Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Lovecraft and Providence's "Honor Classes"

Amazingly, this seems almost tailor made for young Lovecraft. From Providence's 1902 School Board Report (ending July 1901).

It's a little confusing, but Providence had a system whereby students could "graduate" either in the Fall or Spring, and so there are a and b splits. Up until about 1901, Providence had an extra "grade" which was eliminated - somewhat traumatically for the educators - precisely in 1902 when Lovecraft attended and drove "Abbie", the long term principal of Slater, bonkers. However, apparently she did like him, and continued to be fond of him for decades later. By my calculations, Lovecraft was always one year early compared to his contemporaries - most likely due to his 20 August birthday, and his precociousness.







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