4 Horror StoryThis book consists of ideas, images, & quotations hastily jotted down for possible future use in weird fiction. Very few are actually developed plots—for the most part they are merely suggestions or random impressions designed to set the memory or imagination working. Their sources are various—dreams, things read, casual incidents, idle conceptions, & so on.
—H. P. Lovecraft
Presented to R. H. Barlow, Esq., on May 7, 1934—in exchange for an admirably neat typed copy from his skilled hand.
Man dreams of falling—found on floor mangled as tho’ from falling from a vast height. [x]
8 Hor. Sto.
Man makes appt. with old enemy. Dies—body keeps appt.
16 The walking dead—seemingly alive, but—. [x]
17 Doors found mysteriously open and shut etc.—excite terror.
21 A very ancient colossus in a very ancient desert. Face gone—no man hath seen it.
27 Life and Death
Death—its desolation and horror—bleak spaces—sea-bottom—dead cities. But Life—the greater horror! Vast unheard-of reptiles and leviathans—hideous beasts of prehistoric jungle—rank slimy vegetation—evil instincts of primal man—Life is more horrible than death.
55 Man followed by invisible thing.
80 Shapeless living thing forming nucleus of ancient building.
101 Hideous secret society—widespread—horrible rites in caverns under familiar scenes—one’s own neighbour may belong. [x]
106 A thing that sat on a sleeper’s chest. Gone in morning, but something left behind.
108 Educated mulatto seeks to displace personality of white man and occupy his body.
109 Ancient negro voodoo wizard in cabin in swamp—possesses white man.
112 Man lives near graveyard—how does he live? Eats no food. [x]
128 Individual, by some strange process, retraces the path of evolution and becomes amphibious.
134 Witches’ Hollow novel? Man hired as teacher in private school misses road on first trip—encounters dark hollow with unnaturally swollen trees and small cottage (light in window?). Reaches school and hears that boys are forbidden to visit hollow. One boy is strange—teacher sees him visit hollow—odd doings—mysterious disappearance or hideous fate.
148 Vampire dog.
