H. P. Lovecraft Interested in Spiritualism: According to Letter to Clark Ashton Smith

Still unsure if this prooves anything, but Lovecraft explicitly is pursuing "spiritualist" pamphlets in late 1925. To what end? Curiosity? To write a new story? For ... Houdini?? I guess that is wild-eyed speculation. You read and decide ...

I've never read any of the jargon of formal "occultism" ... I am ... an absolute materialist ... not a shred of credence in any form of supernaturalism ... spiritualism ... How much is the brochure you have been reading? If any of these crack-brained cults have free booklets, I wouldn't mind having my name on their "sucker lists" ... when you see my new tale "The Horror at Red Hook", you will see what I make of the idea ...

Lord of a Visible World, H. P. Lovecraft: An Autobiography in Letters. Ohio University Press, 2000, To Clark Ashton Smith, 9 October 1925, p. 176