Steven J. Mariconda is among the most dynamic forces in modern Lovecraft studies, and his articles and reviews have over the last decade left a lasting impression on the field and have suggested many new avenues of research--avenues that Mariconda himself is likely to pursue more capably than any of his contemporaries. In this booklet featuring many of Mariconda's best essays are collected the work he is best known for: "H. P. Lovecraft: Consummate Prose Stylist", "Stream-of-Consciousness Techniques in Lovecraft", "Notes on the Prose Realism of H. P. Lovecraft", "Lovecraft's Concept of 'Background'", "'The Hound'--A Dead Dog?", "'Hypnos': Art, Philosophy, and Insanity", "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages and 'The Rats in the Walls'", "Lovecraft's 'Elizabethtown'", "On the Emergence of 'Cthulhu'", "The Subversion of Sense in 'The Colour Out of Space'", and "Some Antecedents of the Shining Trapezohedron". Also featured is a new essay, "Toward a Reader-Response Approach to the Lovecraft Mythos", written exclusively for this collection, in which Mariconda works to define the various forms the "mythos" has taken over the years, and how readers have perceived and formed their opinion of it. This article was the basis for a highly-regarded lecture given by Mariconda at the 1995 NecronomiCon, and is sure to make his a,dience take a second look at what they personally had defined the "mythos" as being previously. With an introduction by S. T. Joshi.