In all the mound of Lovecraft books I have, I found only one reference to George D Wilcox in Professor McInnis' article in Books at Brown. Apparently, this is the family physician of record until his death on 23 July 1897. He would have serviced all the Phillips including Howard and his father, Winfield, then institutionalized.
Here at least is the doctor's obituary.
Wilcox - in this city, very suddenly, 23d inst., Dr. George D. Wilcox,.
Services from his late residence, 18 Brown street, on Monday, 20th inst. at 12 o'clock. Relatives and friends are invited to attend. burial later, kindly omit flowers.
2 comments:
That is quite interesting. Is it possible that HPL got the name "Wilcox" ("The Call of Cthulhu") from this physician?
(But I suppose it could have been a common Providence name.)
It is reasonably common, though maybe not as common as a Tillinghast. The 1899 directory is online at Google books, and there is even a Wilcox Street. Still, there is that early and intimate connection with THIS Wilcox. It is interesting to note that G. Wilcox passed before the alleged ailments from violin playing, so it had to be a different physician one supposes that misdiagnosed HPL and wanted to do surgery. Maybe this new doctor wasn't a homeopathic doctor?
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