The Necronomicon: Facts & Fiction

The Necronomicon is the name of a book that horror writer H.P. Lovecraft incorporated into several of his stories in the early 1900s.  In Lovecraft’s novels, the book was said to contain magic spells and ancient occult knowledge.  The interesting thing is that some individuals took this concept and tried to cash in on it by publishing what they marketed as real versions of The Necronomicon.

In 1973, a book that was said to be The Necronomicon was published by Owlswick Press which consisted a made-up language.  The book contains a preface by L. Sprague de Camp who was a popular science fiction writer.

In the late 1970s a man named John Todd claimed to be a former Illuminati member and told audiences that he had seen one of the only three copies in existence of The Necronomicon and that the Illuminati were using it to practice black magic.  In H.P. Lovecraft’s writings, he said that only five copies of the mystical book were in print.  The locations of these five books was said to be: the British Museum, the National Library of France, Widener Library of Harvard University, the University of Buenos Aires, and a fictional library Lovecraft called Miskatonic University.  The story of John Todd is lengthy and fascinating and is expanded in more detail in another section of The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction available on Amazon.com, Kindle and Nook.

Another writer trying to cash in on gullible occultists was George Hay who released a version of the book in 1979 titled The Necronomicon: Book of Dead Names.  Several years later Colin Wilson, who wrote the introduction for the book, would admit it was a hoax.^[1]

Then in 1980 a man known only as “Simon” who was said to have been a student of the occult since the 1960s published a book called The Necronomicon which was marketed as a real English translation of the supposed ancient text.  The “Simon Necronomicon” as it has been called, is reported to have sold several hundred thousand copies and is still found on shelves in the occult section of most bookstores.  It consists of typical mystical ramblings and magic spells.

The publisher claimed, “Simon was a young man drawn to the mysterious world of the occult through his association with several Eastern Orthodox religions and his friendship with the owner of an occult bookstore in Brooklyn.  In 1972 he stumbled upon a stolen text in a friend’s apartment, unaware that what he held in his hands was the real Necronomicon—something long thought to be a creation of Lovecraft’s brilliant mind and deft pen.  After an arduous translation, done in the utmost secrecy (since the tome was in fact stolen), Simon and his close circle of friends unveiled the now–infamous grimoire to a clamoring public.”

Only the most foolish occultists, mainly young teenagers, believed (or continue to believe) “Simon’s” book is an authentic ancient mystical text.

In 1998 “Simon” released The Necronomicon Spell Book in another attempt to cash in on the subject from the gullible occultists who believe the book to be authentic.  Then again in 2006, the same author published Gates of the Necronomicon which was described as a companion to the original book.  That same year “Simon” also published Dead Names: The History of the Necronomicon as an answer to critics who claim he and his book are frauds.  Despite serious occultists and critics claims that the book is a complete fraud, “Simon” must be overjoyed and laughed all the way to the bank as he earned possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars from royalties from sales of the books.

In 1998 Daniel Harms and John Wisdom Gonce III published The Necronomicon Files: The Truth Behind the Legend and traced the origins of the various supposed authentic books and showed how they were in fact fictions based H.P. Lovecraft’s mentioning of the book and incorporating occult principles and mysticism into books that were then marketed as legitimate, like the “Simon Necronomicon.”

In 2004, yet another occultist named Donald Tyson published The Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred, and similarly tried to cash in on the controversy surrounding the supposed ancient text.

Some of those who are aware that the concept for The Necronomicon, as well as the title, was the creation of Lovecraft’s novels, still think such a book actually exists.  These people believe that Lovecraft had knowledge of such a book, and simply incorporated it into his fictional stories.

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