Author talk:Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Copyrights

Transferred from the author page

• For The Call of Cthulhu, the relevant records are in the years 1953, 1954 and 1955.
• According to S. T. Joshi's "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life" (pp. 640–641): Much of Lovecraft's work is in the public domain. This is unquestionably so in terms of the tales, essays, and poems published in the amateur press. As for stories published in "Weird Tales", the six that the magazine owned outright should have had their copyrights renewed after twenty-eight years, but repeated searches in the Library of Congress have turned up no renewals of any kind. Of the stories Lovecraft himself controlled, by law only he, his heirs, or his executor could have renewed the rights, but this was never done.
• Chris Karr has reviewed these documents and has published a report of his findings at http://www.aetherial.net/lovecraft/index.html . In short, there are no copyright records that reference any of Lovecraft's original stories (only the Arkham House compilations), but the copyrights to "Weird Tales" were renewed properly, and works published prior to 1926 (when Lovecraft is thought to have sold full rights to "Weird Tales") in that magazine may be subject to protection IF they were published in "Weird Tales" for the first time. Joshi identifies thirteen works and believes that seven of those thirteen had been published elsewhere previously.

---

Public Domain

I'm quite interested to know how the works of H.P. Lovecraft came to be in Wikibooks: can I now assume some of his works, including The Call of Cthulhu are now in the public domain? If so, I'd be interested to know why they are now in the public domain and what were the original sources for the works included here? --Axon 14:24, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

A source for publication information for Lovecraft's stories is http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/. I would also recommend examining the links listed on the article page concerning S. T. Joshi's research. I examined the project Gutenberg compilations of copyright renewal information and could find no references to Lovecraft at all in the records from 1953 to 1967. Although there were a number of renewals by August Derleth, all were for Mr. Derleth's own work. There were no renewal notices whatsoever for Donald Wandrei. If any other supposed copyright holders make themselves known their claims could be examined but until then I think it is reasonable to assume that the copyrights on Mr. Lovecraft's works have expired. -- CSN 02:23, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I've just contributed transcripts of my copies of the wills of Lovecraft, his aunt Gamwell, and a copy of the letter from Morris and Lewis to Arkham House, more commonly known the "Morrish-Lewis gift". If I can be of further assistance, contact me at lovecraft@aetherial.net. -- Chris Karr —unsigned comment by 68.72.135.94 (talk) 13:20, 7 August 2006.

What about the stories original published in Astounding Stories ? A copy of "At the Mountains of Madness" from that magazine has recently been removed on the basis that the copyright on the whole magazine was removed. -- Beardo (talk) 00:00, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Spliting Works Section

The works section was originally split into Cthulhu Mythos novels and other novels. Someone changed Cthulhu to Arkham since not all the novels refered to Cthulhu but they were all generally set in the Arkham area. I think the best solution is to combine all his works into one section. The wikipedia article breaks his work down into Macabre, Dream-Cycle, and Cthulhu Mythos but has only rough dates as a guideline. [1] puts 12 works in the Cthulhu Mythos period but again, not all of those works are about Cthulhu related things. --CSN 22:21, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Cthulhu Mythos/Dream Cycle/Macabre

Shouldn't the stories be separated into these three categories?

I believe not everybody agrees with these separations. Lovecraft himself never mentioned them.

Novels and Short Stories in Chronological Order

I don't know about the rest of you, but I usually prefer reading an author's works in the order that they were written. For that reason, I'm including the novels and short stories section (the one that interests me the most) here below in chronological writing order, more or less (publication if that's all there is). It would probably just waste space to put this on the author page, but maybe we could make a subpage for chronologically ordered lists (each type (poetry, novels and short stories, etc.) in separate sections and one all together), don't you think? --Cromwellt|talk|contribs 03:34, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Novels and Short Stories

• The Beast in the Cave (Written 21 Apr 1905) (Published June 1918 in The Vagrant, No. 7 , 113-20.)
• The Alchemist (Written 1908) (Published November 1916 in The United Amateur, 16, No. 4, 53-57.)
• The Tomb (Written Jun 1917) (Published March 1922 in The Vagrant, No. 14, 50-64.)
• Dagon (Written Jul 1917) (Published November 1919 in The Vagrant, No. 11, 23-29.)
• Polaris (Written c. May 1918) (Published December 1920 in The Philosopher, 1, No. 1 , 3-5.)
• The Green Meadow (Written 1918/19) (Published Spring 1927 in The Vagrant, 188-95.)
• Beyond the Wall of Sleep (Written 1919) (Published October 1919 in Pine Cones, 1, No. 6, 2-10.)
• The Transition of Juan Romero (Written 16 Sep 1919) (Published in Marginalia. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1944, 276-84.)
• Memory (Written 1919) (Published June 1919 in The United Co-operative, 1, No. 2, 8.)
• The White Ship (Written Nov 1919) (Published November 1919 in The United Amateur, 19, No. 2, 30-33.)
• The Doom That Came to Sarnath (Written 3 Dec 1919) (Published June 1920 in The Scot, No. 44, 90-8.)
• The Statement of Randolph Carter (Written Dec 1919) (Published May 1920 in The Vagrant, No. 13, 41-48.)
• The Terrible Old Man (Written 28 Jan 1920) (Published July 1921 in The Tryout, 7, No. 4, 10-14.)
• Poetry of the Gods (Written 1920) (Published in The United Amateur, September 1920, Vol. 20, No. 1, p. 1-4.)
• The Cats of Ulthar (Written 15 Jun 1920) (Published November 1920 in The Tryout, 6, No. 11, 3-9.)
• The Temple (Written 1920) (Published September 1925 in Weird Tales, 6, No. 3, 329-36, 429-31.)
• The Tree (Written 1920) (Published October 1921 in The Tryout, 7, No. 7, 3-10.)
• The Street (Written c. 1920) (Published December 1920 in The Wolverine, No. 8, 2-12.)
• Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (Written 1920) (Published March 1921 in The Wolverine, No. 9, 3-11.)
• Celephais (Written early Nov 1920) (Published May 1922 in The Rainbow, No. 2, 10-12.)
• From Beyond (Written 16 Nov 1920) (Published June 1934 in The Fantasy Fan, 1, No. 10, 147-51, 160.)
• Nyarlathotep (Written early Dec 1920) (Published November 1920 in The United Amateur, 20, No. 2, 19-21.)
• The Picture in the House (Written 12 Dec 1920) (Published July 1919 in The National Amateur, 41, No. 6, 246-49.)
• Ex Oblivione (Written 1920/21) (Published March 1921 in The United Amateur, 20, No. 4, 59-60.)
• The Crawling Chaos (Written 1920/21) (Published in The United Co-operative, April 1921, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 1-6.)
• The Nameless City (Written Jan 1921) (Published November 1921 in The Wolverine, No. 11, 3-15.)
• The Quest of Iranon (Written 28 Feb 1921) (Published July-August 1935 in The Galleon, 1, No. 5, 12-20.)
• The Moon Bog (Written Mar 1921) (Published June 1926 in Weird Tales, 7, No. 6, 805-10.)
• The Outsider (Written 1921) (Published April 1926 in Weird Tales, 7, No. 4, 449-53.)
• The Other Gods (Written 14 Aug 1921) (Published November 1933 in The Fantasy Fan, 1, No. 3, 35-38.)
• The Music of Erich Zann (Written Dec 1921) (Published March 1922 in The National Amateur, 44, No. 4, 38-40.)
• Herbert West: Reanimator (Written Sep 1921-mid 1922) (Published February-July 1922 in Home Brew, 1, No. 1 (February 1922), 19-25; 1, No. 2 (March 1922), 45-50; 1, No. 3 (April 1922), 21-26; 1, No. 4 (May 1922), 53-58; 1, No. 5 (June 1922), 45-50; 1, No. 6 (July 1922), 57-62.)
• Hypnos (Written March 1922) (Published May 1923 in The National Amateur, Vol. 45, No. 5, pages 1-3)
• What the Moon Brings (Written 5 Jun 1922) (Published May 1923 in The National Amateur, 45, No. 5, 9.)
• The Horror at Martin's Beach (Written Jun 1922) (Published November 1923 in Weird Tales, 2, No. 4, 75-76, 83.)
• Azathoth (Written Jun 1922) (Published 1938 in Leaves, 2: 107.)
• The Hound (Written Sep 1922) (Published February 1924 in Weird Tales, 3, No. 2, 50-52, 78.)
• The Lurking Fear (Written Nov 1922) (Published January-April 1923 in Home Brew, 2, No. 6 (January 1923), 4-10; 3, No. 1 (February 1923), 18-23; 3, No. 2 (March 1923), 31-37, 44, 48; 3, No. 3 (April 1923), 35-42.)
• The Rats in the Walls (Written Aug-Sep 1923) (Published March 1924 in Weird Tales, 3, No. 3, 25-31.)
• The Unnamable (Written Sep 1923) (Published July 1925 in Weird Tales, 6, No. 1, 78-82.)
• The Festival (Written Oct 1923) (Published January 1925 in Weird Tales, 5, No. 1, 169-74.)
• Imprisoned with the Pharaohs (Written Feb-Mar 1924) (Published May 1924 in Weird Tales)
• The Shunned House (Written 16-19 Oct 1924) (Published in The Shunned House, Athol, Ma: The Recluse Press, 1928, p. 9-59.)
• The Horror at Red Hook (Written 1-2 Aug 1925) (Published January 1927 in Weird Tales, 9, No. 1, 59-73.)
• He (Written 11 Aug 1925) (Published September 1926 in Weird Tales, 8, No. 3, 373-80.)
• In the Vault (Written 18 Sep 1925) (Published November 1925 in The Tryout, 10, No. 6, 3-17.)
• Cool Air (Written Mar 1926) (Published March 1928 in Tales of Magic and Mystery, 1, No. 4, 29-34.)
• The Descendant (Written c. 1926) (Published 1938 in Leaves, 2, 107-10.)
• Pickman's Model (Written 1926) (Published October 1927 in Weird Tales, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 505-14)
• The Silver Key (Written 1926) (Published January 1929 in Weird Tales, 13, No. 1, 41-49, 144.)
• The Call of Cthulhu (Written Summer 1926) (Published February 1928 in Weird Tales, Vol. 11, No. 2, p. 159-78, 287.)
• The Strange High House in the Mist (Written 9 Nov 1926) (Published October 1931 in Weird Tales, 18, No. 3, 394-400.)
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Written c. Autumn 1926-22 Jan 1927) (Published January 1927)
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (Written Jan-1 Mar 1927) (Published May and July 1941 in Weird Tales, 35, No. 9 (May 1941), 8-40; 35, No. 10 (July 1941), 84-121.)
• The Colour Out of Space (Written Mar 1927) (Published September 1927 in Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 6, 557-67.)
• The Dunwich Horror (Written Summer 1928) (Published April 1929 in Weird Tales, 13, No. 4, 481-508.)
• The Whisperer in Darkness (Written 24 Feb-26 Sep 1930) (Published August 1931 in Weird Tales, Vol. 18, No. 1, p. 32-73.)
• Medusa's Coil (Written May 1930) (Published January 1939 in Weird Tales, 33, No. 1, 26-53)
• At the Mountains of Madness (Written Feb-22 Mar 1931) (Published February-April 1936 in Astounding Stories, 16, No. 6 (February 1936), 8-32; 17, No. 1 (March 1936), 125-55; 17, No. 2 (April 1936), 132-50.)
• The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Written Nov-3 Dec 1931) (Published 1936 in The Shadow over Innsmouth, Everett, PA: Visionary Publishing Co., p. 13-158)
• Through the Gates of the Silver Key (Written Oct 1932-Apr 1933) (Published July 1934 in Weird Tales, 24, No. 1, 60-85.)
• Out of the Aeons (Written 1933)
• The Thing on the Doorstep (Written 21-24 Aug 1933) (Published January 1937 in Weird Tales, 29, No. 1, 52-70.)
• The Book (Lovecraft) (1934)
• The Shadow Out of Time (Written Nov 1934-Mar 1935) (Published June 1936 in Astounding Stories, Vol. 17, No. 4, p. 110-54.)
• The Disinterment (Published September 1935)
• The Haunter of the Dark (Written Nov 1935) (Published December 1936 in Weird Tales, Vol. 28, No. 5, p. 538-53.)
• In the Walls of Eryx (Written Jan 1936) (Published October 1939 in Weird Tales, 34, No. 4, 50-68.)
• The Evil Clergyman (Written 1937) (Published April 1939 in Weird Tales, 33, No. 4, 135-37.)

• The Road To Madness Publication date: October 1996 in trade paperback

Compilation copyright © 1996 by Arkham House Publishers, Inc.

Delete Article The Road To Madness

The reference to this article has been removed from this page as the article itself is pending deletion due to being a duplicate of the article Cool Air already available on wikisource. —unsigned comment by Bbking (talk) 14:13, 7 August 2006.

Sweet Ermengarde

This is currently listed as an essay, but I think it is actually a short story. It is listed as such on wikipedia. —unsigned comment by 129.59.24.103 (talk) 06:54, 13 September 2006.

Additional Works Already in Wikisource to Add to List

For example, there is The Horror in the Museum, already in WikiSource. I notice that The Mound is available on the web. Is it public domain now? (This note should be deleted if these additions are made.)

http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~jbw/ --82.41.59.251 02:01, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

The Mound

"The Mound" was published in the same book as The Curse of Yig and Medusa's Coil. If those two are public domain, surely "The Mound" is as well?

more copyright info

Another source of info regarding the copyrights. John Vandenberg 08:54, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Incomplete List?

I am wondering why some stories are missing like "The Horror from the Middle Span" and "Witches Hollow"? [2] --CliffordtheRed 20:19, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I cant see any reason why?! Feel free to add them. Also note that I have started documenting all the stories that appeared in "Weird Tales". John Vandenberg ^(chat) 21:01, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

These are August Derleth stories. Jmj713 19:06, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Witches Hollow was first published in Dark Mind, Dark Heart (1962), and was renewed (RE492445). Anyway, it is in fact a Derleth story.--Prosfilaes (talk) 16:55, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Formatting, etc.

I'll be going through the short stories, formatting the text properly (tabs, etc.), and inserting Wiktionary annotations to the obscure and difficult words. Feel free to help! 69.115.203.15 15:18, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Just registered, too. Jmj713 16:21, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Copyright renewals in the Gutenberg Files

LOVECRAFT, H.P.

  The outsider and others. Collected by
    August Derleth & Donald Wandrei.
    NM: compilation. © 15Nov39;
    A134659. August Derleth & Donald
    Wandrei (A); 23Dec66; R400418.

LOVECRAFT, HOWARD PHILLIPS.

  Beyond the wall of sleep. Collected
    by August Derleth & Donald Wandrei.
    NM: compilation. © 22Nov43;
    A177408. August Derleth & Donald
    Wandrei (A); 6Apr71; R504228.

LOVECRAFT, HOWARD PHILLIPS.

  Best supernatural stories of H.P.
    Lovecraft. Edited with an introd.
    by August Derleth. NM: editing &
    introd. for new version. © 5Apr45;
    A187233. April Derleth & Walden
    Derleth (C); 8May72; R528118.

  Marginalia, by H.P. Lovecraft.
    Collected by August Derleth &
    Donald Wandrei. NM: compilation
    © 30Dec44; A185879. April Derleth
    & Walden Derleth (C) & Donald
    Wandrei (A); 11Apr72; R526902.

  The lurker at the threshold, by
    August Derleth & H. P. Lovecraft.
    © 2Nov45; A287. April Derleth &
    Walden Derleth (C); 18Apr73;
    R550743.

R660482.
  Something about cats. By H. P.
Lovecraft, compiler: August William
Derleth. © 27Nov49; A39962. April
Derleth Smith & Walden Derleth (C);
28Apr77; R660482.

R660482.
  Something about cats. By H. P.
Lovecraft, compiler: August William
Derleth. © 27Nov49; A39962. April
Derleth Smith & Walden Derleth (C);
28Apr77; R660482.

These only include renewals for works 1923-1948, probably 1949 and possibly 1950. Anything first printed between 1950-1963 would need a renewal that can be checked at [3] and anything first published 1964-2002 is still in copyright. I don't believe this covers any fiction, but it covers some poetry and probably most of his letters.--Prosfilaes (talk) 01:58, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't understand, Prosfilaes; are you saying the renewals listed above and those found at copyright.gov wouldn't cover any of Lovecraft's fiction? Because the third renewal paragraph above clearly refers to stories. ResScholar (talk) 04:45, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Yes. "Best Supernatural Stories" would cover the volume as printed, the editing, the compilation. But none of the stories were first published in there, so while we can't used the editions of the stories there published, the stories themselves are just fine.--Prosfilaes (talk) 01:29, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

C.M. Eddy, Jr

I don't really like moving this to an Attributed section. It's clear that HPL did have influence on them; no one is denying that. I don't know what exactly was done, but these are not "attributed to"; they are "HPL is given credit as a collaborator for the work he did on them", even if they only amounted to a couple sentences. ([4] mentions specifically some of these changes at the bottom of the comments.) The fine distinctions about what work he did on them belong on the work page, IMO.--Prosfilaes (talk) 01:45, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, apparently even an attributed section isn't enough, and wasn't quite right anyway. Putting everything in one section is the only sensible solution. However, that isn't going to stop the reversions. I've added a sentence to try to mitigate that but there's chance the user doing this won't even read it. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 17:38, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

"inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time"

Could someone tell me how Nyarlathotep was "Written early December 1920, published November 1920"? The Alzabo (talk) 02:38, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

New Letter

I've uploaded File:Lovecraft letter to Henneberger 1924-02-02.pdf to Commons, a meaty 5,000 word letter to the publisher of Weird Tales.--Prosfilaes (talk) 14:46, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Many more texts now available on archive.org

Recently a whole bunch of new scans of the 1920s/1930s pulp magazines have turned up at archive.org with many more Lovecraft texts. This includes Lovecraft's one Amazing Stories work "The Colour Out of Space" and fifteen more Weird Tales stories including "The Call of Cthulhu". I've already transcribed those two, and here's the other fourteen Weird Tales stories:

• The Evil Clergyman (April 1939):
  • https://archive.org/details/wt_1939_04
• The Festival (January 1925):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV05N01192501
• The Haunter of the Dark (December 1936):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV28N05193612
• He (September 1926):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV08N03192609
• The Horror at Red Hook (January 1927):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV09N01192701
• The Hound (February 1924):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV03N02192402/page/n49
• The Moon-Bog (June 1926):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV07N06192606
• The Outsider (April 1926):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV07N04192604
• Pickman's Model (October 1927):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV10N04192710
• The Rats in the Walls (March 1924):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV03n03192403/page/n25
• The Silver Key (January 1929):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV13N01192901sasIbc
• The Strange High House in the Mist (October 1931):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV18N03193110
• The Temple (September 1925):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV06N03192509
• The Unnamable (July 1925):
  • https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV06N01192507

The question is what to do with the old texts when these are transcribed. I know there's a vague policy of not deleting old texts on Wikisource. But the old Lovecraft texts here aren't really in very good shape - they're just badly scanned (or typed) copies from unknown sources from maybe twenty years ago. (The proofreading on internet Lovecraft texts tends to be all over the place -- he wrote in a somewhat archaic-style British English -- but they often get homogenized into standard American English). So I'm mostly in favour of just deleting them unless there's a specific reason for keeping it. I've already done that with "The Colour Out of Space"; I haven't yet quite worked out what to do with "The Call of Cthulhu" yet though. Pasicles (talk) 21:50, 7 June 2019 (UTC)

We probably shouldn't be keeping editions of works with unknown provenance.--Prosfilaes (talk) 06:46, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

Okay, well in the end I created a link to the transcription on The Call of Cthulhu page, and wiped the previous version which was on here.

I just discovered that there's a problem that according to the "Weird Tales" subpages on wikisource for 1924, 1925, and 1926, most editions of Weird Tales between Jan 1924 and May 1926 had their copyrights renewed. Similarly texts in the early 1930s had their copyright renewed (which rules out "The Strange High House in the Mist"). So seven of the magazines I listed are apparently still under copyright (although Lovecraft's stories themselves presumably aren't). For most of these texts this shouldn't be a problem for much longer: as I understand it, 1924 works lose their copyrights in 2020, 1925 works in 2021, and 1926 works in 2022.

Anyway, I think for the time being any further transcriptions will have to be limited to the following seven texts:

• The Evil Clergyman (April 1939)
• The Haunter of the Dark (December 1936)
• He (September 1926)
• The Horror at Red Hook (January 1927)
• The Moon-Bog (June 1926)
• Pickman's Model (October 1927)
• The Silver Key (January 1929)

Pasicles (talk) 20:36, 11 June 2019 (UTC)

Correspondence between R. H Barrow and Wilson Shepherd of Oakman, Alabama-Sept.-Nov. 1932

Why is this out of copyright? If it was legally published in 1986 with a copyright notice, it would be in copyright until 2082. Unpublished works never lost copyright until 2002, except in cases where the common law copyright was abandoned, which doesn't seem to have happened in the case of HPL.--Prosfilaes (talk) 07:58, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

Looks like User:108.17.11.21 added in a whole host of redlinks in 2011/12. It's not the only dubious redlink they added, there's also stuff like the "Diary of HP Lovecraft" and "Instructions in Case of Decrease by HP Lovecraft". Pasicles (talk) 15:00, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

Satan's Servants and "The Thing in the Moonlight"

@Prosfilaes: Neither Satan's Servants nor "The Thing in the Moonlight" are collaborations. Joshi states that Lovecraft merely "gave some advice" to Robert Bloch. Furthermore, in his biography of Lovecraft, he asserts that "The Thing in the Moonlight" is a "hoax". You said to look at the talk page for a previous discussion. I did not find it, but I did find a discussion of the C. M. Eddy collaborations. Did you think that I had moved those collaborations? Susmuffin (talk) 09:35, 6 May 2021 (UTC)

At the Mountains of Madness

This work from Astounding Stories had been included in the Monthly Challenge and I, and others, had been working on it. Now it has disappeared - I guess as it is taken to be under copyright. Is it ? -- Beardo (talk) 22:31, 11 December 2022 (UTC)

Elsewhere, it is stated that the renewal is:

ASTOUNDING STORIES.  © Conde Nast
  Publications, Inc. (PCW)
  v.16, no.
…
    6, Feb36.  © 15Jan36; B287485.
      6Feb63; R309944.

-- Beardo (talk) 02:04, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

It took me a huge amount of time to find this, since it's not in the part of the copyright records that all databases cover, the records of books and contributions to periodicals. It's in a separate section of the copyright records, one covering periodicals per se. Here it is: https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig3172libr/page/194/mode/2up?q=R309944 Dingolover6969 (talk) 23:57, 2 August 2023 (UTC)

The Shadow Out of Time

On Talk:The Shadow Out of Time there is a comment from 15 years ago stating that story is still under copyright. Does the team agree with that ? -- Beardo (talk) 00:14, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Public domain revisited

I note that the block at the top of the page states "The author must be alive at the start of the copyright renewal term for the author's prior assignments to vest. If, however, the author dies before vesting of the renewal copyright, the party to whom the renewal-copyright interest was conveyed loses the entitlement to that interest." Doesn't that apply to the Astounding renewals, and so they are not relevant.

(Distributed Proofreaders are currently processing "At the Mountains of Madness", so they have concluded it's public domain.

See also Wikisource:Copyright_discussions/Archives/2012-09#Undelete_assorted_pulp_fiction_works_(PD-US-not-vested) where some previously deleted works by R E Howard, and also Lovecraft which had been deleted were undeleted.

-- Beardo (talk) 00:16, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

@Beardo The problem is that Lovecraft was alive when it was published. It's being assumed under copyright until proven otherwise. PGDP will likely have to deal with the same issue at some point. Languageseeker (talk) 01:12, 22 March 2023 (UTC)