Howard Phillips Lovecraft in Italy

A Work in Progress

It all started one night with the question "When did The Master first arrive in Italy?"

It was just a few of us around a table in an out of the way ale-house one night, talking loud to contrast the overwhelming background music and comparing literary tastes.

It did not take us long to find even the best researched works to be lacking, chiefly due to the high rithms with which some publishers pour forth new editions of old stories.

So we started taking notes, and cross-referencing existing bibliographies. The work slowly but steadily turned into a Complete Italian Bibliography of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (Vers. 1.0).

We do not know if somebody will ever find all this useful or interesting, but here it goes...

Key

cbAnthology including H.P. Lovecraft work(s)

brFirst edition of story, novel or collection. New translations fall in this cathegory.

bjReprint of a previously described work.

cb Un Secolo di Terrore, Sugar, Milano, 1960
The earliest reference to HPL we were able to track down: a translation of The Rats in the Walls in this old supernatural fiction anthology.

cb Storie di Fantasmi, Einaudi, Torino, 1960
Antology of stories selected by writers and critics Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini, includes three HPL pieces: The Dunwich Horror, The Call of Cthulhu, In the Vault.

brColui che Sussurrava nel Buio, Urania n. 310, Mondadori, Milano 1963
A much tampered-with translation of The Whisperer in the Dark, Pickman's Model, The Color out of Space. It's Lovecraft first book outing in Italy nonetheless.

brLe Montagne della Follia, Sugar, Milano 1966
Firts half of the Arkham volume At the Mountains of Madness, in a less than accurate translation.

brI Mostri all'Angolo della Strada, Mondadori Milano 1966
The book that made Lovecraft popular in Italy, being varied in contents and (in later editions expecially) fairly affordable; the stories include were selected by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini, that add to the book a well written but totally unreliable Lovecraft biographic account.
Most of the stories in the book are cut or edited, the worst having been the severe shortening of The Colour Out of Space. Stunning cover artwork by Karel Thole, later lost and finally reproduced on the first volume of the complete works (see below).

brLa Casa delle Streghe, Sugar, Milano 1966
Second half of the Arkham volume At the Mountains of Madness, suffering from the same translation problems of its predecessor.

bjOpere Complete, Sugar, Milano1973
Not complete despite the title, the volume sorely misses Through the gates of the silver key and all the Lovecraft collaborations. Marked here as a reprint since it includes the same versions of all the stories already published in Italy, plus a few never before translated (not enough to earm it a red dot by our standards). This will become the Lovecraft fan's essential book for the next 15 years.

bjLa Casa delle Streghe, Pocket Longanesi n. 457, Milano 1974
bjLe Montagne della Follia, Pocket Longanesi n. 480, Milano 1974
Both Reprints of the Sugar editions of the same titles.

brI Miti di Cthulhu, Fanucci, Roma, 1975
Italian version of Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, missing two stories but with added material by other authors and three never before published Lovecraft stories.

brNelle Spire della Medusa, Fanucci, Roma 1976
brSfida all'Infinito, Fanucci, Roma 1976
The two volumes collect the stories published as The Horror in the Museum and other Revisions. The second volume includes a newly discovered Lovecraft story in world premiere (The Night Ocean), plus articles about HPL taken from various Arkham House volumes.

brIl Guardiano della Soglia, Fanucci, Roma 1977
Italian translation of Derleth's The Lurker at the Threshold.

brLa Lampada di Alazred, Fanucci, Roma 1977
Derleth's The Watchers out of Time, with added articles and notes.

anthology coverbjI Mostri all'Angolo della Strada, Mondadori, Milano 1978
Reprint of the Fruttero & Lucentini selection. The cover is another Karel Thole painting, drawn on short notice to replace the lost origial artwork.

bjOpere Complete, Sugar, Milano 1978
Reprint of the Sugar collection from 1973,  "revised and expanded" but not much.

bjI Mostri all'Angolo della Strada, Mondadori, Milano 1980
Reprint of the Fruttero & Lucentini selection.

cb Weird Tales, Fanuci, Roma, 1982
First in a four volume series reprinting classic tales from the Unique Magazine, includes the Lovecraft poem The Track.

bjColui che Sussurrava nel Buio, Classici Fantascienza n. 70, Mondadori, Milano, 1983
Reprint of the old Urania 310 from way back 1963.

bjLe Montagne della Follia, SugarCo, Milano, 1983
Paperback edition of the novel translation from the Opere Complete.

bjOpere Complete, SugarCo, Milano 1983
Reprint of the Sugar collection from 1973, once again slightly revised.

cb Ancora Weird Tales, Fanucci, Roma, 1984
Includes the short story Celephaiis, and two poems - The Familiars and The Pidgeon Flyers.

bjIl Miraggio dello Sconosciuto di Kadath, SugarCo, Milano 1985
Paperback edition of HPL's novel from the "Opere Complete"; the translation is so dubious that they even got the title wrong!

cb Ancora Weird Tales, Fanucci, Roma 1986
Includes two Lovecraft "revisions" Tree on the Hill and The Disinterment.

bjL'Orrore Sovrannaturale in Letteratura, SugarCO, Milano 1987?
The classical study in paperback format.

brTutto Lovecraft, Fanucci, Roma1987

Azathoth - L'Idolo Senza Nome - Xinaian - L'Uomo di Pietra - La Morte Alata - Polaris - Il Mostro Invisibile - Prigioniero con i Faraoni - Demoni e Meraviglie - Psychopompos -
Necronomicon - Gli Ultimi Racconti

Twelve hardbound volumes with all the available Lovecraft, the first eleven by Gianni Pilo & Sebastiano Fusco, the last by Domenico Cammarota as Pilo & Fusco left Fanucci for Newton-Compton. Some have expressed doubts on the souces of the translations, that were later recycled by many subsequent HPL outings by Fanucci and Newton-Compton. Many copies are bugged by bad printing and other minor editorial mishaps. The volumes also add to the mix excerpts from letters, notes and many other assorted items of lovecraftiana.
The lavish presentation often hides bad printing and other unpleasant surprises.

first volume coverbrTutti i Racconti, Mondadori, Milano, 1989 -1992

1897-1922; 1923-1926; 1927-1930; 1931-1936
What's probably the definitive edition of the Lovecraft prose opus translated from the versions prepared by S.T. Joshi, in four volumes and with ample (if repetitive) bibliographical apparatus. Raining on Fanucci's parade of hardbound volumes.

brLettere dall'Altrove - Epistolario 1915/1937, Mondadori, Milano, 1993
Letters from the five published Arkham volumes, selected by Giuseppe Lippi.

bjLa Casa Stregata, Newton Compton, Roma 1993
The thin paperbound volume reprints together The Shunned House and The Dunwich Horror, together with a Pilo & Fusco article and a Lovecraft chronology. The translation is probably a reprint from the Fanucci edition (to which Pilo held the rights at the time of printing). The ultracheap Newton-Compton editions will from this point on flood the market with Lovecraft, further widening (hopefully) the author's audience.

bjLa Lampada di Alhazred, Fanucci, Roma, 1993 (?)
bjIl Guardiano della Soglia, Fanucci, Roma, 1993 (?)
Paperback reprint of the Lovecraft/Derleth posthumous collaboration

cbGli Indagatori dell'Incubo, Newton Compton, Roma 1993
Lovecraft's The Unnamable is collected, in the Pilo & Fusco translation,  in this thin volume together with a story each by Hodgson, Howard, Quinn and Wellman.

brIn Difesa di Dagon e altri saggi sul fantastico, SugarCo, Milano 1994
A true find: a collection of articles on supernatural fiction written by Lovecraft for his Amateur Press projects, with further material taken from letters and essays, on the theme of Supernatural Fiction's Dignity.

brDiario di un Incubo, Mondadori, Milano 1994
Italian annotated translation of the Commonplace Book.

bjL'Orrendo Richiamo, Einaudi, Torino 1994
Reprint of the Mythos section from the Fruttero & Lucentini selections for the 1966 collection. No changes were made to the botched translations but the worst offender (The Colour...), together with all the non-Mythos entries, was cut from the collection. 

bjLovecraft - Tutti gli Orrori, Newton-Compton, 1994?
Reprint in five temathic volumes of the former Fanucci Lovecraft Catalogue, with new documentary resources added by curators Gianni Pilo and Sebastiano Fusco but no radical changes in translation.

bjLe Montagne della Follia, Newton Compton, Roma, 1994
Cheap reprint of At the Mountains of Madness. A special edition with different artwork was later given away as promotional material by film-magazine SFX (Italian Edition).

bjIl caso di Charles Dexter Ward, Newton Compton, Roma, 1994
The novel from the Fanucci/Newton-Compton Complete edition.

bjKadath, Newton-Compton, Roma, 1995
The Dream Quest..., possibly in a new translation of the old sources (pre-Joshi).

bjL'Orrore sotto il Tumulo, Newton-Compton, 1995
The Mound (?) in a cheap reprint.

bjIl Richiamo di Cthulhu, Newton Compton, Roma 1995

bjI Racconti del Necronomicon Vol I, Fanucci, Roma, 1995
Yet another reprint of Fanucci's Lovecraft catalogue, this time as a series of paperbacks later available as a boxed set

bjL'Orrore secondo Lovecraft, Mondadori, Milano 1995
Jones & Carson H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror, includes Supernatural Horror in Literature in the same edition used for "Tutti i Racconti".

bjI Miti di Cthulhu, Newton-Compton, Roma, 1995
Collection of classical stories (texts reprinted from the old 1975 collection?) with some scant bibliographical material and an extremely dubious "Lovecraftian Dictionary". Probably the only Lovecraft book in the world in which the translator's biography takes up more back-cover space than the author's.

bjIncubi dalle tenebre, Fanucci, Roma, 1996 (?)
Yet another collection of stories.

bjI Racconti del Necronomicon Vol II, Fanucci, Roma, 1996

bjL'Ombra Venuta dal Tempo, Newton-Compton, Roma, 1996

bjL'Orrore di Dunwich, Newton-Compton, Roma 1996

bjIl testo di R'lyeh, Fanucci, Roma, 1997

cbGrandi Romanzi dell'Orrore, Newton-Compton, Roma, 1997
Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness rounds up a collection including novels by Beckford, Stevenson, Stoker, Hodgson, Meyrink, Munn.

bjNecronomicon 2: la tomba di Alhazred, Fanucci, Roma, 1998

bjStorie Agghiaccianti, Newton-Compton, 1998
Del-Rey's collection of Lovecraft classics in an Italian translation by Gianni Pilo.

bjLa Tomba e altri racconti, Newton-Compton, Roma 1998

brVento dalle Stelle, Agpha Press, 1998
The first truly original offering after many years, this work collects sketches, letter fragments, verses and other unclassified lovecraftian writings, complementing them with notes and articles. Expert Sebastiano Fusco takes care of the details - we have been unable to ascertain so far how much of this material was already presented in previous books.

Important Copyright Bit: the artwork as reproduced on this page is property of the rightful owners and copyright holders (Karel Thole, Mondadori), and its use does not mean to challenge their rights.  

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