"This book consists of ideas, images, and quotations jotted down in haste for possible future use in mystery fiction. Only a few are actually developed plots; most consist of mere suggestions or arbitrary impressions intended to keep the memory or imagination active. Its sources are diverse: dreams, readings, chance encounters, ramblings, etc.," Lovecraft warns us at the beginning of this unique book.

Between 1919 and 1934, the great master of horror and science fiction was jotting down the entries that make up this Notebook of Ideas, in which he outlined some arguments that would serve as the genesis for his narrative work. After his death, Robert H. Barlow, his friend and executor, founded a small publishing house, The Futile Press, with the express intention of publishing these notes, which are in the tradition of commonplace books, in the style of those written by the philosopher John Locke and the poet John Milton in 17th-century England or, later, in 19th-century Italy, by Giacomo Leopardi. Notebook of Ideas is a fascinating journey through a literary landscape yet to be invented.