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

1925: The Gang's All Here

Lovecraft, Sonia, Klark Ashton, Long, Loveman, Goodenough, Kirk, Kleiner, Morton, Miniter!
_____

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.

Parody of Lovecraft (1921)

1921/FALCO OSSIFRACUS/EDITH MINITER/LOVECRAFT PARODY
Description:

"FALCO OSSIFRACUS " - by "Mr. Goodguile"
Published in "The Muffin Man" - edited by Edith Miniter

So significant is this humorous piece by Edith Miniter that S. T. Joshi, in his landmark biography of Howard Phillips Lovecraft "H. P. Lovecraft: A Life", devotes a half page describing the piece and giving its history (p. 197).

Lovecraft at this time was attending a meeting of the "Hub-Club" occupied by the noted women amateurs Winifred Jackson, Laurie A. Sawyer, and Edith Miniter...as Joshi relates - "Edith Miniter issued...a journal entitled "The Muffin Man"...which contained her exquisite parody of Lovecraft - 'Falco Ossifracus' by Mr. Goodguile...this little squib is a clear take-off of "The Statement of Randolph Carter...Miniter manages to get in effective jabs at Lovecraft's heaviy laid-on atmosphere of grue...Lovecraft took the whole thing in good humour as he noted in his memoir of Miniter it being a 'highly amusing parody" (HPL)...

The first parody of HPL ever written and if you are familiar with his literary musings you will catch the tasty cleverness of this piece.

This was the only amateur-zine ever issued by Ms. Miniter and is quite scarce.
Fine condition with string-tie and unfolded!

Interesting: Edith Miniter's Tribute Issue

A
B
***

A few days ago, a copy (B) of the Edith Miniter Tribute Tryout copy was found on ebay, now (A)on LW Currey. They do appear to be two different copies. Serendipity. Interesting to compare the two extant copies side by side (or at least their covers & ribbon).

Tryout 1934 Vol 16 No 8

TRYOUT, THE. September 1934 (volume 16, number 8). Edited by C. W. Smith. Haverhill, Mass.: C. W. Smith, September 1934 (volume 16, number 8). Small octavo, single issue, printed self wrappers, sewn. Accompanied by the supplement: IN MEMORY EDITH MAY MINITER A COWORKER IN AMATEUR JOURNALISM 1884-1934. Issued by Laurie A. Sawyer, C. W. Smith [cover title]. Haverhill, Mass.: C. W. Smith, n.d. [1934], a 16-page booklet (plus covers) with brief memoirs and appreciations by her friends and fellow amateur writers. Includes H. P. Lovecraft's poem "Edith Miniter: Born on Wilbraham Mountain, Massachusetts May 5, 1869. Died at North Wilbraham, Massachusetts, June 8, 1934," pages [5-6] (note: in this copy (all copies?) this leaf is duplicated as pages [7-8]. Joshi I-B-iii-35 (who incorrectly dates this August 1934). A fine copy. Rare. (#114472) Price: $450.00

Edith Miniter Tribute (1934)

Only 50 years old! So sad. Amazing that the string ribbon is still in tact.

***

(Epegana) IN MEMORIAM OF EDITH MAY MINITER "The Tryout" - Sept. 1934 Edith Miniter was one of the giants in Amateur Journalism in the early twentieth century and was a prime inspiration of the writing group - "The Hub Club". Both she and H. P. Lovecraft had a mutual high regard of each other's work and HPL is present in this memorial with a poem simply entitled "Edith Miniter"..."The mind too keen for any tomb to keep..." - H. P. Lovecraft. Item I-B-iii-35 in Joshi's bibliography A tiny chip at the lower right-hand corner of outer covers, folded for mailing, else fine with binding thread still attached!

Edith Miniter & H P Lovecraft (1921)

The seller states:

THE AFTERMATH Edited by Edith Miniter, November, 1921 H. P. Lovecraft forged his legendary reputation in the Amateur-zines and his name and works appeared in many many issues. Indeed, it was something of a literary coup to have HPL present within your pages - it guaranteed more than a minimumal number of readers! 1921 was an especially eventful year in his career as he was one of the prime speakers at the Boston National Amateur Convention. So taken was the enthralled crowd with HPL's wit & intellect that his speech was recalled even years later; too bad no one had the sense enough to take it down! Edith Miniter was one of those present and she dedicated this issue of her Amateur-zine to all the events leading up to, during, and after that notable event. HPL is noted throughout and so much so that this issue is dedicated to him.NOTE: If you've read about HPL's "romance" with Winifred Virginia Jackson in my other listing, this issue of "The Aftermath" makes mention of H. P. Lovecraft having a "Brownie" camera.A dust band along top & spine edge present in the scan, else fine.I'll be selling my entire HPL fanzine & amateur-zine collection on ebay beginning now so notify your HPL collecting friends!

Whipoorwills

In a previous blog post (click to see) Chrispy mentioned Edith Miniter - a brief, I believe, romantic interest of HPL's. She donated the legendary "whipoorwill" to the Dunwich Horror.

In the antiquarian period Lovecraft so loved, there was a rush of English and Scottish peoples to America. Those of the midlands area, brought to the South the "ghost tale" and to Appalacia and New England many legends.

Lovecraft seemed not to realize this, thoguh he was a student of mythology and folklore. One issue is that he did not respect folklore so much as want to change it - and in some cases crush it, grind it to invisibility, and replace it with cosmic materialism.

Chrispy has numerous items in his collection on myth and folklore. One treasured rarity is Folklore of the Mammoth Cave Region.

Here, on p. 98 of the section, "Plants and Animlas in Folk Belief":

1. When you hear the first whipoorwill in spring, lie down right where you are, roll over three times, and make a wish; it will surely come true. (*)
2. Some people think that it is bad luck for a whipoorwill to sing on or near a house. (**)
3. When the first whipoorwill calles, it is time to go barefooted, to change from winter to summer underwear, to plant corn, or to go fishing.
4. If you kill a whipoowill, you will break your arm.

Miniter represnts the late 19th century folklore traditions of New England, and these are Mammoth Cave early 20th century, they have common Scotch-English lore blended with a bit of Native American traditions (Narangasett in Rhode Island; Cherokee in Kentucky). Still, there is a distillation and oral milieu that these folk values ride upon and are passed about over wide distances and geographic areas - prior to the emergence and influence of motion pictures, radio and television.

In a subsequent blog, Chrispy will recite death signs from other selections of his folklore collection - including the dreaded whipoorwill !!


Folklore of the Mammoth Cave Region, Gordon Wilson, Sr, and ed. Lawrence S. Thompson, Kentucky Folklore Series No. 4, 1968, Bowling Green, KY (autographed GW, 23 Oct 1969).

* The number three is story telling is powerful. It shows up in all folklore, and Lovecraft often subconsciously used the same pharses three times for emphasis. One, of course, knows that rubbing a magic lamp three times gets you three wishes, that Peter denied the Lord three times, and that in John 21, Jesus then asks Peter to feed his sheep, three times. The occurance of three would fill a zillion volumes of literature.

** In this case, bad luck is the worst that happens.

Lovecraftiana: Edith Miniter's Legends

In Unnamable (circa September 1923) Lovecraft uses his pseudonym “Carter” and juxtaposes philosophies of the weird tale with “Manton” who is Maurice Moe. [1, p,283].

I continue, in these blog essays, to express the opinion that HPL's stories are fictional representations of philosophical treatises. Each has a thesis, discussion and methods, and a long discourse culminating in a precise conclusion. However, this blog post is about delving into the mind of Lovecraft.

“I knew that Joel Manton actually half clung to many old-wives' superstitions which sophisticated people had long outgrown; beliefs in the appearance of dying persons at distant places, and in the impressions left by old faces on the windows through which they had gazed all their lives. To credit these whisperings of rural grandmothers , I now insisted, argued a faith in the existence of spectral substances on the earth apart from and subsequent to their material counterparts.”

Anytime Lovecraft uses the term “grandmothers”, this is a perjorative. The term is found in Shunned House discussing the Rhode Island tuberculosis vampire tradition. HPL ridicules gothic or rustic folklore to make room for his evolving philosophy of the weird tale. In 1923, he still had a long way to go to perfect this concept, but already he knew what he didn't like.

Another “buzz word” Lovecraft perpetually used in his writing was “superstition”. This is always a flag that what comes next is frowned upon. Sometimes he refers to Christianity and more often to common folk myths. Lovecraft set out to shatter traditional Gothic, Victorian, and Edwardian mythology. He had no use for it and violently desired to purge it from the weird tale.

However, the mention of this particular tradition of “ the impressions left by old faces on the windows through which they had gazed all their lives” can actually be traced to an actual event in Lovecraft's life.

In his touching and expansive tribute to the passing of Edith Miniter (written October 1934), he writes of his trip to see her years earlier. “Mrs. Miniter supplied many legends and particulars which no guidebook could furnish – and it was on this occasion {early 1923 with Miniter and Cole} that I first heard of the rustic superstition which asserts that window-panes slowly absorb and retain the likeness of those who habitually sit by them, year after year.”

Miniter, you recall, turned down the editorship of the Stoker manuscript of Dracula. She also provided the “whippoorwill” myth in Dunwich Horror. One suspects a pre-Sonia romantic attachment by HPL of Miniter, though obviously never acted upon.

1 An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, Joshi & Schultz, pp. 168, 169, 174, 175, 283, 284.

2 Collected Essays, Vol. 1: Amateur Journalism, Joshi, pp. 382, 387 n. 8,9.