Goodenough, Cook, Lovecraft Postcard of 21 August 1927

These items are in Ivan's collection from an auction some time back. It's not clear if these have been seen by other Lovecraftians, or not. The coupling of the postcard and Arkham image gives a nearly a three dimensional aura to us over 80 years later.

The seller said:
2 original postcards signed H.P. Lovecraft and initialed C.H.P.
These were found in a box of Postcards from Vermont.

Ivan told me, "I managed to purchase this postcard (postmarked 21 August 1927) autographed by W.P. Cook, Arthur H. Goodenough and H.P. Lovecraft. A real gem ... I found a photo of those 3 men taken on 21 August 1927 (The Arkham Sampler, Volume II, number 4, Special Photograph Issue-II: Howard Phillips Lovecraft and his friends & relatives, The Strange Company 1985). ... imagine, a photo taken practically on the same day this card was written, signed by those 3 men."

It's wonderful Ivan is sharing these images with us !

_____



Above, is of interest to "Fossil" and amateur journalism lovers. I asked Dave Goudsward his impressions:

Ivan is quite correct about Kipling. He only lived in Vermont from 1892-1896 and Naulakha was in Dummerston.

"The Fossil" was a publication of National Amateur Press Association, a subset of the older group of amateurs as a historical resource for the amateur press movement. Tilden was a long time member and past president of the Fossils and had been a force to be reckoned with during the formative years of the NAPA.

Lovecraft did visit Arthur Goodenough and Vrest Orton in Vermont in 1927. I would assume Goodenough is the Laureate - other postcards from HPL tend to have the signature of the person he was visiting. Cook of course, would have been the one who drove.

Tilden worked for Labor Department, so he may have been having NAPA submissions sent to him at work.





The seller states the text reads:

The full text (at least what I make of it) reads:
'Memorable amateur meeting! This is the Vermont Laureate's first sight of an amateur in person since Cook blazed the trail. Also my first sight of Vermont-exquisite country! Am stopping with Cook in Athol. Regards-HPLovecraft. Arthur H Goodenough. W.P. Cook.'

Rue Morgue August 2007 Issue: Brattleboro, Vt

In the August 20o7 issue of Rue Morgue, Nick Mamatas tells of his October 2006 trip to Brattleboro, Vermont. In "Warning; Travelogue of Terror: Lovecraft's Brattleboro" he describes the town as virtually unchanged in nearly 80 years. The late Alan Eames led a group of legend trippers down Goodenough Road to the semi-secret location of Goodenough Farm, the inspiration of Akeley's Farm in The Whisperer in the Darkness. Mamatas describes the town as still only about 8 blocks long embedded in the hills and forests of Vermont.

He adds two other bits of lore. Sean Branney plans a film in Brattleboro of The Whisperer in the Dark soon. Lovecraft fan and comic artist Steve Bissett lives not far away in Marlboro, Vermont.

So Brattleboro is still a legendary and eerie place!

(If you get a copy, the story is on pp. 66,67)

Wikipedia reports: Nick Mamatas' first full-length novel, Move Under Ground (Night Shade Books, 2004/Prime Books, 2006), combined the Beat style of Kerouac with the cosmic horror of HPL's Cthulhu Mythos. This novel was nominated for both the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel and the International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel in 2005, and made the Locus Magazine Recommended Reading List for books published in 2004. In early 2007 he decided to distribute it online for free under a Creative Commons license.