necronomicon

A volume of arcane and occult knowledge featured in the horror stories of H P Lovecraft. Though he made reference to some genuine texts, the "unmentionable Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred" was entirely his invention. Throughout the Fifties and Sixties his books gained such a following among college students that numerous hoax versions were produced, drawing heavily on his own Cthulhu fiction and the writings of Aleister Crowley.