The Vermont Flood Really Happened !

The whole matter began, so far as I am concerned, with the historic and unprecedented Vermont floods of November 3, 1927. ... Of course many of the stray items mentioned other instances, but on analysis they all seemed to boil down to these three. In each case country folk reported seeing one or more very bizarre and disturbing objects in the surging waters that poured down from the unfrequented hills, and there was a widespread tendency to connect these sights with a primitive, half-forgotten cycle of whispered legend which old people resurrected for the occasion. - The Whisperer in Darkness *
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This is a real newspaper "clipping":

THE PORTSMOUTH HERALD, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1927.
(page 4)

Portsmouth, N. H., Saturday, November 5, 1927.

The Flood Horror

The flood horror, which without warning, practically submerged
the northern part of New Hampshire and much of
Vermont and a large part of Maine is. the worst catastrophe
that has ever visited New England in the.memory of our oldest
inhabitant. Portsmouth and Southern New Hampshire is
untouched but the sympathy of the entire people will go to
6ur northern citizens.

The entire country has been shocked and in many respects
The suffering will be even greater than that which followed the
Mississippi horror. It was like a lightning bolt from a clear
sky and it will cost untold suffering and financial loss. It was
unfortunate for the railroads just as they were getting on their
feet to have valuable bridges and road-beds swept away.

There is a deep lesson in these happenings which come
Without warning. The whole world is the object of many
catastrophies of late with the. result in loss of life and great
property losses. Greater preparations for safety must be made
and we must so regulate our lives as to be ever-prepared for
such visitations. Portsmouth extends its sympathy to Its northern brothers
and sisters and will do its part of relief and render all aid and
possible assistance.

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The Whisperer in Darkness wasn't written until between February and September 1930. It incubated for nearly three years in Lovecraft's mind.

Was Lovecraft "Providence"?

Lovecraft's crisis in New York made him declare, "I am Providence". Indeed, Providence seemed to permeate through his pores, but what Providence?

In the 1920's, he rarely was able to come to terms with the politics and sociology of what Providence was becoming. In a sense, he was Providence of an earlier era, an imagined era, a Providence through very special and eclectic set of glasses.

Much as a promoter or Convention Center promotes a community in the best light, Lovecraft painted elements of Providence in a very unique way. Others living in Providence might not have noticed the Providence of Lovecraft. Over many posts, Chrispy has shown early 20th century Providence Italian families, factories, commercial areas, newspaper ads, and more. Providence's population exploded between 1900 and 1930. Imigrants and others swarmed into Providence, but Lovecraft didn't come into great contact. He didn't go to Burlesque. He walked at night thus avoiding much of the hoi poloi.

No, Providence wasn't New York, but in a real sense it was becoming a little New York. Only it was easier to avoid this traumatic change living in isolated College Hill.

In The Italian-American Vote in Providence, Rhode Island, 1916-1948 by
Stefano Luconi, we see, "Rhode Island distinguished itself as an example of political atavism, clinging to an archaic system that muted the public voice of many citizens. State property qualifications denied the vote to poor and working-class immigrants in all elections until 1888 and in city council contests until 1930." Lovecraft blanched at the Italians, but "The voters also maintained a strong devotion to their homeland, as Democrats discovered in 1920 when Italian Americans sided overwhelmingly with the GOP, expressing their contempt for Woodrow Wilson’s refusal to accede to Italy’s demands at the Versailles Conference. Though most commentators have viewed Rhode Island’s Italians as predominantly Republican before the 1930s, Luconi found that from 1916-1930 the majority of Italian voters probably supported the Democratic ticket. Neither party could take the Italians for granted, however, as the ethnic group paid close attention to what each party was doing for it in terms of jobs and policies."

The Italian conclave was mostly located in Federal Hill, but this is as much "Providence" as other areas of Providence. It was not the preferred Provdence of Lovecraft, and his encounters through direct and indirect methods braced his own political and ideological opinions more often than not.

This blog has numerous details of population and "settings in ligfe" to be able to contrast and compare to Lovecraft's world. Please take a few moments sometime and search for an area your interested in.

Joseph Wood Krutch: An HPL Anecdote

Roughly an early contemporary of HPL, Krutch (November 25, 1893 – May 22, 1970) was a prolific writer. He was probably a member of Brooklyn Polytechnic when HPL crossed paths at the lecture, and his greater fame would be years ahead.

Never missing an opportunity to learn more about his idol, Poe, HPL went to a lecture on Poe by Krutch. Unknown as to the locale of the lecture - nothing on google about the tour.

In "Essential Solitude" HPL says (to Derleth, p.254), "March 5th I heard Joseph Wood Krutch lecture on Poe, but he didn't say anyting more than he did in his book published in 1926. He has a nervous manner - hangs on to a desk & sways as if he were ging to vault over it."

A short time later, in May 1930, HPL would be roaming Richmond looking for Poe iconography. (As to Wandrei in Mysteries of Time and Spirit).

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A citation note (as follows) shows that his book was scrutinized and found wanting by later generations. Krutch made little impression on HPL, as can be seen. Fraiberg, Louis. "Joseph Wood Krutch: Poe's Art as an Abnormal Condition of the Nerves," Psychoanalysis and American Literary Criticism (Detroit: Wayne State U P, 1960), pp. 134-144. [Critically summarizes Krutch's book, More Lives Than One, to show that his psychoanalytic approach "was far too superficial to 'explain' Poe's genius."]




KRUTCH, Joseph Wood; Edgar Allan Poe. EDGAR ALLAN POE : A Study in Genius. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. First Edition First Printing. Very Good+ in boards.

I found a few excerpts about Poe by Krutch ('The Philosophy of Composition'):

Before the first of his critiques appeared in the [Southern Literary] Messenger Poe had already begun to produce a new kind of literature, and this fact made it inevitable that, granted the gift of exposition which was his to so striking a degree, he should become a remarkable example of that sort of critic whose function is not primarily judicial. Neither intellectual detachment nor catholicity of taste could be expected of him, but because he had, even when he was least conscious of the fact, his own practice to defend, he was bound to write with passion; and because of his powers of rationalization he could not but formulate with remarkable clarity the principles which he drew from a consideration of his own works. (Krutch 22)

The creations of [Poe's] imagination satisfy perfectly his critical theories because the critical theories were made to fit the works; but there are many worse ways than this inductive one for arriving at generalizations which are…illuminating. (Krutch 22)

That legend of himself which he fashioned in a manner so marvellously inclusive that it employs as material everything from the events of his daily life to the products of his imagination is finally completed by his interpretation. His criticism inscribes a curve within which everything else is included; it unifies all the various aspects of his life and work… (Krutch 30)