Mantichore 6, No 2 (Whole Number 21).

****Edited by Leigh Blackmore

for the SSWFT (Apr 30, 2011/41st mailing), &
Esoteric Order of Dagon (Apr 30,2011/
154th mailing) Amateur Press Associations.
***78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2500.
Australia.***

‘After Austin Osman Spare’

© 2011 Margi Curtis
 MANTICHORE 21
Leigh Blackmore
Contact lvxnox@gmail.com
Official Website: Blackmausoleum – http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/
Latest SSWFT news at: http://sswftapa.blogspot.com/
LB at Australian Horror Writers Association: http://www.australianhorror.com/member_pages.php?page=86
LB’s library : http://www.librarything.com/profile/666777

Contents This Issue

Mantic Notes………………………………………………………………………...2
Reports on the Death of April Rose Derleth…………………………………….5
The Joshi-Blackmore Letters Part 1……………………………………………….6

THIS ISSUE IN MEMORIAM

APRIL ROSE DERLETH
(9 AUG 1954-
1954-21 MAR 2011)
PRESIDENT AND C.E.O. OF ARKHAM HOUSE
DAUGHTER OF AUGUST DERLETH
R.I.P.

Mantic Notes
(Pronunciation:'man-tik. Etymology: Greek mantikos, from mantis: of, relating to the faculty of divination; prophetic).

This issue’s cover is by Margi Curtis, based on a piece

by the great occultist and automatic/trance artist, Austin
Osman Spare. Thanks Margi!
The whole of Feb and March were taken up for me by
an eight week course, the Cert IV in Small Business
Administration, which I completed at Wollongong IteC,
preparatory to setting up my own business, Proof Perfect
Editorial Services. I enjoyed the course greatly and am now in
the process of gathering clients for proofreading, copyediting
and manuscript assessment work on an ongoing basis.
The release of Midnight Echo 5, from the Australian
Horror Writers Association, (edited by me), dragged on
interminably through the early part of the New Year, but the
PDF version was finally released in late February. (The print
version has proved a further complication but is now in print).
Copies will be mailed to contributors in early May. I’m very
proud of the issue, whose cover is pictured here. As
mentioned last time, the issue contains a plethora of weird
poems as well as stories, and work by several EOD/SSWFT
members including John Goodrich, Mollie L. Burleson and
Fred Phillips is included. Here’s the official blurb:
Midnight Echo 5 is jam-packed with dark fiction, poetry and art. It includes the winners of the AHWA's
2010 Short Story competition and Flash Fiction Competition (stories by Christopher Green and Jason
Fischer), with brand new stories by Terry Dowling, Chandler Kaiden, E. Albert Banstrom, Blair Kelly,
Bryce J. Stevens, Mollie Burleson, Christopher Sequeira, Aaron Polson, Felicity Dowker, Rick Kennett,
Juliet Bathory, George Ivanoff, Damien Giles, Robert Mammone and John Goodrich. The issue includes
horrific and weird verse by such poets as Kyla Ward, Richard L. Tierney, Fred Phillips, Charles
Lovecraft, Michael Fantina, Rosa Christian, Ann K. Schwader, Phillip A. Ellis, Margi Curtis, Joyce
Frohn, Mike Berger, Guy Belleranti, Adrienne J. Odasso, John Grey, Ron T. Wilkins and Terrie Leigh
Relf. Dark art by international artists include works by Carl Schaller, Martin Blanco (cover), Shane
Ryan, Gaston Locanto, Wayne Palesado, and Tony Karnes.As an added bonus, this issue features an
eight-page graphic story by Mark Farrugia and Greg Chapman.

You can buy the magazine from the AHWA online shop at:
http://www.shop.australianhorror.com/
I continued my part-time I Ching readings at Lotus Bookshop and have also had time
to advance my Robert Bloch letters project somewhat. I really haven’t written much other
than contributing some reviews to the next issue of Dead Reckonings. It looks, though, as
though I will have some poetry and perhaps a story in one or two of the forthcoming Arkham
house anthologies. I am rather chuffed, also, to report that one of my critical essays (“Marvels
and Horrors: Terry Dowling’s Clowns at Midnight”, in Danel Olsen
(ed), 21st Century Gothic, Scarecrow Press) was nominated for the
William Atheling Award for Criticism in Australia’s Ditmar Awards. It
didn’t win – but it was an honour to be nominated, anyway.
At right is the cover of The Crossing, a first novel by my old
mate Baz Radburn, who edited The Australian Horror and Fantasy
Magazine back in the 1980s. I was pleased to help the publisher out
with some blurbs in my role as President of the AHWA as I greatly
enjoyed his book. (It won’t be released until May). (One of my blurbs
is on the front cover, but the image is not big enough to read here).
Margi celebrated her birthday on Feb 5, and we travelled to
Sydney to have dinner with young Rohan, who is now working as an
IT help person for KPMG in Sydney. Graham and I gave Margi a new
camera for her present and I’m sure we’ll all be using it heaps! Feb 27 was the occasion of my
brother Kent’s 50th birthday and Margi, Graham and I travelled again to Sydney to celebrate
with my family. We continued rehearsing our band, Third Road, though apart from
recording a four-track sampler CD we have done little – live gigs won’t resume until after
Easter. Due to being overwhelmed with business-course work, I was unable to attend a
Sydney gig played by Hawkwind, though Danny Lovecraft and Perry Grayson made it, and I
believe Phillip A. Ellis might also have attended. On the 19th of March was another Sydney
50th birthday party (Hawaiian-themed) for Jacqui Sequeira, wife of my colleague Chris;
Margi, Graham and I attended and had a good time catching up with many old mutual
friends including Pete Wilson from the ska band Backy
Skank and Chris’ brother Mark who plays in a band
called The Prehistorics. The less said about the NSW
State Election in late March, the better.
On April 10 I attended another brilliant gig,
The Church’s “A Psychedelic Symphony”. This
momentous concert, in which the band was
accompanied by the symphony of the Sydney
University, at the Sydney Opera House, was truly
magnificent and a worthy 30th birthday celebration for
the band. (They have long been my favourite Aussie rock band – I first saw them in 1980 and
have tried to see them as often as possible ever since). As I write, we have just returned from
a trip to Victorian over Easter (Eostre) to attend a Witchcamp. (See
http://witchcamp.australiareclaiming.org.au/). I was not supposed to run anything there but
ended up being unable to resist jumping into the fray and offering an impromptu workshop
on the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram for a dozen people, plus did a Thelemic
circle-casting for a major ritual of the event. It was great to get away from the four walls for a
while.
I would have loved to see Bob Dylan live (he has just played Australia) but the price
of a ticket, and the timing, made it impossible. By the time this issue reaches you I should be
in business, as Proof Perfect, and will probably be busier than ever. Meanwhile, Margi
participated in an art exhibition with a group of women friends who go under the moniker of
the Tin Shed Gallery. The couple of weeks before Easter were very busy for her as she and
Graham framed her work and readied the exhibition. The show went really well and Margi
sold several pieces. Danny & Margaret Lovecraft, and Kyla Ward, were amongst the visitors.
Below: I thought it would be amusing to run these three photos side by side. They are all taken
at the Van Wickle Gates of Brown University, the ornamental entrance to the main campus area at the
corners of College Street and Prospect Street in Providence’s College Hill. The photo of Lovecraft
appears in Arkham House’s Selected Letters Vol 3 facing p. 134, where it is notoriously miscaptioned
“H.P. Lovecraft in Brooklyn.” The photo of me at the same place where Lovecraft sat was taken during
the H.P. Lovecraft Centennial Conference in 1990; I was all of thirty at the time! The photo of S.T. Joshi
in the same location was taken, I believe, a couple of years ago. I wonder what Lovecraft would think
about having acolytes who emulate him to the extent of having their portraits taken at locations dear to
him!
.

HPL

LDB
STJ
Left: Dreams of the Fisherman’s Wife by Masami Teraoka - a modern
interpretation of the ‘octopus sex’ theme in Japanese art. Teraoka seems to have
done a number of paintings on this rather Lovecraftian theme (though I am not sure
Lovecraft would have approved of the overt eroticism.) I may run other examples
of his work in future issues.
Longtime operator of publishing firm dies
Posted: Monday, March 28, 2011 12:17 pm

April Derleth, the operator of Sauk City's Arkham House publishing firm since the 1980s,
died Monday at the age of 56.

Derleth was the daughter of the late August Derleth, a Sauk City native who wrote books
featuring life in the Wisconsin River Valley, including "Walden West." August Derleth
founded Arkham House, a science-fiction publishing house that was the country's first to
publish the poet and fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft, said August Derleth's widow, Sandra
Kiser.

Kiser said their daughter was a very forceful person. Like her father, Kiser said, "when she
entered a room, you noticed her right away."

Derleth, who still lived on the wooded 10-acre property of the publishing house her father
operated until his death in 1971, enjoyed hiking and other outdoor activities, her mother said.
She enjoyed travelling and visited Hawaii every summer in recent years with Kiser and their
family. Kiser said she traveled frequently when she was vice president of Mueller Sports
Medicine in Prairie du Sac. She also loved dogs, and "took in every dog there was," Kiser said.

No service has been scheduled for Derleth.

Wisconsin State Journal

Arkham House announces the passing of April Derleth

(Sauk City, WI) - April Rose Derleth, President and C.E.O. of Arkham House Publishers, Inc.,
passed away on Monday, March 21, 2011, at her home in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Derleth’s
death was unexpected and an autopsy
showed she died of natural causes. The
daughter of renowned Wisconsin author
August Derleth, April was born on August
9, 1954. April and her brother, Walden
Derleth acquired Arkham House Publisher’s
after their father’s passing in 1971. The
senior Derleth was a prolific writer who co-
founded Arkham House Publishers in 1939
with author Donald Wandrei for the sole
purpose of publishing the works of H.P.
Lovecraft. April earned a Bachelor of Arts
degree in English from the University of

Wisconsin-Madison in 1977. She became majority stockholder, President, and CEO of

Arkham House in 1994. She remained in that capacity until her passing. She was known in
the community as a naturalist and humanitarian. April Derleth is survived by her brother,
Walden, her children, Damon Derleth and Danielle Jacobs, and her Aunt Hildred Anderson.
She is also survived by her mother, Sandra Kiser, Tracy Kiser, Kathryn Kiser Goss, Valerie
Kiser Shore, and Margaret Kiser Normoyle. A private memorial service for friends will be
held on Saturday, April 2, 2011. The children have asked that in lieu of flowers that a
donation is made to The April Derleth Memorial Fund, % Bank of Prairie du Sac, P.O. Box
130, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin 53578.Arkham House has temporarily suspended operations
and plans to reopen at a date yet to be determined. An announcement will be made and fans
of Arkham House can watch for future developments at ArkhamHouse.com.

The Joshi-Blackmore Letters: Part 1

It occurred to me recently
that some of the correspondence I
have from some 25 years ago or
more with Lovecraftians may be
of interest to reprint. I first
thought of reprinting my letters to
and from ST Joshi, although it
seems that while most of my
letters from STJ survive, I have no
copies of most that I wrote him.
(They were probably largely insignificant). But Joshi’s letters have historical significance since
he is one of our most important critics. ST has kindly given me permission to reprint these
letters, so I’m making a start here with my two earliest letters from him, from 20 April and 7
May, 1983. (I hope he’ll forgive me for including the pic of him from around that era; in my
defense, I am including a bespectacled pic of myself from the same period).

S.T. is a year older than I am, being born in 1958, so at this time he would have been
approaching a tender 25 years of age, while I was 24. A Lovecraftian pioneer from the word
go, Joshi had already published such works on Lovecraft as H. P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft
Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1981) (a volume
only recently superseded by his completely updated/revised edition: H.P. Lovecraft: A
Comprehensive Bibliography (University of Tampa Press, 2009); An Index to the Selected Letters of
H.P. Lovecraft (Necronomicon Press, 1980; 2nd ed, 1991), and H. P. Lovecraft (Starmont
Reader's Guide 13) (Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1982). And he had edited
Lovecraft’s Uncollected Prose and Poetry (with Marc A. Michaud) (3 vols, Necronomicon Press,
1978–1982) , H. P. Lovecraft in "The Eyrie" (with Marc A. Michaud) (Necronomicon Press,1979)
and H. P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio State University Press,1980).
In 1983 and 1984 I was attending Sydney University, undertaking a never-to-be-
completed degree in Semitic Studies and English. Having been obsessed by Lovecraft since
the age of 13 when I discovered his writings while at high school in Newcastle NSW, I had
also become obsessed with collecting every possible printing of Lovecraft’s work (and of
work about him), which naturally led to contacting S.T. to propose a bibliographic update to
his 1981 Kent State University bibliography. (The update was eventually published by
Necronomicon Press). I had published a few trifling essays on Lovecraft in the small press
and was living in a caravan in my parents’ back yard while doing my tertiary studies. I was
also playing in my band Worm Technology at the time, as well as working on The Australian
Horror and Fantasy Magazine. Ah, how long ago it all was!
I believe these letters will interest serious Joshi enthusiasts and scholars as showing
some of the development of ST’s early work and some strains of his thinking at that time.
 Below: Some ads from Don Boyd’s magazine Australian Futuristic Science, placed
when I was trying to contact kindred Lovecraftian spirits in the early 1980s.

Below: Three illustrations done by Rama Mithiran for The Australian Horror and Fantasy
Magazine but which were never used there. Mithiran was one of Barry Radburn’s art
‘discoveries’ but vanished,
leaving no trace, about 1985
Mantichorus: Mailing Comments
SSWFT #40 (Feb 2, 2010)
Vole (Ellis): Quite a few book purchases there, my son! On your Ramsey Campbell study, I’d
be happy to help out with texts. I have all RC’s novels and collections up until about 2005 (I
missed a couple since then). Right now reading his Grin of the Dark. I’ve been in touch with
Gary Crawford re: the essay collection and it appears I’ll be contributing an essay on dolls &
puppets in Campbell. Looking forward to your other essays. Condolences re: your recent loss
of your stepfather.
Dalriadic (Sheaffer): Congrats on Briane’s pregnancy! The TZ material was of great interest,
as usual.
Sercon (Phillips): I agree with you that detailed studies of Druidry could hardly be written by
any one scholar. Nevertheless there are several excellent works in my collection which are
fairly comprehensive – I particularly recommend those volumes edited by John Matthews,
several of which collect important source documents. And an excellent compilation of the
Druidic wisdom is The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg (J. Williams ab Ithel, ed; Samuel Weiser,
2004). It combines medieval Welsh bardic traditions with the innovative approach of the
Regency Welsh bard Morganwg. MythosCon sounds wonderful – I only wish I could have
been there! And congrats on your 70th birthday! I am gradually reading FROM THE
CAULDRON, savouring its delicious antiquities and varied moods…You have been
multifariously active of late!
Snow Queen (Dea Phillips): Your visit to Copenhagen and Odense sounds delightful So glad
you were able to meet Henrik and family. So your ancestry is Danish?
Hyperborean (Andersson): Envy your wide reading and purchasing, as ever. Enjoyed your
description of Mythoscon. Thanks for all the news on forthcoming Lovecraftian titles. Well-
spotted about the Dunsany glitch!
Hesperia (Haefele): I enjoyed your Smith piece in Weird Fiction Review 1 (and commented on it
in my review of WFR1 for Dead Reckonings) I’d love the EOD to go over to e-mailings but I
believe our esteemed O.E. feels that it would not go over well with the bulk of the
membership.
EOD # 153 (Candlemas/Feb 2, 2010)
Welcome to the three new members, Chris Jarocha-Ernst, Tom Lynch and Larry Roberts. I
hope you enjoy your participation in the APA.
Potpourri (Drake): I always enjoy your tales of the research for your books. Gives me some
ideas for research for the thriller I’m currently planning.
Performers (Everts): Fascinating material on Cunha.
Morgan & Rice (Burlesons): Ah cats! Who can resist them? We have three – Hades,
Persephone and Beltane. Sorry you didn’t get to Mythoscon. Glad you were able to read a bit
of the Cyrillic…
Wraiths (Hall): Thanks for reviews, and for the Derleth letter to Wandrei. I always appreciate
the chance to read such correspondence.
Criticaster (Walker): Good notes on Letters to Alfred Galpin. I’d love to get the DVD series of
Thriller. Enjoyable miscellany, as ever.
Raw (Goodrich): Good luck with your new studies, John. And I always enjoy your reviews.
Redux (Livesey): Your zine always stretches my brain out of its comfort zone a bit but I enjoy
that. Lovecraft’s approach to materialism is a fertile ground for discussion.
Aurora (Andersson). Thanks for transcribing that newspaper piece. I thought I would have to
get my magnifying glass out to pore over it! A curious early mention of HPL.
Hesperia (Haefele) – See comments under SSWFT above.
Kommati & Snow Queen (Phillipses) – see comments under SSWFT above.
Crier (Roberts?) Welcome, and thanks for the Miskatonic River Press info.
 Dark Entries (Briggs) : Scott, I’ve owed you a letter for WAY too long!
Anyway, lots of good stuff in your zine. It looks like del Toro might NOT
get to make AtMoM, which is tragic. I hope the project can be
resurrected (though, without Tom Cruise would be good). I’ve always
thought Peter Weller (pictured, the star of Naked Lunch and the Robocop
movies) would make an excellent HPL lookalike in some movie. He would be great cast as
the narrator of AtMoM (if it were up to me). Thanks for your flattering and extensive
comments on my poetry collection a few issues back; I think I neglected to thank you earlier.
Re: Todd Rundgren, I’m happy to burn you any or all his albums if you like. You absolutely
must have A WIZRAD A TRUE STAR and a couple of the Utopia albums as well, they are
crucial! ARENA is the best of his recent albums though they are all brilliant with a unique
quirky difference from one to the next. Let me know if you want Cds and I’ll run you off a
bunch. It’s hard for me to single out a list of must-have Todd, they’re all great – but I would
highly recommend LIARS, NEARLY HUMAN and NO WORLD ORDER. Others of the early
greats include INITIATION, HEALING and TODD (1974 double album).
Sidereal (Dapkus): I enjoyed the Candlemas theme. You may like to know that in the
Thelemic tradition, which I practice, Candlemas (or Imbolc) is celebrated as The Feast of the
Stars. February 2 is assigned to the letter alpha, the pentagram. The sun is passing through
Aquarius, corresponding to the element of Air. The pertinent god-form is that of Nuit-Isis,
represented by the presiding officer, Mater Coeli./ I really enjoyed the Ganley and Phillips
poems.
Anything? (Joshi) : Thanks for the intro to the new compilation of HPL’s favourite horror
stories. I am particularly looking forward to Unutterable Horror, and as an inveterate reader of
bibliographies to those you have in progress on Smith, Bradbury, Machen and Campbell. So
many books streaming from your editorial hand…The Morton letters to HPL and the joint
Smith/ Lovecraft letters are also awaited with bated breath.

Left: One of the signed books from my collection. I met

Douglas Adams in approx 1995 when Dymocks Bookstore in
Sydney, where I ran the sf department, hosted a signing for
him which celebrated the release of his CD-ROM game Starship
Titanic. Adams died some five or six years later.