA. Merritt is always worth a look. They didn't call him the Lord of Fantasy for nothing.
ReplyDeleteFunny I was looking at A. Merrit a couple weeks ago. I found a page with many of his works in html/epub format: http://freeread.com.au/@RGLibrary/AbrahamMerritt/AbrahamMerritt.html
ReplyDeleteNot sure that the later ones are in the public domain, maybe because we are 70+ years after his death.
And the Appendix N Bookclub podcast has 5 episodes talking about different Merrit works: https://appendixnbookclub.com/?s=merrit