H. P. Lovecraft 
At the Mountains of Madness 

At the Mountains of Madness, Lovecraft’s incontrovertible masterpiece, written in February-March 1931, is a story details the events of a disastrous expedition to the barren, windswept Antarctic continent, where the secret history of our planet is preserved, amidst the ruins of its first civilization, in September 1930, and what was found there by a group of explorers led by the narrator, Dr. William Dyer of Miskatonic University. Throughout the story, Dyer details a series of previously untold events in the hope of deterring another group of explorers who wish to return to the continent. It uncovers strange fossils and mind-blasting terror.

Since it was originally serialized in the February, March, and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories during the classic pulp era, ’At the Mountains of Madness’ has influenced both horror and science fiction worldwide. Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi describes the novella as representing the decisive ’demythology’ of the Cthulhu Mythos by reinterpreting Lovecraft’s earlier supernatural stories in a science fiction paradigm.