This is the 1974 Panther Horror edition of At the Mountains of Madness, by H.P. Lovecraft. It also collects “Dreams in the Witch House” and most of the Randolph Carter stories.

Despite Lovecraft’s inclusion in the Dungeon Masters Guide’s Appendix N and the appearance of the Cthulhu Mythos in early editions of Deities & Demigods, I’ve always been a bit unclear on how his work directly influenced D&D. Outside of some aesthetic stuff (tentacles, haunted ruins, secret books) and perhaps a general sense of mystery and discovery, I don’t really see a big impact. Perhap from the Dreamland stories, which veer more towards what we see as traditional fantasy, but I actually find those stories terribly depressing.

Anyway, I talk about Lovecraft enough in this feed. I mainly posted this to share Ian Miller’s gorgeous cover art of an Elder Thing and a Shoggoth. I only discovered this cover recently and it has leaped to the top of my favorite Lovecraftian art list.