H.P. Lovecraft - Audio Books, Radio Plays, & Audio Documentaries

This post is the first part of my Halloween Countdown finale. The next part of the finale will be a collection of various Edgar Allan Poe related items. I hope that all you Lovecraft enthusiasts will enjoy this post, and hopefully this will serve as an introduction to some of you who are not familiar with his work. I've had a fun time tracking these albums down and finding out information about them along the way. This is going to be a long post, so I'm going to skip the introduction to Lovecraft, as I have covered this in previous posts. Although some of the tales appear more than once, they vary in quality based on the narrator's voice and ability to faithfully capture the atmosphere of a Lovecraft story. Some do a much better job than others, and I will point out those that sound rather dry.

I wasn't able to do much reaserch on the previous Lovecraft audio book posts that I made due to limited time. However, I have tried to find out as much information as I could about each of these recordings, although some of these were included in "collections" compiled by various people and downloaded from torrent sites. I have spent a great deal of time doing research on these recordings, which rarely contained any information with them. I was able to find out the narrator, year of release, publishing label, and various other details about a great deal of these recordings.

There are still a few recordings presented here that remain a mystery to me. I have grouped these "mystery recordings" together at the bottom of the post under the "Miscellaneous Audio Books" heading. If any of you have additional information for any of these recordings, please leave a comment and I will edit my post and add the information. I would particularly like to know the narrator, publisher, and the year of release for these.

The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft

The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft is a five volume set of audio books released by AudioRealms, a firstrate audiobook publishing company. This is by far the best transfer of Lovecraft's literature to audio format that I have had the pleasure of listening to. Wayne June does an amazing job and is perfect for the role. His deep raspy voice helps to emerge the listener in the world of cosmic horror that Lovecraft so often focused on. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lovecraft, these would be a good starting point for those without much time on their hands for reading, though I would recommend reading these stories in their literary form also.
I will also be posting a large collection of Lovecraft e-books also for those interested in doing so, which I will upload shortly after I finish uploading all of the audio books.

Volume 1

Track List:
1. The Call of Cthulu
2. The Dunwich Horror

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 1 (76MB)

Volume 2

Track List:
1. Dagon
2. The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 2 (70MB)

Volume 3

Track List:
1. Herbert West Re-Animator
2. The Horror at Red Hook
3. The Outsider
4. The Statement of Randolph Carter

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 3 (72MB)

Volume 4

Track List:
1. The Music of Erich Zann
2. The Rats in the Walls
3. The Shunned House

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 4 (62MB)

Volume 5

Track List:
1. Haunter of the Dark
2. The Lurking Fear
3. The Thing on the Doorstep

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 5 (80MB)

Excerpts From The Sonic Cycle
"Fungi From Yuggoth"

This recording was originally released on cassette by specialty publisher Fedogan & Bremer in 1989. It features John Arthur reading H.P. Lovecrafts short story "The Fungi From Yuggoth". The ambient style background music is performed by Mike Olson.

Download: Excerpts From The Sonic Cycle, The Fungi From Yuggoth
Download Size: 20MB

David Healy Reads "The Lurking Fear"

A recording of David Healy reading "The Lurking Fear". This was originally released on cassette in December of 1989 by the label Landfall Productions.

Download: David Healy Reads "The Lurking Fear"
Download: Size: 41MB

David McCallum Reads "The Dunwich Horror"
David McCallum Reads "The Rats In The Walls"

Both of these LPs were originally released in the 1973 by the Caedmon label. The bitrate of "The Dunwich Horror" is 320kbps, while "The Rats In The Walls" is 192kbps. These were released independently of one another, as well as on a split LP, although the split LP remains extremely rare and I have yet to see a copy of it.

Download: David McCallum Reads "The Dunwich Horror" (138MB)
Download: David McCallum Reads "The Rats In The Walls" (38MB)

Erik Bauersfeld Productions

The following recordings are either from radio shows produced by Erik Bauerself, or read by Bauersfeld himself. The first recording is "The Haunter of the Dark". A reliable source informed me that this recording was originally broadcast on CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, although I have been unable to confirm this information. I do know that this was released on vinyl some time in the 1970's by Mt. Lava Records, and was recently re-released by Necronomicon Press on cassette. Next we have two episodes which aired on the Black Mass radio show, which was produced by Erik Bauersfeld, and was broadcast on KPFA (Berkeley) and KPFK (Los Angeles) from 1963 to 1967. Both "The Rats in the Walls" and "The Outsider" were released in the 1970s on a limited vinyl LP pressing of 1,000 copies

Download: Erik Bauersfeld Reads "The Haunter of the Dark" (5MB)
Download: Black Mass Radio Show - The Rats In The Walls (6MB)
Download: Black Mass Radio Show - The Outsider (5MB)

Robert M. Price Reads The Dunwich Horror

Robert M. Price has been a major figure in H.P. Lovecraft scholarship and fandom for many years. He is both the editor of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu (published by Necronomicon Press) and of a series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies. Unfortunately I was unable to find out any information about this recording. I believe that it was either included in an HPL audio book collection, or a radio broadcast. If you have any information regarding this recording please leave a comment.

Download: Robert M. Price Reads "The Dunwich Horror
Download Size: 13MB

Voices In The Dark Productions
Sean Puckett Reads H.P. Lovecraft

Voices In The Dark is a website which specializes in releasing free audio books. The following Lovecraft tales are read by Sean Michael Puckett, who is also the Co-Owner of the Voices In The Dark website. This is a complete collection of all the H.P. Lovecraft audio books that Sean Puckett has released to date. These recordings are offered at a higher bitrate on the VITD website, although I opted for the lower bitrate files in order to upload them all at once. You can find their website here and Sean Puckett's page here.

Track List:
Memory
The Alchemist
The Beat In The Cave
The Music of Erich Zann
The Outsider
The Rats in the Walls
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Street

Download: Sean Puckett Reads H.P. Lovecraft
Download Size: 65MB

Yug-Sothoth Cthulu Podcast

Yug-Sothoth.com is a website and podcast dedicated to all things Lovecraft. They have released three faithful Lovecraft audio books to date. "The Nameless City" and "The Music of Erich Zann" were released in 2006 as part of the "Readings From Yog-Sothoth" series, and "Nyarlathotep" was released in 2007. Their website contains a wealth of various Lovecraft related media, including a regular podcast, interviews, games, music, and much more.

Download: Finlay Patterson Reads "The Music of Erich Zann" (7MB)
Download: Michael Scott Reads "The Nameless City" (9MB)
Download: Tom McGrenery Reads Nyarlathotep (5MB)

Jim Campanella Reads "The Shadow out of Time"

This recording of "The Shadow out of Time" read by Jim Campanella, was recorded in 2007 and released by Uvula Audio. This recording is available for free under the creative commons license. You can find it as well as other free audio books at the Uvula Audio website. Unfortunately, this is a rather dry effort by Campanella. I wish that he had injected a bit more personality into this recordings as this is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories, and it is the only audio book recording of it that I have managed to find.

Download: Jim Campanella Reads "The Shadow out of Time
Download Size: 172MB

Maureen O'Brien (aka Maria Lectrix)
"The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"

Maureen O'Brien (aka Maria Lectrix) has a podcast dedicated to releasing her own audio books. This audio book of "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" was recorded in May 2008. There are a total of 14 tracks split up into two different parts. This recording as well as many others can be downloaded for free from her website, located here: http://marialectrix.wordpress.com

Download: Maureen O'Brien Reads The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Part 1) (110MB)
Download: Maureen O'Brien Reads The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Part 2) (131MB)

Robert Donald Reads "The Hound"
Robert Donald Reads "The Moon-Bog"

Both of these are fairly recent recordings. They are read by Robert Donald, and recorded for the Audio Books For Free website. They can be found here, along with a number of other audio books: http://audiobooksforfree.com

Download: Robert Donald Reads "The Hound" (24MB)
Download: Robert Donald Reads "The Moon-Bog" (9MB)

Suspense Radio Show - The Dunwich Horror

This is a radio dramatisation of "The Dunwich Horror", which was originally broadcast on the Suspense radio show on November 5th, 1945. Ronald Coleman stars as Dr. Henry Armitage. Suspense was a radio drama series broadcast on CBS from 1942 through 1962. Suspense was one of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era. Approximately 945 episodes were broadcast during its long run, and more than 900 are still intact as high-quality recordings

Download: Suspense Radio Show - The Dunwich Horror
Download Size: 12MB

Atlanta Radio Theater Company

The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company is non-profit organization, formed in 1984, dedicated to preserving, promoting, performing, and educating people about the art of audio theatre (radio drama). These recordings are radio play adaptions performed by the ARTC of five H.P. Lovecraft tales. This is a complete collection of every Lovecraft tale performed by the ARTC to date.

Track List:
1. At The Mountains Of Madness
2. Pickman's Model
3. The Colour Out Of Space
4. The Rats In The Walls
5. The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Download: Atlanta Radio Theatre Company Performs H.P. Lovecraft
Download Size: 84MB

BBC Radio 4 Documentary
The Young Man of Providence

This is a one hour documentary about Lovecraft and his creations. It was broadcast in the UK years ago, although I'm unsure of the exact date. It contains a variety of short quotes and various stories back by eerie sound effects and music.

Credits:
Writer: Mike Walker
Director: Shaun McLaughlin
Narrator: Hugh Burden
Lovecraft: David March
Readers: Blayne Fairman, Garrard Green.

Download: BBC Radio 4 - The Young Man From Providence
Download Size: 39MB

"H.P. Lovecraft and the Occult"
Four Lectures By Justin Woodman

The following recordings are four linked lectures on H.P. Lovecraft and the Occult given by Dr. Justin Woodman at Treadwell's Bookshop in January and February of 2007 at Covent Garden, London. Dr. Woodman lectures in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths College (University of London), where he completed his doctoral thesis on Chaos Magick in 2003. He also lectures at Birkbeck College (University of London), and the University of Westminster. Dr. Woodman has contributed articles on Lovecraftian themes to Strange Attractor and The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, and is one of the founding moderators of the Lovecraft Scholars Yahoo Group.

Dr. Woodman generously made the audio recordings of those lectures publicly available through Yog-Sothoth.com. The four (hour-plus) lectures are entitled: HPL: Fabulist, Myth-Maker & Shaman, Legends of the Necronomicon, Chariots of the Dark Gods and Chaos, Cthulhu, and Contemporary Consciousness. The Microsoft PowerPoint files from the slideshow that Dr. Woodman used for his presentation are also included.

January 17, 2007
The First Lecture: Fabulist, Myth-Maker & Shaman
In the first of the series Justin Woodman casts a critical eye on the 'magical' context of Lovecraft's life and work. He explores some of the myths surrounding the man and his fiction. This first talk also begins to examine the powerful influence that Lovecraft's unique literary creations have exerted over the contemporary occult imagination.

January 31, 2007
The Second Lecture: Legends of the Necronomicon
In part two of this series, Justin Woodman explores the history of the legendary Necronomicon in fact and fiction, and ponders its continuing relevance to contemporary occult cultures. Penned by the Yemeni poet and mystic Abdul Alhazred circa 700 AD, the dreaded Necronomicon is perhaps one of the most powerful and alluring of HP Lovecraft's creations: a grimoire able to rend apart the very fabric of reality and bring forth the Great Old Ones themselves. Although a work of fiction, the Necronomicon has achieved a social and physical reality with more than twenty versions having been published since the 1960s.

February 14, 2007
The Third Lecture: Chariots of the Dark Gods
Many of H.P. Lovecraft's best known tales of the Cthulhu Mythos intimate that the human species is nothing but a by-product of extraterrestrial interventions in Earth's prehistory. Lovecraft's ideas do, in fact, predate the "Ancient Astronaut" theorists and "alternative archaeologists" by over thirty years. Drawing on the work of Jason Colavito, in this lecture Justin Woodman demonstrates that Lovecraft is a pervasive (but often unacknowledged) influence upon contemporary ufology, UFO religions and the broader 'culture of conspiracy'.

February 28, 2007
The Fourth Lecture: Chaos, Cthulhu, and Contemporary Consciousness
This talk concludes the series exploring the relationship between Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and contemporary occult cultures. Woodman focuses on Chaos magic and other recent movements, and considers the claim that Lovecraft was a "mythographer of modernity" whose work intimates something about the current trajectories of Western culture and consciousness.

Download: H.P. Lovecraft & the Occult - Lecture 1 (51MB
Download: H.P. Lovecraft & the Occult - Lecture 2 (58MB)
Download: H.P. Lovecraft & the Occult - Lecture 3 (46MB)
Download: H.P. Lovecraft & the Occult - Lecture 4 (56MB)

Previous Lovecraft Related Posts

H.P. Lovecraft - Various Audio Books Pt. 1
H.P. Lovecraft - Various Audio Books Pt. 2
H.P. Lovecraft - Various Audio Books Pt. 3