The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday June 26th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the magical aspects of Abraham Merritt's (1884 - 1943) novels and stories of exotic fantasy adventure. Merritt was a highly respected journalist who wrote his colorful tales of the occult and the bizarre for his own pleasure and not as pot-boilers for the pulps even though ARGOSY and other pulps were his main outlet. His work had the quality of literature and the mytho-folkloric erudition of a Robert Graves. Merritt had a library of over 5000 books on myth, folklore and the occult. His tales of lost cities, ancient secret cults and strange other-worldly phenomenon are unparalleled in beauty and imagination. His "People of the Pit" (1917) was a profound influence on H.P. Lovecraft and his masterpiece "The Ship of Ishtar" (1924) described Richard Shaver's inter-dimensional "Simultane" concept. (It was also the template for our path-working soul-travel boat.) His "Dwellers in the Mirage"(1932) was an in