Lovecraft's Chronicles in Order: Complete List and Timeline

The 50 chronicles on file, in the order in which they were set down. The year given is the year of writing, which is the order that shows how the record developed; the place and date of first printing are given beside it, because the two orders differ widely. Several chronicles were not printed until years after they were written, and some not until after the writer's death.

By decade the count is 7 from the 1910s, 35 from the 1920s and 8 from the 1930s. The earliest are Dagon and The Tomb, written in 1917, and the last is The Haunter of the Dark, written in 1935.

The 1910s (7 chronicles)

1. Dagon — written 1917; first printed The Vagrant, Nov. 1919.
2. The Tomb — written 1917; first printed The Vagrant, Mar. 1922.
3. Polaris — written 1918; first printed The Philosopher, Dec. 1920.
4. Beyond the Wall of Sleep — written 1919; first printed Pine Cones, Oct. 1919.
5. The Doom That Came to Sarnath — written 1919; first printed The Scot, Jun. 1920.
6. The Statement of Randolph Carter — written 1919; first printed The Vagrant, No. 13, Nov. 1920.
7. The White Ship — written 1919; first printed The United Amateur, Nov. 1919.

The 1920s (35 chronicles)

1. Celephaïs — written 1920; first printed The Rainbow, May 1922.
2. Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family — written 1920; first printed The Wolverine, Mar. & Jun. 1921 (two parts).
3. From Beyond — written 1920; first printed The Fantasy Fan, Jun. 1934.
4. Nyarlathotep — written 1920; first printed The United Amateur, Nov. 1920.
5. The Cats of Ulthar — written 1920; first printed Tryout, Nov. 1920.
6. The Picture in the House — written 1920; first printed The National Amateur, Jul. 1921.
7. The Temple — written 1920; first printed Weird Tales, Sept. 1925.
8. The Terrible Old Man — written 1920; first printed The Tryout, Jul. 1921.
9. The Tree — written 1920; first printed The Tryout, Oct. 1921.
10. Herbert West—Reanimator — written 1921; first printed Home Brew, Feb.–Jul. 1922 (six installments).
11. The Moon-Bog — written 1921; first printed Weird Tales, Jun. 1926.
12. The Music of Erich Zann — written 1921; first printed The National Amateur, Mar. 1922.
13. The Nameless City — written 1921; first printed The Wolverine, Nov. 1921.
14. The Other Gods — written 1921; first printed The Fantasy Fan, Nov. 1933.
15. The Outsider — written 1921; first printed Weird Tales, Apr. 1926.
16. The Quest of Iranon — written 1921; first printed Galleon, Jul.–Aug. 1935.
17. Hypnos — written 1922; first printed National Amateur, May 1923.
18. The Hound — written 1922; first printed Weird Tales, Feb. 1924.
19. The Lurking Fear — written 1922; first printed Home Brew, Jan.–Apr. 1923 (four installments).
20. The Festival — written 1923; first printed Weird Tales, Jan. 1925.
21. The Rats in the Walls — written 1923; first printed Weird Tales, Mar. 1924.
22. The Unnamable — written 1923; first printed Weird Tales, Jul. 1925.
23. The Shunned House — written 1924; first printed Weird Tales, Oct. 1937.
24. He — written 1925; first printed Weird Tales, Sept. 1926.
25. In the Vault — written 1925; first printed Tryout, Nov. 1925.
26. The Horror at Red Hook — written 1925; first printed Weird Tales, Jan. 1927.
27. Cool Air — written 1926; first printed Tales of Magic and Mystery, Mar. 1928.
28. Pickman's Model — written 1926; first printed Weird Tales, Oct. 1927.
29. The Call of Cthulhu — written 1926; first printed Weird Tales, Feb. 1928.
30. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath — written 1926–27; first printed Arkham House, 1943 (posthumous, in Beyond the Wall of Sleep).
31. The Silver Key — written 1926; first printed Weird Tales, Jan. 1929.
32. The Strange High House in the Mist — written 1926; first printed Weird Tales, Oct. 1931.
33. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward — written 1927; first printed Weird Tales, May–Jul. 1941 (posthumous, abridged serialization).
34. The Colour Out of Space — written 1927; first printed Amazing Stories, Sept. 1927.
35. The Dunwich Horror — written 1928; first printed Weird Tales, Apr. 1929.

The 1930s (8 chronicles)

1. The Whisperer in Darkness — written 1930; first printed Weird Tales, Aug. 1931.
2. At the Mountains of Madness — written 1931; first printed Astounding Stories, Feb.–Apr. 1936.
3. The Shadow over Innsmouth — written 1931; first printed Self-published by Visionary Publishing Co. (small print run); reprinted Weird Tales, Jan. 1942.
4. The Dreams in the Witch House — written 1932; first printed Weird Tales, Jul. 1933.
5. Through the Gates of the Silver Key — written 1932–33; first printed Weird Tales, July 1934 (co-written with E. Hoffmann Price).
6. The Thing on the Doorstep — written 1933; first printed Weird Tales, Jan. 1937.
7. The Shadow Out of Time — written 1934; first printed Astounding Stories, June 1936.
8. The Haunter of the Dark — written 1935; first printed Weird Tales, Dec. 1936.

Reading the list

A reader going straight through will meet the short, dark chronicles of the late 1910s and early 1920s first, the Dreamlands chronicles scattered through the same years, and the longer accounts of the late 1920s and 1930s last. That is the order of writing, which is not the order to start in: for a first reading, see the Dispatch on reading order, and for a shorter selection see the one on the ten to read first. The pre-1930 chronicles are also the ones that are clear of copyright in the United States, as the Dispatch on the public domain explains.