16 December and 22 December posts - Lovecraft's Providence is "Destroyed".
A Winter Scene of Providence.
And, soon, I am going to try to get up a number of "Phillips family" obituaries and newspaper notices. If you have a scrapbook, you will want these. They are devilishly hard to get, and I even knew what I was looking for.
If I get time over the holidays, I will type up some information about more of Lovecraft's neighbors. I even astonished myself at the hub-bub centered around 598-600 Angell Street, and even more so the startling revelations of 612 Angell Street (circa. 1880-1920).
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In trade for all of this, I would love to know if anyone has discovered the death date of Theodore W. Phillips II. I know it is at least after June 1916, and believe it to be in late 1916.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Friday, December 03, 2010
Voltaire Molesworth book: Australian Lovecraft Connection
From the blog post:
http://sswftapa.blogspot.com/2010/12/graeme-phillips-cyaegha-no-3-is-special.html
(excerpts)
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http://sswftapa.blogspot.com/2010/12/graeme-phillips-cyaegha-no-3-is-special.html
(excerpts)
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Vol(taire Molesworth) was one of Australia's pulp writers, producing sf numerous novels in the 1940's. He also wrote Lovecraftian stories.
... With the assistance of Leigh Blackmore and James Doig, Graeme Phillips has produced a highly attractive Vol Molesworth Special Issue of his zine Cyaegha.
The issue includes Molesworth's tales "Let There Be Monsters!", "Arkaroo", and "Blinded They Fly" ... Molesworth's article on Lovecraft, "A Modern Master of the Macabre", written for a 1949 issue of Arna, the literary journal of Sydney University, is included ... There is a cover portrait of Molesworth by Tom Hubble ...
A figure little-known outside of Australian wartime sf, Molesworth deserves his place in history for these ventures into Lovecraftian horror. The 64-page staple-bound booklet will certainly appeal to Lovecraftian collectors.
Available by emailing Graeme Phillips at: cyaegha@live.co.uk
See also cyaegha's webpage at: http://www.freewebs.com/batglynn/cyaegha.htm
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Lovecraft Hated Horrible Smells
I found this little - ugh - gem on Sunday afternoon on the 23 November 2010 but could not bring myself to post it before Thanksgiving.
Imagine you are Howard Lovecraft. You are sensitive to all kinds of strong smells. In fact they make you ill. Especially anything that reaks of fishiness - a type of degenerative amine smell.
Now, do you have that firmly in your mind, Horror Lover?
Now, imagine you are attending Hope Street High School, a community school with all sorts of boys, from all sorts of backgrounds. And read this complaint by the Principal of Hope Street in 1912. While it is from several years after HPL attended, the conditions were explicit, and the conditions had lingered from the earliest days of the school.
Read on ...
As principal of the Hope Street High School I beg leave to present the following report for the year ending June, 1912:
...I wish to call attention to the condition of the boys' toilet room. At the time that the school was built the style of urinals installed was antiquated. At the Classical High School, which was erected a year before the Hope Street School, the urinal system is modern and hygienic. Even in the English High School, which was built many decades ago, the system is at least sanitary. At the Hope Street School the urinals are offensive, both in odor and appearance, and a positive menace to health. The toilet room is situated opposite the lunch room, and the caterer has spoken frequently of the noisome odors that permeate the basement. Teachers notice the odors as they pass the staircase on the floor above. Even pupils complain. The principal has done his best for several years to get these conditions abated. The means he has employed have been those of applying to all committees with any kind of jurisdiction over the high schools, including the Committee on Hygiene and the City Property Committee of the City Council. I make one more plea to have these offensive conditions removed at once and a modern and sanitary system installed, preferably one with standing slate and constant flow.
Respectfully,
Charles E. Dennis, Jr.,
Principal.
Welcome to the underside of Young Howard's world.
I can only envision that the urinal was of a trough method that gravity drained to a central area, and that there was no stain-resistant or non-porous barrier. Therefore, probably only highly permeable wood and mortar formed the back-splash? Otherwise, the conditions must have been intense.
Again, imagine you are Howard Lovecraft in that environment.
Imagine you are Howard Lovecraft. You are sensitive to all kinds of strong smells. In fact they make you ill. Especially anything that reaks of fishiness - a type of degenerative amine smell.
Now, do you have that firmly in your mind, Horror Lover?
Now, imagine you are attending Hope Street High School, a community school with all sorts of boys, from all sorts of backgrounds. And read this complaint by the Principal of Hope Street in 1912. While it is from several years after HPL attended, the conditions were explicit, and the conditions had lingered from the earliest days of the school.
Read on ...
As principal of the Hope Street High School I beg leave to present the following report for the year ending June, 1912:
...I wish to call attention to the condition of the boys' toilet room. At the time that the school was built the style of urinals installed was antiquated. At the Classical High School, which was erected a year before the Hope Street School, the urinal system is modern and hygienic. Even in the English High School, which was built many decades ago, the system is at least sanitary. At the Hope Street School the urinals are offensive, both in odor and appearance, and a positive menace to health. The toilet room is situated opposite the lunch room, and the caterer has spoken frequently of the noisome odors that permeate the basement. Teachers notice the odors as they pass the staircase on the floor above. Even pupils complain. The principal has done his best for several years to get these conditions abated. The means he has employed have been those of applying to all committees with any kind of jurisdiction over the high schools, including the Committee on Hygiene and the City Property Committee of the City Council. I make one more plea to have these offensive conditions removed at once and a modern and sanitary system installed, preferably one with standing slate and constant flow.
Respectfully,
Charles E. Dennis, Jr.,
Principal.
Welcome to the underside of Young Howard's world.
I can only envision that the urinal was of a trough method that gravity drained to a central area, and that there was no stain-resistant or non-porous barrier. Therefore, probably only highly permeable wood and mortar formed the back-splash? Otherwise, the conditions must have been intense.
Again, imagine you are Howard Lovecraft in that environment.
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