The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 7 - The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt

My guest and I discuss The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt. An international group of scientists and explorers investigate a mysterious alien being that snatches innocent travelers in the South Pacific and ends up discovering a lost underground civilization.

 

www.nobleknight.com

Vault of the Drow by Gary Gygax — $22

 

Merrit, A.: CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP; MOON POOL; DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE; et al

 

“The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, R. E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H. P. Lovecraft, and A. Merrit”

 

Abraham Merritt

born 1884, died 1943

 

Wikipedia names H. Rider Haggard, Robert W. Chambers, Helena Blavatsky and Gertrude Barrows Bennett (writing as Francis Stevens) as “heavy influences.”

 

He was a major influence on Appendix N authors H. P. Lovecraft and Michael Moorcock. He was referenced in the Lensman series by E. E. Smith.

 

Born in Beverly, New Jersey. Primarily a journalist. Assistant editor of The American Weekly from 1912 to 1937 and then editor until his death in 1943.

 

Merritt’s first fantasy story was “Through the Dragon Glass” (1917)

 

The Moon Pool originally appeared in All-Story Weekly as two short stories “The Moon Pool” (1918) and “Conquest of the Moon Pool” (1919). Later reworked into a novel, apparently something of the original story was lost. Writes Lovecraft in 1934: Merritt is certainly great stuff — he has a subtle command of an unique type of strangeness which no one else has been able to parallel.  You are absolutely right in considering his original Moon Pool novelette — as published in the All-Story for June 22, 1918 — his best work.  The sequel — The Conquest of the Moon Pool — was relatively commonplace and tainted with the atmosphere of cheap popular fiction.  It is a major crime that many of the best touches were taken out of the novelette when it was fused with its sequel to form the ultimate book version.

 

Nan Madol - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nan_Madol

 

Next we will be reading:

The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany -http://www.fadedpage.com/books/20120938/20120938.html

The Doom That Came to Sarnath, From Beyond, The Temple, The Music of Erich Zann, Herbert West - Reanimator, The Lurking Fear, The Rats in the Walls and The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft -http://cthulhu.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Fiction

Dwellers in the Mirage by Abraham Merritt - http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100151.txt

 

Geoffrey Winn
gdwinn@comcast.net

 

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