Lovecraft - in Love !

And I don't mean with Sonia. This is one of my favorite stories.

We start with the formidable An HPLovecraft Encyclopedia (Joshi and Schultz, isbn 0313375787) ...

"Sully, Helen V- (1904-1997), friend Of Clark Ashton Smith (daughter of Genevieve Sully, a married woman with whom Smith carried on a longtime affair) and correspondent of HPL ... visited HPL early July 1933; HPL also took her to Newport, R.I.; Newburyport, Mass.; and elsewhere.

"HPL told her an impromptu ghost story one night in the churchyard Of St. John's Episcopal Church, frightening her so badly that she ran from the cemetery.

"After Providence, she went to New York, where HPL's associates were captivated by her (Frank Belknap Long and Donald Wandrei threatened to fight a duel over her).

She began corresponding with HPL after her return to California. Some of HPL's replies suggest that Sully was despondent, perhaps even suicidal. He attempted to cheer her up by telling her his own situation was much worse but that he nevertheless found enough interest in life to continue.

"HPL's biographer L. Sprague de Camp interpreted these remarks as displaying HPL's own depressive and suicidal tendencies at the time, but such an interpretation seems wide of the mark."

Ah, Mr. Joshi and Mr. deCamp sapr once again! So we look at HP Lovecraft: A Biography, (L Sprague de Camp isbn1566199948) ...

"After Price and Cook came Morton for a brief stopover, and then a friend of Clark Ashton Smith, a very attractive young woman named Helen V. Sully, who was studying music.

"Helen Sully had met the Gang in New York, and the Longs drove her to Providence. To Smith, Lovecraft wrote of the "devastating havoc" she had created among them. To her he wrote later, apologizing for the unwelcome amorous propositions that some of them had made to her. He got her quarters in the nearby boarding house and took her on sight-seeing tours. He insisted on paying for everything, even the boarding-house bill. After an expedition to Newport:

'That night, after dinner, he took me to a graveyard associated with Poe.... It was dark, and he began to tell me strange, weird stories in a sepulchral tone and, despite the fact that I am a very matter-of-fact person, something about his manner, the darkness, and a sort of eerie light that seemed to hover over the gravestones got me so wrought up that I began to run out of the cemetery with rim close at my heels, with the one thought that I must get up to the street before he, or whatever it was, grabbed me. I reached a street lamp, trembling, panting, and almost in tears, and he had the strangest look on his face, almost of triumph. Nothing was said.'

"It would hardly seem to most single men that the way to entertain a pretty girl was to lure her to a graveyard at night and scare the wits out of her. But Lovecraft was a highly original character."

Well, what hath Mr. Lovecraft to say for himself?

[The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei p. 327 isbn 1892389495]
[letter # 1981 [HPL and Frank Belknap Long to Donald A Wandrei]
[Postmarked Onset, NIA, 25 July 1933]

Hail, Melmoth! Old M. III {Melmosth is a wanderer, after Wandrei's frequent habit of hitchhiking} manages to keep up his migratory reputation despite service at home as an amateur nurse. Spending 2-1/2days with the Soviet expedition which is investigating the economic & revolutionary potentialities of Onset.

Your late guest-the High-Priestess of Tsathoggua - departed safely for Gloucester Friday despite the ghouls of the hidden churchyard & the cuisine at Jake's.

My aunt's plaster cast was reduced in area Friday night, & she may be up on crutches by the end of this week.

I expect Mortonius (whom you have so basely neglected!) on the ancient hill shortly-about August 1-st. Wish you could come along & renew the antient {sic}triad of 1927!

May Yog- Sothoth bless thee-

Yr obt Grandsire Melmoth III

Greetings, 0 Donaldus! Parting from our gracious guest was bitter- sweet sorrow. She is a divine person, really. I shall drop in for a chat when I return Regards, Belknap

Front.- The Old Discarded Mill, Cape Cod, Mass.

{footnotes, fyi...}

1. See Helen V. Sully, "Memories of Lovecraft: II": "After dinner, he took me into a graveyard associated with Poe… it was dark, and he began to tell me strange, weird stories in a sepulchral tone and, despite the fact that I am a very matter-of-fact person, something about his manner, the darkness, and a sort of eerie light that seemed to hover over the gravestones got me so wrought up that I began to run out of the cemetery with him close at my heels, with the one thought that I must get up to the street before he, or whatever it was, grabbed me. I reached a street lamp, trembling, panting, and almost in tears, and he had the strangest look on his face, almost of triumph. Nothing was said." (Lovecraft Remembered, p. 278.)

2. HPLs aunt Annie Gamwell broke her ankle shortly after taking up residence at 66 College Street.

Mr Lovecraft then says ...

[August 19, 1933 to Wandrei]

…I liked Miss Sully exceedingly – as, evidently, did all the several hosts along her route. She certainly does combine intelligence & prepossessing charms to a remarkable degree - & she appeared to appreciate the venerable antiquities of Providence and Newport more than is common with members of her iconoclastic generation.

[Nov 21, 1934, Wandrei and Sully to HPL from Auburn, CA]

Dear HPL – This is where my charming young hostess daily disappears- you must eventually include Auburn in your own Neo-Classical Odysseys. These ancient hills hold mysteries & riddles not lightly to be spoken of, and never to be fathomed. And the climate is of the magnificent variety which sedulously avoids dropping below the freezing point. Now westward and southward my wanderings continue.

Melmoth II.

But he's coming back again next week, which he neglects to mention. The California climate has been exceedinfly temperamental and barely avoids the freezing point. We all wish you were here also.

HVS.