00:00:36:03 - 00:00:38:15 Sean Welcome to Voluminous the letters of H.P. Lovecraft 00:00:38:15 - 00:00:44:24 Andrew In addition to classic works of gothic horror fiction HPL wrote thousands of fascinating letters. 00:00:44:24 - 00:00:49:18 Sean In each episode. We'll read and discuss one of them. I'm Sean Branney. 00:00:49:22 - 00:00:53:07 Andrew And I'm Andrew Leman. Together we run the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. 00:00:53:14 - 00:00:57:08 Sean So for today's letter, I've messed it all up. 00:00:57:12 - 00:00:58:07 Andrew Yes, you have. 00:00:58:20 - 00:01:00:13 Sean By picking up a parcel of letters. 00:01:00:13 - 00:01:02:19 Andrew And they're really written as postcards. 00:01:03:06 - 00:01:08:12 Sean Most of them are, but hey, we haven't spent that much time on postcards. And there's there's there's. A reason there is genius. Behind my madness, I tell you. 00:01:11:13 - 00:01:15:23 Andrew I'm sure there is. And I look forward to to hearing you describe it. 00:01:16:14 - 00:01:23:08 Sean Superb. Well, let's start out by hearing this group of letters. Okay. 00:01:23:08 - 00:01:49:11 Sean Hurrah for New England again! Have meant to write a diary letter, but have had no time. R eached our destination safely. And what a destination. Orton has hired a real colonial farmhouse of the most traditional type and conducts everything as primitively as possible. Oil lamps and candles, wood fireplace, fires, no plumbing save cold water piped from a neighboring spring, etc.. 00:01:49:20 - 00:02:14:24 Sean I have learned how to build a wood fire and have helped the neighbors boys round up a strange cow, foster blood tells. As for the scenery, it is utterly beyond description. Inimitable vistas of wild green hills, mysterious sloping forests and remote glimpses of purple peaks where strange gods dwell. I shall make the most of it during the Week I expect to be here. 00:02:14:24 - 00:02:39:06 Sean I hope to call on Goodenough soon, and also a wish to work in a trip to Athol to see good old Cook. I shall then go by motor coach to Albany over the famed Mohawk Trail, stop at the YMCA there and ultimately proceed down the Hudson towards West Shokan. There are lots of old books and Farmer's Almanacks in the attic here, and I may get some of them soon, 00:02:39:06 - 00:02:54:11 Sean since the owner has commissioned Orton to dispose of them. Vermont is a great place and I look forward to my trip with Cook in the autumn. More soon. Your affectionate nephew HPL 00:02:57:12 - 00:03:23:16 Sean Tuesday, June 12, 1928. I'll herewith endeavor to catch up with my diary. Friday noon I got a haircut and shampoo at the Parkside barbershop and caught the 502 train with Orton. It was glorious to reenter the ancient realms of New England. And when we struck real farming country towards Hartford, I was ready to emit loud cheers! I caught the merest glimpse of Hartford from the train, and night 00:03:23:16 - 00:03:49:13 Sean came on before we change cars at Springfield. Of this latter, I could glimpse only the tall illuminated tower of the celebrated Campanile. At Greenfield the train stopped for 20 minutes and I found time to scrawl some postcards with a massachusetts postmark. At length, the lights of Brattleboro appeared and the rail trip was done. We were met with a Ford owned by a neighbor and hurried out of all earthly reality 00:03:49:14 - 00:04:28:16 Sean among the vivid hills and mystic winding roads of a land unchanged for a century. Back to ancient New England! After so long and absence, I was actually by virtue of the trains route taken into no less than four New England states Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Orton's whole misery real story in a half colonial farmhouse, exquisitely situated beside a wooded brook bearing ravine on a shady mountain road, towering green slopes loom on every hand, and no artist could paint a nobler bit of a drastic loveliness. 00:04:29:03 - 00:04:59:13 Sean There is an ill, limited quality of fantasy and mystery in the beetle, in proximity of almost perpendicular cliffs, of vivid greenery from the higher peaks, views of the utmost magnificence can be obtained range on range of far off violet pinnacles, including Mount Monadnock and the hills that line the misty Connecticut. Certainly, Orton has selected the place of places to ensure the Novanglian atmosphere and background of his new family! 00:04:59:23 - 00:05:20:10 Sean He tries to duplicate the life of old time Vermont in every possible way, including the playing and singing of psalm tunes by the ancient Estey organ (made in Brattleboro) in the best room. He wears overalls and cowhide boots around the farm and surely looks the indigenous rustic to perfection. 00:05:20:22 - 00:05:22:14 Sean I have induced him to add a boot Jack and Farmer's Almanac to his array of antiques around the sitting room fireplace. The interior of the house is very colorfully furnished in every detail. Absolutely in the old farmhouse tradition, as you will see when I send the pictures. Orton took Sunday only the ground floor is finished and plastered the attic, being devoted to picturesque accumulations of cobwebs and ancient household accessories. 00:05:51:11 - 00:06:13:02 Sean Among the latter are many books which the owner of the place has commissioned Orton to sell, taking half the profits for his trouble. We are now cataloging the items in question. My room is the regular guestroom on the ground floor adjoining the best room with the Estey organ. The windows look across the road directly into an ancient wood. 00:06:13:22 - 00:06:47:16 Sean I retired in good season Friday and awake Saturday to a rainy day. In the morning, Orton and I catalog the attic books. And in the afternoon we worked on the neighboring Woodland brook, building a dam in an effort to change its course and form a small pond. In the evening. Orton sang some tunes and I wrote letters. Retiring somewhat late. Sunday, all rose in good season and Orton and I joined the Lee Boys, the neighbors, in an ultimately successful quest for a lost cow. 00:06:48:04 - 00:07:11:07 Sean Our course led through some of the most magnificent countryside imaginable, a region famous for fox hunting so that we saw many a foxes den. You will see pictures later on of many phases of this expedition. The Lee Boys are great Fox Hunters. There are four of them, and they live in the brick colonial house, which their ancestors have inhabited for five generations. 00:07:11:15 - 00:07:36:24 Sean They have sugar maples and sell sirup and sugar, and they showed me the first sap boiling sugar house I ever saw. In their modest way, they are local oracles, and I learned from them all the best mountains of a locality. Governors Mountain is the highest, and I intend to climate. Whilst Orton and I were with the Lees honest old good enough cold in person, but did not wait to see us. 00:07:37:11 - 00:08:10:03 Sean Cook, though expected, did not appear. Some guests did come, though in the person of Orton's friends, cousins from Athol - a young fellow with his wife and small son, all very pleasant, unprepossessing. The cousin helped fix the new dam after dinner. In the evening, all hands went to Brattleboro for errands and retiring was very late. Monday I rose late and spent the whole day exploring the mystic hollow and domed hills beside the house, wrote in the evening and later retired. Tuesday today 00:08:10:08 - 00:08:34:16 Sean I rose early and explored the hills. In the afternoon I walked to Brattleboro for errands. Finding scenic beauty at every turn of the winding hill road. On the return trip, I stopped in at Goodenough's and found the old boy as quaint and delightful as before. Next Sunday, Cook will visit him and we shall all assemble at the G home for a sort of amateur convention. 00:08:35:01 - 00:08:56:07 Sean Cook may take me along to Athol in his car so that my coach ride to Albany will have good old Athol as a base. Returning home from good enough so I had dinner and have been writing letters ever since. Rose Today at 9 a.m. and have planned some extensive rural hiking, perhaps including an ascent of Governor's Mountain, the highest elevation hereabouts. 00:08:56:12 - 00:09:23:22 Sean More soon, your affectionate nephew and obedient servant. HPL On front of Card. P.S. Last Friday I was in too much of a hurry to get a bulletin in New York, so save all my bulletins, beginning with Thursday, June 7th. I haven't the slightest idea of what's happening in the world. P.S. Number two I am getting some laundry done at a neighbor's so that I won't have to bother with sending it by parcel post. Hope it'll be decently laundered and ironed. 00:09:31:11 - 00:09:55:16 Sean Well, here's a brief continuation of my diary. Wednesday I was up in good season and started out to climb Governor's Mountain 1823 feet above sea level. The lower slopes were gently rising pastureland, but higher up it became very steep and thickly forested so that my climb became a perilous and perpendicular adventure, having some of the picturesque elements of fantastic nightmare. 00:09:56:06 - 00:10:20:10 Sean The summit proved to be covered with second growth trees so that I didn't get much of a view after all. I descended the other side and wandered all afternoon through the unbelievably lovely and picturesque wooded valley and brook burying forest ravines of the region. I never saw such exquisite Silvan Brooks in all my life - celestial music and crystalline loveliness! 00:10:20:23 - 00:10:47:03 Sean Some of the waterfalls are beyond description. If anything is more typical of Vermont than green Hills, it is the omnipresent multitude of marvelous, limpid brooks. Towards Sunset, I traversed some old time farmland. For Vermont is real New England still what Rhode Island was 75 or 100 years ago, and paused at the white-steepled crossroad- village of Hinesburg. 00:10:47:14 - 00:11:14:11 Sean This is an idol out of a storybook. Then back to the house for dinner and write all the evening. Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant HPL P.S. Thursday I am up and out in good season, visiting an especially fine brook, which good enough recommended to me. I am now sitting upon the bank not far from G's house. I shall go now to Brattleboro and try to climb Mt Wantastiquet 00:11:14:11 - 00:11:40:23 Sean on the New Hampshire side for The View. Then back to the house and catalog books all the evening. This will complete Thursday's diary. Let you know how I come out with the mountain. Certainly having a great time. I am writing this in His Majesty's province of New Hampshire, though it is only just across the river from Brattleboro. 00:11:41:04 - 00:12:03:21 Sean And this card will have to bear a Vermont postmark. After dropping my other card, I called on Goodenough and went to town, at once crossing over to the New Hampshire side and climbing up mount one tastic lit by a narrow, winding path. I am now on the summit where a monumental marker is situate. The view is magnificent past description. 00:12:04:05 - 00:12:30:12 Sean All of Brattleboro and half of the world besides hills, hills, hills and the interminable winding of the Connecticut. A shower halted me a moment, but only a moment. Now to descend and return to Oorton's, and catalog books for the rest of the evening. That finishes Thursday's diary. This is a great country, old New England and its most typical and unspoiled state. 00:12:30:23 - 00:12:40:16 Sean If northern Vermont is any better, as Orton claims, it must be some region. Your affectionate nephew HPL 00:12:43:18 - 00:13:05:06 Sean Greetings! I thought you'd recognize the Greenfield guard. The place is extremely pretty. As I recall from the time when I passed word by daylight with Cooke last year. Yes, I knew that Helen Gamwell is now there, and I'll at least ring the bell at 32 High Street. If I am there in any other way than on a moving vehicle. I may not have occasion to stop off there, for 00:13:05:06 - 00:13:29:23 Sean Cooke will probably take me to Athol Sunday in his motor, and when I pass through on the bus en route to Albany and Dwyer's place, there will be no opportunity for a pause. This is, I really think, the finest countryside I have ever seen. It is old New England, absolutely unspoiled and leading the same life that Rhode Island and Massachusetts laid a century ago. 00:13:30:05 - 00:13:54:18 Sean Every house contains an old Yankee family which has dwelt there for generations, and the town of Brattleboro itself is entirely old fashioned and straight American. It is our own world of the past, miraculously preserved for the present and tolerably well guaranteed for the future. Let there be no mistake. The early New England is still alive today and vigorous. 00:13:55:02 - 00:14:22:20 Sean The real change is merely a sad restriction of its area. The Brattleboro and Guilford of 1928 are the Providence and Foster of 1800. Today I am simply roaming the lovely hills and dreaming. In the afternoon I (over - on the front - continued), shall return to the Orton place and finish cataloging of some the old books and almanacs which the owner has commissioned oughtn't to sell and keep half the profits. 00:14:23:04 - 00:14:45:17 Sean I shall take my pay for this service in books where some of the items are old New England things which I would give my eye teeth for. There are also a lot of old readers at which we are going to give good old James Ferdinand Morton the first chance. In the evening I am going back to Brattleboro in a neighbor's car to meet Orton, who had to go back to New York for a while to attend to his business. 00:14:46:05 - 00:15:09:15 Sean Sunday Cook is coming up and all hands will meet at Arthur Goodenough's place. Then all aboard for Athol! Yesterday I climbed Mount Wantastiquet, across the river from Brattleboro, in New Hampshire. The view was utterly magnificent! Certainly for real scenic beauty and pristine New England rusticity, this region excels all others which I have ever seen. 00:15:10:06 - 00:15:39:24 Sean More soon. Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant HPL I am now sitting in a sunny meadow beside a brook. This is a diary letter. Show it to LDC [18 June 1928] Deerfield again! Your letter received - will answer presently. Wait till I send you the writeup Orton gave me in the local paper! Athol next Week, and then Cook is going with me in his car to see Dwyer at West Shokan. 00:15:40:11 - 00:16:07:23 Sean It's clouding up at the moment - 9 a.m - but I hope the day won't be spoilt. This place is entrancing beyond description. Here we have the vast and massive colonial houses that Vermont lacks. Massachusetts is a great old state after all. Second only to Rhode Island. More soon. Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant HPL P.S. Sky is clearing! Good! 00:16:11:13 - 00:16:31:23 Sean [June 19, 1928] Waiting for a Brattleboro bus already overdue. The day has turned out fine and sunny and I may go to Newfane, an old town northwest of Brattleboro which everyone tells me is exceedingly quaint. Readed page-proofs of "The Shuned House" yesterday. Cook is going to make a 60 page book of it by using liberal spacing and wide margins. 00:16:32:09 - 00:16:46:06 Sean He's dropped a line to Little Belknap asking him to hustle up the preface. I'm dedicating the volume to Cook. You'll see the first copy. Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant HPL. (I'll answer your letter shortly) 00:16:51:09 - 00:17:19:00 Sean Tuesday night, June 19, 1928. My dear daughter Lillian: Yours of the 14th (financially momentous date!) duly arrived - and meanwhile you have doubtless received my postals from archaick Deerfield and picturesque Greenfield. I have likewise received the additional socks, for which I am duly grateful. Holes have begun to appear in one of the new pairs - an illustration of how hard Vermont rusticity kitty is in one's clothing! 00:17:19:12 - 00:17:56:17 Sean I am certainly glad that I did not get a straw hat! The weather has, all told, been astonishingly favorable. Today is damp and unpleasant and I am riding indoors by a wood fire of my own building (for I have become astonishingly expert in Xylo Petrology) but this is the exception, as my diary amply demonstrates. The trip has been a marvelous pleasure and mental stimulation for it has brought me magically close to those basic and surviving wellsprings of early American life which we in cities, and in southern New England generally, are accustomed to regard as extinct. 00:17:56:23 - 00:18:28:23 Sean Here life has gone on in the same way since before the Revolution - the same landscaped buildings, families, occupations and modes of thought and speech. The eternal cycle of sowing and reaping, feeding and milking, planting and haying, here constitutes the very backbone of existence; and old traditions of New England simplicity govern all things from dairying to fox hunting. That Arcadian world, which we see faintly reflected in the Farmer's Almanack is here a vital and vivid actuality. 00:18:29:07 - 00:19:12:04 Sean In all truth, the people of Vermont are our contemporary ancestors! Hills and Brooks and Ancient Elms - farmhouse gables peeping over bends of the road at the crests of hills - white steeples and distant valleys at Twilight - all these lovely reliques of the old days flourish in undiminished strength and bid fair to transmit themselves for many generations into the future. To dwell amidst this concentrated old fashionedness for two weeks, seeing about one every day the low-ceiled, antique furnished rooms of a venerable farmhouse, and the limitless green reaches of planted fields, steep, stonewalled Meadows, and mystical hanging woods and brook murmurous 00:19:12:04 - 00:19:47:22 Sean valleys is to acquire such a hold on the very fundamentals of authentic Novanglianism that no amount of urban existence can counteract or dilute it. Whether you believe it or not, the rustics hereabouts actually say "caow", "daown", "araound", etc. and employ in daily speech a thousand colorful country idioms which we know only in literature. The books and almanacks in the attic - all old New England things, and in many cases having Vermont and New Hampshire imprints - contribute greatly to the general effect. 00:19:48:06 - 00:20:12:03 Sean I have selected several, as you will realise, when they arrive by parcel post. Old readers and geographies with the long s, naive books of travel, histories with curious old New England woodcuts. These are the things which fascinate me, bringing back, as they do a chapter of civilization distinctive in the extreme, and fresh in the memory of all but the youngest natives of these colonies. 00:20:12:21 - 00:20:34:06 Sean I enclose a few snapshots illustrative of my agrestick idyll. Please save these for my arrival, for Orton has lost the negatives and thus cannot get duplicates for me. Later I will send some more pictures, including some splendid views of the colonial living room and fireplace where I am now seated. I will also try and get a copy of my write up in the Brattleboro Reformer. 00:20:34:11 - 00:20:40:06 Sean Though the office has no more left. The view of Orton and myself in costumes represents us as. we were when we worked on the dam in his brook. 00:20:41:22 - 00:21:02:07 Sean In the brook. Well, I have on my shoulders is an ancient yoke employed and carrying milk pails. I am indeed sorry to hear of your lame back and hope that you will be very careful of it. Did any unusual exertion bring it on? You must guard against strenuous efforts until the effects of form restrains have had a long time to wear off. 00:21:03:01 - 00:21:31:20 Sean As to my cash, it is certainly holding out miraculously because I have had so few chances to spend it. Food, board and even transportation now and then is costing me absolute nothing so that if I do go broke, it will be on postcards. Really, it is almost incredible how events have conspired to give me a continuous travel spree at virtually no expense. And the joke is that most of the rest of the trip is likely to be just as non pecuniary. 00:21:32:05 - 00:21:49:20 Sean On Saturday, the Ortons expect to visit cousins in Athol, and I shall get a free ride in the automobile which will come to fetch them. Then Cook insists on my being his guest for a few days and then if all goes well, I shall get a free ride all the way to West Shokan in New York in Cook's car. 00:21:50:00 - 00:22:10:23 Sean Since Cook wishes to pay Bernard Dwyer a visit at the same time that I do! The southern part of the trip, of course, will demand a greater cash outlay, but it will be worth it. I shall certainly return home with a wholly new and gratifyingly, ample fund of inspiring travel impressions. As for the bulletins, do not save any 00:22:10:23 - 00:22:34:18 Sean prior to Thursday, June, seven, for I have read all before that. Do not save any New York Times prior to Sunday, June 10th. Save however, all Sunday journals and parts of Sunday journals which have not been sent me by casting out bulletins and times prior to the dates mentioned You ought to be able to conserve much space. No, I won't buy any more bulletins because I can't up here. 00:22:34:18 - 00:22:58:20 Sean Outside of Rhode Island, one can't get them except on the out of town paper stands of very large cities. I regret to hear of the mortality in Barnes Street lately, and I'm correspondingly glad to learn of the repose for prosperity of Horatio Valentine. I recall reading of his activities in the G.A.R and can imagine how he enjoyed himself Memorial Day. 00:22:58:20 - 00:23:19:03 Sean I hope you can pay him the visit, he suggests. It would be a delightful change for you. Where does he live? I assume that it's in Rhode Island. So honest. Eddy has been inquiring about Grandpa. I'm dropping him a card from Vermont. I shall be interested to see the article by Mark Green. That is a boy after my own heart. 00:23:19:12 - 00:23:41:20 Sean If I had his brains and energy, I'd roam about the world exactly as he does. Except that I'd probably stop off at Providence rather oftener. And that seems to be his custom. I trust that all the ceilings and corners at number ten will be fixed up before I return for another indefinite period of vegetation. Oy, vot a eggsbense for a poor man like Meesder Frenk! 00:23:42:05 - 00:24:09:02 Sean End by der top of diss, he should have to paint the house already. Well, if he paints the little alcove by my room, I only hope he does it while I'm away! I can imagine how busy A is. Her trip to Maine will surely complete the scattering of our family over the expanse of New England. When I get back, I'm going to make you go on some short afternoon trips, notably to Bristol and Newport. 00:24:09:23 - 00:24:33:14 Sean Now, as for my diary, I think it concluded last Friday night. Saturday Morning I was up early and accompanied Orton on a fishing trip through one of the most delightful brook-bearing forest ravines that I have ever seen. He caught 12 small trout, but I believe I enjoyed the expedition more than he; since the scenery at every turn was enough to take one's breath away. 00:24:34:01 - 00:24:57:06 Sean In the afternoon, there arrived a very welcome visitor. None other than Walter J. Coates of North Montpelier, editor of the Vermont periodical - Drift Wind - which printed my article on Vermont last winter. He had heard of my presence at Orton's and motored down with his wife a distance of some 75 or 100 miles to meet me, an honor which I surely appreciated. 00:24:57:18 - 00:25:22:05 Sean We discussed literature all the afternoon, and after dinner settled down to a fireside argument on philosophy, which lasted till 3 a.m.. At that hour, everyone retired save Orton and me, and we proceeded to the top of one of the neighboring hills to build a fire and watch the sun rise. The spectacle was glorious in the extreme, and after witnessing it, we retired for a brief snatch of rest. 00:25:22:15 - 00:25:52:03 Sean We were awaked by the arrival of good old Cook from Athol, and we surely were glad to see him. He brought Page proofs of the shunned house, which I read on the spot and let him take back and galley proofs of the new edition of that Bullen book, which I shall read very shortly. In the afternoon, all hands repaired to the Goodenough home for the Literary Conference - there being two others also present: a schoolmarm poetess named Mr. Miller, and a man from the Brattleboro Reformer named Paul Jones. 00:25:52:15 - 00:26:20:01 Sean Jones is a typical Vermont Yankee in speech and aspect, quaint and grotesque, but shrewd and kindly. Discussion was brisk and interesting and at the close good enough served a repast of typical rustic lavishness - lavishness to the point of redundancy with the usual groaning board so highly favored by country folk. Dispersal soon followed - Coates going homeward, whilst Cook adhered to the Orton party. 00:26:20:13 - 00:26:42:11 Sean I enclose an item descriptive of the conference - which please return to me for ultimate return to Orton, it being his only copy. The conference being over all hands repairded to the Orton house, and in the evening Cook took everybody for a scenic ride in his car. After that, we sat around the ancient fireplace and discussed various things, finally retiring. 00:26:43:07 - 00:27:07:18 Sean Monday morning we rose at 5 a.m. since Orton had to get to New York on an early train. Cook took him to Greenfield to get to his train and I went along as a sightseeing Passenger. After seeing both companions off toward their respective destination I took the bus for archaick and historick Deerfield; and was thereafter lost in admiring contemplation of elm-shaded antiquity. 00:27:08:09 - 00:27:33:21 Sean Returning to Greenfield, I caught the bus for Brattleboro, which went by a different route than the one taken by Cook, Orton and I on the downward trip. We had all come out the way on the west side of the river, but the bus detoured eastward to include Northfield, Mass. And Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Arriving in Brattleboro, I had hoped to make a trip to Newfane, a quaint old town to the north, but found that there was no good round trip service in the afternoon. 00:27:34:08 - 00:28:02:07 Sean Accordingly, I returned to the Orton place, took my writing materials to a neighboring hillside, and wrote letters through the late afternoon, continuing the practice after dinner and during the evening, retiring at a reasonable hour. I awake the next day to find rainy weather, hence have done nothing but write letters indoors that will complete Tuesday's diary. But I leave this epistle unfinished for a partial Wednesday entry since the rural mail does not leave until 4 p.m.. 00:28:03:03 - 00:28:23:22 Sean Wednesday rose today at 11 a.m. to find the weather still dismal but not rainy. I shall do a little writing and then set forth in quest of a tall and splendid waterfall south of here, which the Lee boys describe to me. Later, I shall return and read proofs of the second edition of that pestiferous Bullen book which Cook brought up Sunday. 00:28:24:12 - 00:28:45:16 Sean That, you will recall, is the burden which made last autumn a nightmare both in Providence and Athol. We thought we were rid of the thing, but an unexpected sale developed, and here we are tackling the same job all over again! Of course, the financial backer (Archibald Freer of Chicago) will see that we lose nothing by it. And so it goes. 00:28:45:22 - 00:29:09:15 Sean I'll conclude now and put this in the RFD box. During the rest of this week. My temporary address will remain unchanged, but it will thereafter, barring sudden changes of plan - be care of Paul Cook Box 215. Athol Mass. Cook is anxious to leave Athol nowadays and is talking of cooperating with Orton to buy adjacent farms in northern Vermont more soon. 00:29:09:21 - 00:29:38:22 Sean Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant, HPL Thursday afternoon. [21 June 1928] My dear daughter Lillian, I add this postscript to my epistle of the day before yesterday in order to enclose some material which has recently come to hand - more pictures and some newspaper material which I could not get before. You may now see what public Vermont characters my host and I are getting to be! 00:29:39:14 - 00:29:58:23 Sean You might return the cuttings to me while I am at Cook's since I want to show them to him and to Dwyer. But you can retain the snapshots if you find them interesting. If I can't get more, I'll annex these again when I get back. Oh, and by the way, you needn't hurry about returning the cuttings. Shew them to AEPG before sending them. 00:29:59:11 - 00:30:21:12 Sean As for my diary, I think I ended up with Tuesday night. Wednesday was damp and dreary, but not so bad as the day before. So I went out in the afternoon to find the woodland waterfall about which everyone had been telling me. I failed once more to locate it, but came on another fall, an artificial dam in a meadow where a mill used to be, which amply repaid my expedition. 00:30:21:22 - 00:30:48:24 Sean On the way back, I met the Lee boys with a motor truck, and they gave me a lift. After dinner, I wrote letters and returned at a reasonable hour. Today. Thursday I rose early and accompanied the Ortons into Brattleboro. They having been given a motor lift by the poetess-teacher, Miss Miller, who attended the Goodenough conference Sunday. I had hoped to make Newfane by bus, but learned that the schedule permitting return on the same day does not go into effect till July 1st. 00:30:49:13 - 00:31:11:10 Sean After this disappointing discovery, I was taken to the reformer office and introduced to Charles Crane of their staff, the Penndrifter, and he secured for me a copy of the Saturday paper with Orton's writeup, which I had been unable to obtain through regular channels. Crane is a typical Vermont Yankee and proved highly congenial. He took me over to his private office. 00:31:11:12 - 00:31:37:11 Sean He is also in the advertising business on another street and gave me many advertising booklets containing bits of Vermont local colour. Miss Miller introduced the Ortons to him and he was invited out there for dinner tonight. To which invitation I added one of my own for the evening, namely, to accompany me when I visit the eccentric artist and recluse Akeley, whom Charley Lee has promised to take me to see tonight after his chores are done. 00:31:37:22 - 00:31:58:12 Sean I'll tell you about this visit in my next diary. Crane is the person in whose special column Orton's writeup of me appeared. After my morning call on Crane, I am returned to the Orton Place, expecting to go out and search for the waterfall; but showers have so far kept me indoors writing. I am well caught up on my correspondence but have yet to read the Bullen proofs. 00:31:58:23 - 00:32:18:07 Sean Probably I'll do a lot of work on that Bullen book in Athol - for which, of course I shall receive pay from the same generous Archibald Freer who forced that $100 check on me last Christmas. P.S. Just had word over the telephone that crane can't come tonight after all. Too bad. But I shall see the hermit-artist just the same. I must finish this quickly for the postman who calls it for each day. More later. Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant HPL 00:32:32:15 - 00:32:57:17 Sean [23 June 1928] Greetings to my fellow-wanderer! We surely are spread out all over New England. On Saturday I move down to Athol and after that will come to West Schokan. I'll tell LDC not to exert herself too much, although I shall try to arrange easy trips for her - Bristol and Newport - when I get back. No need to worry about my cash! Without bills for food and lodging and with most of my transportation free, 00:32:58:00 - 00:33:18:07 Sean I'm spending virtually nothing, even my transit to where Schokan will probably be free with Cook. Better attend to all money matters with cheques. Needn't begin The weekly ones till they let you know, for I expect some more cash work to will be done while away, especially the proofreading for the second edition of the Bullen book, on which Cook and I are now busy. 00:33:18:21 - 00:33:38:02 Sean But of course the large July and August funds will be welcome. Be back by September ten, so we can take that London trip. Although about that time Cooke intends to take me on a motor ride up to Northern Vermont to see Walter J. Coates. It's a gay round! If I get up to Boothbay Harbour, I'll drop in on you. And so it goes. 00:33:38:13 - 00:34:05:22 Sean You'll hear from me often, both from the road and from archaik Providentium. When in in Athol I may make a side-trip down to North Wilbraham to see Miss Miniter, who said that she felt slighted because I didn't drop in last year when I was there. I may see Deerfield again too. More soon. Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant, HPL [on front:] Ancient farmhouse Abode of the West Brattleboro artist Burt G. Akley. Here is where I was last night - calling on a rustic artist who lives all alone and has never taken a lesson in his life. He is one of the old stock hereabouts - of the very family who used to own the house that Orton is hiring. He paints all kinds of pictures and with native skill, arguing the greatest possibilities If only he had had an artistic education. He is also a photographer of marked attainments. He paints coats of arms for all the families hereabouts - and can beat out even our young heraldic friend Talman in that field. Rainy weather has prevented me doing much work this week. Hope it will be better in Athol. LDC will send you all my diary epistles, including my write up for the local paper. Address for a week until further notice: Care of W. Paul Cook Box 215 Athol MASS. Sunday, June 24. Well, here's another diary installment written as we hop off for Athol. I last wrote Thursday as I was about to go to the artist Akeley's. At the proper time, Charley Lee called for me - on foot since the Ford was broken down and would take some time to repair. 00:35:19:07 - 00:35:43:20 Sean We walked cross-lots, thereby seeing some exquisite scenery which I would otherwise have missed. Akley - who lives alone in the ancient farmhouse shewn on the other side of this card, turned out to be a highly remarkable, rustic genius. His paintings - covering every field, but specializing in the local scenery, are of a remarkable degree of excellence; yet he has never taken a lesson in his life. 00:35:44:05 - 00:36:13:00 Sean He is Talman's equal or superior in heraldic painting, and is likewise a landscape and still-life photographer of the highest skill and taste. In other fields, too, he is a veritable jack of all trades. Through it all, he retains the primitiveness of the agrestic yeoman, and lives in unbelievable heaps and piles of disorder. About 10:00, Bill and Henry called for us in the Ford and I returned to Orton's, 00:36:13:00 - 00:36:44:10 Sean retiring early. Friday was wretchedly rainy, so I spent the time reading proofs till late afternoon, when the downpour eased up. I then took a pedestrian tour, found the lovely waterfall I had been seeking so long, and explored the sleepy hillside village of Guildford Center, whose ancient roofs and white church tower would make a delectable picture. I returned through Hinesburg, whose delicate steeple and breathless hillside vistas so deeply impressed me on a former occasion. 00:36:44:20 - 00:37:06:09 Sean After dinner, I read weird material and retired in good season. Saturday I rose at noon and read weird material. In the afternoon W. Paul Cook and his wife arrived, to stay overnight and move the Orton party down to Athol the next morning. That morning has now arrived, and I'm all packed up. We shall probably start about noon. 00:37:06:14 - 00:37:31:23 Sean The day - confound it - is abominably rainy. More later - Cook may postpone his West shokan and trip, causing changes in my itinerary. You'll hear from me soon. Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant HPL [on front, vertically in left margin] I suppose A E P G is in Maine now. I've just sent her a card to the Boothbay Harbor address she gave. [Vertically and right margin] My address for the next few days will be care of W. Paul Cook. 00:37:38:11 - 00:37:44:21 Andrew So, Sean, what what possessed you to choose a whole bunch of postcards from H.P. Lovecraft to cover this time? 00:37:44:22 - 00:37:49:01 Sean Well, I think a clever fellow like you might have been able to suss this out 00:37:49:01 - 00:37:49:08 Andrew I have a guess but 00:37:49:17 - 00:38:28:07 Sean Okay. Well, it has to do with with actual real world visits to Lovecraft Country. Yes. I've just a little less than a month ago, David Robertson and I, David Robertson, as a cinematographer and editor for the HPLHS and working on a whole other project. He and I were back in New England, and as part of our travels back there, we had cause to go to southern Vermont and we happened to visit the house that Orton had rented where Lovecraft 00:38:28:07 - 00:38:28:24 Sean Stayed with him. 00:38:29:03 - 00:38:32:24 Andrew You retraced many of the steps described in these very postcards. 00:38:33:05 - 00:38:39:18 Sean Indeed we did. And so it seemed like it would be kind of an interesting thing, having just been to these locations. 00:38:40:18 - 00:39:07:03 Sean To go back and see what Lovecraft had to say about them when he was actually there. Yeah. So what I did was pick a series of postcards and letters which he wrote during this window where he stayed. This was his second trip to Vermont, and he stayed there for two weeks. And I thought it was in yet another kind of interesting and different glimpse of Lovecraft, the man, and sort of what he's like as the vacationer. 00:39:07:21 - 00:39:37:16 Sean And his vacation in Vermont is different than a lot of his other trips, which are so antiquarian. And then he did such a terrific job of documenting the travels that I thought it would be worth sitting down and talking about. And also, he describes places where he was. But my having just physically been there too, I thought people might, you know, find it interesting to hear what's still there and what's it like to go to these places that he went to which are still extant. 00:39:37:17 - 00:39:45:13 Andrew And you and Dave took a few pictures, I think that we could maybe share so people can see what these places look like now. Yeah. 00:39:45:19 - 00:39:47:21 Sean Took a few pictures. Oh, yes. 00:39:47:22 - 00:39:51:17 Andrew Thousands upon thousands, one after another. About 24 every second. 00:39:51:18 - 00:40:14:09 Sean That's pretty much how it is. So, yeah, there, there. I think we could find a still or two that we can share, so we can document that. So I don't know, in looking at how to go at this parcel of letters and postcards, one of the the interesting challenges is, you know, so many of the times in the letters were we just have to explain, oh, it's Lovecraft writing to his friend so-and-so. 00:40:14:09 - 00:40:37:03 Sean But here there's a there's kind of a large and complicated number of people involved in this visit. So while he really most almost all these letters are just written to his Aunt Lillian. Who was sort of his principal correspondent back at home when he traveled. He's traveling with other people and talking about other people and waiting to meet other people. 00:40:37:03 - 00:40:53:09 Sean And this ended up being a crazy long road trip for Howard was on on the on the trail for weeks and weeks and weeks and going to a whole lot of different locations and staying with different friends. And most of it he did document by writing back to his beloved Aunt Lillian. 00:40:53:10 - 00:41:17:01 Andrew Well, I was at first confused when I just dove in and started reading these because you wrote it all back in New England again. And I thought, wait a minute, he he's already in New England. But it's the whole he's so excited is because Sonia has started a new hat shop in New York and has summoned him to return to New York a couple years after he got the hell out of there and was living back in Providence with Aunt Lillian. 00:41:17:08 - 00:41:32:19 Andrew Sonia says, You got to come back to New York and help me with this hat shop. And he grudgingly goes and grudgingly helps a little bit. But the minute he gets an invitation to come out to check out this farm that the Orton family has rented for the summer, Lovecraft is out of there. 00:41:32:19 - 00:41:33:14 Sean Sonia Who? 00:41:33:18 - 00:41:34:16 Andrew Sonia Who? 00:41:34:17 - 00:41:37:00 Sean By the way, honey, I need to borrow your suitcase. 00:41:37:22 - 00:41:41:19 Andrew You take mine because you have a good suitcase, and I'm going to be gone a long time. 00:41:42:00 - 00:42:12:02 Sean Because Lovecraft's own, as he describes it, is a 99 cent one basically made of papier maché. Yeah, so it's definitely better served. But I also thought that that very fact, you just mentioned was an interesting look at kind of where the Lovecraft's were at as a couple who never to hear anybody describe it, had anything rancorous, acrimonious between the two of them that, you know, they were largely living apart during their married years of 1924 to 1926. 00:42:12:03 - 00:42:21:09 Sean And then Lovecraft moves back to Providence, but not because he disliked Sonia. He disliked living in New York. Yeah. And so. 00:42:21:09 - 00:42:24:20 Andrew Yeah, she wasn't there most of the time. Anyway, she was in Cincinnati. Yeah. 00:42:24:20 - 00:42:39:03 Sean And so this kind of thing of where, you know, Sonia comes back to New York and says, Hey, Howard, I could really use a hand. And by gum, to his credit, he's, you know, he's he's right. He's right there until a better deal comes along. 00:42:39:03 - 00:42:47:24 Andrew He goes to New York, but he spends I mean, he does help her with that job. But mostly he hangs out with his old New York friends. And, yeah, it's great. 00:42:47:24 - 00:43:01:10 Sean Stuff that he likes. And yeah, you don't see a lot of pictures or a lot of info to suggest Howard's toiling away in the hat shop, gluing feathers onto the women's hats. He's, you know, putting up with it. But nonetheless, he, you know, he is there. 00:43:01:10 - 00:43:05:15 Andrew But then rest, Orton says, My family's rented this farm, come and hang out. 00:43:05:15 - 00:43:07:08 Sean And come on, it's fresh start. 00:43:07:08 - 00:43:09:18 Andrew And I mean, yeah, Mr. Dreamboat himself. 00:43:09:19 - 00:43:35:13 Sean Yeah. Sometime ago we did another episode where Lovecraft was writing from his dingy Clinton street apartment in and restaurant and came to visit. And, you know, we talked at some length about how smitten Lovecraft seems to be when he first meets Vrest Orton. And his his language is very effusive about this guy and how, you know, witty and charming and handsome and immaculately dressed and well-educated. 00:43:35:13 - 00:43:36:23 Sean And on and on and on and. 00:43:36:23 - 00:43:58:05 Sean On. And it kind of struck me as interesting that none of that quality about Vrest Orton is really expressed anywhere in this set of letters. I mean, he he seems to like him. But but that sort of crush that comes across in the earlier letters about Orton really doesn't seem to be present here at all. 00:43:58:08 - 00:44:15:07 Andrew Orton's whole family was along on this trip. The reason they rented this farm was because the Orton family was also wanting to get out of New York for a while. So Orton rented this farm and his whole family, including his mother in law and his children. And they were all there. And Lovecraft does not mention any of those people in any of these letters. 00:44:15:07 - 00:44:15:18 Andrew Really. 00:44:16:01 - 00:44:24:24 Sean He doesn't seem to mind them, but he's either off doing stuff on his own or there is some one on one stuff that he does with with Vrest. 00:44:25:05 - 00:44:33:04 Andrew But I wonder if the change in tone about Vrest may have anything to do with the fact that Vrest Family was there as well? I just don't I just I don't know. 00:44:33:04 - 00:44:56:10 Sean But I wonder he can't be as dreamy when his wife and kids are there. Exactly. Perhaps So just to give everybody, a little bit more context for the some of the cast of characters going on here. So Lovecraft is writing the bulk of these postcards. Ah, back to his Aunt Lillian, who again is to whom he narrates his life when he's off, when he's not there in person. 00:44:56:14 - 00:44:59:13 Andrew Well, she's his roommate back at home as well, so right. 00:44:59:13 - 00:45:14:22 Sean But clearly those two are super, super close because even what like when he was in New York, you know, that is really the letters where he pours out his guts are the ones that are backed out. Lillian, there are there's at least one or two there to Aunt Annie, And she is off traveling herself. 00:45:14:24 - 00:45:18:18 Andrew She's in Maine while Lovecraft's in Vermont. She's off in Maine, right? 00:45:18:20 - 00:45:49:05 Sean So Lovecraft's gone to visit Sonia in New York. Orton, who lived up in Yonkers, has now gone off for summer holiday, and says Lovecraft, come on with me. So Lovecraft and Vrest Orton and the whole rest of them during the stay outside of Brattleboro and then he's planning as soon as he finishes his stint with Orton to see his pal W. Paul Cook in Athol, Massachusetts. 00:45:49:05 - 00:45:50:13 Andrew Which is just a little bit south of. 00:45:50:13 - 00:45:59:08 Sean Brattleboro. Right. And then after W Paul Cook, he's planning to go over to West Shokan in New York. 00:45:59:09 - 00:46:01:17 Andrew Right. Which is just a little bit west of Brattleboro. 00:46:01:17 - 00:46:18:19 Sean Right. To see his pal Bernard Austin Dwyer. And then he ends up with plans to go down to further south in Massachusetts to see Edith Miniter. Right. And then he goes on to Baltimore and beyond in the great. 00:46:18:21 - 00:46:22:22 Andrew Philadelphia in Washington. He is going to make a summer vacation out. 00:46:22:22 - 00:46:25:21 Sean Of this round, round get around. Howard gets around. 00:46:25:21 - 00:46:26:10 Andrew Ye he does. 00:46:27:20 - 00:46:37:22 Sean So so that sort of the overall travel plan. And then he gets to meet a whole host of interesting locals while he's there. 00:46:38:02 - 00:46:46:20 Andrew It's a working vacation because he's got his writing kit with him and he's reading proofs and he's sending mail back and forth to editors and so forth. 00:46:46:20 - 00:46:57:02 Sean So he's also spending all day and all night, most days writing to Lillian or, you know, other other friends of his. Yeah. And it is interesting. 00:46:57:02 - 00:46:59:03 Sean There's some there's not a ton of extant crap or correspondence that's still extant from this trip, although there is our old pal, Zelia Bishop. Oh, yeah. Got a nice letter from Lovecraft, which I didn't include it in this because so much of it is overlapping and a recapitulation of the events that he's describing. But yeah, clearly, you know, and he describes himself, Oh, I stopped here to write letters. 00:47:22:21 - 00:47:27:24 Sean I stopped there to write letters. I really wanted a postmark from the U.S., from this state, from that state, whatever, because. 00:47:28:02 - 00:47:36:16 Andrew I like that he carries postcards in his pocket, too. He climbs these mountains and then writes the postcard from the top of the mountain just so he can say, I'm writing from the top of this mountain. 00:47:36:18 - 00:48:01:20 Sean Sure. And then he just seems to get quite excited about whose postmark will go on it. Oh, this. I'll get a New Hampshire stamp out of this, will get a Vermont stamp or Massachusetts stamp, because really, if if you haven't looked at a map of it, Brattleboro is in the southeast corner of Vermont. So it's the Connecticut River there is the dividing line between New Hampshire and Vermont. 00:48:01:20 - 00:48:12:01 Sean And when you're staying in Brattleboro or Guilford, you're you know, it's it's literally a stone's throw across the river and you're in the wilds of New Hampshire. 00:48:12:01 - 00:48:15:03 Andrew Or you're not far north of the Massachusetts state line as well. 00:48:15:03 - 00:48:45:24 Sean Absolutely. And one of the other kind of interesting things, again, in having recently been there and having retraced some of Lovecraft's footsteps from this trip is of course, I'm also retracing some of my own footsteps from the first when when you and I were getting ready to make the Whispering Darkness, we did our first location scouting trip back with Matt Jacobsen, who who was our local guy who took us to a number of the places we actually ended up using in the film. 00:48:46:01 - 00:49:09:24 Sean Right. And then shortly before we went to production, David Robertson and I went back and also went to these places again. And this time on this trip we were accompanied by Donovan Loucks and his wife Pam, and we've referred a few times to Donovan in addition to running HPLovecraft@com, Donovan is the go to guy for Lovecraftian geography know what you know. 00:49:10:07 - 00:49:12:01 Andrew While I was researching this letter. 00:49:12:01 - 00:49:40:08 Sean I'm sorry you wrote to him yeah yeah well Donovan so was actually literally physically with us on this trip and to his great credit, you know, he really knows these locations. He has fostered relationships with the people who are landowners in a number of these instances. So he was a fantastic guy to have, you know, with us because he really what his kind of gig as a Lovecraftian. 00:49:40:08 - 00:49:40:19 Sean Scholar. 00:49:40:19 - 00:50:08:13 Sean Is. He has through reading the letters and reading the stories, any time that there's a reference to something geographic, either fictitious or real, he has noted it in his own database. And then he spends his life, you know, going around to the different locations and either trying to find the places he hasn't found yet, photographing them, documenting them, you know, So places like the Dark Swamp, when we had a really dark swamp episode, Donovan the guy who really knows that. 00:50:08:13 - 00:50:26:21 Sean So we had interviewed him for this other project that we're doing and then said, Hey, we're going to be up in southern Vermont. Would you and Pam like to come along? And he was all over that. So so we went there together, and without his help, it would have been it would have been a very different trip. And not remotely as rewarding. 00:50:26:21 - 00:50:27:09 Sean So, yeah. 00:50:27:09 - 00:50:32:06 Andrew You would have seen things from outside, but not Donovan. Loucks His presence can literally open doors. 00:50:32:06 - 00:50:35:07 Sean Well, like I said, the key thing is he's. 00:50:35:07 - 00:50:36:07 Sean You know, if you. 00:50:36:07 - 00:51:01:14 Sean Do do your research, you can find where these places are. But he had already done that research, you know, years ago, already had relationships with the people at the property and that made it, you know, gave us the opportunity. Yeah. To actually go inside and sit in the rooms where Lovecraft and and Vrest Orton didn't spend the time during those weeks and if you've never been to Vermont it promotes a lovely place. 00:51:01:14 - 00:51:20:19 Sean It's really it's really very pretty on on this particular trip. You know, we spent a couple days down in southern Vermont and then were up in way northern Vermont, too, you know, and with the mountains in the summertime. And it's green and it's lush. And, you know, when we're in California, where the summertime means it's it's hot, dry and dusty. 00:51:20:19 - 00:51:28:05 Sean So it was this was very pleasant to, you know, be in this world. And sorry where I was going several minutes ago for about 00:51:28:05 - 00:51:28:18 Sean Donovan. 00:51:29:10 - 00:51:54:19 Sean And the fact that we'd been there before, as of course, we had been there twice on scouting trips and then were actually we spent a week really in these exact same stomping grounds because half our crew was housed in on the Vermont side of the border and half our crew was over on the New Hampshire side of the border, and we shot a bunch of whisperer exteriors in New Hampshire, a bunch of other ones were in Vermont. 00:51:55:01 - 00:52:14:01 Sean So this was it was really a trip down memory lane to go back to some of these places, including, you know, we went up to the West River to make it back to Jamaica State Park, which the opening shot from The Whisperer in Darkness is, you know, a farmer wading through the river and he's waiting in the West River. 00:52:14:01 - 00:52:20:16 Sean And so we went back to the actual location where we had shot that we took Donovan and Pam up there. And were there. 00:52:20:16 - 00:52:22:13 Andrew Any mysterious bodies floating in the water? 00:52:22:13 - 00:52:44:23 Sean Tons of them, which of course, you know, one of the one of the goofy things was there had just the week before we went on this trip, there was record flooding in southern Vermont. And in. You remember going to Bellows Falls? Yes. The train station shot at one of the train station shots in Whistler was done at Bellows Falls. 00:52:45:02 - 00:53:10:02 Sean And there were, you know, two feet of water in the main streets of Bellows Falls that these, you know, summer rains absolutely dumped. Yeah. Up there. So anyway, it was the whole there's a whole collision of factors here. And part of it was the nostalgia of going back to where we had filmed Whisper. And then part of it was to look in greater detail at what what Lovecraft actually had to say about his time up there. 00:53:10:11 - 00:53:33:09 Andrew Cool. Now I, after reading these postcards and his, his lush, I mean, right off the bat and the very first one where he's talking about I circled this foster blood tells he's so proud of being there because he feels, you know this is he feels like he's traveling back in time when he goes to Vermont. You know, this is this is the 18th century, just exactly as it used to be. 00:53:33:09 - 00:53:51:02 Andrew And I fit right in because I am from this thing. And I kind of expected your eyes to roll so far to the back of your head. I'd have to hit you to get them to look front again. But did you have that reaction this time? Because often you find his his rhapsodizing about the agrarian lifestyle quite irritating. 00:53:51:17 - 00:54:24:01 Sean Some sometimes I do. But there was a different thread that in this, which was a lot of how he spent his time in Vermont was less of the obnoxious plantation owner smugly sitting on the patio, drinking iced tea, watching other people sweat and toil. And here we get H.P. Lovecraft, The Mountain Man, which I also thought was a fascinating contradiction for all the people who perceive Lovecraft as this sort of queasy, sickly, never go outdoors kind of Guy that he's like, I climbed a mountain today, I'm going to climb. 00:54:26:14 - 00:54:32:09 Sean Another mountain tomorrow, I'm going to go light fires. I, I built a dam and changed the course of a brook. And he's so physically active and engaged that that that kind of quality. It didn't have the classist thing. And that's one of the things that really drives me nuts is about Lovecraft, is his lack of empathy for anybody who's not in the ruling class. And here there's really very little of that. It's it's oh, this is what New England used to look like in the good old days and where men were men. 00:55:00:22 - 00:55:03:12 Sean And we could go out and light fires. 00:55:03:12 - 00:55:04:11 Andrew Round up cows. 00:55:04:11 - 00:55:29:16 Sean And roundup cows and yeah, it's sort of, it's like a New Englander dude ranch, you know. And he's having fun with it all. Yeah. And I think that the landscape really fired his imagination to that, that you know him the way he imagined himself as an 18th century gentleman. And, you know, the sort of the landscape with that barely has the stain of man upon it. 00:55:29:16 - 00:55:50:00 Andrew Yeah. It is interesting how to hear him describe, you know, how this country is a total throwback to colonial days. And everybody here lives just the way our ancestors lived in 1800. And he really that makes a huge impression on him. And it occurred to me that it's like this has happened to me a million times, especially when we're, you know, playing Call of Cthulhu lives or something. 00:55:50:04 - 00:56:08:10 Andrew Your brain edits out, , you can look at a scene and your brain just ignores the telephone poles and the wires and the trucks, and all you see is the romantic version. But then if you if you took a photo, then later you look at the photo and all you can see is the telephone wires and all this stuff. 00:56:08:10 - 00:56:26:19 Andrew So it's like, I know that Lovecraft saw it that way, but at the same time, of course, it was 1928, they had a telephone. It was a modern city. It is you know, it's rural Vermont. Yes. But, you know, it's fully electrified. It's a it's a fully functioning 20th century place. 00:56:26:19 - 00:56:28:01 Sean Well, although you know, back. 00:56:28:01 - 00:56:47:03 Sean When he was there, certainly at the house that Orton had rented, you know, there is one pipe that brings cold water in. He doesn't make reference to it, but I'm sure there's no indoor plumbing in that house. And it is, I think, a good bit literally more rustic than than life in Providence is. 00:56:47:06 - 00:57:06:11 Andrew But then later in one of these things, he says, Oh, I found out by telephone that, you know, this guy is not coming. So it didn't have indoor plumbing, but somewhere there was a telephone. I mean, he was able to talk to people on the phone while he was there. So it is this mix that he's he's choosing to see the parts that he loves and he's conveniently ignoring the parts that that are very 20th century. 00:57:06:11 - 00:57:09:10 Andrew It's just interesting. I'm not it just because it's happened to me. 00:57:09:10 - 00:57:10:12 Sean Oh, sure, sure. 00:57:10:15 - 00:57:20:13 Andrew I get the same kick out of imagining that it's 1927. As he gets out of imagining that it's 1800. So I totally relate to his point of view. It's just fun to think about. Yeah. 00:57:21:00 - 00:58:01:14 Sean And, you know, having just been there, you know, it still dirt roads around there. Yeah. You know. Yeah. All the houses have, they have wi fi, they have electricity and things but where the, the house that Orton rented is really is spectacular. Yeah. And you can see why Lovecraft really goes off about it. It's not pure exaggeration, you know, it's a house that sits, the house is just off the road, but it sits up relatively high on a bluff and then it falls down to a big low meadow that the stream that he ended up making a dam through, you know, still runs through it. 00:58:01:14 - 00:58:24:18 Sean So in New England, the foliage is pretty dense. You know, it's it's very forested. And even here in the mountains in these are the green mountains in southern Vermont, you know, there's lots and lots of trees, but this big open meadow or pasture that sits below the house where the stream runs through creates this huge, you know, just picturesque opening. 00:58:24:18 - 00:58:53:11 Sean It's the kind of place that, you know, a painter would, you know, right there on that property could just simply go to town. So in terms of the property, I'm not going to say where it is. And that's out of a desire to protect the privacy of the woman who actually lives there now. because Lovecraftian privacy is an issue as she she started out as soon as we walked in the door, she did. 00:58:53:11 - 00:59:13:14 Sean She turned to Donovan. It was like, were you one of the guys who was camping down in the meadow? And I was like, Oh, no, that was that was Burleson. Or, you know, there have been no shortage over the years that she and her family have lived there of well-intended And, you know, nobody was, you know, a ne'er do well. 00:59:13:14 - 00:59:35:14 Sean But but Lovecraft scholars wanting to come and convene with, you know, the house that Lovecraft stayed in for two weeks and which was clearly a foundational inspiration for The Whisperer in Darkness or but apparently, you know, I think just the summer before, a group of six Germans had shown up and pitched a tent right next to a barn. 00:59:35:20 - 00:59:50:01 Sean And they were, you know, Lovecraft enthusiasts. And, you know, if she tries to be polite but doesn't really want, you know, people, people camping at her house, the nerds really didn't want anyone camping in her house, but not for nerds, you know. 00:59:51:11 - 00:59:53:10 Sean So the house itself. 00:59:53:12 - 01:00:19:00 Sean Has been substantially reworked since the time that Lovecraft was there and made bigger in almost every possible direction. A garage has been added to it. The roof has been lifted. So the attic where Orton and Lovecraft were in your reading books in the original design of the house would have been, you know, an attic with no windows and, you know, steep low ceilings and things. 01:00:19:00 - 01:00:38:10 Sean But because they've lifted the roof, they were able to add three bedrooms up above the main house and put in some dormer windows and all that. And then as part of that addition, they built a garage on one side of it and then they added an extra room on one side of it. So the house has grown both up and out. 01:00:38:13 - 01:01:00:23 Sean Mm hmm. In two directions. But that said, the core of the house is really pretty fantastic. That's the kitchen. And then the dining room. And the room where she's pretty sure that Lovecraft talking about was was his room, which is just off of the dining room. That may have been where the organ was. It's hard to, I. 01:01:00:24 - 01:01:06:12 Andrew Think the longer the in Lovecraft there the organ is in the sitting room and his his guest room is next to that. 01:01:06:12 - 01:01:23:01 Sean Yeah. It's hard to know what what the sitting room meant to him though and whether and whether the room that's currently a dining room was a dining room at that point in time because it has it has a huge, massive fireplace in it and one that's double sided. So it serves. 01:01:23:02 - 01:01:23:11 Andrew Oh cool. 01:01:23:12 - 01:01:30:04 Sean The room that it's in and the room is hexagonal shaped, which is really unusual. And that room has no electricity in it. 01:01:30:04 - 01:01:49:20 Andrew Right. Well, this organ must have been a foot powered. The bellows must have been powered by, you know, you had to pump it with your feet. I think the organ Lovecraft describes as the organs were built right there in Brattleboro. Yeah, that's like one of the big it was one of the big companies in the town at the time and had been around since the late 1800s. 01:01:49:20 - 01:01:53:05 Andrew So, yeah, organs were a big deal back at back then. 01:01:53:06 - 01:02:17:17 Sean Yeah. Yeah. And it was interesting to picture, you know the spending the nights with with all of us sitting around singing Psalms and whatever the kitchen in the house is. It's been electrified and has hot and cold water now, you know, it's got all the slush, it's got all the houses has really very they did a very nice job in in doing the additions and fixing it up. 01:02:17:17 - 01:02:41:22 Sean But because the old beams and ceiling lights and things like that, you can very much feel the right nature of the old parts of the house and the newer parts of the house. And the kitchen is one of the old parts of the house. And it's it's pretty cool to sit in there because it's big enough that it's got, you know, kind of a kitchen table in it as well as, you know, the the the counters and things, you know, where food prep and all that sort of thing is done. 01:02:41:22 - 01:02:46:19 Sean But there are these big, heavy low beams that are in there. And and it has a sort of. 01:02:47:18 - 01:02:48:21 Sean Almost a hobbit hole. 01:02:48:21 - 01:03:12:14 Sean Kind of coziness to its. Yeah, yeah. That was really very, very pleasing. And then right next to it is this hexagonal shaped again right now it's a it's a dining room and when she was she was telling us the homeowner was when they entertain their it's all done by natural light so they light their light oil lamps that go through it. 01:03:12:14 - 01:03:13:24 Sean And so you can also you. 01:03:13:24 - 01:03:18:04 Andrew Can get the Lovecraft vibe, you can get the feel for how Lovecraft spent his time there. 01:03:18:04 - 01:03:50:17 Sean Big, big time. Yeah. And then, you know, going outside, it's an easy wander down across this meadow to the the little brook that they dammed up and the neighbor's house. I don't I didn't get into the specific geography of where the little boy is lived. All right. If the next house was theirs, then or not. But yeah, certainly going there you very much get a feel for wow, what it must have been like and this kind of the house must have been incredibly for because it had all these people and Oh yeah yeah. 01:03:50:17 - 01:03:56:21 Sean And there were not a lot of three extra bedroom bedrooms. Yeah. So I'm not sure what the sleeping arrangements were, but to. 01:03:56:21 - 01:04:00:21 Andrew Give Lovecraft his own private guest room on the ground floor was, was a pretty generous act. 01:04:00:21 - 01:04:24:04 Sean Yeah, exactly. Because I think it means you got like seven Ortons that are piled up in the in the next room. I don't know how that worked but they also you know he I think he he's able to speak pretty candidly to Lillian and doesn't seem to have, you know, the slim he's not like, boy, is it snug in here or oh God got outside to get away from all the people or whatever. 01:04:24:04 - 01:04:27:09 Sean It seems a very idyllic kind of getaway. 01:04:27:09 - 01:04:29:19 Andrew And he seems to have had the time of his life. 01:04:29:20 - 01:04:51:21 Sean Yeah. And enjoying conversation with people and then doing outings with Orton and just going off to go do things by himself. He loves the agrarian charm of his you brought up looking for the cows with the neighbor boys and, you know, getting to be a country squire for, for a couple of days I think was really an enjoyable role for him. 01:04:51:21 - 01:05:02:07 Andrew And apparently they took a ton of photographs, at least a few of which survive because there is that famous photo of him with the with the milkmaid photo, with him with that yoke of pails over his shoulders. 01:05:02:07 - 01:05:04:02 Sean Yeah. And with the knee socks on. 01:05:04:02 - 01:05:23:16 Andrew Yeah. And the cardigan and standing next of restaurant. Whoo hoo. Anyway, standing next to the restaurant. Oh, go there. Come on. Don't be just going to take the shine. The photo rest does not cut the dramatic figure in the photo that that he clearly cut in Lovecraft's imagination. 01:05:23:16 - 01:05:34:02 Sean Well, perhaps it's that romanticism. Yeah. That you were mentioning before that that allows Lovecraft to repaint him in a slightly different light than than the he called reality of a Kodak. 01:05:34:02 - 01:05:41:10 Andrew Yeah. So we'll put up some of those photos, too, so listeners can see some of the photos that Lovecraft was sending back to. 01:05:41:10 - 01:05:56:12 Sean And yeah, we'll put up some photos that we took of the property so people can can get an idea of what it looks like now. I know what things that tickled me was the suggestion that Lovecraft appears to be mailing is laundry home. 01:05:56:12 - 01:06:16:21 Andrew Yeah there and the whole newspaper situation and the laundry thing, it's like Lovecraft is, well, he's got Sonia's good suitcase, so he's probably got more clothes with him than he normally would. And apparently when they get just to dirty ships, come back to Providence for Aunt Lillian to wash and then mail back to him, I guess. 01:06:17:04 - 01:06:20:12 Sean Apparently so, yeah. No. And she got him some new socks. Yeah. 01:06:20:12 - 01:06:28:20 Andrew And apparently he the trip was so hard on his clothes with all this mountain climbing in suits that he had to actually go buy a new suit while he was on this trip as well. 01:06:28:20 - 01:06:48:09 Sean So I, for one, was wondering about his footwear because I picture him as a loafer or wingtip kind of guy. I don't know. I don't really ever recall him speaking in much detail. But he certainly, you know, he does mention of rest in having cowhide boots. Yes. Which clearly suggest he does not. And he's doing a lot of scrambling around. 01:06:48:09 - 01:06:51:00 Sean I was like, wow, that's going to be rough on your Providence dress shoes. 01:06:51:00 - 01:06:52:03 Andrew And your ankles. 01:06:52:08 - 01:06:53:10 Sean And your ankles. Sure. 01:06:54:03 - 01:07:18:22 Andrew I was. There's a mention in in this postcard here about where he describes, oh, in the morning I climb governor's mountain 1823 feet above sea level. And then later that afternoon, he finds himself in this village of Hinesburg. And not having recently been there myself, I had to go look at the map to see. And I. I was very confused for a while because I said I. 01:07:18:23 - 01:07:21:12 Andrew Hinesburg is 100 miles, 150. 01:07:21:12 - 01:07:22:07 Sean Miles north. 01:07:22:07 - 01:07:39:16 Andrew Brattleboro. So this story is not adding up. How did he get from Governor's Mountain to Hinesburg and back in the same day? This is when I turned to our friend Donovan and said, Donovan, can you clear this up? He doesn't mention having caught a bus or getting a lift from anyone. There's no way he could have walked it. 01:07:39:21 - 01:08:09:08 Andrew And Donovan instantly cleared it all up for me by revealing that there was a little village within the town of Gilford called Hinesburg, which was just at the intersection of Hale and Hinesburg Roads. And there was a little church just south of that intersection, and that is the Hinesburg that Lovecraft was referring to. The the city of Hinesburg, which is 100 miles north of there was not part of his itinerary yet, but until Donovan cleared it up for me, I was I was thinking, wait a minute. 01:08:09:15 - 01:08:11:19 Andrew The story does not make any sense at all. 01:08:11:24 - 01:08:16:02 Sean In addition to the laundry thing to Aunt Lillian. And something else that I thought was interesting is he. 01:08:16:02 - 01:08:18:01 Sean Makes this very. 01:08:18:01 - 01:08:46:17 Sean Formal designation between something which is part of the diary and something which is not. Yeah. And it made me wonder if if all his official diary letters were supposed to be kept in Lillian's diary folder or some other collection, because otherwise it seemed sort of crazy that he would make that distinction, that this is a diary letter and therefore this postcard is apparently just a postcard. 01:08:46:17 - 01:09:05:20 Sean And, you know, and that he is anticipate in the diary materials will be shared with that and as well. Right. So I don't think I had ever run into any other place in his correspondence where he's to to clarify this missive is officially diary. 01:09:05:20 - 01:09:25:14 Andrew And I don't know whether I'm probably other people do, but I don't know whether the diary letters were intended. You know, Was Lillian the official keeper of H.P. Lovecraft's diary? I mean, normally a person write who writes a diary is writing it for themselves, and it's a private document. He's clearly writing them and sending them to Aunt Lillian. 01:09:25:14 - 01:09:40:11 Andrew And I wonder whether it was with the expectation that she would save all these things and make a permanent document out of it. Or, you know, is he using the word diary in a slightly different way than I might use the word diary? I mean. 01:09:40:11 - 01:10:02:07 Sean Well, I think I think you're absolutely right that for most people, a diary is a personal thing. And it's not only what I you know, what I did on a given day, but it's also, you know, how how I thought and a reflection of one's emotional life. Yet Lovecraft put so little of his emotional life. You know, it's the you know, the activities and the architecture is what he wants to document. 01:10:02:07 - 01:10:21:14 Sean And I think would have known. Again, he encourages Lillian to share it with Annie. So so clearly, you know, there's nothing private about it. But I suspect that at some, even if it's not a formal agreement, that somehow Lillian has has taken up the mantle of being the keeper of Howard's diary. 01:10:21:14 - 01:10:36:06 Andrew Yeah. I just wonder if Lovecraft intended them to be kept and made permanent or if he's just if if all he means by diary is this is just the checklist of what I did today. Not necessarily. This is intended to be a permanent record of my activity. 01:10:36:11 - 01:10:38:16 Sean Well, it's also, you. 01:10:38:16 - 01:10:50:19 Sean Know, interesting you talk about permanent records of his activity because he then, you know, he he wrote all these letters and postcards, some of again, he designates as diary. But then he went back and wrote an essay, a. 01:10:50:19 - 01:10:51:24 Andrew Very good and long one. 01:10:52:03 - 01:11:07:07 Sean Essay about his travels. And I wonder if the diary was as the primary source document for him to refer to when he goes to try and write something formal, like his descriptive observations on several parts of America. 01:11:07:07 - 01:11:09:03 Andrew Yeah. Which was this like. 01:11:09:09 - 01:11:11:10 Sean The 17 1728 edition? 01:11:11:10 - 01:11:32:15 Andrew Yeah. That he deliberately wrote in this archaic style. It's a very charming and nice essay, but you may well be right that the diary letters just served as a reminder to himself of all the stuff that he did, so that when he writes this travelog, which was itself written basically as an open letter to James F Morton that he expected other people to read, write. 01:11:32:15 - 01:11:43:10 Andrew You know, he didn't write that for publication. He wrote it for Private distribution among the people he presumed would be interested. But yeah, maybe he's using the diary letters as just data collection. 01:11:43:23 - 01:11:44:13 Sean So out Of the trip, one of the big outcomes of it, or I. 01:11:49:12 - 01:11:50:13 Sean Guess not outcome, I don't know. 01:11:50:13 - 01:12:09:09 Sean One of the big events of it was the gathering of literary people. Yes. And, and Lovecraft gets an opportunity to meet some of the other writers and thinkers of the area at a big get together at the Goodenough house. 01:12:09:09 - 01:12:09:24 Andrew Yes. 01:12:10:17 - 01:12:42:00 Sean Which happens to be another place that David Robertson and Pam and Donovan Locks and I visited when we were back there a couple of weeks ago. And I had assumed that we were you know, we're driving around these dirt roads back, you know, behind Guilford were in the country of a relatively rural part of the United States. And but we'd pull up in the driveway and see, you know, this house, which is 200 and thought old and just thought, you know, we pull up, grab a couple of shots of it and get on our way. 01:12:42:24 - 01:13:10:06 Sean But but it turned out to be a very different kind of experience that we had there. And what's going on there is is actually pretty interesting. So as we were getting out of the car and setting up tripods and things to take little bit of footage, a man comes out of the basement level with a wheelbarrow full of dirt and we all sit across the property and goes and dumps it out, you know, and we wave hello and and went over and had a chance to talk with him. 01:13:10:23 - 01:13:38:13 Sean So it turns out the House has had a pretty interesting history since then. And it is currently in a conservatorship as a historic property and as such is in a state of restoration. So it's a great big farmhouse to when we went there, I was expecting, I think farmhouse, I think Little House on the Prairie, very compact kind of thing. 01:13:38:13 - 01:14:08:01 Sean Cabin. Yeah. This is a this is a big house, particularly vertically, which is not just shows my ignorance. I didn't expect it to have so much height. Anyway, the caretaker who's there and is a stonemason and doing work in the foundation. One of the tricky things in New England when you have historic properties is a lot of times they are using the actual rock of the earth. 01:14:08:11 - 01:14:36:21 Sean The foundation connects to it, which is a very solid and firm way to do things. But you have perennial moisture problems and one of the goals of the foundation then is to try and keep the moisture of that comes with the rocks that are in earth away from the rocks that are holding up the base of the building so it doesn't get in and rot out all the wood, which is I apparently an enormous challenge in that part of the world. 01:14:37:05 - 01:14:58:12 Sean So the House has gone into a conservatorship and a trust, a now owns the actual property, and they are in the process of trying to both do the necessary upkeep so it doesn't fall down and do a full restoration. But it was It was one of these. 01:15:00:13 - 01:15:25:10 Sean Charming and kind of heartbreaking things, too, to be there, because the amount of work needed on this great big property was is massive and not it hasn't fallen into ruin. And, you know, we were able to tour and go through the whole place and it's in a pretty remarkable state of preservation. Yet it's also in a part of the world where harsh winters and, you know, you're constantly fighting the ravages of time. 01:15:25:17 - 01:15:45:18 Sean And there's one poor part time guy who's a volunteer who was, you know, in there with the wheelbarrow, trying to get damp soil outside as part of doing this whole restoration. So he took a lot of time and showed us all around the place. And it really is pretty fantastic because, you know, Lovecraft himself was there. There's photos of Lovecraft there. 01:15:45:24 - 01:16:14:15 Sean Lovecraft met with the literary people there. Arthur Goodnough was the host there. And so the nonprofit is currently trying to generate funds to help just have enough money to the stuff they need and pay the workers they need and all this kind of stuff. They're not yet set up really to accept donations, but that's in the work and the works, and they anticipate that soon they'll have. 01:16:14:15 - 01:16:40:17 Sean I was talking with him about, you know, putting in a Go fund me page so that if we could make it easy for people to chip in a few bucks to help the thing, I suspect there's a lot of people from our community in the Lovecraft world who would like a building like this to to remain and be preserved, because when you go inside it, you know, there's a lot of furniture from the early 19th century in there. 01:16:40:17 - 01:17:01:18 Sean The I said it goes up and up and up to the basement level where where, you know, he was working was really used as a cellar and cold storage for the house. But then up on the ground floor, there is a restored bedroom and the restored kitchen and all that. And then there are these staircases that are really more like ladders than staircases. 01:17:01:18 - 01:17:11:16 Sean They are impossibly steep, particularly since the guy who just had knee surgery. Right. Going up them. And then this attic, that was. 01:17:11:24 - 01:17:13:07 Andrew That's where you grow the monsters. 01:17:13:07 - 01:17:32:01 Sean It was so vast, you could how you could keep some ego in there because they'd be perched up in the rafters Elbers brother. It's absolutely Wilma's brother could completely live up there. There was so much room in the attic. It was absolutely amazing. But, you know, you look at the carpentry and the construction of it and, you know, it's all the original. 01:17:32:13 - 01:17:44:08 Sean It's the real deal, you know, And these guys are, again, constantly working to try and hold back the ravages of time and doing a remarkable job. And yet, you know, some more recently. 01:17:44:11 - 01:17:50:02 Andrew Do they have a vision for turning it into a tourist destination? What is their end game? 01:17:50:02 - 01:17:51:04 Sean Yeah, I think. 01:17:51:04 - 01:18:04:20 Sean The end game is to have it as a historic site to to complete the restoration of it and be able to upkeep it as it needs be, but have it so it's, you know, it's safe for. 01:18:04:20 - 01:18:06:10 Andrew Visitors, the kind of thing a. 01:18:06:10 - 01:18:11:21 Sean Living museum kind of thing. Yeah. And I suspect you know, in the end it might only be open, you know, two days a week or whatever. 01:18:11:21 - 01:18:13:02 Sean But they would there is a. 01:18:13:02 - 01:18:23:09 Sean Desire to share this property with the public and I said, for people of our ilk, Oh yeah, you'd absolutely want to go and see it if. 01:18:23:18 - 01:18:26:18 Andrew We could stage replicas of the literary convention that we. 01:18:26:18 - 01:18:33:03 Sean we could stage replicas of the literary convention there. We just we got to go find we got to find out some poets. 01:18:34:23 - 01:18:58:08 Andrew How I managed to love craft. This love crafts vacation was amply covered in the Vermont press. Thanks a lot of Vrest Orton and Charles Crane, who the pen drifter of of the Brattleboro Daily Reformer, and those I found both of the articles Lovecraft specifically mentions in this set of postcards, the little clipping that describes the convention that we've just been talking about. 01:18:58:08 - 01:19:20:23 Andrew It's very brief, but it's on the same front page as Amelia Earhart had just landed the very same day. So the big headline coverage in the Brattleboro Reformer that day was all about Amelia Earhart. But then there's this little article about literary persons meet in Guilford is very charming, and then Lovecraft also Vrest Orton actually contributed a big article to the Pen Drift column. 01:19:21:03 - 01:19:22:08 Andrew Did you have a chance to see it? 01:19:22:08 - 01:19:40:11 Sean I did. I, I read it in the the Book of Memoirs, Lovecraft remembered. It's in there. It's funny you mentioned, though, the the newspaper clipping for the literary the gathering of literary people. So I was like looking for it online and was having a hard time finding. And I was like, I. 01:19:40:11 - 01:19:42:13 Sean Know I've seen it, I know. 01:19:42:13 - 01:19:43:07 Andrew I've seen it. 01:19:43:24 - 01:19:52:22 Sean But I know I've seen it and I could not find it and could not find it. And I discovered it in our book, right? Like narrative, because. 01:19:52:22 - 01:19:54:08 Andrew We recreated for the. 01:19:54:08 - 01:20:00:05 Sean Book. Exactly. So I was like, All right, well, I knew I'd seen it. And there it is. It's a beautiful fake, well done. 01:20:00:09 - 01:20:06:17 Andrew But I had never seen the Pen Drift column written by Wharton, and I thought a couple sections of it were worth reading. It was. 01:20:06:18 - 01:20:08:04 Sean Mine. By jingo, let's hear it. 01:20:08:04 - 01:20:26:07 Andrew So this is written by a restaurant, and it's this big puff piece about Lovecraft that was published in the pen Drift. There is so much that one can say about Lovecraft that one hardly knows where to begin. First of all, he is a writer and an extraordinarily good one, and the subject on which he writes is uncommonly interesting because so few people know much about it. 01:20:26:15 - 01:20:55:23 Andrew Lovecraft is an investigator, a scholar, an antiquarian, and a writer chiefly concerned with the weird. He has been writing for a good many years, but it was only a few years ago that a magazine was started, which gave him a chance to publish much of his material. This periodical was Weird Tales, while for many years stories from Lovecraft's Pen went without achieving the dignity of print, all because the regular magazines would have nothing to do with the weird, Weird Tales has printed a story his in about every issue and would like to print more. 01:20:56:05 - 01:21:16:06 Andrew But Lovecraft sees too, that by not writing any more often than he feels like writing. The readers of this magazine, who number many thousands, are kept in a state of unsatisfied hunger for his stuff. Hundreds of them have written letters and published opinion stating that in their estimation, H.P. Lovecraft is, a writer of weird tales as great, if not greater than Edgar Allan Poe. 01:21:16:13 - 01:21:36:03 Andrew And I think that they are more than half right. Lovecraft is a very great writer, perhaps so great that he will never be appreciated if he would only turn his pen to tales of romance and profane love or to fictionalized biography in psychology in the guise of detective story thrillers of which there is such a flood. He would become famous overnight. 01:21:36:07 - 01:21:55:11 Andrew But he won't do this. Though writing is his chief source of income, he won't write unless he feels it, and he doesn't give a damn for money. In many ways he is an alien soul. And as strange as the grotesque tales which come from his pen, So there's a little bit of a two way action on this Orton Lovecraft crush thing. 01:21:55:11 - 01:21:57:08 Andrew Orton clearly thought a lot of Lovecraft. 01:21:57:11 - 01:22:14:10 Sean Yeah, I think, yeah, I think he is. You know there's pride of. Look at the guy I've brought up to our community and clearly there was enough interest that, you know, he made the drive from Montpelier all the way down to the world to come to this, to meet Lovecraft, really, which is, you know. 01:22:15:11 - 01:22:17:10 Andrew A huge ego boost for Lovecraft. 01:22:17:17 - 01:22:40:23 Sean I think. So he was clearly a VIP and treated like a VIP here. One of the other things in this exchange that there are several seeds from the of things that happened in real that show up in The Whisperer in darkness. You know, him pulling into the train comes into Brattleboro at night and a neighbor picks him up on the Ford and drives off into the darkness, you know, which is really great. 01:22:40:23 - 01:23:08:22 Sean But one of my favorites is Lovecraft was introduced to this local painter, Bert Akeley. And apparently he's an utter recluse, but an intellectual and an academic. And Lovecraft seems to think he's a very fine painter. But I don't I look forward to hearing your theories on this. Lovecraft manages in the same paragraph to spell his name two different. 01:23:08:22 - 01:23:10:05 Andrew Ways. 01:23:10:05 - 01:23:35:02 Sean And whether or not that was just a humorous coincidence that, you know, then the the different spellings of actually end up being done by the Migo who can do a great interstellar space travel, but they're not that great at typing and spelling, you know. Is it just a coincidence? Did he see that he misspelled the man's name back to back, you know, a couple sentences later, and somehow that inspired him to use that in the story? 01:23:35:02 - 01:23:38:24 Sean I just it's just fascinating and it's delightful. 01:23:39:03 - 01:23:45:21 Andrew If we assume that that it was pronounced ethically right, then what is supposedly the correct spelling. 01:23:46:09 - 01:23:47:05 Sean The two version? 01:23:47:07 - 01:24:11:01 Andrew No, the the one version. Yeah. Seems wrong because I would pronounce that Akeley. But if it's pronounced Akeley, then it makes total sense to me to spell it with two E's. If you're spelling it eclair y, which is apparently the correct way to spell Bert Akeley's name, I would pronounce it actually, so that the switch in spelling may have something to do with confusion based on pronunciation. 01:24:11:10 - 01:24:14:09 Andrew Because if I were so, it wouldn't be pronounced both ways. 01:24:14:09 - 01:24:24:11 Sean He wasn't. Lovecraft wouldn't think it's pronounced both ways. He would have presumably met the man and gone his name. Exactly. So I'm going to go one he or it's equally and I'm going to go to is. But why. 01:24:24:12 - 01:24:24:23 Sean Assume that. 01:24:25:01 - 01:24:52:02 Andrew He was introduced He he heard the name pronounce so he heard it pronounced as Akeley and then misspelled it with the extra E because that's how I would spell a name that somebody pronounced as CLE. So maybe the misspelling is engendered by knowing the correct pronunciation, but not knowing how it's spelled. I don't know. That's I'm just guessing why Lovecraft, even in his private correspondence, spells it two different ways. 01:24:52:02 - 01:24:56:14 Andrew He he fails to catch himself. He knows the correct spelling after the fact. 01:24:56:14 - 01:25:03:04 Sean But this is Andrew being a meego apologist trying to explain why they can't type. Uh huh. Uh huh. 01:25:03:17 - 01:25:08:22 Andrew Somebody said something about theory. I thought I took it as an invitation to expound, you know, Good job. 01:25:08:22 - 01:25:24:01 Sean Good job. It was probably it was probably my fault. So he has his desire to go up to new fan, which is where he, he has an re living and yet is never able to actually go there. Right. Because every opportunity he gets. 01:25:24:01 - 01:25:28:05 Andrew There's because the bus doesn't come back the same day or whatever he just he can't get there from here. 01:25:28:05 - 01:25:28:23 Sean And it is. 01:25:29:01 - 01:25:31:23 Andrew Classic New England fashion. You can't get there from here. Well. 01:25:32:08 - 01:25:58:19 Sean If you if you go up the West River, which is the road through new fan goes right along it, it doesn't really go to anywhere. It is kind of a dead end to get up to new fame. It's not like it's on the way to someplace. You're you're driving up there to get there. But I, I just always find that of all the places that he saw in on particular trip, he never actually managed to make it up to new fame. 01:25:58:20 - 01:26:27:00 Andrew The thing that I also thought about in this is that Lovecraft clearly adored the scenery. He loved New England. It was all absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. But when ever he turns to write it into fiction, it becomes dark and scary and full of monsters and psychopaths and cannibals. It's like, on the one hand, he loves New England, but when he describes it in fiction, it's a terrifying place full of terrifying things. 01:26:27:04 - 01:26:38:22 Andrew And it's just an interesting bit of psychology that this place that in real life he clearly loves and finds beautiful. You know, he never wrote a story about how wonderful New England is. 01:26:38:22 - 01:26:39:06 Sean Sure. 01:26:39:06 - 01:27:02:01 Andrew He only wrote stories about how full of monsters New England is, Right. I just I couldn't help but think as he was as I was reading his descriptions of the scenery in these letters, I was thinking of the opening lines from the picture in the house. Oh, yeah. You know where he describes. Oh, it's. It's. It's this terrible thing, you know, in the houses, you know, that they're full of secrets and it would be better to tear them down. 01:27:02:01 - 01:27:13:05 Andrew And, you know, there are the Puritans were not beautiful in their sins. It's like he simultaneously loves it and is apparently terrified of it. Or that's what it engendered in his imagination. 01:27:13:05 - 01:27:38:10 Sean Yeah, I think I think it's a spark that sets him off. And I think there's also something about decay is a theme with him throughout you know, his writing and even the civilizations of the, you know, the elder things. And Antarctica, you know, everybody's past their prime, everybody's in the fall. Mankind itself is in the fall and it's decline. 01:27:38:10 - 01:28:18:18 Sean And so when he sees a, you know, a rotting cabin in New England, you know, it is it's monstrous because it's a symbol. It's not in the glory it had when somebody, you know, farmer erected it back in 17 four. But now, now it's fallen away and into waste and ruin and is a breeding ground for monsters. Because you do see that, you know, thinking of the Dunwich horror, you know done witches painted as sure you know it past its prime Innsmouth is past its prime right color out of space everything's fallen away ruin and a lot of the stuff happened quite some time ago, you know, and things are well past there. 01:28:18:20 - 01:28:43:20 Sean But you're absolutely right, because he does see see this describe this kind of idyllic beauty. But it is a catalyst in the fiction to to this horror of decay. And, you know, maybe what has been lost is is horrific at some level to him personally. Now, you know, the theory this might this might be we should be, we should be we should join the Lovecraftian Smarty Pants Club because you're doing some smarty in here. 01:28:44:19 - 01:29:04:10 Andrew Okay. We should maybe talk for a minute about the shunned house, because while he was on this trip, W Paul Cooke was in the process of printing the shunned house as a book in its own right. And it was intended to be the first Lovecraft story to be published as a book. 01:29:05:04 - 01:29:06:06 Sean Well, that didn't go right. 01:29:06:06 - 01:29:16:20 Andrew It didn't didn't turn out that way. But Lovecraft read the proofs and was very excited that that was. And he met with Cooke and, you know, they were hot on the trail of making this all happen. And then it. 01:29:16:23 - 01:29:28:01 Sean It seems one of life's great entropic enterprises is the publication of the Shunned House because you you look at it and go, boy, there. This far along. 01:29:28:21 - 01:29:36:13 Andrew Cooke had printed 300 copies, right? All they needed to do was bind them into book form. And that never happened. 01:29:36:13 - 01:29:44:12 Sean And presumably Cooke's other publications, he got someone else to bind them. It wasn't just publishing loose. 01:29:44:22 - 01:30:01:24 Andrew Well, I think it was, you know, pages, money, and I'm sure Cook having personal problems that it's the same. I mean, I think he had health issues and other things going on at the same time. So just Cooke wasn't able to cross the finish with that project. But at the time, Lovecraft is on this trip. It's still an exciting thing that's going to happen. 01:30:01:24 - 01:30:27:06 Andrew And then it never I mean, it's he talks, he's to Aunt Annie, how he's writing Aunt Lillian, how you'll see the first copy. It's like, I don't know that she ever saw anything because those things just sat around for decades until Barlow inherited the unbound sheets. And he he bound like a handful of copies and distributed them to key people. 01:30:27:06 - 01:30:42:21 Andrew And then eventually Derleth bought the leftover unbound sheets from Barlow, and he distributed them as unbound sheets, and then he ended up binding about a hundred copies. And now those copies go for $15,000. 01:30:43:01 - 01:30:46:09 Sean There's there's some on eBay right now. Oh. 01:30:47:16 - 01:30:49:08 Andrew Don't tell me you've I haven't. 01:30:49:09 - 01:30:51:17 Sean Okay. But they're they're they're we could. 01:30:51:18 - 01:30:57:04 Andrew They're, they're LW Curry has like three of them. Oh, that guy had to bring him in. I'm just saying. 01:30:57:18 - 01:31:00:09 Sean You know, Chris, he's got three of them. This thing. 01:31:01:03 - 01:31:04:09 Sean His are going for $900,000 a piece per page, aren't. 01:31:04:09 - 01:31:07:10 Andrew They? No, they're going for 15,000. No, no, I'm just. Yeah. 01:31:07:17 - 01:31:09:10 Sean I'm just saying sometimes there's a markup. 01:31:09:13 - 01:31:11:11 Andrew Now now they're going for 15,000. 01:31:11:11 - 01:31:13:15 Sean Now that we've brought them up, they're going for 900. 01:31:13:15 - 01:31:26:03 Andrew Thousand a page I'm just saying it's interesting that this project that Lovecraft is excited about now, which came to nothing now it's like the most expensive Lovecraft book ever. 01:31:26:03 - 01:31:33:19 Sean Yeah, Yeah, you can you can get the bound version of the Shadow over Innsmouth for less than these unbound versions of the the shunned house. 01:31:33:19 - 01:31:54:02 Andrew So and the the story which was written in like 20 it was written a couple of years prior. Yeah. And it would have been published in 1928. Except it wasn't it was the story was printed in Weird Tales in 1937, and Derleth and Arkham House didn't start distributing them until the early 1960s. I don't think so. It took. 01:31:54:02 - 01:32:02:10 Sean Yeah, crazy. Then you go where they sitting out in August Derleth Garage. Do I wonder literally where they were? Yes, Yes. A very big Winnie the Pooh cookie and. 01:32:02:16 - 01:32:04:02 Andrew Something like that. 01:32:04:02 - 01:32:30:05 Sean One of the other things I thought was interesting because of how things went with Cook, that Lovecraft's attitude towards him is so positive. He he he almost always gets a positive. It's always good old cook. You know, there's there's, I don't know, a sort of a consistent fondness in however Lovecraft tends to say his name, which is just, I don't know, a reflection of his relationship with him I guess. 01:32:30:19 - 01:32:36:11 Andrew Well, they did a lot of good collaborations together. They were both, you know, amateur journalist guys and, you. 01:32:36:11 - 01:32:37:10 Sean Know, known each other for a long. 01:32:37:10 - 01:33:01:19 Andrew Time, known each other for a long time. There were a couple things mentioned in these various postcards that I could not track down. And I wonder if you had any more success In the postcard from June 19th, he writes to Lillian, Yours of the 14th, momentous date, exclamation point duly arrived. Do you know I mean, I presume it's some paycheck for something or other, but I couldn't figure out what it was. 01:33:02:00 - 01:33:08:12 Sean I have a question mark on the margin. Next slide. I couldn't determine who coughed up money then, but that did seem to be. 01:33:08:12 - 01:33:16:17 Andrew It's I mean, he he does describe how it's amazing how this whole trip is turning out to be the biggest expense is the postcards and the postage. 01:33:16:17 - 01:33:20:07 Sean Yeah. Everybody's feeding him and yeah, he's everybody's driving him around. 01:33:20:07 - 01:33:30:24 Andrew Yeah, he's he is getting like a VIP and I'm sure it was really terrific. He talks about I regret to hear of the mortality in Barnes Street lately. Do you know who died? 01:33:30:24 - 01:33:36:24 Sean You will also see a question mark in the margin of mind right there. I wondered if it was perhaps a member of the Kappa Alpha House. 01:33:36:24 - 01:33:38:02 Andrew I thought it might be, but. 01:33:38:19 - 01:33:42:01 Sean Because he doesn't seem like he's deeply grieving. 01:33:42:01 - 01:33:49:02 Andrew But St is before the Kappa Alpha Tau was a college street, so I don't know if there was a Kappa Alpha Tau. 01:33:49:04 - 01:34:03:17 Sean Well, he was. He was, Yeah. Naming neighborhood cats all the time. That just the casualness with which he mentions it makes me think, yeah, it was not somebody who's a really essential figure in everybody's life, but he's. He's noting it all the same. 01:34:03:17 - 01:34:22:20 Andrew And he talks about he but on the other hand, he's glad to learn of the repose. Full prosperity of Horatio Valentine was a great name. I recall reading of his activities in the G.R., which was the Grand Army of the Republic. So Horatio Valentine must have been a union veteran of the Civil War, because that's what the G.R. was all about, he says. 01:34:22:20 - 01:34:28:23 Andrew I'd be interested to see them. Article by Mark Green. There's a Boy After My Own Heart. Did you ever find out who Mark Green was or what This article was? 01:34:28:24 - 01:34:29:22 Sean Not successfully. 01:34:29:22 - 01:34:31:21 Andrew Well, so much for the Smarty Pants Club. 01:34:31:21 - 01:34:34:16 Sean Yep. And we're going back to the Dummy pants club. 01:34:34:18 - 01:34:46:18 Andrew And then he. He writes one paragraph in the dialect out. Yeah. So it seems to it seems he intends to parody a Jewish landlord of some kind. 01:34:46:23 - 01:34:47:23 Sean That was my read on it. 01:34:47:23 - 01:34:54:12 Andrew Yeah, okay. I did. You. Are you going to read that in. In dialect, John? 01:34:54:17 - 01:34:57:06 Sean You're just going to have to listen to the episode and see. 01:34:57:06 - 01:35:02:04 Andrew I don't listen to this podcast. 01:35:02:04 - 01:35:06:04 Sean He seems to have a love hate relationship with this Bolin book. 01:35:06:14 - 01:35:07:10 Andrew The Bolin book? 01:35:07:10 - 01:35:19:05 Sean Yeah. As it is bringing in some cash and lets him do some work while he's on the road. But nor nor does he seem to enjoy it. I assumed it might be white fire, but yeah. John Raymond Urban Yeah. 01:35:19:05 - 01:35:26:19 Andrew It's a book of poetry that he had been hired to, you know, edit and revise and it, he thought he was done with it and then it came back for more. 01:35:26:19 - 01:35:33:12 Sean Yeah. You have to do another round for, of, for a second edition of it. Yeah. That, that stiffer a spelling book. Yeah. 01:35:33:17 - 01:35:50:14 Andrew Almost as bad as Adolph DeCastro. Well come on. Well it's not that bad. Yeah. I think Bolin was someone that he met through amateur circles and I think he felt it more as a, you know, gentleman's obligation to help with this book of poetry. I don't think it was a particularly well-paying job. 01:35:50:24 - 01:35:57:13 Sean Nor was he seemed grateful that the publisher took care of him the first time around, and he's anticipating that'll happen again. So but it's. 01:35:57:13 - 01:36:00:13 Andrew Like a privately published thing in honor of. 01:36:00:18 - 01:36:08:07 Sean Well, it's probably like the Shunned house, you know, that kind of project, a very small reach into the public. 01:36:08:07 - 01:36:33:21 Andrew It was interesting. I mean, we do a lot of newspaper clippings and I look at a lot of vintage newspapers. So I was particularly interested in the several times that he mentions his newspaper reading habits. And, you know, you got to don't save anything prior to this date, because I've read all those. And it's just clear that he read The New York Times and the and the Providence Journal every day, probably from cover to cover. 01:36:33:22 - 01:36:43:20 Andrew Yeah. And you know it he's instructing Aunt Lillian save all these newspapers because I don't know what's happening and I got to catch up on the news when I get back. And he doesn't even know when he's going to get back. So. 01:36:43:20 - 01:36:45:21 Sean Yeah. And he's been on the road for weeks. 01:36:45:21 - 01:36:46:06 Sean Which. 01:36:46:22 - 01:36:59:24 Sean You realize that he's come back to a you know, a 14 inch high pile of newspapers and he's going to have, you know, a couple of weeks worth of reading just to get through all he missed while he was on the he was traveling. 01:37:00:00 - 01:37:12:21 Andrew Yeah. And you can't get the Providence Journal outside of Providence, except in big cities that have an out of town newspaper, newspaper, stand Yeah, it's just newspapers seem like a relic of, you know, their previous century in general. 01:37:12:21 - 01:37:30:24 Sean I was walking, walking my dog yesterday morning, I guess, And saw on a neighbor's driveway The L.A. Times. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, dude, L.A. Times. What? What happened to you? It's it's it's a sad little leaflet. It's like four, four pages. And, you know, it's like, you know, it. 01:37:30:24 - 01:37:35:05 Sean Was the Sunday edition of The Times used to be a massive thing. 01:37:35:05 - 01:37:35:13 Sean And it. 01:37:35:13 - 01:37:36:22 Andrew Was now it would blow away in a. 01:37:36:22 - 01:37:46:23 Sean Breeze. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was I having not being part of the problem myself, not being a subscriber and realizing, wow, that's, it's just a relic of the past. 01:37:47:00 - 01:37:54:10 Andrew We, we do a lot of printing and I was talking to one of our printers the other day and he was lamenting that restaurants don't. 01:37:55:11 - 01:37:56:08 Sean Do menus. 01:37:56:08 - 01:38:12:24 Andrew To menus anymore. They there's just a QR code at the front door and you look at their menu on your phone. Yeah, it's so much of his business has gone away because people just and I thought with COVID, you know, people have to reprint fresh menus every day because you're not allowed to keep the menus that everybody handles. 01:38:12:24 - 01:38:24:18 Andrew They're all disposable menus now, but people aren't even doing that anymore, it's just a QR code that you scan when you walk in and printed menus are apparently going out the door, just like printed newspapers. 01:38:24:18 - 01:38:48:12 Sean Yeah. And I'm a geezer. I it's a trend I don't care for. I get how it makes sense for the businesses and certainly to have an infinite supply of fresh menus. Yeah makes sense for them. But as a customer. Yeah. I don't like. Like you want me to take out my phone and take a frickin picture of your little barcode so I can sit in the darkened squint at that higher minded, grabby old man. 01:38:48:12 - 01:38:48:24 Sean Andrew. 01:38:48:24 - 01:38:53:05 Andrew I don't like me to bring back ten years. 01:38:53:23 - 01:38:54:22 Sean I don't know. 01:38:54:22 - 01:39:07:21 Sean I think that covers the stuff that I wanted to cover. But we'll throw some of the current photos of what the what the auction house and what the the good enough house look like now on the site so people can see them. 01:39:08:00 - 01:39:12:05 Andrew Plus a couple of the photos that Lovecraft took while he was on the trip. Absolutely. 01:39:12:05 - 01:39:13:23 Sean For comparison's sake. 01:39:13:23 - 01:39:16:05 Andrew These clippings and all sorts of good stuff. 01:39:16:06 - 01:39:18:06 Sean Absolutely. All right. Well, let's. 01:39:18:23 - 01:39:20:00 Sean Sign off and let these people. 01:39:20:00 - 01:39:41:22 Sean Get back to their lives. Okay. Our thanks today. Go to somebody I don't want to name her name, but the current owner of the Orton Lovecraft House for being a host, letting us come in, giving us cookies and lemonade and a full tour of the place to really be able to check out where Lovecraft had this whole experience. 01:39:42:04 - 01:40:07:22 Sean I also wanted offer my thanks to Michael Weitzner. He is the current caretaker of the Stoddard Goodnough house, which that's its formal name. And again, we'll get information about how you can participate in that if you are so inclined. I want to also offer my thanks to Donovan and Pamela for going with us and being our terrific tour guides for our trip back to New England. 01:40:07:22 - 01:40:12:19 Sean We wouldn't have had the experience of going to these places without them, so our thanks to them. 01:40:12:19 - 01:40:27:23 Andrew You should definitely check out Donovan's website HPLovecraft.com if you haven't already. It is a treasure trove of details and a gallery of photos, including all the ones that we post of this very trip and everything Lovecraft ever wrote. It's a great place to go check out. 01:40:27:23 - 01:40:30:01 Sean if you've enjoyed today's episode and we'd. 01:40:30:01 - 01:40:31:06 Sean Be glad to hear from you via. 01:40:31:06 - 01:40:34:13 Sean Email at voluminous 01:40:34:13 - 01:40:39:06 Andrew And tell your friends Post a review or a rating, or send them a good old fashioned letter. 01:40:39:07 - 01:40:42:05 Sean Ooh, I am your obedient servant, Sean Branney. 01:40:42:05 - 01:40:45:05 Andrew And I am cordially and respectfully yours. Andrew Leman. 01:40:45:05 - 01:40:46:03 Sean You've been listening. 01:40:46:04 - 01:40:49:02 Sean To Voluminous the letters of H.P. Lovecraft. 01:40:49:02 - 01:41:10:08 Andrew Brought to you by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Come check out all we have to offer at HPLHS.org