The Moon Pool

<p><i>The Moon Pool</i>, in novel form, is a combination and fix-up of two previously-published short stories: “The Moon Pool,” and “Conquest of the Moon Pool.” Initially serialized in <i>All-Story Weekly</i>, <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/a-merritt">Merritt</a> made the interesting choice of framing the novel as a sort of scientific retelling, going so far as to include footnotes from fictional scientists, to give this completely fantastic work an air of authenticity.</p> <p>In it we find the adventuresome botanist William T. Goodwin embarking on a quest to help his friend Throckmortin, whose wife and friends have fallen victim to a mysterious temple ruin on a remote South Pacific island. A series of coincidences provides Goodwin with a colorful cast of accompanying adventurers, and they soon find themselves in a mysterious futuristic underworld.</p> <p><i>The Moon Pool</i> is an important entry in the Lost World genre, in no small part because it was a significant influence on <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/h-p-lovecraft"><abbr>H. P.</abbr> Lovecraft</a>—hints of <i>The Moon Pool</i> can be seen in his short story “The Call of Cthulhu,” and hints of Merritt’s Nan-Madol can be seen in Lovecraft’s R’lyeh.</p> <p>Today, <i>The Moon Pool</i> is a pulp classic, featuring many of the themes, tropes, and archetypes that characterized so many of the pulp adventure works of the era.</p>