Ouch! A Burned Finger.

[19 November 1928 HPL to Wandrei]

If this letter is totally illegible, ascribe it to a burn on my finger resulting from an attempt to do my own ironing.

1928: The "Gang" Well Represented

WEIRD TALES Vol. 12 #5 November 1928

Cover art by C. C. Senf. Interior art by Hugh Rankin.

Interior story contents courtesy of Miskatonic University Library

Serials/Complete Novels:
The Werewolf's Daughter [Part 2 of 3]..........H. Warner Munn Novellas
The Last Test..........Adolphe de Castro and H. P. Lovecraft

Novelettes:
The Flying Death..........Bruce Wallis
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow..........Washington Irving
The Polar Doom..........Edmond Hamilton

Short Stories:
The Cave of Spiders..........William R. Hickey
Flame of the Ages..........Robert Choate Albright
The Head From Ecuador..........Robert Lee Heiser
The Mystery in Acatlan..........Rachael Marshall and Maverick Terrell
The Tenant at Number Seven..........August Derleth
The Tryst in the Tomb..........M. J. Cain

Essays/Articles:
Folks Used to Believe:
The Fairy Court..........Alvin F. Harlow

Poems:
The Creatures..........Donald Wandrei
Haunted..........Earl W. Scott
Satan and Lilith..........George Sterling

Lovecraft Goes to a Museum

[23 November 1928 to Wandrei]

I hope to get to Boston next week to see the new wing of decorative arts at the museum. … From all accounts, it will make Metropolitan’s American wing a back number.

Compare:
[23 November 1928 to Derleth]

Sometime soon I am going to see the new wing of the art museum there. It is devoted to architectural interiors from 1493 to 1801, & is said to be so representative that it makes the Metropolitain Museum’s American wing retreat as a back number. This is right in my line, & with the museum so near at hand (an hour by train – two by bus) I mean to take advantage of it. It opened yesterday.

{Mr. Joshi notes in the Derleth letter collection that HPL did not go to the museum until January 1929. Those details Chrispy will post shortly.}

_____

[4 January 1929 from HPL and Samuel Loveman to Wandrei]

Ave, young Melmoth! {HPL’s affectionate nickname for the often hitchhiking Wandrei – CP} Behold the Convention! We’ve been treading the ground which you’ll recall from a year & a half a go - & glimpsed the Excellent Lunch (opposite the Y) * from a car window this afternoon.

{The Y is the YMCA, in those days an inexpensive hotel for some travelers. The Excellent Lunch is said by Mr. Joshi to possibly be represented by the Ideal Lunch in HPL’s story “The Shadow Over Inssmouth”. – CP}

[16 January 1929 to Wandrei]

I stayed in Boston a day longer that Loveman …

[12 January 1929 to Derleth]

Last week I had a pleasant & unexpected visit from my poetic friend Samuel Loveman, & was able to shew him the quaintness & antiquities of my beloved Providence for the first time.

I then accompanied him to Boston, & introduced him to the historic reliques of that ancient metropolis.

P.S. I enclose a few postcards of last week’s trip.

A Visit by Munn

Lovecraft’s letters indicate that he must have had a running diary of events since he often added identical, or even verbatim, comments about his day to day activities and notable events in his life. Considering the vast correspondence he conducted from his earliest days of letter writing, it must have become a defacto process to make sure he covered all pertinent details with his colleagues and fans.

It’s also interesting to see the hierarchy of his revelations. To casual fans, he released very limited details and used formal language in the address. To people he knew well, he became more intimate, and often began to call them by affectionate nicknames.

Here, we examine in detail the visit of H. Warner Munn to Providence.

Munn’s Visit:

[31 July 1928 to Wandrei]

I trust Munn has by this time looked you up. He was here yesterday, & we had a very pleasant session – went down to Eddy’s Bookstore & nosed around until he found an old story by Camille Flammarion in some 1893 Cosmopolitans. … Regards to Munn if you see him.

Now compare to:
[4 August 1928 to Derleth]

I had a call Monday from young H. Warner Munn of Athol, our fellow contributor to W.T. {Weird Tales – CP} He was passing through Providence in the course of a motor trip, & stopped most of the day. … Incidentally, when Munn and I were in Eddy’s bookshop Monday, (this Eddy is uncle of the C. M. Eddy, Jr who writes for W.T.). We met the venerable Joseph Lewis French, editor of the anthology “Ghosts, Grim and Gentle”. He is a quaint, peppery-voiced old codger of 70.

Note that by now, HPL was intimate with Wandrei, but was still explaining background to Derleth.

The information continues:
[31 July 1928 to Wandrei]

Late in the afternoon I undertook to guide Munn on his way to NY,& rode with him as far as East Greenwich, coming back by omnibus & trolley.

Now compare to:
[4 August 1928 to Derleth]

In the late afternoon I piloted him for about 20 miles of his course toward New York, leaving him at the quaint village of East Greenwich & coming back by trolley. … In N.Y. he will look up Wandrei (who is rooming only 2 blocks from my old place at 169 Clinton St., scene of “The Horror at Red Hook”.)

This shows the care HPL takes with each correspondent to make that correspondent feel intimate with Lovecraft to the degree that decorum and familiarity to that point in time allowed. Wandrei was familiar with the Providence environment, while Derleth was still being taught by HPL. Yet, the same information was basically conveyed.

Lovecraft had a host of correspondents, and unfortunately, Chrispy could not find other letters of this particular matter and date to correlate, but it seems reasonable to conclude that the same essential information was conveyed to each correspondent and was based on notes that HPL constantly kept.

The Eddy’s Bookstore is long gone, and yet Chrispy was able to locate where it might have been. In one of my next posts, I’ll attempt to show the research on this.

1928 "THE SHADOWY THING"

_____

H.B. DRAKE. THE SHADOWY THING. New York: Macy-Masius, The Vanguard Press, 1928. (First American edition) Octavo, original gray cloth stamped in reddish color. 329 pp. Issued in the United Kingdom under the title The Remedy (1925).

Lovecraft is said to have read and digested this book as prior to writing 'The Thing on the Doorstep' and 'The Shadow Out of Time'.

Providence 28 November 1928

It's highly unlikely that HPL attended this play, but it shows the cultural milieu.

"The Rabbit's Foot (A Musical Extravaganza)" // Lyrics by Grace Sherwood, music by Ruth Tripp

Performed at the Providence Plantations Club, November 28 and 29, 1932

Eighteen songs in the show. The show's plot involved pirates, bootleggers, and Russian dancers. The theme song, "Rabbit's Foot Blues," was written for a female character named Honey Dew Melon Jones, a racial caricature in the minstrel tradition.

Gertrude Pridgett was born into a showbiz family that performed in minstrel shows. She first appeared onstage in 1900, singing and dancing in minstrel and vaudeville stage revues. In 1902 she married the song and dance man William "Pa" Rainey and from then on became known as Ma Rainey. The couple formed a song and dance act that included Blues and popular songs. They toured the country, but primarily the South and became a popular attraction as part of Tolliver's Circus, The Musical Extravaganza and The Rabbit Foot Minstrels

Signed by Derleth, Lovecraft, and Asbury

The seller states (costermongerstu): Here is a Lovecraft item. It is a library copy of the 1st edition of this excellent horror anthology. OKAY, why would I list at very worn library book at $2500??? Well, the major reason is its being one of only two collections I have seen that contain a Lovecraft story and having been SIGNED by Lovecraft. The second reason is that it is the ONLY book I have ever seen containing tales by Derleth and HPL and being SIGNED by both. (I have been a very serious Lovecraft collector for over 40 years! )And, as an added extra, it is also SIGNED by its editor, Herbert Asbury! And if this book could speak, what a tale it would tell. Remember this is 1928, and it was signed by all three of these gentlemen in a nine-day journey from New York to Providence to Sauk City. HOW did it end up in a circulating library if the owner had consideredd it so important? We will never know. ANYWAY, other then the worn and torn covers, the internal pages are good-VG.

A Day in the Life of Lovecraft: 13 July 1928

To Donald Wandrei ... Have found Annapolis a second Marblehead! I gasp with reverence in the presence of surviving antiquity! Shakily thine: Pappos Nekrophilos.

This was written on a postcard stating "The Chase Mansion, Annapolis, Md." I found an image that corresonds to that which Lovecraft held. :) I've also included a vintage image of Annapolis circa 1920's. Is this ocean scene what made Lovecraft to dream?

A Day in the Life of Lovecraft: 12 July 1928

To Donald Wandrei ... Have just been to the grave of Edgar Allan Poe, in Westminster Presbyterian Churchyard. It is at once a melancholy & inspiring spot - I feel like writing verse about it. This afternoon I am going to Annapolis, & tonight I reach Washington. Am nearly broke ...

The post card he wrote upon was "Mansion House, Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland". Here are two other images of the place on other vintage postcards. Notice that it was once a zoological garden with brahmin cattle and camels. I'd hazard a guess that the more pristine image is what greeted HPL in 1928.

A Day in the Life of Lovecraft: 11 July 1928

To Donald Wandrei ... Am doing Philadelphia, & will melmoth it onward to Baltimore this afternoon. You can't tell me that antiquarian travel isn't better than authorship!

The image is a vinteage 1928 Philadelpia tour map.

A Day in the Life of HPL: 7 July 1928

To Donald Wandrei: ... Visited a week in North Wilbraham, & am now working north through Springfield, Holyoke, Northampton, & Greenfield for the Mohawk Trail & Albany.

The postcard is a (canceled in 1921) image of the rail road station in North Wilbraham.

Lovecraft Autograph

{This one is just an envelpe, but anything with HPL's signature is interesting. It helps compare handwriting, and strengthens his timeline of who he wrote to, and when.}

The seller's notes:
His signature as part of the return address on a postal cover postmarked at Providence, Rhode Island, Jul 27, 1928. Certificate of Authenticity from Pages of History provides a lifetime guarantee of authenticity. We are full time autograph and document dealers registered with the UACC (#036), and members of the Manuscript Society.

Original Limited Print of The Shunned House (1928, 1961)

Lovecraft, H[oward] P[hillips]. THE SHUNNED HOUSE. Athol, Mass.: Published by Paul Cook The Recluse Press, 1928. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-58 [59] [60: blank], unbound sheets. First edition. Lovecraft's first book of fiction. 300 copies were printed but the book was not published. A few copies were circulated among members of the tiny Lovecraft circle prior to August Derleth's acquisition of approximately 150 useable sets of sheets from Robert Barlow, Lovecraft's literary executor. Although the original 1928 Cook copyright statement is not canceled with an Arkham House copyright label, this is probably one of about fifty sets of sheets Derleth distributed prior to 1961 before 100 were bound in the black cloth uniform with other Arkham House bindings. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1037. Joshi I-A-5. Top and bottom edges trimmed, fore-edges untrimmed, sheets glued along spine edges. This copy was prepared for binding by Barlow and tiny stab holes near the spine edge indicate that this was perhaps one of the handful of copies Barlow bound in paper covers, now removed. The title leaf is foxed and there are tiny marginal stains to fore-edge margins of first two leaves, otherwise this is a nice copy. (#110361) Price: $6,500.00

1928: The Shunned House 1st Edition (1952 Arkham House)

For only $13,500 !!

THE SHUNNED HOUSE
By H.P. Lovecraft
Athol, Massachusetts W. Paul Cook - Recluse Press 1928.
First Edition of the Authors First Book.
Of the first edition of 300 sets of sheets printed, the book was not issued during Lovecrafts lifetime and a number of unbound sheets were damaged and unused, this is one of 50 sets of folded unbound sheets that Arkham House started selling in circa 1952 with an Arkham House copyright notice affixed to the copyright page.
Enclosed in a custom full morocco clamshell box.
A cornerstone Lovecraft piece!