"H. P. Lovecraft was one of the great cat-lovers in history. In his youth he was devoted to his beloved black cat, but when it ran away in 1904 he never owned a pet again. Thereafter he expressed his affection for felines in writing-in stories such as "The Cats of Ulthar" and "The Rats in the Walls"; in a wide range of poems, from "Sir Thomas Tryout" to "Little Sam Perkins"; and in the essay "Cats and Dogs," in which he definitively establishes the total superiority of cats over dogs ("The dog is a peasant and the cat is a gentleman"). This book gathers together the entirety of Lovecraft's writings on cats for the first time. As a special bonus, it includes extracts from dozens of Lovecraft's published and unpublished letters, where he discusses such topics as Old Man (an incredibly ancient cat he encountered while walking the streets of Providence, R.I.); the pets of his friends and colleagues, including Clark Ashton Smith and E. Hoffmann Price; the many cats of the "Kappa Alpha Tau" fraternity near his house at 66 College Street; and many other subjects. The book has been assembled by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on Lovecraft. And it is lavishly illustrated by Jason C. Eckhardt, whose artwork has graced Lovecraftian publications for decades. Contents: Introduction by S. T. Joshi The Cats of Ulthar Sir Thomas Tryout The Rats in the Walls The Cats In Memoriam: Oscar Incoul Verelst of Manhattan Cats and Dogs From The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath Veteropinguis Redivivus [To a Cat] [Little Sam Perkins] [Christmas Greetings] The Cats of New York Old Man The Kappa Alpha Tau Musings of an Ailurophile Extracts from Letters Appendix: Felis: A Prose Poem by Frank Belknap Long" --