Two Problems with Appendix N

I'm currently reading "The Long Tomorrow", which is one of the books on the legendary Appendix N - the inspirational reading list from the 1st Edition DMG. (Now superseded by Appendix E in the 5e PHB.)

I've found that the Appendix N books make for fascinating reading, partly from a historical perspective, partly from a "you're doing it wrong", and partly just out of interest in the works that inspired the young Gygax.

(One thing that is particularly of note is the sheer range of material there. To a certain extent it is a shame that first "Lord of the Rings" and then D&D itself cast quite such a large shadow, because of how those influences have affected everything since. I might even argue that while modern fantasy is by and large much better written than the older works, it's also rather less imaginative in many ways.)

I have, however, found two small issues.

The first of these is that many of these books are very old, and were never much more than fairly obscure, and as a consequence they are hard to find and/or very expensive. And while I'm interested to see what Leigh Brackett did in "The Sword of Rhiannon" (for example), I'm rather disinclined to spend £50 for the privilege. Oh well.

The other issue is rather more contemporary. D&D is, quite rightly, going through a period of excising itself of some of its more troublesome and problematic baggage. Which is fine, except that it probably means removing certain items from Appendix E or its successor in later editions.

The big problem there is that chief amongst these is H.P. Lovecraft, who it's fair to say was a big old racist. More to the point, though, his brand of horror is inextricably linked to his own fear of miscegenation. That is, without the racism underpinning his works they don't really work.

So they kind of have to go.

But H.P. Lovecraft is one of, if not the, biggest influence on early D&D - his fingerprints are on huge elements of the game, its lore, and so forth. Any list of inspirational reading would, quite frankly, be incomplete and lacking without those works on it.

I'm not really sure how WotC can square that circle. I certainly don't envy them the task.

(Ultimately, I suppose we'll end up with some sort of disclaimer about "product of the times", "modern sensibilities", or something like that. Which, frankly, would be rather a cop out. But given that there are problems either way, that may be the least-worst option.)