"Dagon" might be one of the most important stories in the history of the horror genre. Which is ironic, because if my memory is anything to go by it’s bad.

So, let's snicker at it.

Unlike the previous stories, this is one that I've already read, though not since my teens. I wish I could say I recall "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" fondly, but unfortunately I remember it as the first time in my life that I looked up from a book with a dazed, haunted look in my eyes and muttered "What the fuck did I just read?"

The United Co-Operative sounds like some massive international agency. Actually, it was a tiny, short-lived side project undertaken by Lovecraft and a few of his new friends from The Vagrant. Lovecraft was one of the joint editors of this ostentatiously named writing mini-zine, and this short vignette of his appeared in its first issue in 1919.

Let's see if fifteen year old Lovecraft can outwrite Christopher Paolini; my money is on "yes," but we'll find out.

"Samuel Johnson" is another story I'd never heard of until now, so this will be another blind readthrough. It was published in 1917, in the next fall issue of The United Amateur. Unlike "The Alchemist" this one was written in the months leading up to publication, and was intended for United Amateur from the beginning.

Lovecraft’s first ever published story, featuring crumbling castles, morose noble scions, evil sorcerers, and discount Edgar Allan Poe phrasing.