Interlude

Well a month into 2009, and the worst economic disaster since Lovecraft was alive. Do you feel like him yet?

I sometimes wonder and paraphase the gospels: If all that Lovecraft ever did was written down would the world contain the books?

Collecting Lovecraft. Folks, if someone bought everything that I post, even Bill Gates would be broke. I think massive accumulations can't be done anymore, though I know many who are doing their frugal best to try in these harsh times. Bless them. Still, who few have the resources, and the space? Praise Gerry de la Ree, Roy Squires, August Derleth, Sam Moskowitz, Robert Weinberg, and unnamed others who've tried over the decades, and mostly succeeded.

I feel guilty getting what I do buy. Paper history is fragile and irreplaceable. An awesome responsibility to genrations to come.

Of course, e-media is only good ten years, so I sit back and think that one day google will be cashless, and all the years of blogger work I've done will go **poof**. Eh, easy come, easy go. However, some of YOU had better be copying from the blog, and saving this stuff, too, on your thumbdrives. PLEASE!

As we go into the next month, I think I have just enough energy left to make it to 2000 posts. Keep good thoughts for Lovecraft's memory, and stay tuned to see if I make it to #2000.

-Chrispy

Lovecraftian, Rafe McGregor, writes new book!

The Architect of Murder

Twenty thousand war dead, the will of the wealthiest man in the Empire, the coronation of Edward VII, and a hero with post traumatic stress disorder…Murder and mayhem on the mean streets of 1902 Westminster.

Major Alec Marshall VC, newly back in London , is enlisted to make inquiries into the will of the late Cecil John Rhodes, the wealthiest man in the British Empire . That same night one of the witnesses to the will, Eric Lowenstein, is found beaten to death in a seedy boarding house, where he was lodging under a false name. As London prepares for King Edward VII’s coronation, Marshall discovers that Lowenstein harboured a deadly secret concerning not only the vast fortune Rhodes amassed, but the very future of the Empire. Marshall ’s investigation takes him into the dark heart of a flawed genius, and sets him on a personal journey that will change his life forever.

Rafe McGregor

www.rafemcgregor.co.uk

W Paul Cook Note Surfaces (1944)

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Description:

"There are no more Lovecraft Memorials left" - W. PAUL COOK to F(ranklin) Lee Baldwin

W. Paul Cook was one of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's greatest friends and earliest champions; he also printed HPL's stillborn first book "The Shunned House". The death of Cook's wife and not long after, Lovecraft, threw Cook into a severe depression. Soon after Cook took a job with Walter J. Coates and his Driftwind Press just to try to right himself. Cook printed his recollections in 1941 in his masterpiece "H. P. Lovecraft: In Memoriam" , limited to only 80 copies. F. Lee Baldwin (a big name fan and "Acolyte" contributor) corresponded with Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and others, and built a large Lovecraft collection during his long life, he wrote to Cook requesting a copy of his booklet. Unfortunately there were no copies remaining.

Wonderful historical and associational item here! A fine sampling of W. Paul Cook's handwriting.

Lovecraft would love to see this

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The story I'd like to read:

119 year old Lovecraft, now world's oldest living man, sees spectacular eclipse.

Onboard a cruise ship, surrounded by friends, the still spry Lovecraft peered through the special telescope at the haloed sun. He stated, "Quite a spectacle despite the fishy odor coming from the sea. Reminds me of those days long ago when I'd write about eldritch gods eating our star, and black fathomless creatures erupting from beneath the waves."

_____

However, here is the more prosaic story...


Ring of fire: Indian Ocean to see solar eclipse
Fri Jan 23, 9:58 am ET

PARIS (AFP) – A few lucky people in the Indian Ocean will be treated to a rare event on Monday when an annular solar eclipse will transform the Sun into a dark disc with a blazing ring-shaped corona around its rim.

In solar eclipses, the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow on the terrestrial surface. In an annular eclipse, a tiny shift in distance that results from celestial mechanics means the Moon does not completely cover the Sun's face, as it does in a total eclipse.

Instead, for those directly under the alignment, the Moon covers most of the Sun's surface, and a ring-like crown of solar light blazes from the edge of the disk.

For those watching from the fringe of the track, the Sun is partially obscured, as if a bite has been taken out of it.

According to veteran NASA eclipse-watcher Fred Espenak, the total eclipse track will run from west to east on Monday from 0606 GMT to 0952 GMT.

It will traverse the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia before petering out just short of Mindanao.

The Goat of a Thousand Young?

I have an active imagination, but folks, I can't make this stuff up.
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Newspaper claims suspect transformed into a goat
Fri Jan 23, 6:07 pm ET

LAGOS, Nigeria – One of Nigeria's biggest daily newspapers reported that police implicated a goat in an attempted automobile theft. In a front-page article on Friday, the Vanguard newspaper said that two men tried to steal a Mazda car two days earlier in Kwara State, with one suspect transforming himself into a goat as vigilantes cornered him.

The paper quoted police spokesman Tunde Mohammed as saying that while one suspect escaped, the other transformed into a goat as he was about to be apprehended.

The newspaper reported that police paraded the goat before journalists, and published a picture of the animal.

Police in the state couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Belief in black magic is widespread in Nigeria, particularly in far-flung rural areas.

Lovecraft's Legacy in 1941

Derleth, again, working hard to place a notable reference to Lovecraft everywhere he could.


FMZ Digest #1.1 (February-March 1941)
Edited by Arthur Louis Joquel II
12 pages
Contents:
* "A Wreath for Lovecraft," August Derleth
* "Future of Science Fiction," Clifford Simak
* "Wells of Wisdon" [H.G. Wells] & "Adumb Linx Meets Aunty Science" Forrest J Ackerman
* "Notes on Devil Worship," Robert A.W. Lowndes
* "Science Fiction & Dictatorship," J. Harvey Haggard
* "Witch Wine on the World," Lou Goldstone
* "Dialectics Versus Entropy," Bowen Conway
* "The Shock Supreme," Eustance C. Bildgewater
* plus Bob Tucker, Milt Rothman, D.R. Smith, Fred W. Fischer, Joquel, et al.
* and some art

New York Department Stores (1924)

Imagine Sonia going to these enormous stores!

New York 1924 I

HPL on Dickens and Melville

On this day, 25 January...

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In Essential Solitude: 1926-1931 we read [HPL to Derleth} 25 Jan 1927:

I read Dickens in youth, but could never like him on account of his grotesque sentimentality. ... "Moby Dick" I respected more than I enjoyed, & whom I must know better some day.

Lovecraftiana Surfaces I

Over the next several days I'll do my best to post e-images of the items below.
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LOT of Scarce H.P. LOVECRAFT Ephemera - No Reserve!!



LOT INCLUDES:

March, 1944 "Books At Brown: Friends of the Library of Brown University: Providence, R.I." Volume One, No. Three. Four pages long. Features "The Haunter of the Dark: Some Notes On Howard Phillips Lovecraft".

February 1, 1981 "Sunday Journal Magazine" clipping titled "It's A Labor of Lovecraft". Article talks about Marc Michaud, a student at Brown University and the man behind Necronomicon Press, which "is devoted solely to the uncollected works of, and stories about, H.P. Lovecraft." In addition to this original article clipping, an extra photocopy is included.

SIGNED letter from Marc A. Michaud, typed on official Necronomicon Press stationary. Addressed to Mrs. Louttit, written on March 21, 1981. Letter has faint crease marks, from having once been folded. In addition to this original letter, an extra photocopy is included.

Undated "Necronomicon Notes" Volume One, Number Three. Features a copy of a postcard from Lovecraft addressed to Clark Ashton Smith, written on October 10, 1933 (previously never published). Also includes a list of in print titles at that time from Necronomicon Press, updates on various publications by or about Lovecraft, etc. Notes have been folded in half.

January, 1962 "Brown University Library Staff Bulletin" Volume 23, Number 3. Bulletin is 8 pages long. Features "Special Collections III: The Howard Phillips Lovecraft Collection".

December 26, 1943 newspaper clipping from "The Providence Sunday Journal". Clipping features an article titled "The Case of Howard Phillips Lovecraft of Providence, R.I. - Recluse, Scholar and Gentleman, As a Writer He Was a Master of the Macabre Tale". Newspaper clipping has been neatly folded.

Small newspaper clipping featuring a letter to the editor from Mrs. Clifford M. Eddy, regarding Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Clipping has a few small chips towards the bottom, though text remains unaffected.

Various print outs from the internet referencing Lovecraft.

All of these items were previously a part of William Easton Loutitt's private library. Loutitt was a noted collector and the official archivist for the John Hay Library at Brown University from the 1950's through the 70's.

Rock Group Tribute to HPL:

Frostmoon Eclipse Streams Lovecraft Themed Songs Online
posted Jan 11, 2009 at 3:28 PM by xFiruath.

The three songs that black metal act Frostmoon Eclipse contributed to the H.P. Lovecraft Series will be available for streaming on the band's MySpace page until the end of January.

Released on God Is Myth Records at the end of 2008, FROSTMOON ECLIPSE’s “I Am Providence” is Volume VI of the series dedicated to the writer H.P. Lovecraft. ...
Frostmoon Eclipse issued the following statement about the songs:

"The band are all fans of Lovecraft, and we found the idea behind the series particularly interesting to work on. Two of the tracks, “In The Vault” and “The Thing On The Doorstep” were inspired by Lovecraft stories and the idea that people could actually listen to them whilst reading the stories is fascinating. The final track “Providence, 1937-03-15” is our tribute to this extraordinary writer who died much too soon."

Shades of Yuggoth!

Clyde Tombaugh first photographed the tiny ex-planet on today's date (23 Jan) in 1930.

Lovecraft on the Occult & God

On this day, 23 January 1931, HPL wrote to Lovecraft in part: As for the "occult" - I don't see any reason the change my views concerning the rlative probablility of explanations of reported phenomenoa. ... I have had thousands of impressions of unreal phenomena - false memories ... have given the careful study - almost invariably tracking down the real sources of the impressions ... I have likewise accomplished similar tracings of the bizarre impressions of others ... as for "God" ... absolutely nothing indicates such a thing.

An English Teacher Reads The Outsider

Derleth writes to Lovecraft (on this day) 22 January 1927:

... my English instructor without comment returned {the Outsider} remarking that she thought it to be the best approach to Poe that she has seen.

Causerie (1936) and L'Alouette

Causerie [unnumbered] (February 1936)
Edited by E.A. Edkins
14 pages
Contents:
* H.P. Lovecraft's poem "Continuity"
* short review of Lovecraft's The Cats of Ulthar, pulished by R.H. Barlow's Dragon Fly Press (compares HPL to Oscar Wilde)
* 3-page review of Frank Belknap Long's The Goblin Tower, also published by Dragon Fly Press (some of the text for this publication was hand-set by Lovecraft)
* short article on Hyman Bradofsky
* additional reviews and articles
_____

L'Alouette: A Magazine of Verse #1.1 (January 1924)
Edited by Edith Miniter, Howard P. Lovecraft, W. Paul Cook, et al.
40 pages
Contents:
* 2-page review of Clark Ashton Smith's Ebony and Crystal written by H.P. Lovecraft
* full-page ad for The Crafton Service Bureau (Lovecraft & Morton)
* 2-page poem by Samuel Loveman
* poem by Arthur Henry Goodenough
* poems by Nelson Glazier Morton, Jennie E.T. Dowe, Michael White, Ada Borden Stevens, Bertha Grant-Avery, Mary Morton Zeigler, Edna Hyne, Edith Miniter
* additional reviews, articles and ads

Lovecraft in Bizarre (1941)

Bizarre [formerly Scienti-Snaps] #4.1 (January 1941)
Edited by Jack Chapman Miske & Walter E. Marconette
22 pages
Contents:
* H.P. Lovecraft, "The Thing in the Moonlight" (fiction)
* A. Merritt, "The Dwellers in the Mirage" (fiction)
* Earl Singleton, "On H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Festival'" (verse)
* cover art, interior art, and article (autobiography) by Hannes Bok
* articles by John W. Campbell Jr., E.E. (Doc) Smith, Forrest J. Ackerman, Harry Warner Jr, Walter E. Marconette, J. Chapman Miske (as "The Star-Treader")
* 1/2-page ad for Lovecraft's The Outsider & Others (Arkham House)
* ads for Spaceways, Fantasy News, Le Zombie, Imagination, Stardust

Rare 1940 Spaceways Surfaces: HPL Verse

Spaceways #17 [3.1] (December 1940)
Edited by Harry Warner Jr.
41 pages
Contents:
* H.P. Lovecraft, "The Outpost" (verse)
* August Derleth, "A Little Knowledge" (fiction)
* Lester de Rey, "Fade-Out" (fiction)
* Eric Frank Russell, "Spirit of Fandom" (verse)
* back cover art by Hannes Bok
* articles by: Mary Gnaedinger (editor of Famous Fantastic Mysteries), John W. Campbell Jr., Seabury Quinn (on Wierd Tales), Amelia Reynolds Long ("Machines that Think"), Julius Schwartz (a biography of Farnsworth Wright and an article on The Time Traveller fanzine), Forrest J. Ackerman (on Stanley Weinbaum), Mort Weisinger, Leslie A. Croutch (on Thomas P. Kelley, an early Weird Tales author), Frederic Arnold Kummer Jr., J. Chapman Miske (as "The Star-Treader")
* letters from Bob (Wilson) Tucker, L. Sprague de Camp, A. Langley Searles, et al.
* provenance: Robert A.W. (Doc) Lowndes

1937: Virgil Finlay, Lovecraft & Barlow

Science-Fantasy Correspondent #1.3 (March-April 1937)
Edited by Corwin F. Stickney
44 pages
Contents:
* H.P. Lovecraft, "In A Sequestered Churchyard Where Once Poe Walked" (verse)
* R.H. Barlow, "St. John's Churchyard" (verse)
* cover art by Virgil Finlay
* fiction by Robert A. Madle and Philip Sutter
* articles by Oliver E. Saari, Jack E. Fry, and John C. Sidenius
* full-page ad for Weird Tales
* ads for The Phantagraph, and others

1979: Barlow Articlebarl

Journal of the H.P. Lovecraft Soceity #1.2 (October 1979)
Edited by Scott Connors
36 pages
Contents:
* cover photos of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Robert Howard Barlow
* comprised of one long article on R.H. Barlow by Kenneth Faig Jr., with many photos

Continuity Issues

Early 21st century interest in Lovecraft and his compatriots was still going strong.

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Continuity #10 (New Series) (February 2002)
Edited by Scott Connors
22 pages
Contents:
* 2 previously uncollected poems by Clark Ashton Smith
* "A Legend of Yesterday," Donald Wandrei (fiction)
* "The Sorcerer Returns," Richard L. Tierney (verse)
* "Dreams and Fairies," Algernon Blackwood (essay)
* Mencken on Blackwood
* essay on H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith by Robert Allerton Parker
* essays on Clark Ashton Smith by Scott Connors and John Franklin Engle (1917)
* review of John Long's Mountains of Madness by Peter Cannon
* letters from S.T. Joshi, Kenneth Faig, Ben Indick, and others
* art by Clark Ashton Smith

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Continuity #9 (New Series) (February 2001)
Edited by Scott Connors
28 pages
Contents:
* Clark Ashton Smith, "Brumal" & "Give Me Your Lips" (verse)
* a letter to Smith from H.P. Lovecraft
* "Recollections of Clark Ashton Smith," Sam Sackett
* "Clark Ashton Smith to George Sterling," Donald Sidney-Fryer
* Interviews of Clark Ashton Smith and E. Hoffmann Price by Henry Kuttner
* essays on Smith by Scott Connors and Robert Baker Elder
* additional contributions by Peter Cannon and Henry Dumont
* letters from S.T. Joshi, A. Langley Searles, Ben Indick, Alan Gullette, and others
* reviews of works by Lovecraft, Kipling, Chambers, Machen, and Miniter
* photos, art, and more...

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And from 1976 ...

Continuity #1.3 (May 1976)
Edited by Scott Connors
31 pages
Contents:
* "Appreciation," H.P. Lovecraft? [this poem was published in the June, 1921 issue of The Wolverine, under the byline "James Lawrence Crowley"; there is a 2-page explanation from Connors as to why he believes HPL was actually the author]
* "A History of Lovecraft's Charleston," H.C. Koenig (essay/letter)
* list of errata in L. Sprague de Camp's Lovecraft: A Bibliography
* "On the Science-Fantasy Correspondent," Willis Conover
* Lovecraft bibliographies by George Wetzel
* "Fantasy Writers on Film," J. Vernon Shea
* "Famous Lovecraftian Last Words," Fred C. Adams Jr.
* short letters from: Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg, Fritz Leiber, Frank Belknap Long, Robert Bloch, Glenn Lord, and others
* cover art by Joseph A. West
* book reviews...and more...

1925: The Gang's All Here

Lovecraft, Sonia, Klark Ashton, Long, Loveman, Goodenough, Kirk, Kleiner, Morton, Miniter!
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The United Amateur #24.1 (July 1925)
Edited by H.P. Lovecraft
12 pages

Contents:

* Clark Ashton Smith, "Apologia" (verse)

* substantial editorial by H.P. Lovecraft

* substantial column by Sonia H. Greene Lovecraft

* reviews of Clark Ashton Smith's Ebony and Crystal and The Star-Treader by Consul Hastings

* Frank Belknap Long, "A Man from Genoa" & "From the Catullian Fount" (verse)

* article on Samuel Loveman by Frank Belknap Long

* Samuel Loveman, "The One Who Found Pity" (fiction)

* Eugene B. Kuntz, "Through Tangle-paths" (verse)

* additional contributions by Arthur Henry Goodenough, Washington Van Dusen, Noah F. Whitaker

* news notes on George W. Kirk, Samuel Loveman, Rheinhart Kleiner, Lovecraft, James F. Morton, Frank Belknap Long, Sonia H. Lovecraft, Edith Miniter, and others

* This is a quality facsimile of the original. I do not know who produced this, but I purchased it from a dealer at WorldCon in 2004. A nice copy of this virtually unobtainable amateur press publication.

John B Michel article (1940)

Just three years after Lovecraft's death, his legacy was beginning to form. Chrispy has not seen the text of this. Michel (1917-1969) wrote under the pseudonyms: Alan Barrister, E.J. Bellen, Edward Bellen, Hugh Raymond, Louis Richard, Lawrence Woods. Donald A. Wollheim and John B Michel founded the Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA).

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The Science Fiction Fan #50 [5.2] (September 1940)
Edited by Olon F. Wiggins
20 pages

Contents:

* "Some Further Notes on Lovecraft," John B. Michel (6-page essay)

* "Vagabondia," Robert A.W. (Doc) Lowndes

* other contributions by R.D. Swisher, "The Scribe," et al.

* full-page ad for The Denvention

* plus art, notes, etc.

William Easton Loutitt: Lovecraftiana

This cache went in 4 bids at $22.49.




1968 "A Bibliographic Catalog of the Largest Collection Ever Offered For Sale of the Works of Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft" by Roy A. Squires.

H.P. Lovecraft article neatly taken from "The Esquire", January 1946: "The Ten-Cent Ivory Tower" by John Wilstach.

January, 1966 "Herald Review", featuring "H.P. Lovecraft: Genius of the Macabre" by Laurence Goldstein.

April, 1947 "Saturday Review of Literature". H.P. Lovecraft is mentioned in the article "The Phoenix Nest".

All of these items were previously a part of William Easton Loutitt's private library. Loutitt was a noted collector and the official archivist for the John Hay Library at Brown University from the 1950's through the 70's. A loose Loutitt's private library book plate can be found within the manilla envelope containing the article from "The Esquire".

All ephemera has been stored in protective manila envelopes, which are also labeled for convience.

1940 Lovecraftian Essay

The Science Fiction Fan #42 [4.6] (January 1940)
Edited by Olon F. Wiggins
20 pages

Contents:

* "What of H.P. Lovecraft," by "Autolycus" [pseudonym for?] (5-page essay)

* "The Role of Science Fiction," Jack Robins (8-page essay)

* "What Science Fiction Did For Me," Jack Gillespie (2-page essay)

* "The Ballardry of Science Fiction," John B. Michel (3-pages, including poems by Michel, one about Hugo Gernsback)

* plus art, and a few notes

New Chrispy Candy Horror Doodle

I honor of HPL NOT liking seafood ...

_____

NYC eatery grants freedom to lobster centenarian

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer Verena Dobnik, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jan 10, 2:05 am ET

NEW YORK – A 140-year-old lobster once destined for a dinner plate received the gift of life Friday from a Park Avenue seafood restaurant.

George, the 20-pound supercentenarian crustacean, was freed by City Crab and Seafood in New York City.

"We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace," said Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA spokesman Michael McGraw said the group asked City Crab to return George to the Atlantic Ocean after a diner saw him at the restaurant, where steamed Maine lobster sells for $27 per pound. George had been caught off Newfoundland, Canada and lived in the tank for about 10 days before his release.

Some scientists estimate lobsters can live to be more than 100 years old. PETA and the restaurant guessed George's age at about 140, using a rule of thumb based on the creature's weight.

He was to be released Saturday near Kennebunkport, Maine, in an area where lobster trapping is forbidden.

William Easton Loutitt cache of Lovecraftiana

Chrispy was unaware of these items. They were fleetingly published, and only a researcher at the time would have seized and stored them. 19 bids to $99.90. Wow. Chrispy lost this auction. :/

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LOT of Four Scarce H.P. LOVECRAFT Ephemera - No Reserve!!!

November 30, 1946 issue of "Publishers' Weekly" (Volume 150, No. 22). H.P. Lovecraft is mentioned in the article "News from the Rare Book Sellers" by Jacob Blanck.

December 22, 1945 issue of "Publishers' Weekly" (Volume 148, No. 25). Once again, H.P. Lovecraft is mentioned in the article "News from the Rare Book Sellers" by Jacob Blanck.

Catalogue No. 78 of Philip C. Duschnes' "Books". Within this catalogue, one will find a listing (No. 511) for "The Necronomicon" by Abdul Alhazred. Included with this catalogue are clippings of two newspaper articles from the 1940's examining the significance of Duschnes' listing of "The Necronomicon". Referring to the appearance of "The Necronomicon" in the catalogue, one article states: "Now that is enormously interesting because, so far as I am aware, everyone who has written about Lovecraft has assumed 'The Necromomicon' to be an ancient book of demonology which existed only in Lovecraft's mind." The second article states that "Lovecraft's editor, August Derleth, at once airmailed: 'This is an absolute FRAUD. HPL invented the Necronomicon himself, and he also invented the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred." This article then quotes a letter from Philip C. Duschnes himself: "Of course the whole thing is a hoax and the give-away is the fact that I mentioned a copy in the Universtity of Arkham, Mass., both the university and the town being non-existent in the State of Massachusetts. You asked why I did it and I do not know other than that I was tired of cataloguing real books for many years and I thought I would make up one for the fun of it." This hoax by Duschnes made his Catalogue No. 78 a collector's item in itself!! The page (and the opposite page) featuring listing No. 511 in the catalogue have faint yellow transfer marks from the two newspaper clippings, which were stored between the pages for many years (text is unaffected).

Full newspaper page featuring an article from "The Providence Sunday Journal" on August 22, 1948. Article is titled "Howard Phillips Lovecraft as His Wife Remembers Him" by Sonia H. Davis (The former Mrs. H.P. Lovecraft. Published here for the first time, the "Woman Who Knew Him Best Tells of Their Strange Marriage and Difficult Years". Features a picture of both Lovecraft and Davis. Also included with this newspaper page in a small envelope, is an additional small clipping of a newspaper article referencing Lovecraft.

All of these items were previously a part of William Easton Loutitt's private library.

Loutitt was a noted collector and the official archivist for the John Hay Library at Brown University from the 1950's through the 70's. Loutitt's private library book plate can be found on the inside rear cover of the two issues of "Publishers' Weekly".

All ephemera have been stored in protective manila envelopes, which are also labeled for convience.

Lovecraft Postcard Recently Surfaces

This one had 32 bids and went for $560.00. Whew! You have to pack the cash to come to a Lovecraft auction these days. Below are details.

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Description: "HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT" - to CLARK ASHTON SMITH - Oct, 1931

HPL was having problems with his ink flow as the ink contrast is uneven and sporadic; however the greeting is still quite readable. HPL makes mention of the warm weather (one of his favorite topics in cards & letters) "...glorious warm weather! Foliage more turned in Boston zone than in R.I." and his traveling with Cook and another friend, to a place south of Boston that he had never been to before.."A friend (who was this friend? tmv) took Cook & me to a splendid scenic region ...I had never seen before. He also notes discovering Newburyport (Innsmouth!), ..."Newburyport is about as quaint & ancient as any town I've ever seen." He congratulates Clark Ashton Smith upon his recent publication ... "read 'Beyond the Singing Flame' in W.S. Congratulations! " - approximately 100 words in Lovecraft's hand. Paul Cook had a bit better luck with the pen slightly uneven but still quite readable after seventy-five years and comments upon Smith's work "...I have been following your work closely since you broke into fiction, and only wish that for my own pleasure you had started sooner". Approximately seventy words in Cooks' hand with his signature.

Derleth Memorandum Surfaces

Recently seen for auction, a memorandum by DerlethNEW HORROR ANTHOLOGY proposal. It's said to include a Lovecraft story. (No images available).

The details: TYPED MANUSCRIPT (TMs). Single sheet of standard letter-size paper, written on recto only. Undated, circa 1955. Rough draft with pencil additions and amendments.

LW Currey editors write: Contents of proposed but never published untitled "new horror anthology." Derleth edited some twenty anthologies of supernatural horror, but this one does not seem to have made it off the drafting table. The contents do not correspond exactly, or even very closely, with any known anthology. Some titles are starred with asterisks, some crossed out in pencil, some checked off, some accompanied by word counts. The authors include usual suspects such as Lovecraft, M. R. James, Margery Lawrence, Shiel, Whitehead, Buchan, and others. Lesser lights include Elizabeth Enright and Hazel Heald. Not signed, but authorship known from provenance and from comparison to other documents known to have been typed on Derleth's typewriter. A curiosity and, yes, suitable for framing. Short edge nicks and tears mostly along right side, otherwise very good.

Provenance: The Derleth Papers.

Young Winslow Upton

Imagine Lovecraft at the side of Upton!

As a youth, himself, Upton was a wag:

The Observatory Pinnafore:

We work from morn til night // For computing is our duty;

We're faithful and polite. // And our record book's a beauty;

With Crelle and Gauss, Chauvenet and Peirce, // We labor hard all day;

We add, subtract, multiply and divide, // And we never have time to play.

The astronomer had seen a bootlegged copy of HMA Pinnafore in 1878 and snagged a copy of the score and wrote the parody next August (1879).

From:

When Computers Were Human By David Alan Grier

The book discusses portions of an unpublished 1880 document, and we find that fictional Upton is about to lose his place at Harvard, and is relegated to Providence at an inferior facility (previous to Ladd being built) the hobby telescope of an unnamed businessman - and therefore a tainted and unworthy facility. Legend has it that the Ladd was built because the up and coming - then famous - Upton would not stay at Brown without a prestigious and powerful scope. His (1880) Harvard boss, E C Pickering was tolerant and had women "computers" as well as men, and worked to have good living environment from all the mathematics and calculations that was being done.

Ladd Observatory

The historic landmark, today, above, and in yesteryear, below.

Here are four images of Ladd Observatory over the years. I like the contrast of 4 and 1. It shows the subtle changes in the tree to the left, and the road. By or just before 1914, the Ivy had nearly consumed the front entrance.

New Lovecraft Article (Tom Lera)

Remember the Darkness

by Thomas Lera


I don’t sleep as well as I used to. When I first began to wake up during the night, I would often worry about unfinished tasks, the work day ahead, relationship issues. However, gradually I came to relish the peaceful darkness, although it is sometimes disturbed by my upstairs neighbor doing the laundry at two in the morning. It has become my time to invent tales of mystery and adventure from dangling remnants of my daily life.

More:

http://www.southernliterarymessenger.com/0201/rememberthedarkness.htm

Professor Upton & Ladd Observatory (1899)

Lovecraft was but a lad of 8 years old when this article came out. May, 1899 issue of "New England Magazine."

Imagine meeting the eminent astronomer pictured above, and visiting a state of the art observatory of the likes of the Ladd. {It was opened in 1891}.

Oldest "Spider" Found

But most of the tales and impressions concerned a relatively late race, of a queer and intricate shape, resembling no life-form known to science, which had lived till only fifty million years before the advent of man. This, they indicated, was the greatest race of all because it alone had conquered the secret of time. - The Shadow Out of Time, HPL.
_____

23 December 2008

The species once described as the world's oldest spider is a more primitive version of the web-spinning modern spider, scientists have found.

Most of what the group initially found among fossil remains belonged to a group of extinct arachnids called trigonotarbids, but one bit seemed to have the modified hairs called spigots from which spider silk emerges, as well as the external, flexible appendages known as spinnerets that facilitate web-spinning.

That led the group to believe they were looking at the world's oldest known spider.

The process of identifying the fossilised spider parts started with solid rock that was dissolved in acid, leaving behind organic matter that was sifted through to determine which belong to animals or plants.

"They're all microscopic fragments. What you've got is a jigsaw puzzle, with half the pieces and no picture on the box lid," Professor Selden said.

"You don't know what it's going to be if you haven't got all the pieces, so having these additional pieces means it changed the idea of what it was."

The finding is important for evolutionary biologists trying to unravel the origin of spider silk.

To clean up the incomplete record of different species, the team has suggested a new order be instituted, containing the Attercopus and Permarachne species.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7795897.stm

1976 Fan-art Image

Details:
Cover art by Jeannie Corbin (Jean Corbin) is titled "The Dunwich Horror".
From the 'zine: Future Retrospective #8

Cliff Biggers & Susan Biggers (Editors)
Cliff Biggers & Susan Biggers, 1976.

Stapled Wraps. First Edition. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Lots of reviews including some batched together in "The H.P. Lovecraft Revival". Letters from Frank Belknap Long, L. Sprague de Camp, Harry Warner Jr., Michael Bishop, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Richard L. Tierney, others.

Colour Out of Space: 6 December 2008

The Colour Out of Space ranks as one of Chrispy's favortie Lovecraft stories. Lovecraft was also partial to it, I think because it brought back fond memories of his grandfather's tales of the west in Idaho and the SnakeRiver. It also features one of the strongest descriptions of chemistry - a rarity in his fiction, but a subject close to Lovecraft's heart (and mine!).

I've had conversation with some of you, and I've done a great deal of research and have yet to find a smoking "New England" sighting of a meteorite that fits the exact (1882) details. My favorite possibility was of Willamette Oregon published about 1904.



If you type in "meteor" in the search funcion {above} you'll find numerous other discussions of meteors and The Colour Out of Space.

_____
Dateline: Colorado.
Early Morning of 6 December 2008
100 times brighter than the moon.

... the Colorado skies played host to a dazzling fireball event. The meteor blasted through the atmosphere, detonated and outshone the Moon by 100 times. ... the Cloudbait Observatory (5 km north of the town of Guffey, CO) ... managed to capture an all-sky camera video of the early morning explosion.

The Colorado fireball comes shortly after a similar event over Canada on November 20-th, where over two dozen meteorite fragments have been recovered from agricultural land. We wait in anticipation to see if this huge Colorado fireball produced any similar fragments, but eyewitness accounts will be critical to aid such a search. ... All in all, North America is having a great meteor season with no lack of observers, eye witnesses and all-sky cameras. ... astronomer Chris Peterson describes the event: "In seven years of operation, this is the brightest fireball I've ever recorded. I estimate the terminal explosion at magnitude -18. ... Fireballs are defined as meteors that are brighter than the planet Venus. Saturday's fireball was probably caused by a rocky asteroid that was several meters across, said Steve Lee, curator of planetary science at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. ... "They're not entirely rare - it's probably several times a year somewhere on the globe," Lee said. "It's not something that happens every day." ...Fragments of the fireball, if anything survived the explosion 54 miles above the Earth, would have fallen between Pueblo and Penrose, Peterson estimates. Some pieces may have even landed on Fort Carson.

Happy New Year

From 1906
Lovecraft would have been 16.

{Promoting a business at Pine and Hay Streets, this is a New year's Ad Post Card. It pictures places places Lovecraft frequented all his life - local icons}