Over at SnagFilms, you can watch a free documentary about the life and legacy of the great horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft. We’ve embedded a preview of Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown above–follow this link to watch the whole film.

The film traces Lovecraft’s influence on modern writers like Neil Gaiman (Coraline),  Caitlin Kiernan (“Daughter of Hounds”) and Peter Straub (“Ghost Story”).”

Here’s more about the documentary: “The influence of his Cthulhu mythos can be seen in film (Re-animator, Hellboy, and Alien), games (The Call of Cthulhu role playing enterprise), music (Metallica, Iron Maiden) and pop culture in general.  But what led an Old World, xenophobic gentleman to create one of literature’s most far-reaching mythologies?  What attracts even the minds of the 21st century to these stories of unspeakable abominations and cosmic gods?”

The Library of America gave readers a peek at sales figures this morning, revealing the publisher’s bestselling titles–a list lead by classic Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain volumes.

More recent volumes like Philip K. Dick‘s Four Novels of the 1960s or  H. P. Lovecraft‘s Tales still haven’t cracked the top twenty list. We’ve linked to the top five bestsellers below, follow this link to see the complete list. (Image via LOA; link via Michael Orthofer)

1. Thomas Jefferson: Writings [1984]                                   217,518
2. Mark Twain: Mississippi Writings [1982]                         150,973
3. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches 1859–1865 [1989]                120,589
4. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches 1832–1858 [1989]                118,284
5. Walt Whitman: Poetry & Prose [1982]                             114,790

Artist Murray Groat has drawn an great series of imaginary book covers mashing up the Herge’s  Tintin with the horror novels of H.P. Lovecraft.

io9 has more: “Tintin is known for visiting exotic locales, and artist Murray Groat has plopped the adventurer in such fantastical destinations as Innsmouth and R’leyh. Watch Herge’s boy adventurer run afoul of the Reanimator and Cthulhu. Seventy-seven shuffling shambling shifty-eyed shoggoths!”

See all the images at this link. If you want to read the stories behind the art follow these free digital links: “Herbert West—Reanimator,” At the Mountains of Madness, “The Call of Cthulhu,” and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”

A couple weeks ago we wrote about one company’s efforts to create merchandise to sell alongside the adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert‘s memoir, Eat, Pray, Love.

The Europe on Five Bad Ideas a Day blog took the idea and ran with it, creating some hilarious concepts for literary tie-ins: “The Innocents Abroad (Mark Twain): cigars, random bones of random saints. Assassination Vacation (Sarah Vowell): replica of Ford’s Theater, grassy knoll, wind-up toy of singing-dancing assassin. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter S. Thompson): um, nothing that would be legal to sell.”

Add your capitalistic ideas in the comments section. This GalleyCat editor only has one piece of merchandise to add: H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Cthulhu Sushi…