Thaluikhain said:
There's also a short story about an Astronaut looking to rob people in the jungles of Venus, and who finds treasure in an invisible maze...can't remember the name, but quite different from his other stuff.
I believe it was
In the Walls of Eryx, a great story with a less cosmic horror feel.
I started with
The Shadow Over Innsmouth and
The Dunwich Horror, and the aforementioned
Color Out of Space, which along with
At the Mountains Of Madness is one of his best works.
Then, I read all of the rest, and branched out from there to read other contemporaries of his, and eventually I tried some of his major influences, like Machen. I found Machen's work quite dry overall, but sprinkled with some creepy moments, enough that I think I could see the effect it might have on a budding writer, at least.
I find the racism inherent in some of his work can be jarring, but in the end I feel it lends both the protagonists and the overall stories a sense of inperfection that makes the hero characters more human, oddly enough, as they are often ignorant of their own flaws in that regard- most of them are ubermensch shut-ins who quietly and smugly know everything.
After all, Cthulhu and the other entities don't seem to be racist. And the servants, although perhaps 'specist', will happily kill and eat any humans.