Pause to Contemplate Lovecraft and Houdini's Crusade Against Spiritualism

Much of what we have blogged together is anecdotal - if not conspiratorial in tone. Still, ther eis a great deal of coincidence in C. M. Eddy, Jr. persuading HPL to submit to Weird Tales (perhaps in November of 1923 associated with Houdini), and Henneberger desperately trying to connect Houdini and Lovecraft.

The buzz that Lovecraft was the next Poe was already building, even if the substance and phaseology had not yet crystalized. That HPL was a solid materialist and had debunked mysticism as a youth certainly must have made the rounds of the amateur journalism circuit and perhaps back to Henneberger.

Between the Houdini commission of "Under the Pyramids" until Houdini's Halloween 1926 death, there was a long - if intermittant 0 contact with Houdini who paid handsomely.

We see that deCamp knows of an offer for HPL to go on the road to Detroit and to write an essay debunking witchcraft. De Camp was a longtime member of skeptic societies and as such could easily have had access to oral traditions of Houdini's clandestine, anti-spiritualist activities.

For sure, Detroit was an offer for HPL to finally be on the front lines. How much did he know? Was the dinner the moment of Houdini asking Lovecraft to be the ultimate spy?

The unwritten chain of events whereby Bess gets food poisoning and in a matter of weeks Houdini is attacked - and dies is profound.

Stay tuned as we gather more information - to see if there is truly evidence to back up these wild suggestions.