Editing Necronomicon (section)

==Hoaxes==
[[File:Necronomicon prop.jpg|thumb|right|A [[fan art|fan-created]] prop representing the ''Necronomicon'' (2004)]]

Lovecraft felt that a well-written weird story should be believable and constructed like a convincing hoax.  To this end, many of his stories were written as if they were firsthand testimonials or news stories, leading some readers to believe there could be truth to them.  Lovecraft said he felt guilty when he heard of fans searching libraries for real-life copies of the Necronomicon.  Pranksters occasionally listed the ''Necronomicon'' for sale in book stores or in [[Library catalog|library card catalogues]].<ref name=verge>{{cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2013/11/12/4849860/the-cult-of-cthulhu-real-prayer-for-a-fake-tentacle|title=JThe cult of Cthulhu: real prayer for a fake tentacle|last=Flatley|first=Joseph L.|work=[[The Verge]]|date=2013-11-12|accessdate=2025-03-20}}</ref> The Vatican receives requests for this book from those who believe the [[Vatican Library]] holds a copy.<ref name="Voicu2007">{{Cite news |last=Voicu |first=Sever Juan |title=Bodmer Papyrus: History Becomes Reality |work=[[Eternal Word Television Network]] |url=https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/bodmer-papyrus-history-becomes-reality-9767 |access-date=January 24, 2020 |quote=Taken from: [[L'Osservatore Romano]] Weekly Edition in English, 7 February 2007, page 8}}</ref>

Starting in the 1950s, various hoaxes were published that purported to be the real Necronomicon.<ref name=postmodern>{{cite book|title=The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape|chapter=How the Necronomicon became real: the ecology of a legend|last=Laycock|first=Joseph P.|editor1-last=Caterine|editor1-first=Darryl|editor2-last=Morehead|editor2-first=John W.|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2019|isbn=978-1-315-18466-1|at=The hoaxers<!-- ebook; no page numbers -->}}</ref>  However, none of these early hoaxes made a serious claim to authenticity and were understood to be homages.<ref name=verge/>  The early hoaxes typically combined excerpts of previously published occult books with references to Lovecraft's fiction.  In 1973, [[George H. Scithers]] commercially published a hoax Necronomicon under his publishing company Owlswick.  It featured an introduction by [[L. Sprague de Camp]] that purported it to be untranslatable and detailed a fictional history of various attempted translators who died mysteriously.  In reality, it consisted of repeated, nonsensical glyphs in a [[fictional language]] known as Duriac.  When some credulous customers believed it to be authentic, Scithers attempted to convince them otherwise.<ref name=postmodern/>  Around the same time, [[LaVeyan Satanism|LaVeyan Satanists]] and some occultists became interested in incorporating Lovecraft's mythology into their rituals.<ref name=postermodern-occultists>{{cite book|title=The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape|chapter=How the Necronomicon became real: the ecology of a legend|last=Laycock|first=Joseph P.|editor1-last=Caterine|editor1-first=Darryl|editor2-last=Morehead|editor2-first=John W.|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2019|isbn=978-1-315-18466-1|at=The occultists<!-- ebook; no page numbers -->}}</ref>

Drawn by the success of Scithers' Necronomicon, more followed.  The most famous of these is the [[Simon Necronomicon]], published in 1977.<ref name=postmodern/>  This book, by the pseudonymous "Simon", has little connection to the fictional [[Lovecraft Mythos]] but instead is based on [[Sumerian mythology]].  The author uses this as evidence of its authenticity, arguing that a hoax spellbook would not use the title of an in-universe spellbook from series of horror stories.  It purports to come from an ancient manuscript that predates Lovecraft's stories, though there is no record of such a thing.  Simon's story incorporates two real-life thieves who were arrested for selling stolen manuscripts, but they have no connection to the Simon Necronomicon, and nobody has ever produced the alleged manuscript.  Instead, it is likely that [[Peter Levenda]], the registered copyright holder of several of Simon's books, is the author.  Levenda has denied this.<ref name=verge/>  The other major work was a hoax edited by [[George Hay (writer)|George Hay]], which was published in 1978 and included an introduction by the paranormal researcher and writer [[Colin Wilson]]. [[David Langford]] described how the book was prepared from a computer analysis of a discovered "cipher text" by [[John Dee (mathematician)|Dr. John Dee]]. The resulting "translation" was in fact written by [[occult]]ist Robert Turner,<ref>{{cite book|title=Arguing with Angels: Enochian Magic and Modern Occulture|last=Asprem|first=Egil|publisher=[[SUNY Press]]|year=2012|isbn=978-1-4384-4191-7}}</ref> but it was far truer to the Lovecraftian version than the Simon text and incorporated quotations from Lovecraft's stories in its passages.

In 2004, ''Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred'', by Canadian occultist Donald Tyson, was published by [[Llewellyn Worldwide]]. Donald Tyson has clearly stated that the ''Necronomicon'' is fictional, but that has not prevented his book from being the center of some controversy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 5, 2009 |title=Keys to Power beyond Reckoning: Mysteries of the Tyson Necronomicon |url=http://www.mythostomes.com/content/view/97/72/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205164728/http://www.mythostomes.com/content/view/97/72/ |archive-date=February 5, 2009}}</ref>{{unreliable source|date=March 2025}} Tyson has since published ''[[Alhazred (novel)|Alhazred]]'', a novelization of the life of the ''Necronomicon''{{'}}s author.

[[Kenneth Grant (occultist)|Kenneth Grant]], the British occultist, disciple of [[Aleister Crowley]], and head of the [[Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis]], suggested in his 1972 book ''The Magical Revival'' that there was an unconscious connection between Crowley and Lovecraft. He thought they both drew on the same occult forces; Crowley via his magic and Lovecraft through the dreams which inspired his stories and the ''Necronomicon''. Grant claimed that the ''Necronomicon'' existed as an [[astral projection|astral]] book as part of the [[Akashic records]] and could be accessed through [[ritual magic]] or in dreams. Grant's ideas on Lovecraft were featured heavily in the introduction to the [[Simon Necronomicon|Simon ''Necronomicon'']] and also have been backed by Tyson.<ref>Harms, Dan and John Wisdom Gonce III. 2003. ''The Necronomicon Files''. Boston: Red Wheel Weiser. p. 103 {{ISBN|9781578632695}}</ref>{{unreliable source|date=March 2025}}<ref name=verge/>