Projekt Lovecraft
Project Lovecraft

The History of Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s Brand on the Polish Book Market

Summary/Abstract: The aimof this article is to examine the receptionHoward Phillips Lovecraft’s works received on the Polish publishing market, paying special attention to their editorial quality. The research takes into account the period from 1981, when Lovecraft’s first book was published in Poland, up until the present. This period can be roughly divided into three distinct stages: the early stage (1981–1991), the interim stage (1992–2011), and the late stage (2012 – up to the present), each stage being a reflection of a steady growth and transformation of Lovecraft’s brand as an author. A great number of editorial errors and very poor quality of publishing, which are typical of books of the first period, suggest that the writer’s position on the Polish book market is insignificant. The quality of editions of the second stage clearly improves, which indicates that Lovecraft gains general recognition as an author among Polish readers. From then on, he becomes a commodity himself and so does the phenomenon of the universe of Cthulhu. In the third period, the editions of Lovecraft’s works reach a very high quality characteristic of the most appreciated authors. At the same time, the image of Lovecraft intertwines with the pop cultural perception of the universe of his own creation, becoming, in the end, its inherent part. The writer himself, on the other hand, is reduced to a mere trademark.

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