From: cje@GANDALF.RUTGERS.EDU ("Chris Jarocha-Ernst ", Cthulhu's Jersey Epopt)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: THE KING IN YELLOW
Date: 14 Sep 92 19:04:26 GMT

This is a group reply to a number of messages, in the hallowed tradition of
Jerry Boyajian. 

> From: adelekta@kentvm.kent.edu 

> While noticing the influence of H.P. Lovecraft in modern science fiction,
> someone pointed out to me that Lovecraft was in turn influenced by an
> early 20th century writer, whom I believe wrote a book called something
> like The King in Yellow, and who was responsible for many places/concepts
> generally attributed to Lovecraft.

Robert W. Chambers wrote a series of short stories which were published in a
collection called THE KING IN YELLOW.  Four of these stories refer to an
invented book also called THE KING IN YELLOW, but this is a play and not a
short story collection.  The recurring image of the play in these stories is
often pointed out as a possible influence on Lovecraft's own use of a recurring
piece of pseudobiblia, the NECRONOMICON.

> From: mmaxwell@ucsd.edu

> I seem to remember that Chambers originally used the name "Hastur", and
> perhaps a couple of fantastic locations that Lovecraft picked up later and
> incorporated into his own works.

The main references, which Chambers borrowed from Bierce, were to Hastur, Hali,
and Carcosa.  Chambers mentions them all in the first story in THE KING IN
YELLOW, "The Repairer of Reputations".  Lovecraft mentioned these in "The
Whisperer in Darkness", along with references to the Yellow Sign (from "The
Yellow Sign", also in TKIY) and Yian (from Chambers's novel THE SLAYER OF SOULS
and the story "The Maker of Moons"), the latter of which became "Yian-Ho", for
some reason, in "Whisperer".

> As far as I know, "The King in Yellow" is Chambers' only well-known work.

And that's not saying much.  Chambers's short weird fiction often appears in
anthologies, but THE KING IN YELLOW is, as far as I know, the only one of his
works to be reprinted in paperback.

However, Chambers also wrote about "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons", who
later received a radio show in the '30s or '40s.


> From: HISC9016351D@lust2.latrobe.edu.au (MAMMONE,Robert)

> The King in Yellow was written around the turn of the century, if memory
> serves me well.  There are four stories revolving around a legendary book,
> the King in Yellow, a bit like Lovecraft's Necronomicon.  Anyway, the
> people who come to possess, or read it, all tend to die.  

Actually, they tend to go mad with severe depression or somesuch.  TKIY is
supposed to be a Decadent work of such literary power that it was banned by all
"right-thinking" people.  Only the narrator of "The Yellow Sign" actually dies,
and that's not specifically because he read the play.

> In some editions of Chambers' book, like mine, there are a further set of
> stories which are actually romance short stories. (Why they're included, I'm
> not sure.) 

Because the original edition of Chambers's collection had them.  His TKIY
wasn't meant to be a "horror" collection, just a collection of his stories.


> From: betsyp@apollo.hp.com (Betsy Perry)

> I'd love to hear more about Hastur in Bierce: which Bierce?  I'm only
> familiar with *An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge* and *The Devil's
> Dictionary*.  What else do you recommend?

Hastur is mentioned as a god of shepherds in "Haita the Shepherd".  Hali is
mentioned in "The Death of Halpin Frayser" and "An Inhabitant of Carcosa",
which also mentions Carcosa, natch.

> From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)

> Regarding "The King In Yellow"...I recall a story called "More Light" by
> James Blish, in the anthology Alchemy & Academe, as I recall, which
> described someone reading a play called The King In Yellow.  

The story involves Blish visiting "William Atheling" (a name which was actually
one of Blish's pseudonyms).  Atheling mentions how he'd corresponded with
Lovecraft in his youth (which Blish actually did) and how HPL sent him the
manuscript of "The King in Yellow"---the play.

Blish "quotes" much of the text of the play, but the problem for the reader is
the same as that with published "excerpts" from the NECRONOMICON: our
imaginations come up with far more frightening contents than the stories can
provide. 


> From: jswartz@mbunix.mitre.org (Swartz)

> Could someone mail me a quick synopsis of "The King in Yellow" ??

There isn't one, really.  Chambers never wrote more than a few snatches of
dialogue from it.  The plot in Blish's version is his own invention.

> I am interested to know if there is a connection to the song,
> "Extraterrestrial Intelligence" by Blue Oyster Cult.  Some of the lyrics
> are as follows:
> 
> I'm in fairy rings and tower beds.
> "Don't report this" three men said.
> Books by blameless and by the dead.
> The king in yellow, the queen in red.
> 
> All praise, he's found the awful truth, Balthazar,
> he's found the saucer news.

This doesn't sound like it has any connection to TKIY.  In fact, "the queen in
red" suggests THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS to me.

By the way, Raymond Chandler wrote a short story called "The King in Yellow",
but there's no connection to Chambers.  It's about a gangster in a yellow coat.



Yog-Sothoth Neblod Zin,

Chris Jarocha-Ernst			Rutgers University Computing Services
Internet: cje@gandalf.rutgers.edu       BITnet: JAROCHAERNST@ZODIAC
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written