Long, Cook, Derleth: 1929

Long, Frank Belknap. TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS). 1 1/2 pages on letter-size paper (with 1 1/2 inches trimmed from bottom), signed in black ink, "F. B. Long, Jr.", with five-line handwritten postscript, dated 8 October 1929, to "Dear Mr. Derleth" [August Derleth]. Long's first letter to Derleth, written in reply to one from Derleth. As Long mentions here, he had heard about Derleth from H. P. Lovecraft (whom he had known at this point for almost ten years; he would remain one of HPL's best friends) and says here that he had occasionally thought of writing him "but during the past few months I've been too morbidly depressed to enter into an extended correspondence with anyone." Promising to "discuss the tales you mention at length in a few days" -- tales by Long? by Derleth? by others? -- he mentions the demands of other work, including "a series of articles that I very unwisely agreed to undertake for a vile subway magazine on a commission basis." In his postscript he agrees to send Derleth a copy of his book, THE MAN FROM GENOA, a 31-page collection of poems published in 1926 by Paul Cook in Athol, Mass. (famous also as the publisher, or at least printer, of Lovecraft's THE SHUNNED HOUSE). "I would gladly give you a copy, but I still owe the publisher a substantial commission on all sales. It retails for a 1.25 -- but you may merely send me a dollar." "The writing style is both formless and inflated, very much the work of a young man still looking for his own voice and under the influence of Lovecraft, who, at this point, tended towards a stilted tone in his letters. Nevertheless, an interesting document by one of the more important spokes in the Lovecraft circle. If HPL was its center, then Derleth, in his later capacity as publisher at Arkham House, formed its circumference." - Robert Eldridge. Faint fold creases and minor edge nicks, very good overall. (#116740)