Manton Mitchell: Update (24 July 1909)

Lovecraft played soldier with a real soldier, Manton Mitchell. A few years older that HPL, his father, a chemical industrialist, also became a member of the legislature (perhaps as a way to wrangle a West Point appointemnt for Manton).

In July 1909, Lovecraft was lost and uncertain. He began about this time to regroup and take a correspondence course. Could news of his old playmate's success have prompted him? He sometimes wrote of Manton, who became a WWI war hero.

Below is an interesting bit of news:




According to a notice received by Governor Pothier from the War Department, Manton Campbell Mitchell, who recently was graduated from West Point Military Academy, has been assigned to the First United States Infantry, with the rank of Second Lieutenant. Lieutenant Mitchell is a native of Providence.