The Black Swamp of Chepachet: Part 8

Chrispy has tried to be diligent to search out how Lovecraft and CM Eddy would have heard about the swamp, why it was interesting to them, and what might have compelled them to ride off in search of it.

CM Eddy certainly, many years later, used it in a story.

Lovecraft would have been interested in the antiquities and antiquarian nature of quaint Chepachet. But a swamp? It did not seem his style.

However, there is a clear character to HPL's manner when he met a new writer. He was very much into noblesse oblige, and may have seen in CM Eddy a person that not only who he would bond with, but someone who he could "train" and "teach".

There are references in HPL's letters that indicate he considered CM Eddy more impoverished than himself, a lesser writer, and yet they seemed to hit it off immediately - these two men who had nothing in common except a chance to enjoy "the weird story".

From their (apparently) meeting in August 1923, they went on several day trips, one of the last on 27 December 1923.

In a few short months, Lovecraft would be in New York, married.

... next ... Part 9: King Phillips War?