The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.5: The Atlantis Fragments

I had the great pleasure of meeting - albeit briefly - Donald Sydney-Fryer at NecronomiCon 2017, which he was attending in the capacity as the convention’s poet laureate. I saw him both at the opening ceremony, and on various panels - but also  had the opportunity to speak to him briefly the day after the convention’s end: we were both in the foyer of the Providence Biltmore, having just checked out of the hotel.

Donald was waiting for a taxi, but kindly took the time to sign the copy of his The Atlantis Fragments, which I had purchased from Derrick Hussey of Hippocampus Press earlier that weekend (and which contains Sydney-Fryer’s Songs and Sonnets Atlantean - long out of print since its first publication by Arkham House in 1971). We spent sometime chatting, and Donald reminisced eloquently and passionately about his own sojourns in England and Wales (where he had spent time at the Machen heartland of Caerleon).

Unexpected and fleeting moments such as this are what makes the journey to Providence every couple of years all the more worthwhile.