Necronomicon- Makes a Librarian Insane

The mad Arab Abdul Alhazred is said to have dwelt therein for a time in the 8th century A. D., prior to the writing of the abhorred & unmentionable Necronomicon. Oh, yes —Abdul mentioned your ghoul, & told of other adventures of his. But some timid reader has torn out the pages where the Episode of the Vault under the Mosque comes to a climax—the deletion being curiously uniform in the copies at Harvard & at Miskatonic University. When I wrote to the University of Paris for information about the missing text, a polite sub-librarian, M. Leon de Verchéres, wrote me that he would make me a photostatic copy as soon as he could comply with the formalities attendant upon access to the dreaded volume. Unfortunately it was not long afterward that I learned of M. de Verchéres’ sudden insanity & incarceration, & of his attempt to burn the hideous book which he had just secured & consulted. Thereafter my requests met with scant notice— & I have not yet looked up any of the other few surviving copies of the Necronomicon.

- The Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft III, number 441. TO CLARK ASHTON SMITH