Dreams from R'lyeh
Dreams from R'lyeh is a collection of poems by Lin Carter. The book was released in hardcover by Arkham House in 1975 in an edition of 3,152 copies. It was Carter's only book published by Arkham House. The title sequence of sonnets, "Dreams from R'lyeh", has also been reprinted in Robert M. Price's "" (Chaosium, 1997). Background. Carter conceived the sonnet-cycle "Dreams from R'lyeh" as early as 1959, as revealed by a note in his 1959 publication "Letter to Judith", where the cycle is announced as forthcoming. Most of the poems were written in the  mid-late 1960s, with some appearing in The Arkham Collector and most appearing across four issues of Amra. The sequence of numbered poems was not initially the same as it is in the Arkham House volume. Summary. The Sonnet Cycle, "Dreams from R'lyeh", that comprises the first two-thirds of the book, consists of poems inspired by H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos. Unlike Lovecraft's "Fungi from Yuggoth", the sonnets of which do not tell a continuous story, "Dreams from R'lyeh" from start to finish clearly narrates the story of Wilbur Nathaniel Hoag, from his childhood to just  before his disappearance in late 1944. Mental (and perhaps physical) degeneration are apparent near the last sonnet. The remainder of the verses are on various topics, celebrating other fantasy authors or reflecting on fantastic themes. "Diombar's Song of the Last Battle" is a heroic poem set in the prehistory of Carter's "Thongor" novels, and "Death-Song of Conan the Cimmerian" an end-of-life summation of Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero Conan, written from the perspective of the character himself. Reception. Fritz Leiber, reviewing the collection in "Fantastic", cites "[o]ne poem, "Shard," [as] very nice," and comments  on the "delightfully Cthulhu-cultish cover by Tim Kirk, best current Arkham artist," while otherwise singling out isolated lines from various of its poems for approval or disapproval. The collection was also reviewed by W. N. MacPherson in "The Science Fiction Review", May 1975, Daniel Bailey in "Myrddin", August 1975, Stuart David Schiff in "Whispers" #6/7, June 1975, and #8, December 1975, and C. D. Whateley in "Crypt of Cthulhu" #13, Roodmas 1983.