454 Angell Street (1899)

More and more books are being scanned into "Da Google" so doing research and searches is getting much more rapid. Only one's imagination and theses are obstacles to unlimited discoveries.

Here is one that Chrispy just uncovered:

The Providence directory By Brown & Danforth (1889).
It doesn't show much for the Phillips, but there was one entry (link, bottom of page) on p. 443.



At this time it lists the house as 194 Angell Street.
_____

The next available issue is the 1899 directory. More is listed.
--The Providence house directory and family address book, Issue 8 (1899)



Young Howard Lovecraft (age 9) is not listed.
A little correction is needed on Chrispy's behalf. In 1899, the old Phillips homestead must have already been numbered 454 - thus Professor Appleton was actually a few blocks away (209 Angell Street). Prof. Alpheus Packard, Jr. is at 275 Angell St. with his family, but not as homewoner, but boarder.

Lovecraft mentions playing in vacant lots. It can be seen the gaps in numbering, so these may indeed be the vacant lots.

If you're interested in who the neighbors are:
(b=boards, h=house, r=rear)










_____

Link for 1889 directory.

Heirloom Lost! & Kitten

From a postcard listed in Lovecraft's Letters to barlow (O Fortunate Floridian):

{18 August 1935} Sad History! I have lost something ... the little porcelain ball on the end of my watch fob - ... initials WVP ... it is about 60 years old (i.e. circa 1875}, & was my grandfather's ... I think I lost it in St Augustine.
{20 August 1935} Haven't found my watch-fob ornament yet.

Then Lovecraft moves from that subject to K.A.T.

{18 August 1935} There is a delightful grey kitten at the old fort with whom I played a long time yesterday. Just a double handful ... {elipsis original} I call him Pablo de Menendez y Aviles, after St. Aug's founder.

What is The Beast in the Cave All About?

Lovecraft came under the influence of two powerful intellectual forces. The first was the emerging weird tale found in his dark fiction sources. He read tarzan, and ghost tales, and western mysteries, and so much else. This is not much different than kids today reading comic books, watching John Carpenter movies, or reading science fiction and horror.

He also was deeply influenced by Scinetific Adventurism. It was the rage of the Edwardian era. He lept from chemsitry, to antarctic exploration, to evolution, to astronomy, to arctic geology, and more. He wrote letters to Scinetific American, and later newspaper articles, and letters to fiction magazines that disputed scientific facts.

It is explicit that he knew Upton the astronomer, and Appleton the chemist. I propose he also knew the most famous biologist in America - Packard.

Lovecraft worked hard on this little tale, and it is significantly different than anything that came before.

I believe the first version showed a cave cat (he had just lost his cat in the 1904 move), and Packard died at the same time that his grandfather Whipple did. At least within several months of each other.

The cave cat had devolved just as Packard proposed in many published sources. Notably" "1. Change in environment from light, even partial, to twilight or total darkness, and involving diminution of food, and compensation for the loss of certain organs by the hypertrophy of others.

"2. Disuse of certain organs.

"3. Adaptation, enabling the more plastic forms to survive and perpetuate their stock.

"4. Isolation, preventing intercrossing with out-of-door forms, thus insuring the permanency of the new varieties, species, or genera.

Lovecraft is "actng out" through his weird fiction science as he knows it. It would be an ongoing theme until he died.

Lovecraft's Autograph - and more

Once again, Ebay is an extraordinary time machine. This offering should really be in a museum or at the John Hay library - but here it is for auction for about $1500.

Below, here are the Ebay reproduced images, since Ebay is obviously a fleeting moment in time. A few days, and poof !!, the images are gone for maybe a generation into a collector's hands.

{There are numerous other HPL autographed images in the archives}

The seller says:

Up for auction is a copy of one of the books from Lovecraft's library. The book, listed in the Joshi & Michaud "Lovecraft's Library: A catalogue" as item #132 which is, Joseph Butler's "The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature..." published in New Haven: A H. Maltby, 1822. Butler's book, first published in 1736, is considered a masterpiece of British theology. What influences it had on Lovecraft is subject to debate. At this point, a little history. Lovecraft's mother, Sarah Susan Phillips (Lovecraft) was the 2nd of five children of Whipple and Robie (Place) Phillips. She was born Oct.17, 1857 at the Stephen Place Jr. homestead in Foster, Rhode Island. Stephen Place was Howard Lovecraft's maternal great grandfather. What makes this book so special is that it belonged to him. Yes, this is Stephen Place's copy and is signed numerous times by him. One photo shows his name, Foster, Rhode Island and the date, 1833. It is well known that Howard had access to the vast library of Whipple and this may have been one of the first books HPL read. The reason for this statement, is that at the rear of the book on the free endpapers, someone was practicing their Greek letters using the 'Stephen Place' name as an example. It is known, Howard was familiar with Greek & Latin before he was ten. Are these his scribblings?? Don't know. Now for the 'good' stuff. The front pastedown has Lovecraft's bookplate and his special code #'s and opposite on the f.f. endpaper is his full signature and the 598 Angel St. address. His family moved to this address in 1904, when he was 13 years old. On the title page, at the top, is written, H.P. Lovecraft R.I. The last signature, also on the f.f. endpaper is that of his aunt, Annie E. Phillips Gamwell, and dated July 7, 1924. Howard was in New York during this time period, so the book now belonged to her. What a GREAT piece, and as one photo shows, there are three signatures on one page covering four generations of Lovecraft's family. The book measures 7 1/4" x 4 1/2" and is very worn. The cover is nearly detached (99%). The photos show the front & back covers as well as the gold stamped spine reading, "Butler's Analogy". A note, Lovecraft often made text corrections in books he owned. None were seen in this volume but if the greek lettering is his, WOW! Please note, that the dark areas at the bottom of the pictures are shadow, not a blackend book. Here is your chance to own a "real" piece of Lovecratian history.

10 November 1926: A Day In The Life of HPL

Lovecraft finished The Strange High House in the Midst* on 9 November. He was simultaneously writing and editing The Silver Key and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Only days before, he had beem stunned by the death of Houdini (31 October) which dashed the hopes he and C M Eddy, Jr. had of completing The Cancer of Superstition.

The previous month of October had been very busy. He took a trip with Aunt Annie Gamwell to the "ancestral home" and met many who still recalled stories of his grandfather Whipple Phillips.

Here is a copy (from ebay) of the newspaper he would have read upon rising the day after he finished writing *TSHHITM - The Providence Journal of November 10, 1926 - (24 Pages)

Dunne's Vote Cut 161; Leads Hughes by 166

Eight Injured as Fierce Storm Sweeps Over State

Deputies Approve Execution of Foes of Fascists' Chief -- Mussolini Consents to Measure and to Second Unseating All Recalcitrant Assemblymen

11 Children Killed; Storm Razes School -- Twisting Wind Strikes Suddenly Out of Sultry

Maryland Sky -- Twenty Pupils Injured; Two Negroes Dead (La Plata, Md.) {Maryland's deadliest tornado occurred at a school in La Plata on November 9, 1926. Fourteen students died at the school, and three people were killed in nearby homes. -Chrispy}

Army - Notre Dame Game Tops Saturday's Card

Providence And Brown To Join Hockey League

Canton And Roller Versatile Elevens -- Players on National League Teams Which Clash Here Armistice Day Are Accustomed to Being Shuffled About Lineup - Many Are Stars (Canton Bulldogs and Steam Rollers will play tomorrow afternoon at Providence Cycledrome)

Ads for RED GRANGE in One Minute To Play .... and other ads on Vaudeville, movies, theatre.