Frank Belknap Long, Sr !

The Beginning of Frank Belknap Long, Jr.?

Belknapius, as HPL called Frank Belknap Long, Jr., was a progeny and keenly fascinated with creating the blend of horror fantasy known as "the weird tale". It's hard to know who adored who the most, HPL or Long!

One little e-news clipping (above) seems to be the very beginning of young Mr. Long, Jr., though he was but a glint of love between these two people at the time. This reports his parents marriage!

If you are a romantic about weddings, these details may make you swoon. The Bride wore white – with flounces! The bridesmaids wore yellow and saffron! Diamonds were given out like candy! (Almost). Dr. Long (senior) was a dentist, and at least for the wedding day, a Baptist.

You'll see the date of this marriage was on 20 November 1895. Dr. Long had been practicing dentistry (a dental surgery specialist), and as can be seen (from the Dental Cosmos, Vol. 34, 1892) he'd graduated 10 March - only a few years before.

It shouldn't be presumed that just because Belknapius' father surgically extracted teeth from suffering patients that this drove him to write The Hounds of Tindalus, but then again …
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For you genealogy buffs:

EMMA AUGUSTA MANSFIELD [Belknapius' grandmother}, born July 22, 1846, married Sept. 15, 1869, Charles E. Doty. Their children are May Mansfield Doty, born Oct. 18, 1870 ; Cassie Mansfield Doty, born Feb. 22, 1872 : and Mansfield Mudge Doty, born Aug. 18, 1879.

This makes Mrs. Long (nee May Mansfield Doty) about 20 years older than HPL, and much youunger than his mother's age - Susan born 1857.

Lovecraft Letter Uncovered in Indiana

Thanks to Steve of the Limbonaut/Criticaster, he alerted us about this letter at Indiana University.

The full text of the Lilly Library article is here ... click !

Lovecraft in Context: 1924

Lovecraft, who in his teen years was eager for new technology and scoured the newspapers and science journals, had by the mid-20's retreated into a type of antiquarian pose. The U.S. was bustling with youth, energy, and the jazz and radio age. Talkies were closing in on theaters, and even television was on the cusp. Lovecraft was about to head to New York and reach his early Weird Tales exposure to a whole new generation of fans.

When you get to the dollar equivalents, understand how much money was being thrown at Lovecraft by Henneberger - who was essentially strapped for cash - and ask ... how? Recall this tidbit, "...Frank Belknap Long believed that a $60 HPL used on a book buying spree store credit was from Henneberger..." that I posted some time back. According to 1924 dollars this was equivalent to $700 (2010)! Not bad!

Long speculated (in his biographical memoir), "I did not find out until later, - for some reason he had been reluctant to tell me - that he had a bookseller's credit slip for sixty dollars, given to him by J. C. Henneberger, the founder of Weird Tales, in lieu of cash payment just before Farnsworth Wright had assumed the editorship of the magazine and story sales on a cash basis had come to an abrupt halt. I have never had any doubt that someone had given Henneberger the credit slip and, being in Chicago, he could not have readily availed himself of a pleasure he had passed along to Howard, without giving much thought to the money he might have saved had he purchased the story for cash."

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1924 (from an ancestry.com article)by Juliana Smith 12 April 2010
(link attached to today's blog title)

In the U.S., Calvin Coolidge was serving as president after the death of President Warren G. Harding and was re-elected in November. Congress declared Native American Indians U.S. Citizens through the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, although Native Americans were not allowed to vote in some states until 1948.

In these early days of radio, radio stations were popping up and broadcasting across the country. Calvin Coolidge became the first President to broadcast over the radio from the White House. Further, eighteen radio stations hooked up in September with General John J. Pershing and other military officials in a demonstration of how radio can be used in the event of an emergency to communicate important information across the country in the National Defense Test Day Broadcast.

In March, people in the U.S. were flocking to the theatres to see Douglas Fairbanks’ silent picture, The Thief of Bagdad. Popular songs included, California, Here I Come (Al Jolson), Rhapsody in Blue (George Gershwin and Paul Whiteman), and It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’ (Wendell Hall).

As for economics, $100 was the equivalent of $1,160.82 in today’s dollars. What could you get for your money? A quart of milk would cost you about $0.14, a loaf of bread or a pound of sugar ran around $0.09, eggs were $0.48 per dozen, coffee about $0.43 a pound, and if you wanted a nice sirloin, it would run about $0.40 per pound.

So, how much did those new-fangled radios cost? A few years earlier, in 1921, factory-made radios could cost more than $2,000 in today’s dollars, but in 1922 the National Bureau of Standards released a circular that sold for five cents and told how to build a crystal radio set and soon newspapers picked up on the story and the information spread quickly. The circular stated that the cost of materials needed was typically under $10.

Lovecraft on the Nordic Ideal

As promised, Chrispy is trying to create some original mini-essays.
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Lovecraft and the Nordic Ideal

Lovecraft often spouted out lengthy diatribes of his personal beliefs to either convince or coerce his close correspondents of his own personal philosophies. Those ideas and ideals were sometimes, if not often, idealistic and historically unfounded. Many, Chrispy believes, are founded upon a few simple facts: Lovecraft's personal and family way of life was under constant attack and erosion by socio-economic forces that traumatized him. Notably, his quiet College Hill Providence environ was swamped by a massive influx of ethnic population during his lifetime. I think his poverty forced him into contact with that cultural upheaval in a way that wealth might have insulated him, and probably did his first 14 years of life.

To Frank Belknap Long dated Sunday, 13 May 1923.

"I am naturally a Nordic - a chalky-white, bulky Teuton of the Scandanavian or North-German forests - a Viking - a berserk killer - a predatory rover of the blood of Hangst and Horsa - a conqueror of Celts - a son of thunder and the arctic winds, and brother of the forests of the auroras ... aye - I speak truly - for was I not born with yellow hair and blue eyes - the latter not turning till I was nearly two, and the former lasting till I was over five?"

While this is poetic hyperbole, Lovecraft had immersed himself in some Aryan belief system by 1923. Later, he toned this down slightly.

To Frank Belknap Long dated Tuesday, 11 December 1923.

"I do not claim to be 100% Teuton. My dark hair and eyes forbid me that honor ... ho for the frozen seas and the epick of sleet and blood, strange lands and far wonder! ... Great Thor, but this is the life! There are no woods like our woods, and no bards like our bards! ... So, Sonny [i.e. FBL], your old Grandpa is pretty well satisfied to be a Nordick, chalk-white from the Hercynian Woods and Polar mists .. WE ARE THE MASTERS."

It's almost as if HPL plucked out the nordic descriptions from F Scott Fitgerald's, "It seemed still to whisper of Norse galleys ploughing the water world under raven-figured flags, of the British dreadnoughts, gray bulwarks of civilization steaming up through the fog of one dark July into the North Sea." from "This Side of Paradise" (1920, Ch. 4). H may have picked up some secondary "Nordic Ideal" propaganda concepts that became notable through a book" Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes by Hans F. K. Günther (circa 1920).

Mr. Joshi's biography of HPL indicates that (p. 132) Lovecraft spouted about the "teuton" at least as early as 1915 ("The Crime of the Century") "The Teuton is the summit of evolution". This may have been derived from writings of Thomas Henry Huxley.

Again, in the hands of the relatively innocuous Lovecraft these are hypothetical and poetic rants, but there is an underlying falsity and somewhat of a growing menace in his words. The hyperbole is somewhat reflected in his bitterness at his world's apparent erosion, which also manifested in rants of hating mankind, and that except for a few choice individuals, the rest might as easily be eradicated. Lovecraft ranted that hate had to be en masse so that individuality would not color compassion. This is somewhat fearsome.

Very early, Lovecraft was deeply anti-IRA, and in 1921 [To Galpin, dated 6 October 1921] HPL was speaking of the greatness of the British race, and more bitter: "Slavs are emotional and irrational ... the brachycephalic masses are incurable peasants incapable of governing themselves ... the ruling classes are ... Teutonic." The roots of belief were certainly present.

Chrispy is not necessarily a one note kind of guy. Much as it might seem, it ain't Lovecraft 24/7/365. :) I have been fascinated and read many biographies and one recently that caught my attention was another of my favortie personalities: Charles Monroe Schulz. This incredibly brilliant and famous cartoonist, was once a bit like Lovecraft. An only child of poor parents, but unlike Lovecraft "Sparky" was indeed of both German and Nordic parents. His biographer, David Michaelis, has written a sparkling and amazing biography. Portions of "Sparky's" early life are an attack on Lovecraft's idealistic view, and I record bits of those here.

Schulz's father, Carl, had been born in Stendahl, Saxony-Anhalt, in north-central Germany in April 1897 (making him a bit younger than HPL). The family moved to a Wisconsin farm, and Carl Fred Schulz attended an all German school, and his parents never learned English. After WWI, Carl immediately lost all German inflection in his accent and never spoke a word of German thereafter. So careful, so conscious, a barber who worked beside him for ten years never heard him utter a word about his German background. His cousin oft rebuked Carl who quickly shut her down to stop bringing it up.

Carl married Dena Halverson, a true Norwegian, her father being Torjus Halverson who came from Norway as a child in 1866 to Wisconsin. The Wisconsin of the 1920's waas filled by Norwegian second generations. Many were abandoning the farms for big cities, but many stayed to eke out a modicum of impoverished living.

Minnesotan, Sinclair Lewis wrote at nearly the same time that HPL was expositing. In The Nation, May 30, 1923, his "Minnesota: The Norse State" excoriates Lovecraft's ideal: No fable is more bracing, or more absurd, than that all the sons and grandsons of the pioneers, ... are racy and breezy, unmannerly but intoxicatingly free. The grandchildren of the men who in 1862 fought the Minnesota Indians, who dogtrotted a hundred miles over swamp-blurred trails to bear the alarm to the nearest troops - some of them are still clearing the land, but some of them are complaining of the un-English quality of the Orange Pekoe in dainty-painty city tearooms which stand where three generations ago the Red River fur carts rested; their chauffeurs await them in Pierce Arrow limousines (special bodies by Kimball, silver fittings from Tiffany); they present Schnitzler and St. John Ervine at their Little Theaters; between rehearsals they chatter of meeting James Joyce in Paris; and always in high-pitched Mayfair laughter they ridicule the Scandinavians and Finns who are trying to shoulder into their sacred, ancient Yankee caste. A good many of their names are German.

Had Lovecraft visited Dena's family, he might well have been aghast.

They lived on 120 acres of chickens, eggs, and milk decorated by trimmed topiary and potted plants in the kitchen. When the weather dipped to 10 below, Carl and Dena would shove terrified Sparky into the Ford and drive out each Sunday into the white wilderness speckled with pines and outhouses. Sparky, like HPL, was a city boy. He struggled but never understood the life where Dena's family saw birth, copulation, and death every day. "I was always uncomfortable and was so glad when we left."

Two barking, fang-bearing collies met the Ford and little Sparky was petrified. Inside was worse. The adults gathered in the kitchen, forcing the children together. The adlts drank copiously, usually raisin wine. Sparky, like HPL, was a life-long tee-totaller. The pasttime was to denigrate, berate, ridicule, and slander one another in good fun - until the drunkenness spilled over to anger and the men went outside to wrestle and fight in the snow banks. Otherwise, sitting in their sleeveless shirts, they alternately dozed or bombast one another.

The women vied for who could bake the most sugar-frosted and coconut laced confections, or most Norwegian fish dishes. Sparky grew to hate both. From thence, many of his "Lil Folks" and later "Peanuts" would speak volumes of the fearsome adult world.

In essence, by 1923 Lovecraft had worked up steam and invested in some expanded form of "Nordic Ideal" despite essential facts were already present to deflate that concept, and contact with mainstream media, or simply speaking to ordinary people might have stopped his vehemence.

Frank Belknap Long (1974)

Recently Auctioned with seller's description:

SIGNED LETTER FROM FRANK BELKNAP LONG
TO PUBLISHER, ROY A. SQUIRES

To those of you familiar with Howard Phillips Lovecraft and his famous "Circle" of personalities and writers, few knew him better than Frank Belknap Long, his friend of more than fifteen years.

I offer here a two-page letter typed letter (unusual for Long as most of his letter were handwritten) to his friend and publisher Roy A. Squires. (Squires printed the fine-press booklet "The Marriage of Sir John de Mandeville" in 1976 in an edition of 225 numbered copies).

The letter is a rather sad missive, an apology for a year of not writing back to Squires, with explanations; and mentions of his upcoming publications..."I could and should have written... but my feeling of guilt kept mounting up and I kept putting it off...I can only say that the past year has been one of tension and strain without precedent in my experience...my wife was quite ill for months...I had to complete my Arkham House book...I had a hernia operation, and two paperback books to complete".

The letter is signed "Frank" in ballpoint pen. Included with the letter is the original mailing envelope with the authors full name and address printed in his own hand.

Long, Cook, Derleth: 1929

Long, Frank Belknap. TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS). 1 1/2 pages on letter-size paper (with 1 1/2 inches trimmed from bottom), signed in black ink, "F. B. Long, Jr.", with five-line handwritten postscript, dated 8 October 1929, to "Dear Mr. Derleth" [August Derleth]. Long's first letter to Derleth, written in reply to one from Derleth. As Long mentions here, he had heard about Derleth from H. P. Lovecraft (whom he had known at this point for almost ten years; he would remain one of HPL's best friends) and says here that he had occasionally thought of writing him "but during the past few months I've been too morbidly depressed to enter into an extended correspondence with anyone." Promising to "discuss the tales you mention at length in a few days" -- tales by Long? by Derleth? by others? -- he mentions the demands of other work, including "a series of articles that I very unwisely agreed to undertake for a vile subway magazine on a commission basis." In his postscript he agrees to send Derleth a copy of his book, THE MAN FROM GENOA, a 31-page collection of poems published in 1926 by Paul Cook in Athol, Mass. (famous also as the publisher, or at least printer, of Lovecraft's THE SHUNNED HOUSE). "I would gladly give you a copy, but I still owe the publisher a substantial commission on all sales. It retails for a 1.25 -- but you may merely send me a dollar." "The writing style is both formless and inflated, very much the work of a young man still looking for his own voice and under the influence of Lovecraft, who, at this point, tended towards a stilted tone in his letters. Nevertheless, an interesting document by one of the more important spokes in the Lovecraft circle. If HPL was its center, then Derleth, in his later capacity as publisher at Arkham House, formed its circumference." - Robert Eldridge. Faint fold creases and minor edge nicks, very good overall. (#116740)

Long's The Goblin Tower, 1935

Long, Frank Belknap. THE GOBLIN TOWER. Setting copy and printer's proofs. Cassia, Florida: Dragon-Fly Press, 1935. . An archive, stapled together, of seventy-two variously sized pieces of papers with setting copy and printer's proofs of the collection of Long's poetry printed at and published by R. H. Barlow's Dragonfly Press in Florida in 1935. The copy was scrabbled together from different sources: typescripts (some carbons, some top copies), manuscripts (some in Barlow's hand, "An Old Wife Speaketh It" in Lovecraft's hand, dated 1923 at bottom), former newspaper and magazine appearances ("On Icy Kilnarth" from a pulp, with a nice illustration). Likewise, the proofs were pulled on whatever was at hand: the versos of old letters and stories, scraps of heavy laid paper, old Sunday four-color comic newspapers. Lovecraft visited Barlow during the summer of 1935 (June 9 -- August 18) and helped him prepare the manuscript for press, smoothing out some of Long's faulty metrics in the process: undoubtedly many if not all of the papers in this archive were handled by HPL. Barlow was 17 at the time (but past the halfway mark of his short life), Long 34, Lovecraft 45 (and less than two years away from his own death). THE GOBLIN TOWER, a collection of twenty-two short lyrical poems in a romantic manner, was the author's second book, preceded by another poetry collection, A MAN FROM GENOA (1926), printed and published by Paul Cook of Athol, Mass., who also printed Lovecraft's THE SHUNNED HOUSE (1928). Most extant copies of THE GOBLIN TOWER exist as folded and gathered sets of unbound sheets, as very few were bound up at the time. Long and Barlow were two of the innermost planets in the HPL system (or to switch metaphors, deities in the Lovecraft Mythos), and this archive documents the most important intersection of the three men. The archive as a whole has significant research value. As individual items, these make colorful and unique memorabilia. Some of the individual items are in respectable condition, but most show signs of heavy use, with ragged edges, tears, ink stains, etc. (#116768)

Postcard Information

I recently came across a website that mentioned some HPL postcards. The information on the website seemed to be a little garbled because of mispellings, etc. The website can be found here.

I'll correct the textual issues as best I can below.
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...Recently my friend who owns perhaps the best rare-bookstore in America, brought to my attention he had a few postcards he purchased back in the '70s, of H.P. Lovecraft's. He is reconized from San Francisco to New York City as the best in his rare collection of books, and other such things, and I've known him for a long, long time. ...

Postcard: H.P. Lovecraft to Clark A. Smith
(Dated April 19, 1927)

The History: The Postcard was purchased by Dennis L. Siluk, 12/8/2005, from Tom Strausky, whom purchased it in the l970s from Roy Squires. The Postcard is signed by: H.P. Lovecraft; W. Munn (Poet/Writer) and W. P. Cook (publisher/editor); ... The people mentioned in the postcard: George Sterling: Poet and friend of Jack London, novelist; H.P. Lovecraft: fantasy/horror writer; Ambrose Bierce: reporter, short story writer, poet; and also friend to C.A. Smith. Frank Belknap Long: Poet/writer for ‘Weird Tales’; Donald Wandrei: Poet/writer for ‘Weird Tales’; Alfred Galpin: writer; C.A. Smith: Novelist/short story writer/poet; also wrote for ‘Weird Tales'; all mentioned in the postcard.

Content of the letter as I perceive it, and have interpreted it: the Postcard

To: Clark Ashton Smith Box 385, Auburn, California.

“Still another conclave! Wandrei & Belknap are both in their respective heavens again, but the spirit of assemblage is yet abroad in the land. I am told that the New Braithwaite Anthology contains a very fine appreciation of your work by Sterling. I must look it up. Heard from Galpin lately, & he’s enthusiastic about your French verse. In my next I’ll enclose his list of expert linguistic emendations.”

Copy of Shunned House surfaces

The signature does look authentic compared to a previous blog post:


Fascinating copy of the mysterious book: Listed to sell starting at $5000.

Frank B Long and Arkham

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Seller's notes:
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Description:

"Dear Frank" - Signed letter from August Derleth to Frank (Belknap Long) - 18 February, 1961

re: "The Horror from the Hills"

A brief but interesting note from A.D. to his friend and friend to Howard Phillips Lovecraft - Frank Belknap Long, requesting of him a manuscript copy of "The Horror From the Hills". to prepare it for publication from Arkham House. Now unfortunately I do not have the follow up correspondence regarding the $50 fee for having the manuscript retyped, but I would assume (knowing Long's constant financial deprivation) that Long no doubt retyped it himself!

Letter is signed with Derleth's customary squiggle. Light staining as this was housed in Long's unkempt apartment for years.

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Description:


"Dear Mr. Squires" - Signed letter from James Turner to Roy A. Squires - 3 December, 1975

upon Arkham House stationary

Following the death of August Derleth in 1971, Arkham House spiraled nearly out of control for a few years. James Turner became managing editor and indeed "managed" to right the ship, bringing on board some major talents from the pool of younger modern writers and artists, and at the same time keeping the older more traditional Arkham House scriviners on board. This letter to noted bookseller, publisher, printer and bibliographer Roy Squires, brings to light the early negotiations with author Frank Belknap Long regarding his book "In Mayan Splendor".

Letter is signed by James Turner.

Frank Belknap Long's Werewolf Story

NIGHT OF THE WOLF by Frank Belknap Long (Popular Library 1972)

From an online review: Night of the Wolf has a purply style. A guy glimpses a werewolf in a cave in Bulgaria, and now it's come to haunt him. It's looking for something it thinks he stole. And in the meantime, it kills everyone around him.

Robert E Howard (1933) Letter - with some other anecdotes

Robert E Howard, Letter to Lovecraft July ?, 1933

Dear Mr. Lovecraft:
I am sending on to you the enclosed manuscript, according to instructions. I read it the same day I received it, and I hardly know how to express my admiration for the splendid work you and Mr. Price have accomplished. I was most intrigued by the personalities of "Etienne de Marigny" and "Ward Phillips"! And hope these fine characters will be used again.
My sensations while reading this story are rather difficult to describe. The effect of reality was remarkable. Some of the speculations were over my head, at the first reading--not from any lack of clarity, but simply because of their cosmic depth.
The Dhole-haunted planet of Yaddith conjures up tantalizing vistas of surmise, and I hope you will use it in future stories. I hope, too, that you'll decide to get poor Randolph Carter out of his frightful predicament. I remember "The Silver Key"--yet remember is hardly the word to use. I have constantly referred to that story in my meditations ever since I read it, years ago--have probably thought of it more than any other story that ever appeared in Weird Tales. There was something about it that struck deep. I read it aloud to Tevis Clyde Smith, and he agreed with me as to its cosmic depth.
I should be answering herewith your recent--and as always, interesting letter; but I'm swamped with work just now. However, I hope to answer it in full soon. Our points of disagreement are not so radical as I had previously thought.
Thanks for the picture folder, and please present my best wishes to Mr. Long. I here enclose a few snaps taken at old Fort McKavett, which lies in Menard County, 155 miles southwest of here, three miles from the head of the San Saba River, mentioned in tale and fable, and in connection with the Lost Bowie Mine, mentioned in a previous letter. McKavett is fascinating--a village of ruins and semiruins, people living in the old unruined barracks and soldier's quarters, among the remnants of other buildings which have not stood the test of time. I was in too big a hurry to get much of its history, or many pictures, but I hope to return there some day for more data. The fort was established in 1871 by the Federal government which was foolish enough to station negro troops there; their arrogance led to a fierce and bloody war between the fort and the inhabitants of the country--a wild, hilly, rocky, thickly timbered expanse--in which the natives had the best of it, and in 1883 the fort was definitely abandoned. Don't bother to return these snaps; I have duplicates of them.
Cordially,
Robert E. Howard

***

I found some brief anecdotes from an article in Frontier Times Magazine of Vol 15 # 9 June 1938 on the Fort.

Fort McKavett Was A Frontier Post
Fort McKavett, frontier outpost in Menard county near the Schleicher county line, established in 1852, abandoned by order of General Twiggs in 1860, was reoccupied by troops on April 1, 1868, continuing the drama that marked the early developments in the building of a West Texas empire.

I also found this RANGE CANNING Co. 1898 mutton label and this "W. B. Tobin's" c. 1890 chili-con-carne label on line. Apparently, another claim to fame!

Rare Arkham House Promotionals for Long's memoir of HPL

Terrific original art illustrating HPL. This is said to be a promotional flyer for Arkham House's H.P.L. Dreamer on the Nightside, a biographical memoir by Frank Belknap Long.

1923 Conservative (with Samuel Loveman poem)

1923 was a pivotal year for Lovecraft. While 1914 might have been his beginning with Amateur Journalism, the eyars of 1923 & 1924 became his path to stardom. He visited C M Eddy, learned of Weird Tales, soon quickly married Sonia, and Henneberger, Baird, and Houdiini all learned of him. The Brooklyn group virtually kidnapped Lovecraft in New York and he - once and for all - became annointed as the NEW POE.

(epegana) THE CONSERVATIVE, March, 1923 Howard Phillips Lovecraft was discovered by Amateur Journalism wherein he honed his tools that would serve him in his breakthrough into professional publication with "Weird Tales" magazine. Lovecraft was so caught up with AJ's that he published his own paper; his "Conservative" was one of the most respected papers in Amateur history.This issue features an article by Frank Belknap Long entitled "An Amateur Humorist"; Lovecraft in turn criticizes the highly lauded T. S. Eliot poem "The Waste Land", or as HPL remarked "....disjointed and incoherent ...a practically meaningless collection of phrases, learned allusions, quotations, slang, and scraps...offered to the public as something justified by our modern mind with its own chaotic triviality and disorganisation..." - HPL.

Frank Long Letter to Roy Squires.

It's seeming obvious with each cycle of auctions that much of the Roy Squires archive descended to Terence McVicker at some point. Through this some very late information can be seen about the "Lovecraft Group" and their eventual passing. Here is a rare prize from Frank Long.

Epegana states:

LETTER FROM:FRANK BELKNAP LONG TO ROY A. SQUIRES
Frank Belknap Long was not only a fine writer in the old Weird Tales tradition, but one of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's greatest friends. In later years he sold his Lovecraft letters and his entire collection to just try to make ends meet. Roy A. Squires printed his "Marriage of Sir John de Maundeville" not only because he liked the poem, but it would throw FBL a few much needed bucks. Squires also paid Long to sign numerous books. As suggested in the letter Long was under enormous financial pressure ... Signed in ball-point "Frank".

Photo of Lovecraft & Long Surfaces

From the ebayeum, the seller states:

Unpublished original photo of Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937) & Frank Belknap Long (1903-1981?) Most probably taken by Wilfred Blanch Talman in Brooklyn, N.Y. Summer 1931. (see Lovecraft A Biography by L Sprague DeCamp, pgs 349-350 and 3rd pg of photo section (comparison photo referenced below)
On the reverse of the photo is written in ink in an unknown hand "H.P.L. & F.B.L. photo taken in B'klyn, N.Y. ca. 1931-32.
Matted with a separate piece of coated paper with original autograph of Lovecraft dated 1924. The autograph is most probably clipped from a book from Lovecraft's library.
Photo is scallop edged with image of approx 2"x3". Both photo and autograph have been doubled matted with acid free materials and framed under glass; overall measurements approx 9"x11".
Obtained in the mid 90's from the Lin Carter estate from Lin's widow.

Images of Frank Belknap Long and HPL

While these may have been shown elsewhere, this is a rare item that epegana is auctioning. He seems to have a vast collection of Roy Squires items.

FRANK BELKNAP LONGADVERTISING FLYER WITH PHOTOS This four-page advertising flyer was issued by his wife Lyda Arco Long to help bolster author Frank Belknap Long's flagging career. Long's association with H. P. Lovecraft forms the base of the presentation as he is shown in two photographs with HPL. This was once in the collection of Roy A. Squires and Long has penned across the top "Just thought you might be interested in this brochure". An unusual piece of ephemera for your Lovecraft or Long collection!

Rare Frank Belknap Long Letter surfaces (1973)

The seller states: FRANK BELKNAP LONG TO ROY A. SQUIRES November 6, 1973 Offered here is a three-page typed letter from Arkham House writer and friend of H. P. Lovecraft - Frank Belknap Long to one of his eventual publishers, the noted fine-pressman & bookseller, Roy A. Squires. The letter revolves around a cheque from Squires to Long for copies of his Arkham House books requesting his signature to which FBL responded - "I need to give considerable thought to the inscriptions and box each shipment carefully". FBL also notes his wife's medical instability, "Lyda is not feeling at all well..." . FBL also mentions his working on a manuscript and queries that Squires "...might be interested in bringing out a small, paperbound edition of some twenty or thirty of my quite recent poems. I imagine Arkham House would be interested since Sprague's small, hardcover volume sold out so swiftly. But with the HPL book soon to be published I'm just a little reluctant to even suggest the addition of another FBL title to their mailing list." Squires did indeed later publish a handsome find press signed edition of Long's long poem - "The Marriage of Sir John de Mandeville" in 1976. FBL also comments "I've received some quite extravagant letters re: "The Horror from the Hills'. But I've always felt that book is over-written and dated." And he makes a prideful comment on receiving a very gracious letter from Ray Bradbury. Some nice Arkham House commentary.The letter is signed in ink, "Frank" and the original mailing envelope is also present.

Lovecraft's Anti-Semitism (Gerry de la Ree book)

The seller of this item states: THE OCCULT LOVECRAFT - by Lovecraft & RavenPublished by Gerry de la Ree - limited to 990 numbered copies This publication by Gerry de la Ree reproduces two previously unpublished essays by Howard Phillips Lovecraft - "The Cosmos & Religion", and "The Incantation from Red Hook" wherein HPL discusses in this five-page paper (culled from a letter) the witches cauldron of materials he used to concoct his "Incantation from Red Hook" in his story "The Horror from Red Hook". There is also an article by Frank Belknap Long telling of his looking for an apartment in the notorious "Red Hook" district and HPL's living there in 1925. Anthony Raven - magician, mentalist and Occult expert expounds upon HPL's use of magic in a ten-page article entitled "Lovecraft & Black Magic". Lastly, there is a two-page article on HPL and his anti-semitical ravings by Samuel Loveman: Loveman lived in the same building as HPL during his "Red Hook" days and when he found out after Lovecraft's death what a pronounced anti-semite he was, he burned all of HPL's correspondence and wrote this note to de la Ree..."During that period I believed Howard was a saint. Of course he wasn't. What I did not know or realize is that he was an arrant anti-semite who concealed his smouldering hatred of me... it would be impossible for me to describe the smug cloaked hypocrisy of Lovecraft. One last letter to me advocates the extinction of Jews and their exclusion from colleges".

Lovecraft to FBL Letter

H. P. Lovecraft. Autograph Letter with Great Content. First four pages of a longer letter, 5.75" x 9", n.p. [Providence, Rhode Island], Wednesday, [February 1927], to Frank Belknap Long, Marlborough-Blenheim Atlantic City, N.J. stationery, ink.
The text of the letter reads, in part:

"Young Man: -

[Symbol] [Symbol]
Y'AI 'NG'NGAH, OG THROD AI'F
YOG-SOTHOTH GEB'L-EE'H
H'EE-L'GEB YOG-SOTHOTH
F'AI THRODOG 'NGAH'NG AI'Y
UAAAH ZHRO

You don't know what these twin formulae mean? Ah, you are fortunate! Dr. Willett would give every hair of his well-trimmed white beard if he could only say the same-but God! He knows! He has seen! It all comes out on page 112 of the tale now drawing toward its close, and which I shall call either "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" or "The Madness out of Time." Like Midas of old, curs'd by the turning into a young novel of every story I begin. You will in all likelihood see neither this nor "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" till you come hither in your new shiny Essex, for the typing of MSS [manuscripts] of this length is utterly beyond the powers of a feeble old gentleman who loses interest in a tale the moment he completes it. As for South Main St. - your dollar is safe & drawing interest, & Grandpa will get to work just as soon as the weather becomes venal enough to bring energy & activity to sluggish old bones. Writer is a ridiculous institution, & I'm almost inclin'd to feel kindly toward your Mediterranean world..."

This is a fascinating letter for a number of reasons. First of all, at the opening of the letter, Lovecraft writes several lines in his Cthulhu language, invented by the author and used in many of his Cthulhu Mythos stories. "Yog Sothoth" is, in fact, an Outer God and one of "The Old Ones" in many Lovecraft stories, and first appeared in Lovecraft's story "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", which the author mentions in the beginning of this very letter. Lovecraft also mentions "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" here, as well as his friends Donald Wandrei and Clark Ashton Smith, the latter of whom Lovecraft refers to as "Klarkash-Ton."

Lovecraft also writes of Providence in this letter, always an interesting prospect from the man who once proclaimed in a letter that "I am Providence." Here, Lovecraft writes that "well, Providence has not yet begun to take a census of the rats! (Of course, our figures do include the heterogeneous Labres west of the river, but we never think of Providence except as the compact old village of rooted stock on the hill & beyond, whose straight Yankee population may be 25,000 or so. I consider Providence a village, because the only part I inhabit is truly a separate social organism descending directly from the colonial town whose picture you may have seen on the walls.) As for the inspiration of New England - well, the landscape alone is enough for any man with even half an aesthetical sense!" He talks of New York, Virginia, Carolina, Georgia, Philadelphia, and Washington. None of these cities compare in Lovecraft's mind to his own little Providence, of course, though he does describe Philadelphia as "a place in which I could almost live." High praise, indeed, from a recluse who never desired to venture far from his own doorstep for very long. At the end of his discussion of other American cities, Lovecraft's racism surfaces again when he writes: "The three last strongholds of white civilisation in the Western Hemisphere are New England, Philadelphia, & the South! God save the King!"

The majority of the third and fourth pages of this letter show Lovecraft turning his critical eyes toward modern literature and modern poetry. He discusses or mentions "poor Tom Hardy," Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Ezra Pound, H. R. Haggard, and H. G. Wells. Lovecraft eventually comes around to addressing some of the work of the letter's recipient, Frank Belknap Long: "Speaking of poetry - your 'Homer at Five & Two' is altogether delightful, & ought to be amply welcome in any standard magazine."

The recipient of this letter, just like its writer, is a legend in the field of weird fiction. Frank Belknap Long was a prolific writer of all sorts, but is most remembered for his genre career, writing horror, fantasy, and science fiction alongside Lovecraft and for decades after "the gentleman of Providence" passed away. Long even wrote several stories in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos universe, and was published on numerous occasions by Arkham House. And he was a frequent and long-standing correspondent of Lovecraft's.

The opening paragraph of this letter was excerpted as number 258 in Arkham House's Selected Letters II (p. 99), part of the legendary five-volume collection of Lovecraft's letters edited and published by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. The letter is in fine condition. Both pages have usual mailing folds and two diagonal creases. Each page also has a 2.5" to 4" circular spot of toning to the top half of the page. A fantastic letter loaded with great content, written from one legendary weird fiction writer to another. From the Robert and Diane Yaspan Collection.