Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Record rainfalls in Providence (2010)

Here is a brief summary from the national Weather service.

“... people are living through history,” said Walter Drag, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Taunton.

The deluge of rain this week has set all-time highs for daily rainfall and amount of rain in any month measured in Providence, the nearest point to Fall River where the National Weather Service records detailed data.

The amount of rain dumped on the area in the past few weeks “is unprecedented in the last 100 years of weather history in southeastern New England,” Drag said. The all-time record in Providence for any month is 15.38 inches, set in October 2005. As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, this month has had 15.58 inches.

Providence received 4.58 inches of rain on Tuesday (30 March 2010), according to the 5 p.m. report, with more rain likely to add to the total. On Monday (29 March 2010), the city received 3.47 inches of rain.

... unofficial dispatches Tuesday afternoon include 7.12 inches in Taunton, 5.38 inches in Dighton, and 8.75 in East Providence.

Lewis Theobald (not Junior)

As many know, Lovecraft adopted the moniker of Lewis Theobald, Jr. from time to time. It amused him.

The real Lewis Theobald, as HPL knew, was a Shakespearian scholar (wikipedia article). Now he's in the news. (The NPR link attached to blog title).

In summary, Theobald was a minor, a poor writer, but attacked Pope in public often. He became a star at editing - and thus why HPL took on his name. One susopects that Lovecraft thought he was a rather weak poet, a so-so writer, but a stellar editor. If so, he was correct in his own viewpoint - at least until he came into his own as a weird fantasy writer.
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Scholar Says 'Lost' Shakespeare Play Is No Hoax
March 18, 2010

In 1727, Lewis Theobald staged a performance of Double Falsehood, a play he claimed was a "lost" work by William Shakespeare. At the time — more than 100 years after Shakespeare's death — critics dismissed the play as a fake, and it was quickly forgotten.

It was forgotten, that is, until this week — when Shakespeare publisher Arden Shakespeare once again put the play back into print. The publisher did so based on the evidence and research of literature professor Brean Hammond of the University of Nottingham in England.

The play is a story of love and betrayal, a dark comedy in which one man wants to steal his best friend's fiancee. Its alternate title is The Distrest Lovers.

Hammond told NPR's Renee Montagne that he has linked the play to another that Shakespeare helped to write around 1613. "Shakespeare is known to have collaborated with John Fletcher in writing a play called The History of Cardenio, or some variant of that title," he said.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Dr Franklin Chase Clark Obituary



Franklin Chase Clark MD College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York 1872 a practitioner of Providence RI for more than forty years died at his home in that city April 26 from cerebral hemorrhage aged 67



Journal of the American Medical ssociation, 15 March 1915, p. 1672

Lovecraft and Santa Claus

There is a classic story told of Lovecraft. Had not Lovecraft himself told the story, it might have been dismissed as a FOAF (friend of a friend) urban or church myth. This very story circulated widely in Christian circles of his era - and continues to do so today. (I've often encountered it.)

"... just before the age of five he was told that Santa Claus does not exist, and that he there upon countered with the query as to 'why God is not equally a myth'".

This is a nightmare of every person who holds the Christian faith. What does one do with Santa Claus? In fact, it's the very premise of the quaint movie "Miracle on 34-th Street".

Having started in the midst of Southern Baptists at the age of 9, Chrispy is well aware of this dilemna.

Parents split into two camps. One camp finds no harm in the quiet myth of Santa Claus and thus when the age of the myth comes to an end - usually earlier than ten dependent upon how sheltered the child has been - the transition is softened by indicating that the myth of Santa Claus is a substitute for the benevolence of the divine.

(Chrispy has actually played Santa Claus, age 12 I think. Recently, a novel kitsch icon has been created showing the classically illustrated Santa Claus kneeling in front of baby Jesus' manger. This is a blog about Lovecraft so we must no longer digress.)

There is a firmer camp (usually amongst the more fundamentalist believers) that insists the myth must never begin in the home, and thus the conflict shall never occur in the child's mind.

This is certainly not new.

Christmas is an invented holiday stemming from the New York Knickerbockers society for polemical reasons (i.e. about 1815 with Washington Irving, etc.). As Federalist America's first truly American Myth, its American spirit exploded across the New England and Midwestern states (often through Unitarian churches) and quickly cascaded to England (at least by Charles Dicken's time).

New England Baptists had to come to terms with it, as did professional educators.

Lovecraft would have been 5 on Christmas Eve of 1895. From that approximate era (Dec 1894, PRIMARY EDUCATION, Vol2, No 10, p. 347 ) come these pros and cons in an educator's magazine.

Read carefully the anecdote in bold! :)
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Question and Answer

I have never quite decided that it is right to tell children that Santa Claus brings their gifts to them at Christmas though it is such a delight to them that I have so far kept up the fiction

Will you give your opinion of the subject

If it is true as I think it is that the office of the imagination is to lead the way toward larger higher fields of thought and feeling then Santa Claus has as real an existence in the world as any other unseen force. The personation of the spirit of giving has grown out of the deep need of child life and has an important work to do Santa Claus is the embodiment of loving sympathy for and with all the world and to deprive a child of this personality is to rob him of one of his most precious rights. In one of the magazines in the interest of children some time ago a strong protest was made against teaching the lie of Santa Claus and a case in point was cited: A little boy found after a few years that there was no Santa Claus and felt that he had been deceived asked if they had been deceiving him about Jesus too .

Now if there ever was such a boy he had been brought up on too much bare fact and was painfully unnatural. Fact should be the basis of all thought but need not therefore be thrust upon the child in all its bareness but clothed in a more presentable way so that it can be more easily grasped. Love truth beauty are inconceivable to a child as abstractions but put into concrete form as bits of daily food for mind and heart are life itself. Let children believe in Santa Claus as a real though intangible presence in their lives and they will never weary helping him to be the worldwide benefactor at the glad Christmas time Childhood.

_____

Immediately following is this gem:

The Myth of Santa Claus

There are many parents who shudder at the myth of Santa Claus an invisible being that brings the children gifts but that invisible being to the child's weak apprehension is the foreshadowing of the All Giver the forerunner of the One who came to man on that blessed Christmas night. No rough voice and no ignorant soul should ever tell the little child that Santa Claus does not exist for Santa Claus is the foreshadowing of the All Giver All Lover the One who gives because He loves.

Col. Parker in Talkus on Pedagogics

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Chrispy thinks too much of old Lovecraft has been put upon 5 year old Lovecraft. He certainly rejected Santa Claus, and placed a panic among the baptists in the house (Grandmother Robie, Aunt Lillian, and Aunt Annie). It seems he was packed off to Sunday School pretty quickly thereafter, but at what point he reached full rebellion is a matter of study.

On this subject, Chrispy is an authority.

A child of age 5 through age 10 is most susceptible to parental and child peer pressure to come to faith and belief. Most "professions", "conversions", and most "baptisms" occur near the age or 8, 9, or 10. As the age increases, statistically the probability of a faith decision lessens, unless there are extenuating circumstances (i.e. falling into a cult situation).

I have seen only one 5 year old profession in my now nearly 45 years of attending church. Six and seven is not unusal, though.

If parents do not attend with the child, the likelihood of profession is much less, even with the sustained peer pressure of other children, and steady pressure by Sunday School teachers.

One suspects that Susan was not strongly motivating in church attendance, and with Robie's death at precisely the age when Lovecraft might have sucumbed to a profession of some sort - even in name only - one suspects that he quickly was off the hook.

His Sunday School teacher might have been sad to see him exit, but probably relieved that the hypertensive, ever-questioning and quarrelsome Howard was no longer there to stir troubles.

Monday, March 29, 2010

"The Science Year Book" Described

In Lovecraft's "Third Annual Report of the Prov. Meteorological Station, 1906", he wrote, "The records of the Prov.{idence} Meteo.{rological} Station are preserved in full by the "Science Year Book", an English publiation, which we have always used. This is open to free public inspection at any time."

Chrispy tracked down an advertising for this item:




And a description:



This publication seems to have begun in 1904, Lovecraft's assumed first eyar of tracking meteorology with his instruments.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Technical Problem with Ronald Upham's Reported Address

Chrispy is getting frequent flier miles for time traveling. Quantum jet lag even. So much so, that the 21st century is looking very weird after logging so much fin de siecle. Even so, as I fact check and search through primary and secondary documents every now and then I get a jolt.

In S T Joshi's monumental H.P.Lovecraft: A Life, page 54 ("What of Unknown Africa? 1902-1908) we find this casual phrase, "Ronald Upham, two years younger than Lovecraft (fn12), who lived at 21 Adelphi Avenue (fn13) ...".

Footnote 12 (p. 659) references a letter from HPL to Derleth, 17 February 1931. Footnote 13 references Lovecraft's Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy, 7 May 1905.

The only directories available on Google are the 1889 and 1899. below is a snippet of the 1899 edition with the entirety of Adelphi Street listed.



51 Upham Clark D clerk h{omeowner}
Upham Edwin clerk b{order}

Blue Book (1905)


It clearly shows 51 Adelphi Avenue as the long term residence. There is no "21". Now, it's possible that an uncovering of the 1903 edition may show some oddity like a renumbering or a relocation, but highly unlikely as per the listing in the Providence Blue Book of 1905. One may postulate a misreading of the number "5" for the number "2", and easy error.

While we're on the subject, there is one copy on Google of the Providence blue book, which humbly states that it is not a book of Providence elites. Poppycock. The listees are movers, shakers, and old bloods of Providence.

Chrispy believes that Edwin is Clark D.'s father, and Ronald Upham's grandfather. The 1858 Providence tax roll (below) lists Edwin and his wife.



The 1855 Acts and resolves of the General Assembly lists Edwin (as a young man) as getting reimbursed for some minor expenses.



Sadly, that's all Chrispy can determine at this stage.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Blurb on "Owyhee Land and Irrigation"



Snake River Company charter of May 1884
charter amended Jan 1888 254
May 1889 82
name changed to Owyhee Land and Irrigation Company Jan 592 1884 42
May 1889 82
1892 421

On p.381, of Index to the printed acts and resolves of the General Assembly of the state of Rhode Island. 1907 edition.
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And from the 1899 Providence City Directory it lists Whipple's office at the Wicox Bldg. It also mentions his bank at the same room number.

Lovecraft Celebration: 25 March 2010

Thanks to Morgan Scorpion for pointing this out !
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March 15 marked the 73rd anniversary of the passing of H.P. Lovecraft!

In celebration of this local legend, join us on March 25th at 7:00 PM at the Rochambeau Library for a free screening of "The Call Of Cthulhu" (2005, silent film) hosted by Rory Raven. Free pizza will be provided by the Nice Slice.

...more, click!

Whipple V Phillips, Public Servant

Acts and resolves of the General Assembly of the state of Rhode Island ...
p.14, 15, 17

Reimbursement by the legislature



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_____
April 22nd


p.299

Friday, March 26, 2010

Whipple Phillips' Court Case Against Tillinghast

(Elsewhere HPL wrote: "...those distant kinsfolk (the Tillinghasts, descendants of old Pardon Tillinghast who founded the Providence sea-trade ... shed actual tears of sentimental reminiscence at being confronted with Whipple Phillips' darter an' gran'son !")


Tillighast Vs. Phillips






In: New England Reporter, 1885.

Whipple V Phillips: Gas Mogul? (1882)

May 1882, Acts and resolves of the General Assembly of the state of Rhode Island ...


Thursday, March 25, 2010

Whipple Phillips: Youthful Banker !!



It sems likely that the "Rayomnd Place" would be a relative of Whipple's wife.

This is from:
The Rhode Island register, for the year 1853 [and 1856 ..., Volume 2 By George Adams (of Boston.), p.36

As Whipple Phillips was born in 1833, this would make him a bit over 20 years old.

Whipple Phillips Starts a New Church !!

From:
Souvenir history of the New England Southern Conference in three volumes By Micah Jones Talbot, Vol. 1, 1897.
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M. E. CHURCH, GREENE, R. I.

At the instance of Mr. G. W. Rider, Whipple Phillips and wife, Lyman Davis and wife, and Stephen Damon and wife, the Methodist Episcopal Church was formed at Greene, R. I.

As there had been no religious service in the community for a long period, these friends of Methodism, having a superior insight of the high importance and spiritual needs of the place, labored earnestly to establish divine worship here. As others were well inclined towards the movement, an effectual door was opened. In the Spring of 1873 Mr. Phillips kindly threw open his commodious hall for the accommodation of the worshipers. The church was organized in the Fall of 1873. Stephen Damon was appointed class leader. Rev. J. Q. Adams, who was then pastor at South Scituate, R. I., united this charge to his labors, and served faithfully until the ensuing Conference, when G. W. Hunt was appointed preacher in charge, during whose pastorate the present church edifice was erected.

It was dedicated by the Presiding Elder, G. W. Brewster, October 4, 1876. The building accommodates about 200 persons, and its cost was $1,500.

An act to incorporate the Trustees of the M. E. Church at Greene was passed March 1, 1876. The Trustees were G. W. Rider, S. Damon, E. E. Rider. After the organization of the church, business continued to flourish in this section for a considerable time. The church was then an efficient agency for good, a fruitful garden of the Lord.

It is to be lamented that there came an ebb in the tide ot affairs which compelled several of its members and many people of the vicinity to secure their livelihood elsewhere.

During the first year of the pastorate of the Rev. E. J. Sampson the church underwent necessary repairs and was re-dedicated December 31, 1895, by the Presiding Elder, G. II. Bates.

Whipple V Phillips in Greene, Rhode Island

Lovecraft indicates that Whipple was powerful,owning land, and moving in educational and asonic circles. Previously we quoted a near-primary source mentioning Whipple as Lodge Master.

Here are other incidents in Greene.

1871, The R.I. Schoolmaster, Volume 17‎ - Page 29




1887, Proceedings of the annual and semi-annual encampments By Grand Army of the Republic. Dept. of Rhode Island

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Brief Blurb on Owyhee Land and Irrigation Co (1898)



GRAND VIEW ... the headquarters of the Owyhee Land & Irrigation Company who are the owners of a fine substantial hotel and store besides the ferry

Mr AJ Wiley is the superintendent and chief engineer of the Owyhee Land & Irrigation Company and also holds the position of postmaster



(p.78,80; A historical, descriptive and commercial directory of Owyhee County, Idaho; dated January 1898.)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Get some Chrispy in - - Dark Recesses

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Death Disbursement to Estate of Whipple V Phillips



Payments of $10,000 or more were reported to The Insurance Press as follows ... Whipple V Phillips $12,033 ...

MAY 31 1905
THE INSURANCE PRESS LIFE INSURANCE
p.24

Monday, March 22, 2010

Whipple V Phillips: Patent Holder

UNITED STATES PATENTS RELATING TO GAS EXPIRED FROM OCTOBER 1 1903 TO OCTOBER 1 1904



Proceedings of the annual meeting,
Volume 21
By American Gas Light Association
page ccxxxvi

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Nancy O. Greene Review: Lovecraft Unbound !

My colleague Nancy just reviewed this!



In THE EVOLUTION OF THE WEIRD TALE, S. T. Joshi states that H. P. Lovecraft, in his own words, endeavored to emulate the style of eighteenth century writing in his work. While he may not have always succeeded, he certainly created his own form and his works convey a unique sense of fear that has survived over the ages when many of his peers have been forgotten ...

More ... click here to go to Dark Recesses!

LOVECRAFT UNBOUND edited by Ellen Datlow
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Dark Horse Books (October 7, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1595821465
ISBN-13: 978-1595821461

Robie A Phillips: Taxes (1891)




The sums are pretty staggering for the era. ($12,860.00) All in her name? The house? Compare the expanded entry:




p.282
City of Providence tax book
1891

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Whipple V Phillips: Banker (1890 - 1904?)



Some text reproduced:

PROVIDENCE TRUST COMPANY PROVIDENCE
Incorporated January 1890
WHIPPLE V PHILLIPS President
EDWIN E PHILLIPS Secretary
HORACE K BLANCHARD Treasurer

DIRECTORS
Whipple V Phillips
Edwin E Phillips
Horace K Blanchard
RESOURCES
Cash on hand $130 89
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From:
ANNUAL STATEMENT EXHIBITING THB CONDITION Of TRUST COMPANlES SAVINGS BANKS, INSTITUTIONS FOR SAVINGS AND STATE BANKS OF RHODE ISLAND FOR M0NDAY JUNE 30 l902 ALSO STATEMENTS OF THE BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS Reporting to the State Auditor and Insurance Commissioner on December 31 1901

ANNUAL STATEMENT

Friday, March 19, 2010

Breaking News! Jellyfish Live Forever!


{Perhpas this is another long lost cousin of the Eldritch Ones?}

Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).
The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell.

More ... click!

19 March 1896 - Fire !

Unknown if this affected Grandfather Whipple:
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Providence, RI Masonic Building Fire, Mar 1896

PROVIDENCE MASONS LOSE BY FIRE.

Their Building Destroyed---Their Loss $90,000---Lodges and Business Firms Lose $350,400.

PROVIDENCE, R. I., March, 19.---The Masonic Building, in Pine Street, was destroyed by fire at 4 o'clock this morning and several buildings back of it were damaged.

The loss on the Masonic Building and furniture is estimated at $90,000. The insurance is $75,000. Of the tenants the largest losers are the Wilbur Shoe Company, $125,000: Allen & Jonassohn, $85,000: Bosworthl Brothers, $65,000: St. John's Commanders, No.1, $25,000: Calvary Commandery, No. 3, $25,000.

Many Masonic lodges lost from $1,000 to $6,000 each. The total loss is estimated at $440,400, and the insurance at $275,175.

The New York Times, New York, NY 20 Mar 1896

Whipple V Phillips and Eureka Zinc Mining Company

We are about to enter an exploration of a series of primary documents on the business dealings of Whipple Van Buren Phillips.
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{For short texts it's not overly tedious to reproduce the text. For long passages it's really tough for Chrispy.}
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Acts and Resolves Passed at the May Session 1900
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND &c
issued July 29, 1889

I, Charles P Bennett, secretary of state hereby certify that Daniel P Williams, Whipple V Phillips, and Clarke H Johnson, have filed in the office of the secretary of state according to law their agreement to form a corporation under the name of Eureka Zinc Mining Company for the purpose of acquiring buying selling leasing improving working and developing mines and lands containing zinc lead or other minerals milling reducing refining and treating ores and minerals constructing buying owning leasing using and operating reduction and refining works and mills for the treatment of ores and minerals buying selling and dealing in ores and minerals and the transaction of any other business incident thereto in any of the states of the United States of America and the territories thereof and with the capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and have also filed the certificate of the general treasurer that they have paid into the treasury of the state the fee required by law.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Whipple Van Buren Phillips: Mason (1886)


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subscribed for twenty shares of stock in the Freemasons Hall Company Under the revised by laws adopted in 1889 dues are no longer imposed upon the members Henry C Field was Master UD and was succeeded in 1869 by Clinton D Sellew A dispensation for Ionic Lodge No 28 lireene was granted January 15 1870 and the charter was granted and dated May 16 1870 The lodge was constituted January 17 1871 The petition for dispensation was signed by sixteen brethren of the western part of Kent county nearly all of whom were members of Manchester Lodge Commodious rooms were dedicated to the use of the lodge on September 28 1886 Whipple V Phillips was the first Master.

"Free Masonry and Odd Fellowship", p.523

State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century A History
EDITED BY EDWARD FIELD
Volume III

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

More Controversy: 1902 School Changes !

Lovecraft reenterd school in 1902. The schools were in an upheaval!

The Providence City Manual states:

REPORT OF TUE COMMITTEE ON GRAMMAR AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS
To the School Committee of the City of Providence

The Committee on Grammar and Primary Schools report a successful year of work in the schools over which they have jurisdiction

One of the most radical changes ever made in our schools was inaugurated at the beginning of the last school year The first steps towards changing the length of the course in the primary and grammar grades from nine to eight years were undertaken in September 1902 when pupils who were to begin the work of the advanced half of the fifth year were placed in the beginning of the sixth year work

In other words the 5 A grade was eliminated and the 5 B pupils entered the 6 B grade This cuts out one half of a year from the nine year course and during the coming year it is expected the other half year will disappear

The necessary steps have been taken to provide for semi annual graduations from the grammar schools so that up to the high schools pupils in all grades will during the coming year be promoted semi annually

This has been the practice for many years in the primary grades and this caused serious congestion in the lower grammar rooms at the beginning of the second term

The change of the course from nine to eight years does away with the loss of a half year to those pupils coming from the primary to the grammar grades in February and who began the advanced half of the eighth year in September and is in line with advanced ideas and progress in public school work

Another step in the reduction of the length of the course has been the raising of the age at which pupils will be admitted to the primary and kindergarten schools from five and four to six and four and one half years respectively

_____

This tends to bring in focus Lovecraft's graduation ceremonies. If Principal Abbie Hathaway was graduating students every half year, Lovecraft's spontaneous combustion of first refusing to participate and then jumping up and doing a speech at the last moment might not be so unweildy in a system that was scrambling to figure out what the senior educattion adminsitrators were trying to do. SNAFU isn't always just an Army term.

Controversy! The 1898 Providence School System

{One reads tension behind this. Money was thrown at the school system, and spent out of proportion of needs, according to the political leadership. This document, printed in 1898, was for the year preceding Lovecraft's entry into the system.}

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS The Public Schools are one of the most important departments of city administration Though the schools are in charge of a committee elected for that special work and not perhaps directly responsible to the City Council still the city must always regard with interest the administration of the schools both because it is of the utmost importance that a good education should be furnished the youth of the city and also because the expenses of the schools must be provided for by taxation that is levied by the City Council

During the last ten years and particularly during the last five years the expenditure for new school buildings has been very great and it would seem that a disproportionate amount has been spent for high school buildings

Our first care should always be for primary education Good schoolhouses with good teachers should be provided for the children of the primary grades then a like provision should be made for the grammar grades that must always remain the finishing school for the great majority of our youth

If we are compelled to economize in school expenditure the reduction should fall upon the high schools rather than upon any grades below and upon the so called special subjects of instruction rather than upon the essentials of a practical education

We seem to have built grammar schools beyond the need for grammar school pupils for the grammar school buildings are not only occupied in some of their rooms by high school pupils but nearly all of the grammar school buildings have several rooms occupied by primary pupils The inference from this statement of facts is that hereafter for a considerable number of years we shall be called upon to build only primary schoolhouses

_____

On another matter, have you wondered whether or not Lovecraft attended schools that were coeducational? We certainly can't assume it, but hereis a reference that seems authoratative for his era.

(Report of the Comissionaer of Education for the year 1891-1892, Vol 2, p.787) The cities included in the table in which coeducation is not universal may be considered either individually or by groups Of the 50 principal cities enumerated by the United States census of 1890 40 are represented in the replies here considered 1

In 27 of these boys and girls are educated together in all schools In 4 Philadelphia Pa Newark NJ Providence RI Atlanta Ga the sexes are separated in the high schools only

In Providence this seems to be an outcome of the policy of elective courses

Superintendent Tarbell says

The classical department of onr high school teaches both sexes The English department teaches a portion of girls separately 413 iu number The manual training high school teaches boys only 150 in number

Hon Thomas R Stockwell the State commissioner of public schools also says

In the Providence high school there was originally a department for girls alone but for several years the girls who were fitting for college have been taught in the same classes with the boys aud now girls are admitted into the new manual high school and several of the classes in the girls department have been united with classes in the same subjects in the boys English and scientific department

I consider the change of policy here in Providence very suggestive for the plan of separate schools for boys aud girls in the high school has existed over since the school was started and has been most ardently advocated by some of those most interested in the schools I think it shows that coeducation is being more aud more recognized as the proper method in all grades
_____

{By all accounts in the records, Providence was advanced in its thinking. Boston, in many enclaves, separated the sexes. Providence was vocal in coeducational classes.

Providence Rhode Island State Commissioner of Education
Co education is being more and more recognised as the proper method in all grades

Providence Rhode Island Superintendent
Personally I favour co educational institutions


Interim report of the commissioners on certain parts of primary education, 1903.

Slater Avenue School in 1898

[To Kleiner 16 November 1916]"It was in 1898 that I first attempted to attend school. I entered the highest grade of prmary school ... it was in dear old Slater Avenue ... that I made my only shildhood friendship - that with Chester and Harold Munroe..."
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In the "Providence City Documents of 1897, Vol. 1" there are notes about Lovecraft's school.

For several years past the buildings of the city have been neglected and in many instances were suffering from such neglect Early in the year a careful inspection of all buildings was made their defects noted and reported to the Committee on City Property who from time to time gave orders for the renovation of the property But it was not until the summer vacation that any large amount of work was made possible The work of renovating and repairing the several buildings was commenced early in July and was completed during the last week of the school vacation thus enabling the schools to commence the first day of the fall term ...

... Curbing has been set and concrete sidewalks built on the street sides at the Slater avenue school estate the yard graded slopes concreted and fences lowered on the University avenue side. ... The following named school buildings were painted outside viz ... Slater avenue State street ...

Curbing around school estate Slater avenue $148. 98

{Scholls in every era had .. um ... imteresting things happen. Read on:} In the first annual report of the work of the department the attention of the City Council was called to the existing conditions in the public school buildings Complaints were frequently made by teachers of nauseating odors which permeated the atmosphere in the school rooms These complaints came from buildings where dry closets were used and where the ducts being connected with the school rooms made it possible for the fecal odor to be carried into the the rooms under certain conditions

The matter was taken up by the School Committee and the Committee on Hygiene was directed to investigate 1 visited some of the buildings where the Smead system was used at the request of this committee and in a report presented last April the chairman of the committee stated that owing to the close connection of the sanitary system with the ventilation as it exists in the Smead system there is a possibility of a back draft carrying the fecal odor into the school rooms

At the request of the Superintendent of Public Buildings I looked over the needs in some of the buildings and suggested changes and during the vacation season the Mott Automatic Washout Closets were substituted for the Smead system ... and new deep seal non siphon traps replaced the old S traps in the following school buildings ... Slater avenue ,,,

J Frank Read & Co
sewer {contract}
Slater avenue school estate
$30.00

The City of Providence is daily enforcing the law requiring owners of property to connect their estates with sewers and remove the unsightly outhouses and yet in some of the school yards outhouses are to be found This question of school sanitation was fully considered by a competent committee appointed by Mayor Quincy in Boston last year After a thorough investigation the committee reported that without doubt the loudest complaints proceed from the condition of the detached privies and urinals which once the best things which could be afforded are inheritances of the past and should be condemned Attempts have been made.

_____

And there you have what Lovecraft experienced on his first trip to public school.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Is there a doctor in the house?

Pause for speculation ...

As you read this, and if all has went according to plan, Chrispy is now away at a trade show in Chicago, and thus will rarely be reading emails. (Sorry). I will try to catch up as I can upon my return in several days.

In the meantime, I'm typing this on Saturday afternoon of 6 March 2010.

Something for you Lovecraftians to consider-

Lovecraft contracted, as best as I read the biographies, and at various or sundry times, rhuematic fever and scarlet fever, and suffered from frequent "colds" as well as later in life a weird syndrome called Poikilothermia syndrome. He froze at normal teperatures, and enjoyed hot temperatures.

He could walk for miles, and then suddenly collapse for no apparent reason as he did on the Chepatchet Trip with CM Eddy Jr. He avoided the sun (which might have been a latent Edwardian penchant). His mother and aunts doted on him, and he suddenly and sometime after 1910 began to refer to himself as "grandpa", "old", and feeble.

So, as best as I can tell from the literature, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, strep throat, and multiple sclerosis all come from the same or similar strands of streptococus A.

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by Lance W. Christiansen D.O, "I am quite sure {Multiple Sclerosis} is related to the autoimmune response triggered by Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria. That is right, the same germ, Strep A, as it is commonly termed, that causes strep throat, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, erysipelas (a skin infection), tonsillitis, ear infection, bronchitis, etc. A common germ causing a common autoimmune response." from link.

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It seems to clear to me, at least, that Lovecraft was a bundle of energy - nervous energy though it be - and mentions that shoveling snow was nothing to him at 598 Angeel Street circa 1904. He obviously was running to the top of the Providence Journal Building nearly daily between 1904 and 1906 to get weather readings. He spent many a cold night staring through his telescope with nary a complaint.

Then suddenly, he missed school in 1906-1907 (if I recall correctly) precisiely when providence had its all time pandemic of scarlet fever. I have not read that these items, coincidental though they may be, have been coordinated.

Then and afterwards, Lovecraft took a light class work in 1907-1908, did not go to Brown University, may or may not have had chorea at this time (ST Vitus Dance), began a period of mild hermitry simultaneously with a drop off in family income.

It seems that the kindly, one-time, Dean of Brown University, Winslow Upton who was with out a doubt monitoring his protege's progress would have somehow found an opportunity for HPL - unless something catastrophic and unnamable happened.

It has commonly been applied that Susan Lovecraft might have been the culprit. I wonder. It was in her best interests for Lovecraft to go to college. She and HPL obviously started his correspondence classes in chemsitry, and he specifically wrote in the 1910 census that he was a chemist. And yet - nothing.

Rhuematic fever ravages the heart in virtually all cases. The same strep can cause multiple sclerosis.

From 1903 to January 1907 Lovecraft was on a fast track to astronomy. Yes, he might have been weak in mathematics, but there were tutors for that. And probaby scholarships available for the "grandson of Whipple Phillips". He was doing real meteorology, making a name for himself in newspapers, and even in Scientific American. He was introduced to Percival Lowell January 1907.

SOMETHING happened in 1907. Something amazing and of pulse-pounding importance.

Lovecraft danced around it in his letters, and even lied about it.

On one side of 1907, he was hell bent for the stars. His fall back position by 1908-1910 was chemistry ('The Alchemist', 1908 and correspondence courses). On the other side of 1910, Susan and he must have felt POETRY was his calling.

A radical shift based on - perhaps contracting a mysterious, unnamable disease?

Hmm.

In Search of ... Mrs. Wilhelm Nauck, violin teacher

Mrs. Wilhelm Nauck

Lovecraft has somewhat to say of an 1898-1899 incident that might never have been known otherwise. Sometime after 1897, Susan tried to impose some appreciation of art and music upon Lovecraft, who at first seemed excited about learning the violin, but as time went on and the tedium of practice wore on him, he apparently cracked under the strain shortly after a soloist concert.

His teacher was declared to be Mrs. Wilhelm Nauck. Using some sources found scanned into "Da Google", I was able to piece together a few things.

First, she was a neighbor of sorts. The 1899 Providence House Directory No. 8, shows that she lived at 387 Angell Street! However, there are some oddities. The listing at 387 Angell Street lists: Miss Susan M Cornell (border); Elizabeth G Hicks, widow and homeowner (h); Mrs A.C.S. Nauck, violin teacher (h); Wilhelm Nauck, teacher (h); Mrs M. E. Shepardson (h).

If Howard was going to the house, he would have walked several doors down and passed the Central Congregational Church at the corner, and continued on a bit further. The directory often lists the same person twic eat the same address, for instance at 391 Angell we find the conundrum of Wm. V. Wallace, physician, homeowner, but Wm. V. Wallace, real estate, border. The lessons may not have been at the home of Nauck, however.

There is a listing for W. Nauck in room 18 of the Hoppin Homestead Building (357 Westminster) a bit of a business mall with several of the rooms having music teachers. Nauck is listed as Principal of the European School of Languages. A true renaisance person, Wilhelm Nauck was a memmber of the Providence Athetic Association, and most notable a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft (more below). There are seven other violin teachers listed in the Providence directory at this time.

We turn back to the other available directory from 1889, and find that at 283 Westminster we have two postings (different pages) for Wilhelm Nauck teaching German.

The Deutsche Gesselschaft was a German club which the State Legistature certified (in 1899) thus: STATE OF RHODE ISLAND (fcc) I Charles P Bennett secretary of state hereby certify that Herman Rosenberg, John L Remlinger, Jacob Ginand, Henry T Molter, F Henry Peycke, Gustav Saacke, Henry R Wirth, Max E Naumann, Herman G Possner, John Scheminger, Otto Gerlach, and John H Althans, have filed in the office of the secretary of state according to law their agreement to form a corporation under the name of Deutsche Gesellschaft for the purpose of social and literary culture in accordance with law and have also filed the certificate of the general treasurer that they have paid into the general treasury of the state the fee required by law. issued July 20 1898. The club is mentioned in the 1907 Old Home Week booklet.

So, in summary, Wilhelm Nauck was a long time resident and teacher of German, and club member, while Mrs. Wilhem Nauck (Mrs. A C S Nauck?) was a violin teacher competing for students against several other teachers in the city. beyond that, not much more can elicited from the data available.

The original recollections of Lovecraft are below:

[To Kleiner, 16 November 1916 in Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner, p. 621] My rhythmic tendencies led me into a love of melody, and I was forever whistling & humming in defiance of convention & good breeding. I was so exact in time & tune, & showed sch a semi-professional precision & flourish in my crude attempts, that my plea for a violin was granted when I was seven years of age, & I was placed under the instruction of the best violin teacher for children in the city — Mrs. Wilhelm Nauck. For two years I made such progress that Mrs. Nauck was entusiastic, & declared that I should adopt music as a career - but all this time the tedium of practising had been wearing shockingly on my always sensitive nervous system. My 'career' extended until 1899, its summit being a public recital at which I played a solo from Mozart before an audience of considerable size. Soon after that, my ambition & taste alike collapsed like a house of cards (to use a trite simile). I began to detest classical music, bcuase it had meant so much painful labour to me; & I positively loathed the violin. Our physician, knowing my temperament, advised an immediate discontinuance of music lessons, which speedily ensued. ... in music I lacked ambition & ability...

[To Kleiner, 16 November 1916 in Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner, p. 71] ... {interest in drama and plays}All this was contemporaneous with my disastrous efforts to acquire musical proficiency. Of my failure in that direction, I can only speak with humiliation. My mother has a well-nigh professional skill both with voice & piano - but I did not inherit her ability for studious application, & proved an utter and ignominious failure with the violin.

(This is also excerpted in A dreamer and a visionary: H.P. Lovecraft in his time By S. T. Joshi, p.35 ; HP Lovecraft: A Life, Joshi, p. 43; Selected Letters, Vol. 1, p. 29, Lovecraft: A Biography, DeCamp, p. 28; Lord of a Visible World, Joshi, p.17)


[10 April 1934 to Barlow] I had a very irregular heart action - badly affected by physical exertion - & such acute kidney trouble that a local practitioner would have operated for stone in the bladder had not a Boston specialist given a sounder diagnosis & traced it to the nervous system. That was when I was 9, & reduced to a very irritable state of pressure of violin lessons. On the specialist's advice those lessons were stopped ... psychologists would probably find something significant in the astonishing speed with which I forgot how to play the violin & even how to read music. I can't read music today.

(This is excerpted in HPL: A Life, Joshi, and found in O Fortunate Floridian, p.125)

Monday, March 15, 2010

A pause for speculation

I emphasize this is sheer speculation, but a few things are curious about the mental and health collapse of Lovecraft's father. Just a cursory look at 21st century posts on syphillis shows three stages of the disease. The forst shows a sore that appaeras withing 3 weeks, and then it disappears only to appear sporadically off and on for up to 30 years. These are pronounced sores, often on the face.

In ST Joshi's invaluable HPL: A Life, we read the medical report (p. 13) ... for the past year he has shown obscure symptoms of mental disease ...

This is precisely the time that Susan and Howard were secluded at Guiney's. Were they not just waiting for a real estate transaction as they planned a new house, but a bit of safety as Winfield traveled on sales calls?

The effects of tertiary syphillis are incredible and horrific. Sometimes soft, tumor-like balls of inflammation appear as big as billiard balls. (16% of reported patients). I won't reproduce those shocking images, but they are easily googled if you wish to check them.

One famous case of syphillis was Al Capone, who contracted the disease as a young man, and it is considered that his anger and out of control behavior grew as the disease progressed, despite the other members of "the business" wanting a lower profile.

At the end of his life he often raved on about Communists, foreigners, and George Moran, who he was convinced was still plotting to kill him from his Ohio prison cell.

Compare this to the paranoid rantings reported by Winfield.

Now, we move to the famous and amazing declaration by Susan (reported by Clara Hess), years later, about Howard who often had ingrown hairs (p. 85): "...Mrs. Lovecraft talked continuously of her unfortunate son who was so hideous that he hid from everyone ... when I protested that she was exagerating ... she looked at me ... as though I didn't undersatnd about it ...".

This incident is undated, but as Clara would have known HPL from High School and would have noticed something odd, this must have been past 1908 and before Susan being hospitalized before March 1919. Unfortunately this spans a decade, but could this have been (again sheer speculation) a vivid remembrance of the shock of Winfield's last days?

Sunday, March 14, 2010

More on Winslow Upton (obituary)

From: History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: Biographical
NY: The American Historical Society, Inc. 1920

p. 72 - 74:
WINSLOW UPTON -- The Upton family ancestry in England is traced to the time of William the Conqueror, and the ancient manuscript of the De Upton family of Cornwall, of which the American Uptons are an authentic branch, is still in existence, though partly illegible, at the ancient seat of the family in Westmoreland. The English branch of the family traces an unbroken line of descent from John Uppeton de Uppeton, of Cornwall. The family in America dates from the second half of the seventeenth century, and has been prominent in New England life and affairs since its founding, in 1652. One of its most notable members was the late Professor Winslow Upton, one of the foremost astronomers of the United States whose original research in the fields of astronomy and meteorology added much to the volume of knowledge in these sciences. The coat-of-arms of the Upton family is as follows: Argent on a cross sable five bezants.

(I) John Upton, founder of the family in America came to New England about 1652. There is a tradition that he came from Scotland, and may have been of the Scotch prisoners taken by Cromwell at Dunbarton, September 3, 1650, or at Worcester, in 1651. The last-named battle was fought near the town of Upton, England, the seat of the ancient family. Cromwell took seventeen thousand Englishmen and Scotchmen prisoners in these two battles, and many of them were sent to the American Colonies. John Upton was accompanied by his wife, who tradition states was Eleanor Stuart, a Scotswoman. He settled in Salem Village, now Danvers, Massachusetts, where he seems to have refused to join the Puritan church, which would indicate that he was a Presbyterian in religious views. He did not take the freeman oath until April 18, 1691, when it had been modified. His first appearance in the records is of that date, December 26, 1658, when he bought land of Henry Bullock, in the southwest part of Salem Village. This estate, a large portion of which remained in the family of John Upton until 1849, was near the line of the present town of Danvers, half a mile from Lynnfield, and is now within the limits of Peabody. John Upton became a man of considerable wealth and large estate. He died July 11, 1699, aged seventy-seven years, and his will, dated Nov. 16, 1697, was proved July 31, 1699. He used a fleur-de-lis for a seal. From John Upton, the founder, the line descends through five generations to Professor Upton.

(II) William Upton, son of John and Eleanor (Stuart) Upton, was born in 1663.

(III) Caleb Upton, eighth son of William Upton, was born in 1722.

(IV) Robert Upton, fourth son of Caleb Upton, was born in 1758.

(V) Robert (2) Upton, son of Robert (1) Upton, was born in 1788. He married Lucy Doyle, of Salem, Mass.

(VI) James Upton, son of Robert (2) and Lucy (Doyle) Upton, was born in Salem, Mass., March 31, 1813. He was a partner in the firm of Upton & Nichols, of Boston, and a prominent business man of that city from 1865 to 1878. Prior to 1865 he had engaged in foreign trade with South and Central America, but withdrew from this on the outbreak of the Rebellion. A man of wide culture and an able linguist and conversationalist, he was well known in literary circles in Boston. He was a member of the Essex Institute, and served as vice-president of its department of horticulture for many years. For nearly forty-six years Mr. Upton was a member of the First Baptist Church of Boston, and a generous donor toward its support.

James Upton married (first), Oct. 27, 1836, Emily Collins Johnson, who died Nov. 12, 1843. He married (second), Oct. 9, 1845, Sarah Sophia Ropes, daughter of James and Lucy Ropes, who died Feb. 12, 1865. Mr. Upton died in Salem, Mass, March 30, 1879, at the close of his sixty-sixth year.

(VII) Professor Winslow Upton, son of James and Sarah Sophia (Ropes) Upton, was born in Salem, Mass, Oct. 12, 1853. He was prepared for college in the Salem High School, and matriculated at Brown University in 1871. He was graduated at Brown with honors in 1875, and immediately thereafter entered the University of Cincinnati, where two years later he received the degree of Master of Arts. In 1877 he was appointed assistant in the astronomical observatory at Harvard, where he served until 1879; in that latter year he became assistant engineer in the United States Lake Survey at Detroit, where he remained until 1880. In 1881 he was appointed assistant professor and computer in the United States Signal Office. In 1884 he came to Brown University as Professor of Astronomy, which chair he held until his death. When the Ladd Observatory, gift of the late Governor H. W. Ladd, was built in 1891, he became its director, having supervised its building and equipment. At the time of its dedication the Ladd Observatory was considered one of the finest observatories for teaching purposes in the country. Its facilities have been used chiefly to aid in the instruction of the university, in the maintenance of a local time service, and in regular meterorological observations in co-operation with the United States Weather Bureau. During the early years of his connection with Brown University, Professor Upton taught classes in mathematics, meteorology and logic.

Professor Upton was connected with numerous important scientific parties. He was a member of the United States astronomical expeditions to observe the total eclipse at Denver, Colorado, in 1878, and at Caroline Island, in the Pacific in 1883. He also observed the solar eclipse of 1887 in Russia, that of 1889 in California, of 1900 in Fentress, Virginia, and during a sabbatical year, 1896-97, he was attached to the southern station of the observatory of Harvard College, at Arequipa, Peru. The year 1904-05 he spent in California, where for a time he was connected with the Solar Observatory of the Carnegie Institution, on Mount Wilson, near Pasadena.

A man of brilliant mentality, a facile and forceful writer, he made numerous contributions to astronomical literature. His work, however, was greatly interrupted and curtailed by the burden of his administrative duties. He was a member of many scientific societies, among them the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of which society he was a fellow, the American Philosophical Society, and the Deutche Meteorologische Gesellschaft. Professor Upton was secretary of the faculty of Brown University from 1884 until 1891, and was Dean of the University from 1900 to 1901. In 1906 his alma mater conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Science. Professor Upton was a member of the committee on organization to increase the university endowment, 1910-11, and for more than twenty years served on important administrative committees.

Professor Upton was the author of numerous astronomical and meteorological papers in the publications of the Cincinnati, Cambridge and Washington Observatories, and the United States Signal Service; also of Photometric observations, 1879; the Solar Eclipses of 1878, 1879; report on observations made on the expedition to Caroline Island to observe the total solar eclipse of May 6, 1883, 1884; an investigation of cyclonic phenomena in New England, 1887; meteorological observations during the solar eclipses, August 19, 1887, 1888; the storm of March 11, 1888; Star Atlas, 1897; he was the author of numerous other papers, and was a constant contributor of short articles to the 'Astronomische Nachrichten', to 'Zeitschrift fur Meteorologie', 'Siderial Messenger', 'Popular Astronomy, Science, American Meteorological Journal', 'Astronomical Journal', and other scientific publications. For over twenty years he wrote articles and letters on astronomical topics for the 'Providence Journal', and was editor of the astronomical part of the 'Providence Journal Almanac', from 1894 to 1910. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi societies, and of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

Unusual clarity and brilliancy of thought characterized all the writings and public utterances of Professor Upton. He possessed in a rare degree the scientific and analytic mind, but at the same time had the power to establish firmly the correlation between his beloved science and human affairs. He was essentially the student, and continued his researches throughout his life. As a teacher he was not only respected but loved. He was a deep lover of good music and was a musician of fine ability, director of a glee club while in college and church organist. During the latter years of his life he was director of music in the Church of the Redeemer in Providence. For many years Professor Upton was a well-known figure in the affairs of the Episcopal church in Rhode Island. At the time of his death he was senior warden of the Church of the Redeemer in Providence, a member of the standing committee of the diocese, of the cathedral corporation, and treasurer of the board of managers of diocesan missions.

Professor Upton married, Feb. 8, 1882, Cornelia Augusta Babcock, of Lebanon Springs, N. Y. They were the parents of two daughters, Eleanor Stuart and Margaret Frances Upton. Mrs. Upton survives her husband and resides at No. 30 Forest street, Providence.

Professor Upton died in Providence, Jan. 8, 1914. His death came as a personal bereavement to scores of friends and to the entire academic community of the University to which he had devoted so many years of his life. President Faunce, of Brown University, said of him:

'What struck me above all in Winslow Upton was the unusual clarity of his thought. Many a time I have seen him rise and heard him begin to speak at faculty and committee meetings and immediately things became clear and illuminated. For him confusion was inconceivable. For a long time the organization of this university will owe much to the clear, consistent thinking of Winslow Upton. For one year he was Dean, and I was brought into contact with him more than ever. But her nervous system was too delicately organized for the position and at the end of a year he wished to give it up. The burden of every man was his burden, the disappointments of others were his disappointments. The tenderness of his heart was something which only those who came into close touch with him can know. He had an appreciation for all the higher and finer things in life, and he was a leader in the Christian church.'

Professor Nathaniel F. Davis said on the occasion of Professor Upton's death:

'The University faculty loses one of its most efficient members. He was not only a well-known specialist in his chosen subject, but he was a particularly gifted teacher. I have many times advised students to elect astronomy in order to come under his personal influence. Valuable as has been his work as a teacher, it has been equalled, if not surpassed, by his work in connection with the standing and special committees of the faculty. No one has given more time and strength to work of this kind. A man singularly free from prejudices, he brought a sound judgment to the consideration of every question referred to him.'

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Lovecraft's Will (Wikisource)





Know All Men:

I, Howard P. Lovecraft of the city of Providence in the State of Rhode Island, being of sound mind and memory, make, execute and declare this instrument as my last will, hereby revoking any and all former wills by me at any time heretofore made.

First: I direct that my executor pay out of my estate all my just debts and funeral expenses.

Second: All the rest, residue and remainder of my property and estate, real, personal and mixed, however described and wherever situated, of which I die seized and possessed, or in or to which at the time of my decease I have any right, title or interest, I give, devise and bequeath to my mother Sarah S. Lovecraft – To Have and To Hold the same unto and to the use of herself and her heirs and assigns forever.

Third: In case my said mother should not be living at the time of my decase, I give, devise and bequeath said rest, residue and remainder of my property and estate absolutely and in fee simple, two thirds thereof to my aunt Lillie D. Clark, wife of Franklin C. Clark, of said Providence, and the remaining one third thereof to my aunt Annie E. Gamwell, wife of Edward F. Gamwell of the city of Cambridge in the State of Massachusetts, or in case either of my said aunts shall decease prior to my death without leaving any descendant living at the time of my death to take by representation such deceased's share in my residuary property and estate, I give, devise and bequeath such share to the other of them, or if she also shall have deceased prior to the time of my death, to the descendants of such other equally but per stirpes and not per capita.

Fourth: I hereby nominate, constitute and appoint my said mother Sarah S. Lovecraft sole executor of this my will, and if for any reason she should not service or continue to serve my said aunt Lillie D. Clark, and if for any reason neither my said mother nor my said aunt shall serve or continue to serve Albert A. Baker of said Providence as sole executor hereof, and I hereby request and direct any and all courts taking probate hereof not to require any of said persons to furnish any surety on any bond, or to file any inventory or to return any account of my estate as such executor.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal and declard this to be my last will, in the presence of three witnesses, at Providence, Rhode Island, this twelfth day of August, A.D., 1912.

Howard P. Lovecraft

Signed, executed and declared by the above named Howard P. Lovecraft as and for his last will, in the presence of us the undersigned, who present at the same time, at his request and in his presence and in the presence of each other, have hereunto set our names as attesting witnesses at Providence, Rhode Island, this twelfth day of August, A.D., 1912.

Addison P. Munroe

Chester P. Munroe

Albert A. Baker

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{Addison was father of Chester, his best friend. Addsion was also a member of the state legislature. Baker was the family attorney. - CP}

Friday, March 12, 2010

Scene near Providence Post Office (1912)

It would have been impossible for Lovecraft not to have walked past this scene, or a similar one. The Post Office was on his usual night walks, and a short distance from his 1912 home. It's highly probable that he dropped his post cards and correspondence off at midnight or later, and thus seen this very scene many, many times.



Imagine Lovecraft at 22 years old. You've read his letters and stories. Imagine what he thought. Imagine the sadness and the gulf between him and these children. Imagine what they thought of him! Two alien worlds passing in the night.

November 23, 1912. Providence, Rhode Island. "A midnight crap game in the street near the Post Office. One 12 years old, one 14. One had been shooting here a couple of hours."

The Other Side of Providence: Knight Street



November 1912. Providence, Rhode Island. "Girls 6, 9 and 11 years old, working on chain-bags {purses} in home of Mrs. Antonio Caruso, 132 Knight Street." Imaged from a glass negative taken by Lewis Wickes Hine.

The Other Side of Providence: Spruce Street



November 1912. Providence, Rhode Island. "Spruce Street. Tiny girl with big bag she is carrying home." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

The Other Side of Providence, Republican Street: 1912


More (shocking?) images of Lovecraft's Providence. Thanks Alban!

November 23, 1912. Providence, Rhode Island. "Housing conditions, rear of Republican Street." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

HPL Typescripts










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Seen in January on the Ebayeum

pages of H.P. Lovecraft typescript manuscript for the poems "To Mr. Hoag" and "The Rutted Toad", from the estate of Robert Barlow, then the estate of August Derleth. Two very early carbons, possibly even Lovecraft's own copies, of these two poems, dated 1916 & 1926. A rare piece of Lovecraftiana!

pages of H.P. Lovecraft typescript manuscript for the poems "October(fragment)" and "Zaman's Hill", "The Howler" & "The Garden's of Yin" on one page, along with a newspaper clipping of a HPL eulogy poem from 1916; from the estate of Robert Barlow, then the estate of August Derleth. Possibly even Lovecraft's own copies. A rare piece of Lovecraftiana!

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