Lovecraft's unwritten Necronomicon was the Happy Birthday of weird fiction
At the molehill of madness
The Necronomicon is an alarming and unpleasant "Book of the Dead" to be found in H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror, but not elaborated upon in his own work. I thoroughly enjoyed Dan Harms' article about literary executor August Derleth's robust policing of the Necronomicon's mystery. This typically took the form of…