00:00:05:20 - 00:00:09:15 Andrew Welcome to Voluminous the letters of H.P. Lovecraft. 00:00:09:16 - 00:00:14:15 Sean In addition to classic works of gothic horror fiction, HPL wrote thousands of fascinating letters. 00:00:14:16 - 00:00:18:23 Andrew In each episode, we'll read and discuss one of them. I'm Andrew Leman. 00:00:19:00 - 00:00:22:24 Sean And I'm Sean Branney. Together, we run the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. 00:00:23:09 - 00:00:36:05 Andrew Today's letter is longer than usual, so we're going to break it into two parts. We're going to hear the first part today. It was written just a little bit before Christmas in 1925 to his aunt, Lillian Clark. 00:00:36:21 - 00:00:39:01 Sean Well, let's hear part one. 00:00:40:16 - 00:01:00:13 Andrew My dear daughter Lillian, I was delighted to receive your epistle just as I had finished a postcard to you in acknowledgment of that marvelous map and will lose no time in translating my appreciation into a reply. Fortunately, my correspondence is well in hand just now, though heaven only knows how it will be after the arrival of the next morning mail. 00:01:00:22 - 00:01:38:02 Andrew Yesterday I wrote 50 Christmas cards stamping and mailing them before midnight. Only a few, of course, had verses and these were all brief and not very brilliant. To Sonny, I said: Precocious sir, who draws with wizardry, charm from the sky and horror from the sea, whose airy soul explores with lyric art all space and time Where beauty hath a part from fields of Fame, one moment deigneto gaze on lower realms, Whence rise inferior lays mark ancient Theobald - prosy, stiff and drear yet warm as any in his Christmas cheer. 00:01:38:02 - 00:02:03:15 Andrew The book I got for him was a symposium of modern criticism in the Modern Library series. On the flyleaf of this, I wrote: A plain old soul, Nor sharp nor analytical, seeks here in all sincerity to please A modern child, sophisticated and critical, who finds our world a wearisome disease. Take then this volume lofty and fastidious, where disillusion shakes its scornful head. Ne'er will the donor frown with glands invidious tho' deep thou study what he has not read! That last line is literally true. I couldn't be hired to wade through the confounded mess. I might have three or four years ago, but nowadays I'm too old fashioned and provincial to give a hang about critical modernity. I belong in the Thomas W Bicknell class now! But in saluting the House of Long, I did not forget the regal and temperamental Felis-tawny Aristocrat and a thoroughgoing Yankee from Maine. 00:02:34:11 - 00:03:11:08 Andrew To him, I said, Haughty sphinx, whose amber eyes hold the secrets of the skies as thou replaced in thy grace Round the chairs and chimneys Place scorn on thy patrician face Hiss not harsh, nor use thy claws on the hand that gives applause. Goodwill only doth abide in these lines at Christmastide! to Kleiner, remembering his newly practiced calligraphic art, I sent the following message: A wreath to thee whose double art can play the bard's and draftsman part and give to what thy visions trace a setting worthy of their grace. The monkish scribe beat by hand, shares envy with the poet Band. Nor will the impartial judge allow that any do as well as thou thus humble. Let us all draw near to wish our victor Christmas cheer! in writing, Sechrist I alluded to his Polynesian and African travels and to the hellish play-the Dybbuk-to which he so generously treated me last week: 00:03:35:11 - 00:04:05:01 Andrew May Polynesians skies, Thy Yuletide bless and primal gods and partly happiness. Zimbabwe's wonders, hint mysterious themes And ne'er a Dybbuk lurk to mar thy dreams. To good old Moretonius I gave some allusions to his museum business in mineral collecting: From mines, Celestial Santa digs a gem To deck your proud museum's diadem A common stone yet worthy of a place In some dark alcove or inferior case. 00:04:05:11 - 00:04:31:16 Andrew Tis Christmas cheer-swell'd livelier and greater By him, who bears it to a sage curator! And here is what greeted li'l Bimbo. Sandy: run out of slang. And far from fresh supplies. I pen this feeble message to the wise. Forgive the style and grasp the good intent. For ne'er, was Christmas cheer more truly meant! to Mrs. Miniter, who finds humor in my predilection for colonial graveyards. 00:04:31:22 - 00:04:57:12 Andrew I dispatched these lines: From distant churchyards Hear. A Yuletide groan as ghoulish. Theobald heaves his heaps of bone, each ancient slab, the festive holly wears and all the worms disclaim their earthly cares. Mayst thou, 'neath sprightlier skies no less rejoice and hail the season with exulting voice. But bless my soul, I can't expect to quote the whole mediocre assortment. 00:04:57:20 - 00:05:20:20 Andrew The foregoing are typical and show how little genuine inspiration I have in my old age. And of course, full half the cards went out without verses. So far, I've received none from those I haven't sent to. But probably I shall. Before the siege is over and she'll have to reciprocate with exclusively New Year cards. Yes, indeed. I certainly wish that you could be a Wendell heir and that you might be here for Christmas dinner. 00:05:21:02 - 00:05:43:17 Andrew Or that I could be so that. 454 Angel Street might be the home of both. And the dinner prepared by Nora or Delia. Sober, I trust. Or Sylvia. Or Jenny or Bridget under your own direction. And served by honest Delilah in proper uniform and apron. I trust your feast at the Ripley plantation will not prove a bore. Anyhow, it will save the price of a meal, which means something nowadays. 00:05:44:04 - 00:06:03:23 Andrew I shall certainly get a good few dollars worth of nourishment up at Sonny's, even though I am taking him only a 95 cent book. Thus to the poor become calculative. Yes, I will give Belknap smarmy your regards and I'm sure she will appreciate them. As for his proposed New York trip, I indeed warned her of its enormous expense. 00:06:03:23 - 00:06:25:18 Andrew But she argues that as a holiday extravagance, it is worth it. So it will probably take place unless I receive very sudden telegraphic word to the contrary. The five spot which she sent and which AEPG cashed will go well as an entertainment fund for in spite of the gratuitous ness of museums, a few car fares and cinema admission soon make an outing of this sort no cheap affair. 00:06:26:09 - 00:06:54:06 Andrew As for the matter of permanent locations, bless my soul, but S.H. would only too gladly cooperate in establishing me wherever my mind would be most tranquil and effective. What I meant by, quote, a threat of having to return to New York and quote was the matter of industrial opportunity, as exemplified in the Paterson possibility for in any lean financial state, almost any remunerative opening would constitute something which I could not, with any degree of good sense or propriety, refuse. 00:06:54:22 - 00:07:24:00 Andrew Now, if I were still in New York, I could perhaps bear such a thing with philosophical resignation. But if I were back home, I could not possibly contemplate the prospect of leaving again. Once in New England, I must be able to stick there. Thence forward scanning Boston or Providence or Salem or Portsmouth for openings. Rather than having my eyes on Manhattan or Brooklyn or Paterson, or such distant and unfamiliar realms, I may remark, incidentally, that the Paterson matter stands exactly as before. 00:07:24:00 - 00:07:47:16 Andrew The work on the museum building is held up, and until then, all expansion is in abeyance. Morton being, meanwhile, instructed to hold small displays and exhibitions in the library building. But he says the work will almost certainly begin in the spring, and at that time an assistant will almost certainly be required. So there one is. I could stand the prospect for the work itself would be congenial if I had not. 00:07:47:16 - 00:08:25:21 Andrew Meanwhile had sight of a real white man's country. But if I once saw New England again with her hilly streets leading down to the sea and her avenues of ancient elms and her clustering Gambrell roofs and her white steeples rising over century churchyards, I could never more bring myself to venture outside her confines. S.H. His attitude on all such matters is so kindly and magnanimous that any design of permanent isolation on my part would seem little short of barbaric and wholly contrary to the principles of taste which impel one to recognize and revere a devotion of the most unselfish quality and uncommon intensity. 00:08:26:15 - 00:08:55:16 Andrew I have never beheld a more admirable attitude of disinterested and solicitous regard in which each financial shortcoming of mine is accepted and condoned as soon as it has proved inevitable, and in which acquiescence is extended even to my statements, as determined by my observation of the effect of varying conditions on my nerves, that the one essential ingredient of my life is a certain amount of quiet and freedom for creative literary composition to be snatched. 00:08:55:16 - 00:09:33:19 Andrew Whether or not I am otherwise employed and whether or not it conflicts with that schedule of early hours and regularity, which a more simply industrial regime stamps is normal. A devotion which can accept this combination of incompetence and esthetic selfishness without a murmur. Contrary, though it must be to all expectations, originally entertained is assuredly a phenomenon so rare and so akin to the historic quality of saintliness that no one with the least sense of artistic proportion could possibly meet it with other than the keenest reciprocal esteem respect, admiration and affection. 00:09:34:08 - 00:10:02:15 Andrew As indeed it was met at first when manifested under less trying circumstances and with far less comprehension of the Chronicle of failure stretching ahead. It is one of the marks of an old fashioned gentleman as distinguished from the herd of crude and careless moderns that he recognizes his harmonious relationship to the pattern in which fate has set him and never ceases to live up as fully as he may to such esthetic responsibilities as may arise from his previous decisions. 00:10:03:03 - 00:10:35:04 Andrew Ineffective and injudicious I may be, but I trust I may never be in artistic or ill bred in my course of conduct. Harsh or sudden revolts and repudiation are alien to an Englishman of taste. And when one's profoundest admiration, deference and regard are elicited by the conditions one encounters, it is not difficult to follow that conservative course, which all the canons of art and all the precepts of gentle breeding map out as the only proper one, but to turn from abstractions to the concrete 00:10:35:14 - 00:11:05:14 Andrew S.H. fully endorses my design of an ultimate return to New England and herself intends to seek industrial openings in the Boston district after a time though, for the present, this second Cleveland position seems to present great advantages and to offer conditions which are unusually congenial for a thing of the sort. The remuneration is not great, but the prospects of advancement are considerable and the prevailing spirit of fairness and forbearance shown alike by management and employees is an incalculable relief. 00:11:05:14 - 00:11:31:12 Andrew After the nerve wracking friction of the former position with flashy upstart scum as employers, although even there the employees were tolerable. This hall establishment is the leading department store of Cleveland, perhaps equivalent to our Shepherd's. And so you may be assured that only the Patterson possibility holds me in New York. The slightest chance of a position in New England would bring me home at any minute with a haste almost comical to a spectator. 00:11:31:17 - 00:12:04:08 Andrew And indeed, the definite disappearance of the Patterson possibility would cause me to migrate anyhow to secure quarters near Boston and begin a systematic hunt for work through transcript advertisements much, though I hope not as vainly as I hunted in New York through times advertisements during the first year In Boston indeed, I might be able to put more inward heart, though I certainly could put no more patience and diligence into the quest for there would be around me a world to which I bear at least some semblance of relation instead of the alien desert that is the Gotham of today. 00:12:05:06 - 00:12:28:19 Andrew I'm glad you enjoyed the enclosures and the Washington booklet. Yes, the recent progress of both science and archeology is certainly staggering in the extreme, and I am avid with curiosity to learn what comes of the pro rock discoveries in the Sahara. The uncover ing of a totally unknown civilization distinct from any previously known and perhaps and to dating all others is indeed a thing to excite. 00:12:28:19 - 00:12:59:01 Andrew The keen is detention of anyone with the slightest inclination toward the strange, the weird and the ancient. I was intensely interested to hear see Chris last week when he described his own personal observations of the Great Zimbabwe ruins in Africa. Mighty walls with herringbone friezes, great monoliths in the public squares, spacious vaults with steps of well wrought stone gold mines with traces of vast shafts and sluices here, where for thousands of years only the wandering blacks grimaced and danced. 00:12:59:04 - 00:13:31:03 Andrew There was once a mighty city of miners and traders, perhaps an outpost of the Babylonian or Assyrian Empire, a colony of Morocco or Ethiopia. The dominion of the lordly Minoans or forgotten Hittites, or that distant and mysterious land of Ophir, whence the galleys of King Solomon brought gold, apes, peacocks, spices, ivory, ebony and all gum trees. Its patched and uncertain walls tell a strange story of decay repair showing less and less skill as the white man faded and mixed with the black tribes of the hinterland. 00:13:31:18 - 00:14:04:00 Andrew For some reason, commerce with the outside and northern world for the city is in Rhodesia, far down the Red Sea coast must have been cut off. Perhaps the mines gave out so far as ancient methods could reach, though modern machinery is reopening and working them now. At any rate, the city at last fell into disrepair and decay till crude heaps of stone and obeah altars tell of the white man's passing and the black long reign The jungle had come back and monkeys and negroes chattered in the ruins of temples where Solomon's captains once made sacrifice. 00:14:04:14 - 00:14:29:01 Andrew Vines choked the gates of ancient treasuries, and around the city Gates, bats and ghosts fluttered as the band Tyus chants and tom toms sounded from afar. Thus, for thousands of years, it lay. And then the white man came again. But something tells me that when future explorers excavate the site of Providence, the present Washington Bridge will not be among the enduring relics they will find. 00:14:29:05 - 00:14:49:10 Andrew Truly, it is a miserable makeshift And I agree with Mr. Williams, whose picture at it I beheld that it calls for a very early replacement. I hope a forum at once stable and artistic, will be selected and that a statue of General Washington will be set at the Providence End as John Brown set one when he built the original bridge there in 1790. 00:14:49:10 - 00:15:11:10 Andrew Point Street Bridge also needs replacement. In fact, our only decent non railway drawbridge is good old red bridge. May it have a prompt and successful convalescence. That is an admirable structure. It would bear a railway train. Yes, I noticed The spelling match winner or the graphical aptitude is usually a native gift. Some, like Paul, Jay Campbell and honest old McNeill, can never spell. 00:15:11:22 - 00:15:34:00 Andrew Probably I shall begin to slip up pretty soon, for my memory is not what it used to be. I note the revised location of Mrs. Heron and our kinfolk, but Cranston Street means much the same as only Ville to me. It is all in the unknown West that undiscovered country from whose born few travelers return and seems very remote from good old Angel Street and the ancient hill. 00:15:34:19 - 00:16:03:15 Andrew No, I didn't know that her brother of old Jerry MacGregor was a famous surgeon, Civil War veteran and accident victim in Providence. We live and learn. By this time you have seen from my letter of EPG that I not only read but cut out the Edward Arnold obituary. Too bad my mother didn't snap him up. I can see myself this minute, basking in elegant leisure at my Coventry country seat and driving into Providence now and then with a smart coach and four with liveried grooms. 00:16:04:09 - 00:16:25:21 Andrew As for the new Rhode Island book, I fairly devoured it and am yet looking at the pictures over and over again. Did you ever see those Narragansett village models in the Park Museum, which are reproduced as cuts? I never did and fancy they must be fairly new and that marvelous pictorial and historical map. I'd frame and hang it if it weren't that the key is on the other side. 00:16:26:07 - 00:16:44:18 Andrew At that though, one might copy the key. As for the arcade, I wish somebody would start some definite campaign to save it. With all this talk about the new memorial, nobody takes steps to preserve the riches we already have. I have a mind to write a letter to the Sun Journal. Glad you have a nicely curtained alcove like those. 00:16:44:18 - 00:17:07:01 Andrew You helped me to prepare. It must look delightful with the red drapery. Most unfortunately, Seacrest couldn't see the American wing. You'll recall that it closed at 4:00 last year because of lack of artificial lighting. But I never suspected that this temporary unreadiness would last all these months. It has lasted, however, and when we reached the scene at about 405 last Thursday, the wing had just closed. 00:17:07:14 - 00:17:34:04 Andrew I felt exceedingly mortified and cursed fate in English, Latin and Sanskrit. But my only hope that on some future trip, Seacrest may taste the pleasure so far denied him. His brother has just sold the ancestral home in Maryland and a fearful amount of antique material of his family seems imperiled unless he himself can take quick action. I was interested and amused by the cuttings you enclosed and edified by the timely Yuletide greeting. 00:17:34:14 - 00:17:55:20 Andrew Good old Tilly. He still plods along in his simple faith, despite the scientific leanings of earlier years. Glad his wife has such a fine new set of chimes to play on. Though I'll bet they can't beat our St Martin's in Orchard Avenue. I now hear St Ann's chimes in Clinton Street each Sunday morning and they are immeasurably inferior to the St Martin's set. 00:17:56:10 - 00:18:16:17 Andrew Times have changed since the old Brattle Street Church in Boston rejected a gift of an organ which was finally given to St John's of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and is still in use there on the ground that it was, quote, an ungodly chest of whistles, unquote. And speaking of godliness, I can fully appreciate the items on commandments and on Anonymous. 00:18:17:01 - 00:18:39:06 Andrew Yes. And the fine Yuletide First Baptist program with the good old Gib steeple. The astronomical article was very welcome. I used to see those brain in articles in the Asheville, North Carolina Gazette News. They aren't as good as Upton's, though. In 42nd Street, near the public library, a man has a telescope trained on Venus and the moon at so much a nickel, I think, per look. 00:18:39:21 - 00:18:58:17 Andrew I may patronize him just for old time's sake. I wish I had a place to use my own telescope. And speaking of the library, I've not yet given up my search for the Rowan Tree legend and hope to show you results before long. These medieval myths are multifarious and elusive and form a branch of folklore into which I have delved singularly little. 00:18:59:13 - 00:19:18:08 Andrew Yes, I am reveling in old Grimes, and I'm so glad to have the and conceptions as well as the text. I'd give anything to get hold of Hopkin's book Memories of Orton House, which seems absent from all New York libraries, though they have others of his books. About poor Eddy's tale. It certainly did achieve fame of a sort. 00:19:18:09 - 00:19:45:09 Andrew His name must have rung in tones of fiery denunciation all through the corridor and beneath the classic rotunda, if it has a rotunda of the Indiana State Capitol. But I agree that his financial laxity is something much more deserving of legal and judicial attention and wish some appeal to his adversity blunted conscience might be devised. Did they EPG tell you that she saw him looking into a Washington street shop window and placidly puffing a pipe? 00:19:45:22 - 00:20:07:13 Andrew She thinks he recognized her but didn't dare speak. Strange case, but as I just wrote a EPG on a card, I'm through with freaks and paupers and plebeians and odd fish at last. It took a long time to show one how profitless they all are. Arthur, Fred Lind, Herbert Benson, Eddy, etc. But I now see how asinine it is to bother with them. 00:20:07:21 - 00:20:34:08 Andrew They give no pleasure in the end and become an intolerable nuisance and parasitic pest. As for my diary, since yesterday's postal, I went to the library, failed to get most of the stuff I wanted and settled down to some interesting which books returning when the place closed. I did some writing and retired at midnight. Up about noon today, I did more writing and am now awaiting the arrival of Cook's friend Orton, who was due here any moment now. 00:20:34:20 - 00:20:54:24 Andrew I'll tell you what he's like in my next communication, but I feel sure he'll prove pleasant. I shall take him out to dinner at John's. As for ordering cocoa instead of coffee. I do sometimes, but they don't have it at John's Automat Chocolate is a favorite quotation of mine. And now I must pause and get the room dusted before Orton comes. 00:20:55:03 - 00:21:17:13 Andrew I hate to let anybody get a bad first impression of the place and was careful to have everything spick and span when secrets blew in. the newly cleaned windows and laundered curtains make things very pleasant just now. Indeed, at this moment, looking around the room, I can hardly realize what a poor neighborhood and house I'm in. I must seal this now, but we'll add more later and tell you what Orton's like. 00:21:18:04 - 00:21:22:15 Sean Wow. Well, you tell me what. What led you to pick this particular letter? 00:21:22:16 - 00:21:35:21 Andrew Well, I picked it at first because Lovecraft was known for writing these Christmas Eve poems to all of his friends and correspondence. So I thought, let's look for a Christmas letter. And then I started reading it. And, man, this letter is, you know. 00:21:35:22 - 00:21:45:00 Sean Yes, there's a lot of stuff stuffed in the stockings. Yeah, I'll say. Well, I guess we we should start by talking a little bit about who he's writing. So this. 00:21:45:00 - 00:22:08:08 Andrew Letter was. He started it on December 22nd. Looks a little bit before Christmas, and he's answering what is apparently a bonanza filled letter from his Aunt Lillian, which apparently contained all kinds of clippings and other goodies, Christmas presents, etc.. His aunt, Lillian Clark, was the elder of his mother's sisters. Right. And they had lived together in Providence for a while. 00:22:08:08 - 00:22:12:12 Andrew And now Lovecraft was living in New York and Aunt Lillian was still back home. 00:22:12:16 - 00:22:31:22 Sean Well, and importantly, he's living in New York because of Sonya. He is recently married and has gone off to live in the big city with his wife, who is a milliner and trying to make a go of the hat, making business in New York City. And Howard has a pretty miserable time on the whole in New York. 00:22:31:23 - 00:22:35:11 Andrew Well, and so apparently did. So anyhow, I feel pretty bad for Sonia. 00:22:35:11 - 00:22:42:08 Sean Yes, she's she's and she's definitely getting the crummy end of this deal, no doubt. This letter itself is very telling about the Lovecraft's relation. 00:22:42:09 - 00:22:46:24 Andrew We'll talk about that in a minute, I guess. Should we talk about the verses at all or just skip over them? 00:22:47:00 - 00:23:02:09 Sean It is part of this letter, so it seems to me that it's worth talking about. Sure. It seems to me that if I were writing a Christmas card to my aunt and wanted to say, Oh, I wrote to all my friends and you knew you knew Andrew and you knew Phil and you knew Daryl and I wrote them things. 00:23:02:13 - 00:23:08:08 Sean But the need to actually go and here's exactly what I said. It it seems so. 00:23:08:08 - 00:23:09:09 Andrew Well, it seems angry. 00:23:09:09 - 00:23:11:07 Sean For approval. The phrase. 00:23:11:07 - 00:23:17:10 Andrew It's like he's showing off. Absolutely. Yeah. It seems like a little boy trying to get a pat on the head. 00:23:17:11 - 00:23:22:00 Sean Yeah. Something that's absolutely. Absolutely was my read on it was it almost felt kind of needy. 00:23:22:16 - 00:23:45:00 Andrew Yeah. And, you know, he talks about how he wishes that they could have Christmas together. He clearly is, you know, homesick. And when he wrote to Lillian in particular, his letters were really full of blow by blow detail and recapitulating every one of the Christmas poems that he wrote to other people is, I think, just part of that pattern of how, you know, presumably she liked it and encouraged him. 00:23:45:00 - 00:23:49:21 Andrew I mean, I don't imagine he would have kept doing it if she said, For Christ's sake, Howard, shut up about the poems. I don't care. 00:23:50:19 - 00:23:51:20 Andrew You know, I imagine if. 00:23:51:20 - 00:23:55:07 Sean Only she had done that, his letter would have been a third slower. 00:23:55:11 - 00:24:00:20 Andrew I imagine, you know, she liked getting them. And so he probably kept going that way. 00:24:01:01 - 00:24:05:13 Sean I don't know. To what extent do you think Lillian has become a surrogate mother figure to him? 00:24:05:13 - 00:24:15:15 Andrew Well, that's sort of I mean, that's kind of an open question because in some ways, Sonya was a surrogate mother figure. He met Sonia just like six weeks after his mother died. 00:24:15:18 - 00:24:16:05 Sean Sure. 00:24:16:05 - 00:24:37:02 Andrew And, you know, plunged into a marriage that nobody would have advised. And was he trying to replace the mother figure in his life by marrying Sonia was seven years older than he was. Sonia had an adult daughter who was over 20 when Lovecraft married her. So, you know, Sonia was in some ways could be seen as a bit of a mother substitute. 00:24:37:03 - 00:24:42:22 Andrew You know, Lillian and Annie might have resented that because they were Howard's official mother's substitutes. Hang on. 00:24:42:22 - 00:24:44:14 Sean Only one mother substitute at a time. 00:24:44:18 - 00:24:51:05 Andrew I mean, Lovecraft married Sonia without even telling them it was a fait accompli. They were taken very much by surprise. 00:24:51:05 - 00:25:02:23 Sean Yeah, Perhaps not a not a short list of reasons that they weren't too keen on. Sonia. I understand she. She burned the letters that Howard had written to her. And that's so. It is a shame for guys like us who we'll never get. 00:25:02:23 - 00:25:03:08 Andrew To read the. 00:25:03:08 - 00:25:19:19 Sean Sonia letter from reading those letters, because it would have really been interesting to see how he dealt with her, because in this letter we see how he deals with her as a third person. Yeah. And boy, she's not mother figure and barely wife figure in the language that he uses here. But we'll we'll get to that comes along a little bit later so. 00:25:20:11 - 00:25:25:18 Sean So we've got this long, long set of folks all this friends including including yet. 00:25:26:01 - 00:25:30:03 Andrew Including Long's cat he even writes a Christmas poem to Long's cat. 00:25:30:18 - 00:25:34:13 Sean Did you find anything On who? Little bimbo Sandy is? 00:25:34:13 - 00:25:46:04 Andrew Yes, little bimbo. Sandy is another one of his correspondents, a guy named Albert Sandusky and Sandusky was apparently famous for in his writing for using slang. So Lovecraft's verse to him makes a. 00:25:46:04 - 00:25:48:17 Sean Little that that does help contextualize dig about. 00:25:48:17 - 00:25:51:06 Andrew This. The slang bimbo itself is a bit of slang. 00:25:51:09 - 00:26:04:09 Sean Well, and it's I was fascinated to see the number of times I've run into the word bimbo in Howard's letters. It's clearly part of his everyday vocabulary. Yeah, there there are plenty of words that are overused in the fiction, but bimbo is not one. 00:26:04:09 - 00:26:05:06 Andrew I'm not one of those. 00:26:05:21 - 00:26:20:04 Sean What about the when he's talking about wanting to be together for Christmas dinner and he goes through the whole section of Nora and Delia? She's sober and. Jenny and Bridget, you've worked out who all of these people are. 00:26:20:04 - 00:26:38:22 Andrew I've been looking for them, and it sounds like he's referring to, you know, Whipple, Philip's family servants from when he was a little boy. He sounds like he's, you know, remembering Christmases from when his grandfather was still alive. But I looked and I couldn't find any particular record of household servants by name. And the if they had, that's a lot of people. 00:26:39:03 - 00:26:40:08 Sean That's a big houseful. 00:26:40:08 - 00:26:53:06 Andrew So it doesn't I don't know. But it sure sounds like he's naming, you know, the cook and the maids from when he was a little boy growing up in his grandfather's house. And he says at the beginning of that paragraph, I wish you could be a Wendell heir. Do you know about the Wendell. 00:26:53:09 - 00:26:54:15 Sean Know something about the Wendell's. 00:26:55:00 - 00:27:00:04 Andrew The Wendell's were a crazy family of New York real estate developers. 00:27:00:06 - 00:27:03:22 Sean Oh, no. Well, let's not crazy New York real estate, right? 00:27:03:22 - 00:27:22:10 Andrew No, I know this was. This was the original crazy New York real estate developers. The brother's name was John G. Wendell the second. And he was known as the hermit of Fifth Avenue. He and his six sisters all lived in a four story Victorian mansion on Fifth Avenue, just like a block south of the site of the New York Public Library. 00:27:22:17 - 00:27:47:22 Andrew The mansion that they lived in had no electricity. It was all lit by Gaslight, a coal fired stove. They didn't have a telephone and they were in sanely wealthy. They owned like $1,000,000,000 worth of New York real estate, prime prime property. But none of them had any children and they were dying off throughout the 1920s. The last sister died in like the early 1930s and literally thousands of people crawled out of the woodwork. 00:27:47:22 - 00:27:53:15 Andrew Everybody in their brother claimed to be a Wendell heir to try to get a piece of this colossal real estate fortune. 00:27:53:23 - 00:28:20:23 Sean This paragraph, this is also where the trajectory of this letter starts to really start to really change and becomes about a lot more than just the Christmas greetings. Because I was certainly struck how, as a more or less newlywed, he refers to to Sonia and the fact that she's always S-H, you know, he's he's got these charming nicknames for Sunny is Frank Belknap Long and Morton Yes and all these other things and. 00:28:20:23 - 00:28:22:01 Andrew Then Sandy But then. 00:28:22:01 - 00:28:25:11 Sean Man it's it's downright chilly when he refers to S.H 00:28:25:11 - 00:28:48:15 Andrew Aand he refers to his own aunts by their initials. But what's super weird about the H is that he will not commit to a final initial for Sonia. She's not. She's not s h l right. And she's not s h g she's just S-H H Yeah. They got married just the year before 1924 in March. And although they lived together in New York for a time, their finances quickly deteriorated. 00:28:48:15 - 00:29:03:04 Andrew And in order to pay for things, Sonia had to take a job in Cleveland and she sort of left Lovecraft stranded in New York. And their marriage kind of never, never had a fighting chance, really, because it just got thrown off the rails from the very beginning. 00:29:03:06 - 00:29:13:13 Sean Well, it really, to me, feels like Lovecraft himself was never really, really on board with that. He kind of heated it and sort of did it and went to New York and kind of tried a little bit. 00:29:13:13 - 00:29:18:07 Andrew He seems to have had fun getting married, but he was not at all prepared for being married. 00:29:18:07 - 00:29:38:01 Sean Well, and I think the fundamental thing is, as I look at the language he uses in this letter and elsewhere, is it has nothing to do with love, Right? The word love or anything that suggests that kind of intimate, romantic relationship just just isn't there in any way, shape or form. 00:29:38:01 - 00:29:43:17 Andrew Apparently, Sonia wrote about their life together in later years, and and apparently he never, ever said, I love you. 00:29:43:20 - 00:30:01:17 Sean Yeah, he was. He was very, very restrictive. And in his expressions of affection. And I if I remember right, she describes the most affectionate thing he ever said to her was, My dear, you'll never know how much I appreciate you. I will forward. Yeah, than a dozen roses. You know, you could. 00:30:01:17 - 00:30:04:08 Andrew Tell me, I guess. I guess I'll never know if you won't tell me. 00:30:04:08 - 00:30:08:12 Sean Gee, if only you were a writer who knew 90% of the words in the dictionary. 00:30:08:12 - 00:30:15:22 Andrew Yeah. He seems to have regarded it as, you know, something he should do as an obligation, as an esthetic gesture. 00:30:15:24 - 00:30:34:24 Sean But doesn't seem to take any pleasure in actually doing it. Yeah. Being married seems to bring him very little satisfaction. In talking about Sonia, he says, I've never be held to more admirable attitude of disinterested and solicitous regard. Yeah. Wow. Sonia Date Date night at the low craft. 00:30:35:00 - 00:30:47:19 Andrew Sonia. Sonia did not have good luck. In general, her first husband was apparently a terrible man who committed suicide. Then she got stuck with Lovecraft. And then after that, she married a guy named Nathaniel Davis, who. 00:30:48:03 - 00:30:49:05 Sean Apparently that one worked out. 00:30:49:06 - 00:31:03:15 Andrew That one worked out okay. But it also didn't last very long because he passed away in 1946. Right. So she was, you know, twice widowed and once stuck with Lovecraft, who who she thought she had divorced. I mean, they agreed to an amicable divorce, but apparently the. 00:31:03:15 - 00:31:04:13 Sean Paperwork never went. 00:31:04:13 - 00:31:13:07 Andrew Lovecraft never bothered to actually sign the paperwork. So when she married her third husband, unbeknownst to herself, she was still technically married to Lovecraft. 00:31:13:07 - 00:31:43:05 Sean There is a certain color of self-awareness that shows up because he's talking about Sonia and says a devotion which can accept this combination of incompetence and esthetic selfishness without murmur. Contrary to contrary, though, it must be to all expectations. Originally entertained is assuredly a phenomenon so rare and so akin to historic quality of saintliness that no one with the least sense of artistic proportion could possibly meet it, other than with the keenest reciprocal esteem, respect, admiration and affection. 00:31:43:05 - 00:31:51:22 Sean There's just not a jot of love it made. I felt I felt really bad for her, you know? Yeah. Christmas time. It's like when you suck at being a husband and. 00:31:52:08 - 00:32:04:23 Andrew He only stays married because that's the only way he can live up to the esthetic responsibilities that arise from his previous decisions. He stays married to her because he got married to her and it would be tacky to get a divorce. 00:32:04:23 - 00:32:12:21 Sean I think that's why he never did the paperwork to finalize the divorce, because he was about, you know, again, a gentleman. It's like having a job. A gentleman just wouldn't do that. A gentleman doesn't get. 00:32:12:21 - 00:32:15:05 Andrew Oh, and then a lot of this letter is about him trying to get a job. 00:32:15:18 - 00:32:17:13 Sean Of course it is. But does he get one? 00:32:17:13 - 00:32:35:14 Andrew He doesn't get one, but he according to him, it's not for lack of trying. He's clearly, obviously already thought of moving back to Providence. Right. And clearly and Lillian's on board with that idea. And the only reason he hasn't already done it is because he might get a job next year working at the Patterson Museum. Well, and. 00:32:35:14 - 00:32:51:04 Sean I guess he's making some sort of show, I think, again, in the sense of esthetic, gentlemanly responsibilities of trying to make something work with Sonia and not just you know, immediately retreating back to the peace and safety of a nude I mean, the peace and safety of Providence. 00:32:51:21 - 00:32:57:14 Andrew Considering how saintly she has been, it would, in fact, have been really tacky for him to just bail on. 00:32:57:14 - 00:33:03:08 Sean All right. Well, we should definitely bring up Meyers. I know you're excited for it. Yes. 00:33:03:21 - 00:33:22:13 Andrew His reference to archeology and the Prorok discoveries in the Sahara, there was a guy who I had never heard of until I read this letter. And now that I know about him, I cannot believe I didn't know about him before because I am dead certain that Nate Ward and Charlie Tower and Indiana Jones all know this guy personally. 00:33:22:13 - 00:33:46:15 Andrew His name is Count Byron Khun de Prorok, and he was this amateur archeologist guy who was very much in the news in 1925, right before Lovecraft wrote this letter, Prorok and his team in North Africa had just uncovered the tomb of Tin Heenan, who was this legendary queen of the Tuaregs in The Hunger Mountain region of North Africa. 00:33:46:24 - 00:33:50:21 Andrew Prorok was a total Tomb Raider grave robber kind of guy. 00:33:50:21 - 00:33:54:02 Sean You know who he is? His belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark. 00:33:54:05 - 00:33:57:01 Andrew He is Belloq. But without Nazis. Yes. 00:33:57:12 - 00:34:01:13 Sean About the Nazis. But but he's still got he's absolutely got the dialect. I'm sure he's. 00:34:01:13 - 00:34:20:17 Andrew Absolutely belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark. He is. He's an American. He was born in Philadelphia. But as he explained to his many critics, he had been at some point adopted by his own uncle, who was a Hungarian count. So when his uncle passed away, the title of count fell to young Byron de Prorok, who. 00:34:20:17 - 00:34:25:14 Sean I'm sure he didn't want it at all. Probably made it very awkward with the other kids growing up in Philly. 00:34:26:12 - 00:34:42:17 Andrew Beaver County. Yeah, this guy Prorok was pretty dodgy and he had a lot of detractors, even at his own time, who accused him of being a total grave robber and sensationalist. And but he was, man, he was newspaper fodder for sure. And I can't believe I didn't know about him before I read this. 00:34:42:17 - 00:34:59:07 Sean Yeah, I'm right there with you. I had not heard of him beforehand, and he really is cut from a slightly Dodger cloth as Howard Carter. And yeah, the Tutankhamon guys at least in hand and body was actually returned to the Algerian government though. And yes, he's still there and he did. 00:34:59:07 - 00:35:05:05 Andrew Apparently he heard his critics and said, oh, no, it was all a horrible misunderstanding. I wasn't trying to steal anything. 00:35:05:05 - 00:35:07:04 Sean I just took the silver and gold. I let you guys the body. 00:35:07:04 - 00:35:27:13 Andrew Yeah. He ended up writing four books about his experiences. The first one was called Digging for Lost African Gods, which is a great title. It was written the year after. It was written in 1926, and then he wrote three others Mysterious Sahara. Dead men do tell Tales and in Quest of Lost Worlds in 1935. 00:35:27:21 - 00:35:29:16 Sean A bit like Jackson Elias very much. 00:35:29:16 - 00:35:37:04 Andrew He was an active member of the Adventurers Club in New York, so I'm sure he and Jackson Elias threw back whiskeys and talked about what it was like to They. 00:35:37:04 - 00:35:37:20 Sean Were good friends. 00:35:37:20 - 00:35:40:18 Andrew They were good good friends of Jackson Elias Absolutely. 00:35:40:22 - 00:35:58:20 Sean Lovecraft mentions is Ryan Seacrest, who actually was involved in archeology in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe. A lot of people don't realize that there actually is a pretty significant archeological site there that was built about 400 A.D. and occupied through most of the first millennia. But what kind of architecture does it have? 00:35:58:20 - 00:36:05:19 Andrew Is it Cyclopean? Cyclopean ? It's amazing, the echoes when he describes Zimbabwe. He could be describing the elder city. 00:36:05:19 - 00:36:06:12 Sean Yeah, he sure could. 00:36:06:12 - 00:36:13:14 Andrew I mean, it is. He clearly is drawing on Great Zimbabwe when he's describing all of these cities in his own fiction. 00:36:13:14 - 00:36:32:15 Sean Oh, we should talk about the arcade that Lovecraft mentions in the letter. It was built in 1828 and features the distinction of being the oldest indoor mall in the United States of America. But more importantly, it is currently home to Lovecraft Arts and Sciences, run by our pal Niels Hobbs. Right. 00:36:32:18 - 00:36:40:00 Andrew The man who brought you the recent incarnation of Necronomicon, the biannual festival of all things Lovecraftian in Providence, the. 00:36:40:01 - 00:37:04:05 Sean Tour de Lovecraft bicycle extravaganza. He was really a key force in modern Lovecraftian. And if you're in Providence, certainly doing a walking tour of College Hill is really great. Going out to see Lovecraft's grave at one point is really great, but we always recommend that people go by and see Lovecraft Arts and Science. Yeah, we also he brings up a committee of all Lovecraft's fellow authors who are writing weird fiction. 00:37:04:05 - 00:37:22:08 Sean Almost all of them lived somewhere else. I think Eddie was the only one who was actually a Providence guy, so he wrote a story called The Loved Dead, which was published by Weird Tales in their May, June, July issue of 1924, And it was caused quite a stir. Yeah, well, he was. 00:37:22:15 - 00:37:24:01 Andrew Lovecraft had a hand in that. 00:37:24:01 - 00:37:32:10 Sean Story, right? It's a collaboration between the two of them, Right. How much of a hand it is? Well, it depends on who you ask. Yes, but. 00:37:32:10 - 00:37:35:05 Andrew But I think Eddie was the one who got the credit for it. 00:37:35:14 - 00:37:39:07 Sean Yeah, I don't. It was never published. And he got the backlash from it and he. 00:37:39:07 - 00:37:50:07 Andrew Got the paycheck for it. Right. And apparently wasn't quick to share that money with Lovecraft because Lovecraft in this paragraph is complaining about Eddie's financial laxity. 00:37:50:07 - 00:38:12:17 Sean Yeah a couple of things happened with the Love Dead, though, because it is a story of necrophilia. And that, even for Weird tales, was a little shocking back in the 1920s, and I had a hard time finding any actual concrete details about this. But apparently that issue of Weird Tales was banned in the state of Indiana, but I couldn't find by whom or how all that was implemented. 00:38:12:17 - 00:38:16:20 Andrew It's a little muddy. The tales of its of its banning appear to have been blown up. 00:38:16:20 - 00:38:37:23 Sean I think so. I think it made it more sensational and probably sold better in Ohio and Illinois because it was banned and there. Lovecraft does ask if there is a rotunda at the Indiana State Capitol and by God there is. It was built in 1888 with German stained glass. We know this, of course, because we're often in Indianapolis to attend Gencon, which is a big gaming convention that happens there. 00:38:38:13 - 00:38:41:00 Andrew And now you can't get anything but necrophilia there. 00:38:41:16 - 00:39:12:24 Sean It's all necrophilia all the time. The relationship with Eddie is interesting because here we're seeing that he's clearly he's clearly not in Howard's favor. Yeah, he can't. Howard clearly comes back around and there's some kind of make up because I remember when we did the book on the Zealia bishop book, Lovecraft was a ghostwriter and helped her do revisions of her stories and she has a major typing jobs and Lovecraft, who desperately needed money at the time, really encouraged her to hire Eddie, who apparently was even poorer and even more destitute than Lovecraft and had. 00:39:12:24 - 00:39:14:13 Andrew And had a wife and children. Right. 00:39:14:13 - 00:39:23:19 Sean And that was that was in 1930. So in the five years between this letter and that, clearly they had made up and Howard was actually quite going out on a limb. Yeah. Hate for the Eddie. 00:39:23:19 - 00:39:42:01 Andrew He really goes to bat for later on. And it's interesting to hear how he's washing his hands of Eddie at this point and clearly comes back to him. And then we get to the end of the first part of this letter where Lovecraft is very excitedly looking forward to the appearance of this fellow Orton, a friend of Paul Cook's. 00:39:42:01 - 00:39:44:03 Sean We should probably hold off and talk about that in. 00:39:44:03 - 00:39:55:10 Andrew Thrilling part to the conclusion of the Lillian Clark Christmas letter of 1925. Well, where it will learn all about this Morton fellow? And does it turn out good or bad? I guess you'll have to wait and see. 00:39:55:10 - 00:40:02:10 Sean Oh, it's a cliffhanger. Wait and see. Don't miss the next episode. Yeah, but for now, we should move on to our signoff. 00:40:02:11 - 00:40:11:12 Andrew Our thanks today to the Brown Digital Repository for making this wonderful letter available in a gorgeous high resolution scan. 00:40:11:12 - 00:40:19:04 Sean You can prowl through their collection of digitized Lovecraft manuscripts at repository.library.brown.edu 00:40:19:14 - 00:40:22:08 Andrew I'm your obedient servant, Andrew Leman. 00:40:22:10 - 00:40:25:12 Sean And I am cordially and respectfully yours. Sean Branney. 00:40:25:22 - 00:40:29:15 Andrew You've been listening to voluminous the letters of H.P. Lovecraft. 00:40:29:15 - 00:40:32:22 Sean If you've enjoyed the show, we'd appreciate it. If you take a moment to post a review. 00:40:33:06 - 00:40:37:12 Andrew Or tell a friend, write a letter, anything at all, but spread the word about voluminous. 00:40:37:13 - 00:41:04:16 Sean Brought to you by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Come check out all we have to offer at HPLHS.org