00:00:06:09 - 00:00:09:15 Sean Welcome to Voluminous the letters of H.P. Lovecraft. 00:00:09:15 - 00:00:15:10 Andrew In addition to classic works of gothic horror fiction, HPL wrote thousands of fascinating letters. 00:00:15:10 - 00:00:17:16 Sean In Each episode will read and discuss one of them. 00:00:17:20 - 00:00:18:15 Sean I'm Sean Branney. 00:00:18:15 - 00:00:23:03 Andrew And I'm Andrew Leman. Together we run the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. 00:00:23:09 - 00:00:36:22 Sean So, Andrew, for today's letter, I picked one that was written on, well, November 4th and fifth and finished on the sixth that Lovecraft sent to his aunt Lillian Clark. Of what year? Oh, sorry, 1924. 00:00:36:22 - 00:00:42:18 Andrew Of what year? Oh, sorry, 1924. To Aunt Lillian. Yes. Yes. Well, we better get into it because it's long. 00:00:42:21 - 00:00:45:09 Sean Indeed it is. So here it comes. 00:00:46:20 - 00:00:48:09 Sean 259 Parkside Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. 00:00:50:08 - 00:01:19:21 Sean November 4th, 2/5, 1924, finished. November 6th. My very dear daughter, Lillian. Can it be that an entire month and more have passed since last I writ you? So say it's the Old Farmer's Almanac, of which I am monstrous eager to get the 1925 issue, and I am not disposed to contradict so venerable and reliable in authority. But I am confident that you will pardon me. 00:01:19:21 - 00:01:48:24 Sean In view of the nerve draining events mentioned in my letter to a AEPG. The illness and hospital sojourn of my spouse and the impending dissolution of this establishment in a maze of poverty and uncertainty. Of such is life - glorious life - composed - but being of haughty and imperial instincts, I will proceed to play blithely on the lyre whilst Rome burns. 00:01:49:15 - 00:02:17:11 Sean Your letter, as usual, afforded me the keenest delight, and I have poured most appreciatively over all the pictures sent at various times. What splendid colonial structures Providence is acquiring. I am impressed with the new Olneyville Boys'Club - has drawn by that prince of sketches, George D Laswell. It was in the text appended to one of those views that I discovered the "George D". 00:02:17:22 - 00:02:43:23 Sean Some day, perhaps, I shall unearth enough material about this hero of mine to form a who's who biography. Your description of the Temple of Music at the park fascinated me greatly. I already have views of it in my portfolio, but a firsthand account is much to be preferred. Providence is fortunate in having such a classic specimen, and I hope it will soon be immortalized in postcard form. 00:02:44:07 - 00:03:12:16 Sean After all, with the sole exception of the Gothick Cathedral, contemporary architecture has no model to follow save the austere marbles of Greece and Rome. Classical antiquity said all there was to be said in line and mass. And he is best today who copies most faithfully. All the charm of my beloved Georgian colonial architecture is drawn from its free use and adaptation of Greco-Roman ornament. 00:03:12:18 - 00:03:47:12 Sean But I have said all this many times before with far less excuse. Yes, the excavations at Leptis Magnus are certainly epoch making. This is a rich period for archeology. Note In the envelope I sent ahead a cutting anent of the new discoveries at Rome itself in the forum of Augustus. Still, another event is the unearthing of ancient Carthage, the real old Punic town of Hamilcar and Hannibal, not the Roman town billed later on its site by a French nobleman. 00:03:48:06 - 00:04:18:09 Sean I'll send the cutting a full page from the Times when Belknap returns it. In this matter, it is interesting to note the Explorer has chosen as his guidebook not any dry as does tome on archeology and antiquities. But the immortal romance of Gustave Flaubert, "Salammbo". Flaubert with that romantic realism of which he is still reckoned the world's greatest master, studied Carthage for years before writing that tremendous novel. 00:04:18:15 - 00:04:59:07 Sean And when he did write it, he put into it the very life and soul of that have forgotten Punic Empire, whose annals come down to us mostly through the one sided medium of its Roman conquerors. He made Carthage live as Edward Lucas White in "Andivius Hedulio" makes Rome live, and so minute was his accuracy in describing the geography, architecture, institutions and customs of the Punic scene that he was able to refute triumphantly the attacks of all the archeologists who, because he had delved farther than they and therefore differed from them on many matters, accused him of misrepresenting the subject. 00:04:59:22 - 00:05:24:02 Sean What an impressive vindication. His novel, used as a guide and authority by one of the world's most eminent archeologists. But I digress. I wish I might have seen those shop windows. Alexander Hamilton and the Colonial mantel. But not seeing them. The next best thing is hearing of them. In turn, I wish I could show you the museums here. 00:05:24:15 - 00:05:45:18 Sean Too bad you didn't get me that Breeches Bible. I'll wager Kirk or Loveman would have picked it up as speculation. If they'd heard of it. I've never seen one. There's a vinegar Bible in St John's Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. But when I was there, I couldn't get in. Or rather, I didn't know enough to go across the street and fetch the sexton. 00:05:46:11 - 00:06:12:07 Sean Glad you liked the Baring-Gould book. I am on the lookout for a chance to purchase it, as well as the same author's work on werewolves. He died only a few months ago at a very advanced age. Thanks enormously for the sketch of the time Towers in the journal window. The originals, with their starry background, must have made an impressive skyline, and I trust they received some measure of appreciation from the passing crowds. 00:06:13:17 - 00:06:39:00 Sean So it costs $12 to repair your clock! Well, it's worth it. My old sediment kitchen clock will not run, and I cannot keep the parlor clock going because its sound wears on ages, nerves. But I love to look at both of them. Clocks have always attracted me and there is nothing I want more than a banjo or a hall clock of colonial vintage. 00:06:39:15 - 00:07:10:17 Sean Did you keep the library clock? It wouldn't run, but I somewhat hate to think of it in the ash dump. Yes. Bring along the kitchen alarm clock. Unless you have use for it yourself. This reminds me that I'd enormously like to see you here. There are myriad sites to show you, as a AEPG can attest. And if your advent were to happily coincide with my domestic disintegration, I can assure you that your brainpower would be keenly appreciated. 00:07:11:00 - 00:07:34:09 Sean Though I would not let you do any physical work of breaking up after your summer ordeal of like nature and your vernal mishap to the back. After all, this place won't be a fraction as hard as 598 to disperse, since there are no vast attic accumulations. But enough of practical things led us to the diary, which ought to begin about October eight. 00:07:34:14 - 00:07:57:16 Sean Since my last home wood line was written to a AEPG on the seventh in the evening on a bench in Washington Square, after which I simply returned to 259, did some reading, and retired. on Wednesday the eighth, when I did some letter writing and departed in the late afternoon for a little bell naps where Loveman and I were invited to dinner before the boys met there. 00:07:57:21 - 00:08:34:00 Sean Our meetings have been changed to Wednesday on account of a college class, which Sunny has on Thursday evenings. On this occasion, a good time was had by all, especially after the gang arrived, and late was the hour where we dispersed. Kleiner Kirk Loveman and Morton dodged off impatiently whilst Leeds and I lingered at the door, talking with Belknap so that the left behind pair went downtown, supped coffee at an all night automat... [footnote a restaurant where food is arranged on plates in glass doored pigeonholes along the walls. A nickel in the slot unlocks the door and the plate of food is taken by the purchaser to one of the many tables in the great room] ...and parted at about 2 a.m. in Quest of the hay. The next day, Thursday, the night Belknap and I descended on Scribners' to use up that $60 credit of Hennebergher's which I could not convert into cash. 00:08:55:02 - 00:09:20:00 Sean Sonny was there to help his grandpa pick out good books, and I decided to choose one for him as a partial repayment for the many dinners and courtesies which I am receiving from his household. We secured a delightful clerck, finely bred young chap within incipient red mustache who discussed intelligently and literarily all the authors we mentioned and with his aid set about our pleasing task. 00:09:20:12 - 00:09:43:19 Sean Some of the books were more expensive than I had anticipated, but even so, I managed to gather up a very respectable five foot shelf. The full list follows. Most of them came in two days, but those which Scribner did not have in stock out here, marked with an asterisk, were delayed until a week ago. Wednesday, October 29th. You may easily see what a treat I have. 00:09:44:10 - 00:10:49:19 Sean Books by Lord Dunsany: The Queen of Elfland's Daughter 51 Tales Five Plays Plays of Near and Far Books by Arthur Machen: The House of Souls / The Secret Glory The Hill of Dreams / The London Adventure Far-Off Things / Hieroglyphics Things Near and far Books on colonial material; The architecture of colonial America - Eberlein Furniture of our Forefathers - Singleton Early American Craftsman - Dyer Old New England Churches - Bacon Crooked and narrow Streets of Old Boston - Thwing. Miscellaneous: Episodes of Vathek - Beckford Rome of Today and Yesterday - Dennie And for Belknap ( His own choice): The Thing in the Woods. New horror novel. Harper Williams. Some haul ? I'd never have ventured such a plunge if it hadn't been the only way to get the value Henneberger owed me. 00:10:49:20 - 00:11:09:23 Sean But I am glad of it for all that! If any of these titles appeal to you, I'd be glad to make a loan. This choosing took us till about 4:00, after which we went over to the West Side slums for a call on honest old McNeill. McNeill doesn't come to our meetings anymore because of a quarrel with Leeds over $8, which the latter owes him. 00:11:09:23 - 00:11:43:06 Sean So we hunt him up occasionally to have a chat for old times sake. He has finished "Tonty of the Iron Hand" and the Duttons like it very much. He is now looking about for a new subject for a boy's book, which he will proceed to write according to the terms of his contract. We talked of things in General Belknap leaving at six and I at eight after that home, reading and retiring. Friday the 10th in accordance with a plan of long standing with a chance editorial in the Times and closed brought to fruition. 00:11:43:11 - 00:12:16:14 Sean I started out on a tour of Exploration whose focus was the ancient colonial city of Elizabethtown, now called Elizabeth, in the province of New Jersey. I went by way of Staten Island, taking the ferry from the Battery to Saint George, and at that point taking the trolley line across the north shore of the island through antique Richmond to the old Elizabethtown ferry, where in 1780, His Majesty's forces under Sir Henry Clinton crossed on a temporary pontoon bridge in their attempt to capture the town. 00:12:17:01 - 00:12:41:17 Sean I had been to Port Richmond before with Kleiner two years ago when I wrote you about the 1783 church under which a brook flows and behind which is a hellish neglected graveyard. This time I did not stop to see these things, but kept on the car and changed from side to side to watch the antiquities which loomed on every hand. And how abundant those antiquities were! 00:12:42:00 - 00:13:08:24 Sean Shabby, dilapidated houses along the waterfront and on every grassy hillock were here and there a village-like cluster leading inland. Their type is very local and distinctive and marked by a great prevalence of pillared facades with porch and Dutch curved roof joined by great rows of square or classical columns extending up two stories as in the late southern plantation houses. 00:13:09:11 - 00:13:36:06 Sean This arrangement exists not only in these spacious mansions, but with equal frequency in the humbler houses where it possesses a certain touch of subtle incongruity. A touch of the sinister is supplied by the paint-lessness and the extreme decrepitude of most of these places, some of which are uninhabited and lonely on their sparsely turfed sand banks. The whole effect is bleak and a bit terrifying. 00:13:36:17 - 00:14:02:18 Sean I shall never forget the hideously gnarled and grotesque willow trees and the little steep lanes leading up forbidding hillsides. At last the ferry was reached and I went across to the dingy wharf at Elizabeth Port. This is now a Polish slum and lacking all knowledge of the city I had to take a car to the business center to procure maps, guides, pictures, historic matter and the like. 00:14:03:04 - 00:14:31:13 Sean At last, having rolled from pillar to post - stationery, store, public library, a newspaper office - I managed to accumulate a fine array of data, including the historical guide booklet of which I sent you a duplicate. Thus armed, I did some quick studying and finally proceeded to follow the routes prescribed by the booklet. Night fell all too soon, but there was a great moon; and I continued my quest in the spectral night. 00:14:31:23 - 00:15:04:02 Sean Never will I forget the sunset as it came upon me that day. I was on a scarcely used part of the old Essex and Middlesex turnpike, a road yet unpaved, and lined with the great elms and tiny colonial cottages that General Washington knew. To the west stretcht the open fields and the primeval forest, and down over the haunted expanse sank the great solar disc in a riot of flame and glamour, painting the sky with a thousand streamers of weird and unimagined wildness long after the glowing edge had vanished beneath the trees and the hills. 00:15:04:06 - 00:15:27:00 Sean I returned to Brooklyn via steam train, Hudson tubes and the subway in the late evening, but returned the first thing on the following day, anxious to study the town at leisure by sunlight, and with the background of geographical and historical knowledge which I had so extemporaneously acquired. 00:15:27:09 - 00:15:43:18 Sean On that second day I went both ways by the Staten Island Ferry route, which has vast inexpansiveness, to say nothing of its vast picturesqueness, to recommend it. Elizabethtown, as you already know from the first book, was founded in 1664 and well built up at an early date, both with small 00:15:44:21 - 00:16:13:06 Sean houses and with mansions of taste and opulence. The largest and oldest part of the town is a little over a mile inland, on the narrow and curving Elizabeth River, and is reached from the ferry by an ancient road. Kings Highway, now comprising Elizabeth Avenue and first Avenue, which is older than the town itself, having been laid out by the Dutch to communicate betwixt New Amsterdam and the settlements in Delaware. 00:16:13:19 - 00:16:38:13 Sean Landing at the ferry house, one walks a trifle south to Kings Highway and commences the march inland. Fancying oneself, perchance part of a spectral column of His Majesty's invading troops under Clinton or Knyphausen. Not far from the shore, in front of the branch library, is a bounding stone of 1694, which at once establishes a connection with the past which one is seeking 00:16:38:13 - 00:17:08:22 Sean Approaching the town by the gently curving road, we see more and more colonial houses; till at last, near Union Square they become delightfully prevalent. At that point, the highway bends considerably, dipping straight down to the gentle valley where the old town nestles through the ages. Straight ahead on the skyline looms the tall, slender steeple of the old Presbyterian Church - still the dominant feature of the city's silhouette - 00:17:09:05 - 00:17:36:01 Sean And all around it cluster the ancient gambrel roofs of the forefathers - good old English roofs, for Elizabethtown was never Dutch - wrapt in the blue haze of distance, which is akin to elfin magic. Down we march to the main street - Broad - where still the houses of the past are thickly sprinkled. As we approach the first church, we perceive what a marvelous place it is. 00:17:36:09 - 00:18:05:14 Sean Standing in the front yard and looking north we have on our left the great facade and mighty spire, magnificent later Georgian work, and beside and beyond it the ancient churchyard with crumbling brownstone slabs (instead of slate, as in New England) dating back to the 1600s, long before the present edifice was built. Here sleep the fathers, their stones of varying workmanship and their names variously spelt. 00:18:05:22 - 00:18:50:11 Sean Crane, Craine, Hetfield, Hatfield, Hines, Ogden - and so on. In the rear are willow trees and grassy banks and impressive tombs. Clad in mellow ivy is the old brick church, which was built in 1784, on the site of one burnt in 1780. To the north winds crooked old Broad Street, still studded with colonial gambrels, though some of the ancient houses have been raised like those of our own South Main Street to permit of modern shops beneath. Adjoining the churchyard is the new parish house - brick, and on such severe colonial lines that it might well be deemed contemporary with the church. 00:18:50:13 - 00:19:20:04 Sean All vistas beckon us, but we choose the southward road across the quaint stone bridge, which spans the narrow, winding river. And what a river! Down to its sloping banks of grass and moss stretch the yards of the most ancient houses, gay with the tangles of old fashioned gardens, and grim with the great snakelike willows that bend out from the shore and lean far over the tranquil stream. 00:19:20:08 - 00:19:54:23 Sean Sime or Dorè would revel in the sight - as I did in my humbler and unproductive fashion. Beyond the bridge, the land sinks to the east and rises to the West. I chose the latter course, where Washington Street meanders up betwixt incredibly archaic houses to a striking crest where Colonial Gables brood on every corner and a great many dormer gambrel roofer silhouettes itself boldly against the polychrome sunset as a background in full keeping with the spirit of the place. 00:19:55:23 - 00:20:28:07 Sean Climbing this hill, it is well to follow Washington Street as it bends south to join the ancient Essex and Middlesex Turnpike, passing another Georgian church and finally reaching the open country. Most of this country is now doomed by prospective real estate developments, but one may still enjoy it as one cuts across the newly laid out and still houseless BayWay to Rahway Avenue, an old time road -part of the original Kings Highway, on which many mansions of noble refugees from France, 00:20:28:14 - 00:21:13:06 Sean chief among which is the Old chateau of the Jouets, an impressive stone building in the middle Georgian manner with two great wings. It is well here to turn north towards the town again, noting such alluring landmarks as the old De Hart house, perched on its high terrace and still displaying the airs and graces of 1766. One now returns down the hill - eastward past the gambrel-roofer and antediluvian chimneys by the river, and crosses Broad Street, following the curving line of Pearl past many an archaic rooftree and garden, and past the old bridge to Elizabeth Avenue, which spans another bend of the sinuous river. 00:21:13:20 - 00:21:39:15 Sean Pearl Street finally curves south, where it used to end among the marshes, though it is now being cut through to an entirely new factory district. At the old foot of the street, close to the open fields, stands the ancient Hatfield house, 1667, peaked and gabled in the earliest pre-Georgian manner, and probably forming today the oldest house in Elizabethtown, if not in all New Jersey. 00:21:40:05 - 00:22:03:05 Sean You have probably read about it in the book, though I must warn you that the quaint well-sweep has vanished during the iconoclastic decades since 1914, when the little guide was printed. It is now interesting to retrace one's steps to the bridge at the bend in Pearl Street, cross to Elizabeth Avenue and examine the ancient houses in the streets, lanes and hidden courts nearby. 00:22:03:16 - 00:22:29:10 Sean The old fort in Thompson's lane was built in 1734 and is still in good condition - a long brick house of plain lines - today inhabited entirely by "Bleep!" the Andrew Jolin house built in 1735, is wholly hidden from the street by shops, but stands in a spectral courtyard with its back on the riverbank and on the northeast corner of Bridge 00:22:29:10 - 00:23:04:16 Sean and Elizabeth Avenue is a terrible old house, a hellish place where night-black deeds must have been done in the early 1700s with blackish, unpainted surface and unnaturally steep roof and an outside flight of steps leading to the second story suffocatingly embowered in a tangle of ivy so dense that one cannot but imagine it accursed or corpse-fed. It reminded me of the Babbitt house in Benefit Street, which, as you recall, made me write those lines entitled The House in 1920. 00:23:05:18 - 00:23:32:06 Sean Later its image came up again, with renewed vividness finally causing me to write a new horror story with its scene in Providence and with the Babbitt house as its basis. It is called the Shunned House, and I finished it last Saturday night after a taste of this uncanny waterfront. It is well to turn up Spring Street to East Jersey, where abound the finest mansions of the early colonial time. 00:23:33:04 - 00:24:08:11 Sean As we turn the corner, we notice across the street a splendid colonial public building whose red brick facade, white pillars and keystone, small pond windows arouse in us the highest expectations. Breathless, we conjure up a hundred pre-revolutionary British images as we strive to decipher the modest cornerstone. Then - ugh! the illusion drops with a dull, sickening thud as we find that the place is a brand new Jewish synagogue built only last year, 1923 - oi, oi! 00:24:10:03 - 00:24:38:03 Sean But Newport can boast a really colonial synagogue built in 1763 when the Touros and Mendez's reigned supreme and still in good condition not a stone's throw from old Trinity. One more step and we regain the truly colonial with a vengeance. Beholding on a high terrace, the peaked pre-Georgian gabled Bonnell house, built in 1682, and the second oldest edifice in the town. 00:24:38:19 - 00:25:12:23 Sean Across the street is an ivy clad specimen of the early Georgian. The Ogden mansion built before 1742, where from 1751 to 1757 dwelt Jonathan Belcher, Esquire. His Majesty's Governor of the Province - a Massachusetts man who had gained considerable unpopularity when ruling his own Bay province from 1737 to 1747. Returning towards Broad Street, we find a multiplicity of colonial mansions, including the residence of Elias Boudinot ( 1750 - 00:25:13:01 - 00:25:46:05 Sean now spoiled by an added French roof to be used as an Old Ladies' Home) and the Barnet House (1763) where General Winfield Scott later lived. In towards the center of town is the Second Presbyterian Church, a late Georgian building dating from 1821 and shown on one of the cards I sent home either to you or AEPG. And around the corner in Broad Street is old St John's an 1859 Gothic church, but with an ancient churchyard dating from 1702. 00:25:46:21 - 00:26:12:17 Sean Oh, but lud, ma'am, I could rave all night about Elizabethtown! Did I send you a postcard of the old Carteret Arms by the river - the red gambrel-roofer, where the D.A.R now holds forth ? It was built in 1797 and has a fine panell'd interior. Elizabethtown in general has several architectural and other idiosyncrasies of great distinctiveness. 00:26:13:04 - 00:26:41:06 Sean There is an unusual prevalence of gambrel-roofed houses with triangular pediment in front, standing out like a flattened gable from the lower pitch of the roof, as shown in the view of the Cartwright arms. Fine colonial doorways are very rare, these being distinctively New England feature, whilst the builders of the middle colonies sought beauty rather in the proportions of the whole mass. 00:26:42:01 - 00:27:09:07 Sean Life in the town is deliciously leisurely and provincial. There is no taint of New York and its nasty cosmopolitanism. All the people of substance are native Yankees, and though the factory section teams with lower poles, they are not frequently met on the main streets. Bleeps! are quite thick in the byways of the town and a curious custom shared alike by people, Poles, and Bleep! is 00:27:09:07 - 00:27:39:05 Sean the wearing of white caps or muslin kerchiefs by the housewives, mainly those of the petty middle class and lower. The whole atmosphere of the places marvelous colonial. Of tall buildings there are absolutely none, and on every hand the ancient skyline is dominated by delicate steeples in the Christopher Wren tradition, that of the first Presbyterian being foremost and loftiest of all. 00:27:39:20 - 00:28:07:23 Sean Elizabeth Town is a balm, a sedative and a tonic to the old fashioned soul. Wracked with modernity. I must revisited and show it to others. To you, I hope in the near future. The day after my second Elizabeth Town tour Sunday, the 12th, Loveman was here to dinner and was greatly interested in my account of my travels. He will soon make a trip there himself with old Theobald as as a guide. 00:28:08:06 - 00:28:50:22 Sean After dinner we walked down to the Brooklyn Heights section to call on his friend Hart Crane in Columbia Heights, with whom he had stopped until he moved up to Kirk's on 106th Street, Manhattan. The walk was very lovely and downhill from the heights on which the Brooklyn Museum stands, and with many a sunset vista of old houses and fire spires, we reached the heights in the deep twilight when the aerial skyline across the river had a charm peculiar to the hour, a perfect silhouette effect since it was too dark for surface definition, yet too light to allow the contours to become merged into the black recesses of engulfing night. 00:28:51:19 - 00:28:53:12 Sean We found Crane in an sober - but boasting over a two day spree he had just slept off, during which he had been picked up dead drunk from the street in Greenwich Village by the eminent modernist poet E.E. Cummings, whom he knows well and put in a homeward taxi. Oh, poor Crane! 00:29:12:00 - 00:29:13:05 Sean I hope he'll sober up with the years, for there's really good stuff and a bit of genius in him. He is a genuine poet of a sort, and his excellent taste is reflected in the choice of objects to art with which he is surrounded himself. I would give much for a certain Chinese ivory box of his with panels exquisitely carved into delicate pastoral scenes and high relief, every detail of landscape and foliage standing out with that absolute beauty and maturely assured perfection for which the best Chinese art is distinguished. 00:29:47:22 - 00:30:19:17 Sean After some conversation, we all went out for a scenic walk through the ancient narrow hill streets that wind about the Brooklyn shore. There is a dark charm in this decaying waterfront, and the culmination of our tour was the poor old Fulton Ferry, which we reached about 9:00 in the best season to enjoy the flaming arc of Brooklyn Bridge in conjunction with the Constellation of Manhattan lights across the river and the glimmering beacons of slow moving shipping on the lapping tides. 00:30:20:24 - 00:30:52:04 Sean When I was last there in 1922 with Kleiner, the old ferry was still running and the pensive wooden statue of Robert Fulton was looking down on the scene of decline from his niche in front of the Florida Victorian Ferry house. Now even these things are gone. The ferry made its last trip on the 19th of last January and the statue has vanished, presumably to adorn some museum, leaving a gaping empty niche to brood over the spectacle of desolation. 00:30:53:12 - 00:31:18:24 Sean Thence, we return to Crane's, threading more old streets and incidentally, looking up rooms for Loveman in Columbia Heights. There was one splendidly large room for $10 per week in an impressive brick mansion of the Rutherford B. Hayes period, presided over by an aged Mrs. Grey, who had seen better days. Loveman, however, didn't take it. And if I could afford that much rent, I'd snap it up tomorrow. 00:31:19:11 - 00:31:44:10 Sean I can't, though, And I think I'll get in touch with Crane and ask him about the smaller $5 per week rooms, which he was likewise recommending to Samuelus. Leaving Crane's at about 10:30, Samuelus and I proceeded to the subway across the river, emerged at Wall Street and prepared to finish that nocturnal tour of colonial sites, which is fatigue cut short in September. 00:31:45:00 - 00:32:12:14 Sean We went down Wall to Pearl and turned there and subsequently marched past many a colonial doorway to Hanover Square, which had in the still of night, regained something of its aristocratic British dignity Of the 1760s. The ancient India house greeted us with its carving facade and small pane windows. At all that could draw us away was the prospect of Fraunces Tavern ahead. 00:32:13:03 - 00:32:39:21 Sean We came upon the Tavern in the Burning Moonlight, the same round disk moonlight, which had laid witchery on the waters during my Elizabethan trips of the two days preceding and past and proper or at the site. There arose the antique walls and Georgian grace while the swinging sign creaked in a gentle wind, a gentle wind blowing down the ages with ghosts of red coats and white perry wigs. 00:32:40:14 - 00:33:08:22 Sean Silence was our supreme tribute. And the next day, Loveman dropt me a postcard of sheer ecstasy at the spectacle. Thence we proceeded westward, turning up Broadway, and later down Rector Street, past the grave of Alexander Hamilton in ancient Trinity Churchyard. Rector led the church and church to narrow temples down, which we defiled, reverently saluting the tiny brick colonial houses on the north side. 00:33:09:09 - 00:33:36:06 Sean This brought us to Greenwich Street and the venerable brick facade of that colonial hostelry the Planter's Hotel, a favorite gathering place of traveling Virginia Gentry in the old days. This place had its Poe memories, too, for when he had landed in New York from Philadelphia, whence he had come by train to Perth Amboy. An old town described in one of my former travelogs and the rest of the way by boat. 00:33:36:13 - 00:34:11:22 Sean He found it in its decline as Mrs. Morrison's cheap boarding house and obtained lodgment there for himself and his ailing wife. Prior to taking the Fordham Cottage. That was in April 1844. But since then, the tavern has been restored to its colonial outlines and something of a colonial dignity. From the planters, we walked north one square to Cedar Street, up which we turned, observing the many colonial houses on the South side, one of which is Tom's Chophouse, opened continuously since 1797. 00:34:12:05 - 00:34:42:11 Sean Whose picture I sent you last summer. From Cedar we went up church to Fulton and up that to Broadway, admiring on our left, the archaic churchyard guard and Christopher Wren, steeple of Noble Old St Paul's. It was now close on midnight. So with a lingering glance at St Paul's 1766 facade and the 1812 grace of the Marble City Hall across the park, we dove into our respective subways and concluded a performance of unalloyed delight. 00:34:42:24 - 00:35:28:04 Sean The next day, Monday the 13th, I went up to Sonny-Child's for lunch, and spent the afternoon reveling amongst the exotic curios, which is opulent aunt - Mrs. William Symmes - had just brought him from Paris and London. There were exquisite portfolios of de luxe colored views of Versailles and Fontainbleau, queer china dishes and pieces of silver plate, unusual and bizarre fabricks, and most attractive of all to the Belknap-infant, a peculiar pipe formed of a hollow block of polished wood connected in hookah-fashion with a hard-rubber mouthpiece by a gaudy green rubber tube over six feet long. 00:35:28:16 - 00:35:52:11 Sean Ittle man hath since shewn it to all the boys with every mark of proprietary satisfaction, and all agree that it is a most marvelous creation for a small boy to own. Late in the afternoon we all -Sonny, his mamma, his papa and his Grandpa Théobald - took a bus ride far uptown, returning on the same vehicle back without alighting at the terminus. 00:35:53:01 - 00:36:26:19 Sean The return trip was in the twilight, and after the Belknap by alighted at their 100th street, I kept on the stagecoach and rode down to ancient Washington Square via Riverside Drive and Fifth Avenue, thence seeking the homeward subway. Tuesday, the 14th, I read my principal book on colonial houses, and in the afternoon went to interview the man whom Houdini had given me a letter of introduction - Brett Page, head of a newspaper syndicate service whose office is at the corner of Broadway and 58th Street. 00:36:27:04 - 00:36:56:01 Sean Page was amazingly affable and detained me an hour and a half in cordial conversation, but had nothing at all in the way of a vacant position. He said that just to sorts of places are fitted for me. Assistant editorship of trade paper and readership or revise revisorship in a book publishing house. He advised me Ask Houdini for an introduction to a book publisher, which I shall do when my nerves permit me to indite a coherent epistle. 00:36:56:16 - 00:37:28:20 Sean In the evening I read more colonial material as usual. Wednesday the 15th, I had lunch with S H downtown at that quaint basement cafeteria at Madison Avenue and 30 Street. Riding home on the subway, I was struck with a memory of weird things I had seen at twilight in Elizabethtown, and other weird things have longer ago and had once realized that I was about to write a story. During the afternoon I laid out the preliminary design and discussed it in some detail. 00:37:28:20 - 00:37:49:12 Sean when the boys met in the evening at Kirks. Morton was absent on account of the death of his mother, which had called him back to Massachusetts. But in spite of this fact, we managed to have a tolerable time until about 3 a.m.. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday may be disposed of with much brevity for I did nothing but write upon my story. 00:37:49:23 - 00:38:14:07 Sean It is longer than my average product and needed much care so that many drastic illuminations and rearrangements were perforce adopted before I could assemble it as a continuous bit of text. Sunday afternoon, S.H. and I took a walk in Prospect Park, and in the evening went to the cinema, after which we bought some ice cream at the corner candy shop and took it, not the shop home to eat. 00:38:14:19 - 00:38:45:13 Sean And we ate it. Monday the 20th, I was at Sonny's all day for both lunch and dinner, and we discussed the story. Then about three quarters done at length. Belknap Making several suggestions for re-proportioning, one of which I very gratefully adopted in the evening. I did considerable work on the story, starting for bed about midnight, but having to dress again in haste to the very moment I emerged from the tub on account of the sudden gastric spasms with which S H had been seized while resting in bed after a day of general ill feeling. It was then that we called up 00:38:50:07 - 00:38:57:18 Sean the hospital as related in my epistle to AEPG and hastened down in a taxicab whilst the grim small hours brooded over the world. Tuesday, the 21st. I took many things to the hospital and returned home, and in the evening started out to meet Kleiner and Loveman downtown for a tour of the bookstores. A subway tie up, however, delayed me hopelessly. The train ahead had hot hotbox and power, had to be shut off for half an hour so that I missed the appointed rendezvous in Union Square. 00:39:20:13 - 00:39:46:08 Sean Arriving there and finding myself alone, I toured the literary emporium independently, picking up several ten cent bargains, the most striking of which was a play of the Salem Witchcraft by Mary Wilkins. I had a marvelously good, cheap dinner, lamb stew, apple pie and coffee at a modest cafeteria in eighth Street. It all cost only $0.35, after which I returned home and read the Salem play and retired. 00:39:47:01 - 00:40:12:18 Sean The next day, Wednesday, the 22nd, I made passable coffee with written directions furnisht by S H the day before and rounded out breakfast with bread, cheese and a 20 minute egg, which I cooked with vast finesse. I then visited the hospital, taking books, paper, stationery and an ever sharp pencil I bought as a gift to the patient and subsequently went directly from there to a meeting of the boys at Belknap's. 00:40:13:08 - 00:40:35:03 Sean This time, Mortonius was present, bearing up well after his bereavement and with a fine horror book he had picked up in Boston - at Good speeds in Park Street. This volume - "The door of the Unreal" by Gerald Biss, he lent me; and it turned out to be a very effective werewolf story. Sleepy Kleiner broke the meeting up at midnight, but Morton leads. 00:40:35:03 - 00:41:09:05 Sean Kirk Loveman and I adjourn to a neighboring cafeteria where we sit in grave discussion till 1:30. Then Kirk and Samuel struck up north, and Leeds took the subway south whilst Mortonius And I walked down to 72nd Street and across to Columbus Avenue, where we climbed opposite sides of the elevated, gesturing grotesquely to each other across the tracks till by happy coincidence, opposite trains came at exactly the same time to engulf us and beat us away in our respective homeward directions uptown and downtown. 00:41:10:01 - 00:41:17:22 Sean Thursday, the 23rd I divided betwixt the hospital and home reading. Friday, the 24th was much the same till evening, when instead of going home, I went 00:41:19:09 - 00:41:37:02 Sean up to a special meeting of the boys at Kirk's. A meeting called to ensure the attendance of nice, honest old McNeil, who on account of a financial quarrel, will not attend when Leeds is present. Leeds borrowed $8 of him and failed to return it when promised a breach of faith which preys on the good old boy's simple Victorian mind, so that he won't recognize his erring brother till reparation is made. We find much ground for sympathy on both sides and wish we could have both boys with us - But it has to be in Leeds at the regular meeting, since McNeil is the one to make the break and we can hardly tell Leeds to get out when he hasn't harmed the rest of us. 00:41:59:15 - 00:42:24:21 Sean This special meeting was very delightful. Even though Mortonius was absent. Loveman played his new hundred dollar radio set, bringing to our humble club room a very fair vocal rendering of The Mikado and McNeil prattled amiably of life's simple things. At 1:30, we broke up and Kleiner taking the subway, whilst Kirk, (our host, who always accompanies his guests home as far as they will walk!) 00:42:25:05 - 00:42:49:20 Sean McNeil and I embarked on a pedestrian journey downtown. It was a great little walk down Central Park West, and towards the end a waning crescent moon rose and 49th Street Kirk and I turned with McNeill and accompanied him to his lofty abode in Hell's Kitchen, remaining and chatting till 5 a.m. when we adjourn to a cafeteria and Broadway near 49th Street. 00:42:50:06 - 00:43:16:11 Sean En route to this latter place, we indulge in considerable astronomical speculation anent a curious duplication of the lunar crescent, which both of us clearly observed without having had the least alcoholic preparation. In the cafeteria, Kirk turned the conversation to philosophy, and time vanished in a thin gray mist. Dawn paled the East, and then gilded the peaks of the neighbouring skyscrapers; 00:43:16:11 - 00:43:52:11 Sean But we knew it not. Our minds were upon grave generalities, and since no officious waiter disturbed us, we soared to the utmost bounds of the cosmos while star gross clay sprawled in one armchairs along the tiled wall. Kirk is more intelligent than I had realized, for he is usually quiet and uncommunicative. In beliefs He and I are exactly as one for despite a stern Methodist upbringing, he is an absolute cynic and skeptic who realizes most poignantly the fundamental purposelessness of the universe. 00:43:53:07 - 00:44:26:13 Sean At 9:30, we pause for breath and sally forth into the fresh morning air for a tour of antiquarian exploration. First, we walk to the old Jane Teller mansion at the foot of 61st Street, the one which AEPG and I visited last April. It was very beautiful with the sun on its eastern end and we lingered long before passing under the sinister masonry of the Queensboro Bridge in quest of Sutton Place, the reclaimed district of sumptuous neo Georgian houses, courts and gardens on a high terrace above the East River. 00:44:27:00 - 00:44:46:23 Sean Sutton Place, however, proved equally delightful, and in order to gain a view of the rear gardens which lie in the river out of sight of the street, we climbed perilously out along the face of the perpendicular cliff, clinging to the wire netting, which bounds them for safety's sake, and finding precarious footholds in the crumbling earth of the bluff. 00:44:47:12 - 00:45:18:12 Sean Our pains were repaid, for we saw many colonial marvels in the way of walks and bowers; and one magnificent rear door of the Connecticut Valley broken pediment a type. Thence we returned to the busy streets, plodding along, philosophically, washing our clay hands at a convenient hydrant and exploring an alluring carbon in Eighth Avenue, where among more modern vehicles we found a splendid old converted horse car like the old only villa in Market Street 00:45:18:12 - 00:46:13:14 Sean White cars used as our work car. At Times Square we lunched at the Automat, V-Day, sheep, threes. I too were leads and I lunched on a former occasion. My fair this time being macaroni, potato salad, cheese pie and coffee. From this filling station we repaired to 40th Street to inspect the American Radiator Company's building, the new black and gold Tanzanian skyscraper designed by the Pawtucket architect and for the first time explored the interior, the basement is a dream of picturesqueness and spectral charm crypt under crypt of massive vaulted masonry... terrible arches on site, copious columns, black things and haunted niches here and there, and endless stone steps leading down, down down to hellish catacombs 00:46:13:14 - 00:46:43:04 Sean where sticky, brackish water drips. It is like the vaulted space behind the entrances to some ancient amphitheater in Rome or Constantinople. That or some ghoulish tomb nightmare not to be imagined, save in visions of nameless drugs out of unfathomable end. We must take the rest of the gang there sometime. Our next station was the ten cent store where we made a mild literary investment or two. 00:46:43:10 - 00:47:09:03 Sean I got montaigne's essays for a dime, and after that we repaired to Hetherington's Drugstore for some postcard ads. Next came Grand Central Station, whose collection of ancient railway material, which I showed AEPG on the day when I reluctantly consigned her to the eastbound N.Y.N.H and H) I wished to display to Kirk. He was much fascinated by the old De Witt Clinton and its train - 00:47:09:08 - 00:47:49:14 Sean The actual engine and cars run on the New York Central in 1831, now preserved forever in a mighty gallery and the clever working models of vengeance old and new, arranged in cases nearby. Then at last, we began to think of concluding, getting a chocolate sundae a piece at Hetherington's. We commenced the slow trek back to Fifth Avenue where there overtook us a final thrill in the way of a crowd and a political procession, the center of which was none other than Theodore Roosevelt Junior, whose illustrious career beheld in August 1912 at the Providence Opera House, newly come home after a speaking tour of the provinces. 00:47:49:24 - 00:48:22:05 Sean He was standing up in a motor, smiling, bowing and waving a fedora hat at the assembled populace, looking considerably like the immortal Theodore as the first and sporting a neat but spreading bald spot just where my own is developing. Viva Theodoruse Rex! I am beastly sorry he was defeated, even though Smith isn't at all bad, he must have to exercise considerable fortitude not to grow a mustache, wear a heavy pincers, snares and show his teeth like the eminent departed. 00:48:22:18 - 00:48:44:01 Sean Better luck next time. Here's to him. By this time, the diary date ought to definitely be changed to Saturday, October 25. Kirk took a bus uptown at Fifth Avenue whilst I followed Teddy the second and the crowd to Times Square, where I took the subway to 259. There I bathed and brushed up and started out again at once for the hospital. 00:48:44:10 - 00:49:17:13 Sean At the latter place, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Westbrook and stayed till the closing hour of 9 p.m.. Incidentally, breaking a semi engagement with Loveman to go to Newark and make a raid on the bookstalls there. Sunday and Monday I put in hospitalling, also perfecting my household technique and coffee making art. I kept the place finely swept and dusted so that SH knew no difference from normal when she got back. Tuesday after a spectacular success in cooking and preparing spaghetti, according to directions from S.H.. 00:49:17:19 - 00:49:18:09 Sean I went to the Hospital for my usual call, after which 00:49:20:22 - 00:49:48:20 Sean I went downtown to meet Sonny Boy at McNeil's, where we had planned to pay the old fellow a call. We found him out, however, it's changed our evening to one of all touring, covering the 59th Street area of shops. Belknap picked up a fine thing of Walter Patters and an exquisite volume of Landor's poetry. I got a Gautier with an introduction by Edgar Salters for myself and a copy of the Castle of Otranto for Moretonius. 00:49:49:13 - 00:50:13:20 Sean After a dispersal of the expedition, I returned home to find a waiting me a letter from that brilliant Washingtonian, Edward Lloyd Sechrist, announcing his arrival in New York on the following Sunday for a week's sightseeing and visiting among friends, with headquarters at the historick old Brevoort House Fifth Avenue at Eighth Street, where Washington Irving and his literary coterie used to lounge about in the lobby. 00:50:14:07 - 00:50:39:12 Sean I dispatched an enthusiastic guard of welcome and prepared to enjoy the zest of congenial anticipation. Wednesday, the 29th, the remainder of my Scribner books came and I at once began the new Dunsany novel The King of Elfland's daughter. Incidentally, I saw to the return and placing of the bedspread, which I self-sufficient housekeeper had sent out to have mended. 00:50:39:16 - 00:51:02:17 Sean Price ten fish. Later I assembled a great cargo of goods for S.H. - chessboard and men, etc., etc., and went down to negotiate some purchases - Book on chess at Brentano's, and pecan nuts at Park and Tilford's. I reached the hospital, loaded, but soon dispersed my goods and chattel and began a laborious attempt to learn the game of chess anew 00:51:02:18 - 00:51:37:18 Sean after 20 years total neglect. In the evening I set out for the boys at Belknap and found all possible hands present, tho' Mortonius was unhappily lost to the world through the agency of one of those new fangled crossword puzzles, which Leeds thrust upon his avid intelligence in an injudicious moment. Moretonius, by the way, won't be with us again till the meeting of November 19th or perhaps November 26, on account of that hideously exacting job of writing two medical books for a capable, though inarticulate physician. 00:51:38:10 - 00:52:00:22 Sean I prepared the boys for Sechrist's presence at the next meeting and stuck till the last man flew; riding down on the elevated with Leeds after the usual exchange of gestures with a north bound Mortonius, and chatting in an eighth Street cafeteria till three or four a.m. The next day. Thursday the 30th, I spent at the hospital playing chess and reading Dunsany. 00:52:01:11 - 00:52:36:21 Sean And on Friday - as related to a AEPG - SH came home in time for a very quiet Halloween party with only the discursive Mrs. Moran as a guest. Saturday I also chronicled to a AEPG - yea, that and Sunday too, tho' perhaps I didn't mention that on the latter day I finished my story at one fell swoop and made a telephone engagement with Sechrist for 9 a.m. The following day. Monday dawned bright, and Sechrist was over on time, bringing a portfolio of literary material and an album of South Sea photographs - 00:52:37:01 - 00:53:06:09 Sean for the home of his soul is tropick Tahiti, and his chief interest is Polynesian folklore. I was darnerd glad to see him, and after a time we started out to do the town, having made an engagement to call at Sonny's about 2:30 p.m. Deciding on the art museum, the Metropolitan, as a starting poin, we found ourselves so absorbed that we went nowhere else; but roamed the beauty freighted halles in a continuous ecstasy of aesthetick appreciation. 00:53:07:02 - 00:53:37:13 Sean There is no one more sensitive to beauty than Sechrist. He found chief Ddlight in the remnants of Minoan (or prehistoric Cretan) antiquities, and in the beautiful glassware of Cyprus, stained by a thousand elfin fires of iridescence by its corrosive immersion in the earth for thousands of years. I also discovered a series of French 18th century rooms - paneled and furnished with genuine Louis period wainscoting and furniture and décorations - which I had not seen before myself! 00:53:38:03 - 00:54:03:11 Sean The French 18th century was certainly exquisite, with its lavish use of white and gold and marble - but I vow to God I prefer the plainer, severe and more austerely classic British work of the same period - the age of Chippendale, Hepplewhite and the brothers Adam. God save the King! Going up to Belknap's via surface car across the park and elevated up to 99th Street, 00:54:03:17 - 00:54:26:13 Sean we found the child in excellent health and spirits. He and Sechrist took to each other at once, kindrerd aesthetes -and read to each other many a specimen of written beauty. Sonny had the new weird tales with the cover design of his story ( nothing of mine in it) and we all enjoyed examining the distinguished specimen. Finally, Sechrist had to leave in order to keep an engagement, 00:54:26:13 - 00:54:47:16 Sean So Sonny and I rode down town with him atop a bus. He left at 45th Street, but Sonny and I went down to Madison Square, bought another weird tales, and walked still farther down to Fourth Avenue and 13th Street, where we found Loveman at his post in Stone's rare bookshop. He quickly left with us, and we all crossed over to a new lunch room - 00:54:47:20 - 00:55:18:10 Sean Incredibly cheap but incredibly good, with an effusively friendly German proprietor, where Belknap and I watched Samuelus eat before we went home to our own dinners. At length, we all walked through to the colonial maezes of Greenwich Village, where Sonny and Loveman took the subway at Christopher Street Station and rode uptown together, whilst I walked observantly back to my own subway, observing the Georgian doorways and dormers with the true antiquarian eye of old age. 00:55:19:06 - 00:55:47:15 Sean During the evening, I played or played at playing chess with S.H. and retired in all the mellow good humor of continuous and consecutive defeat. On Tuesday the fourth ('tis now Thursday the sixth at 4 p.m.) I read Dunsany, wrote AEPG, and had a dinner of prime Spaghetti with SH's magical brand of homemade sauce. The next morning I was up bright and early for my second appointment with Sechrist 9:00. 00:55:47:21 - 00:56:09:01 Sean Sechrist came on time and we lost not many minutes in getting embarked on our strenuous day of sightseeing. We telephoned Sonny, but the child had hurt his little foot on a steam pipe in the bathroom the day before, so couldn't be in on the Walking, though he promised to get over to Kirk's - only a few blocks - for the evening meeting of the Boys. 00:56:09:08 - 00:56:30:21 Sean Sechrist and I stopped first at the Anderson Galleries Park Avenue at 59th Street, which AEPG will remember well, since she and I saw an auction there last March. A friend of Sechrit's, John M Price, is employed there in an editorial capacity, preparing catalogs, etc. and he showed us over the place most courteously. Price is a splendid young chap, 00:56:31:05 - 00:56:51:13 Sean though I don't agree with his politics and he has invited Sechrist and me over to his house tonight - he lives in East 9th Street, in Colonial Greenwich. If he could help me find out how to apply for a position in the Anderson Galleries as Sechrits thinks he might, he would virtually save my life! I could do the Anderson work very well. 00:56:51:13 - 00:57:26:04 Sean In fact, Loveman long ago suggested how well-suited such a job would be to me. I think I'll get over to Price's tonight if I canfinish this letter in time, though Pegana knows I need a haircut first, the last having been the day AEPG left September 27th. But to return to yesterday - Wednesday, the fifth after the galleries, we took the East Side subway for the Poe Cottage, incidentally discovering what none of our veteran New York friends realised - that this subway is a two story one, 00:57:26:07 - 00:57:54:03 Sean the Express trains running in a sub subway under the tube where the locals run. We reached the cottage at 1 p.m. and gloried in its simple outlines -for Sechrist, as you may recall from his enthusiasm for the Athenaeum and Mrs. Whitman's house - is a true Poe enthusiast. Luck, however, was against us, or when we tried to enter; since unknown to me before, the cottage closes from 1 to 2 and we had no time to wait. 00:57:54:14 - 00:58:29:23 Sean So sadly we took the cross-town car for the Van Cortland mansion, finding that noble pile in its prime, and revelling in the Colonial atmosphere. Sechrist was born in his ancestral Colonial homestead in Maryland, and found boyhood memories in every piece of China silver, pewter or kitchen facility. He was so moved that he has vowed to write his brother, who still lives on the paternal acres, to take care in saving such pieces as modern, unappreciativeness has consigned to the cobwebs of the cellar or attic. 00:58:30:09 - 00:58:58:22 Sean He got several postcards and is an avowed convert to Georgianism! From the Van Cortlandt we rode down to the Dyckman, where we repeated our experience and ecstasy. And added joy for me was a little grey and white kittie, a real Dutch Dyckman kittie, who purred contentedly in my arms during the entire tour of the place. You will recall that when I explored this house two years ago, I held a black cat and fell down the cellar stairs with him. 00:58:59:06 - 00:59:24:02 Sean This time I didn't fall, though I stove have in my hat (fortunately soft felt) against the low rafters on that same staircase! From here, we rode down to the New York Historical Society's Museum at 77th Street and Central Park West, where Sechrits properly enjoyed the Beekman Coach, old prints, relics of George the third statue, course of Empire paintings, Renaissance Masters, etc., etc.. 00:59:24:17 - 00:59:58:21 Sean At 5 p.m., they chucked us out, so we rode down to Loveman's shop, picked him up, and went across to his new favorite restaurant where Kleiner joined us. Amidst the general introductions, it was obvious that Sechrist fitted in magnificently with our gang, and we all regret poignantly, that he does not live in New York. After dinner - where I tasted Hungarian goulash (stewed beef with pungent vegetables) for the first time, and for the first time tried an apple sprudel, sort of tart, which with a cup of coffee, rounded out my meal. 00:59:59:04 - 01:00:28:12 Sean We all walked away across town to Greenwich Village, where we delighted Sechrist by showing him Milligan Place, the inner mystery, and Patchin Place by a sickly, sinister, accursed lamplight. Tell AEPG - who has been there - but the little wooden floor a shop has been torn out of Milligan Place, adding very much to its atmospheric charm. We then took the elevated up to Kirk's, where we played the radio, introduced Sechrist to Kirk and Leeds and had the usual carefree good time. 01:00:29:00 - 01:01:05:14 Sean I lent Sonny, "The King of Elfland's daughter" and my own new story, desiring his verdict on the latter in its completed form. Sechrist South Sea myths, tales and photographs made a decided hit, and Kirk and Loveman busied themselves in offering advice anent the author's hitherto fruitless quest for a publisher. We broke up about 1 a.m.. Sechrist, Leeds and I riding down on the elevated. Leeds debarked at 53rd street, whilst Sechrist I continued to Christopher street, there alighting and walking through colonial Greenwich, including crooked Gay street, to the venerable Brevoort. 01:01:06:06 - 01:01:34:06 Sean There Sechrist shew'd me the quaint interior, the quasi colonial staircase, the white paneling, the tiny cubbyhole lifts, the oddly varying floor levels and the plain monastic rooms. He has number 254, a tiny cubbyhole at the end of the corridor, but he pays $3.50 per day. The place is still expensive because of its atmosphere and traditions and the exclusiveness with which it is still managed. 01:01:34:20 - 01:02:07:02 Sean It is one old time institution which has not decayed with the years! Bidding Sechrists adieu, I returned home to find SH rather exhausted after an afternoon and evening visit to the Van Heules in Flushing - who have a new young man, several weeks old, added to the family since our call of last summer. S.H. took Mrs. Van H some of her magic spaghetti sauce and in return Mrs. Van H has presented her with a dozen splendid white country eggs, one of which I had hard boiled to eat this morning. 01:02:07:20 - 01:02:29:24 Sean Today, S.H. has gone downtown to attend to some financial business, and I have cooked my breakfasts and washed the dishes as I did during her absence. Tomorrow, Sechrist is coming again, and intends to bring a friend of his - a young woman who he thinks SH will be interested to meet. This morning I have been immersed in science, reading that much-discussed prophecy as to future developments. 01:02:30:09 - 01:03:02:24 Sean Daedalus by Professor JB Haldane of Cambridge, England University. Kirk lent it to me last night and tonight I am going to sub-lend it to Sechrist. After finishing Daedalus, I commenced the final installment of this epistle, which I shall now commend to the tender mercies of the U.S. Mail. More anon. And hurrah for the election! I knew Coolidge would get it, but in local politics I was worried about the possible appeal that scoundrel Toupin might have on the Canuck herds of the Blackstone and Pawtuxet Valleys. 01:03:03:00 - 01:03:26:10 Sean With Aram and Jesse the state is saved and I'm also darned glad Gainer got another term - The Thomas A. Doyle of the period! Well, that's that. I'll tip you off to any new disasters, and would meanwhile be mighty darned glad if you found it convenient to visit these parts about this season. And now I'll take another chocolate bud, for which thanks, and subscribe myself. 01:03:26:22 - 01:03:34:01 Sean Your affectionate nephew and obedient servant HPL 01:03:34:23 - 01:03:42:05 Andrew Okay. Sean, are you trying to send me to eBay? That's your goal now, is to force me to go to eBay after these letters? 01:03:42:06 - 01:03:43:20 Sean I have no idea what you mean. 01:03:45:06 - 01:03:55:03 Andrew Yeah, that's a humdinger. So full of stuff and amazing rabbit holes to go down. I'm sure we can begin to cover all of the cool stuff. 01:03:55:10 - 01:04:13:12 Sean This is one you know, I was thinking back when we did the really long Frank Belknap Long letter that we split into two, four letters. And this one there is so much to it. So I suspect different things will have jumped out to each of us. We'll cover as many of them as we can. But yeah, to to get into every nook and cranny. 01:04:13:12 - 01:04:20:08 Sean And this one would really take it take a whole lot of detective work and make for a very, very long episode. 01:04:20:08 - 01:04:27:04 Andrew So he this is when he was living in New York? Yes. When he wrote this letter. Yes. Just giving a little context. Yes. 01:04:27:23 - 01:04:51:00 Sean Well, that's part of why. Let me start with why I picked this this particular letter. It happened to be I was doing some work on Miskatonik missives. Right. And was digging into research on the story The shunned house and this is the letter in which he describes the two actual houses that form the creative basis of the second house, which was all well and good. 01:04:51:00 - 01:05:08:11 Sean But once I read it, I was like, Dang, what a what a letter. And you know, we've done so many already and yet, you know, I don't feel like we've we've, we've, we've completely covered Howard and the experience of reading Lovecraftian letters. And this one particularly. 01:05:08:11 - 01:05:10:19 Sean Engaged me because. 01:05:10:19 - 01:05:24:21 Sean Of its diary in nature. You know, the the bulk of the letter, he really is laying out what I did day by day, hour by hour, hour by hour sometimes. Yeah. And that's vast generating in its own right, especially. 01:05:24:21 - 01:05:27:09 Andrew Considering how much he did in the days that he was. 01:05:27:19 - 01:05:48:15 Sean Very busy, dude. Right. And then the other thing I thought was so interesting is this view into what daily life was like during the horrible New York years. You know, we I think it tends to be painted with the brush of, you know, oh, poor Howard by himself and dumped by Sonia. And lonely, lonely, lonely. Boo hoo. I hate New York. 01:05:48:15 - 01:05:58:24 Sean Look at all the foreigners. I want to go back to Providence. Right. And then you read this, this fun filled fandango, Howard, of Social Butterfly. And it. 01:05:58:24 - 01:06:01:13 Sean Just so flies in the face. 01:06:01:13 - 01:06:22:17 Sean Of that that I thought it was a really, really great look at what what it was really like. And also one of the other qualities about it I just found so compelling is, you know, Lovecrafts Marriage is a weird thing. It is a weird thing. It comes about it's weird how it's executed and it's weird how it finishes. 01:06:22:23 - 01:06:53:21 Sean And this is such a snapshot of right. It's both the beginning and the beginning of the end as it's falling apart and I think it's really telling in many ways and in many ways it's telling. And what it does not tell about, you know, what's going on between them, but it certainly for those of us who are trying to wrap our heads around the the guy and his life, it's a snapshot of the relationship that it's kind of different than what we see in any other letter that I've read. 01:06:53:23 - 01:07:12:04 Andrew Now, Sonia spends a lot of the time covered by this letter in the hospital. Yes. With with gastric. I mean, Lovecraft doesn't go into detail about exactly what's wrong with her. Presumably Aunt Lillian already knew from some previous communication, be it a previous letter or a phone call or a telegram. 01:07:12:04 - 01:07:16:17 Sean I mean, I think the thought was it was the previous letter too. 01:07:16:17 - 01:07:17:15 Andrew And Annie had given all the 01:07:17:23 - 01:07:32:04 Sean Evidence that about what went wrong was more. And you know, it's also sort of interesting that I don't I don't want to be mean, but I'm not sure how much Lovecraft cares about what's wrong with her. She has. 01:07:32:04 - 01:07:32:21 Sean Ailments. 01:07:33:04 - 01:07:39:16 Andrew And he does buy his report here. He spends a lot of time at the hospital playing chess with her, pretending to play other. 01:07:39:16 - 01:07:41:16 Sean Places, hanging out with the boys and what can. 01:07:41:16 - 01:07:56:08 Andrew You say? But then he goes off and spends all night with the fellows. Yeah. And, you know, he dutifully goes back to visit her in the hospital. But when she gets out of the hospital, you know, she just comes home and it's really it seems very inconsequential. 01:07:56:08 - 01:08:02:01 Sean Yeah. And then she's off visiting friends in Flushing, you know, and having a Halloween party and just. 01:08:02:01 - 01:08:04:20 Andrew Seem to be living very separate lives. 01:08:05:01 - 01:08:20:10 Sean They do. And I think that's one of the. Yeah, the telling qualities about it. You know, he is simultaneously both solicitous and indifferent. Maybe I'm indifferent might be Irish, but but not too far off the mark. 01:08:20:13 - 01:08:21:20 Andrew He doesn't seem terribly worried. 01:08:21:22 - 01:09:07:11 Sean He doesn't seem terribly worried. And then, you know, subsequent to this, Sonia's health problems were I think I think a lot of times get sort of overlooked as a problem in the marriage. And, you know, she subsequently went to a sanatorium, a convalescent, you know, hospital in New Jersey and was there for quite a while, during which Lovecraft spends most of his time exploring antic Philadelphia and not so much, you know, hanging out by the bedside reading tales of Lord Dunsany to her so the opening paragraph is one of these kind of interesting moments of self-awareness that we sometimes get from 01:09:07:11 - 01:09:23:19 Sean Lovecraft And this really fascinated me in this letter because he says, you know, you read my last letter, too, and any about the illness and hospitalization wife and blah, blah, blah, and the impending dissolution of this establishment in a maze of poverty and uncertainty. 01:09:23:19 - 01:09:25:24 Sean I will proceed to play blithely. 01:09:25:24 - 01:09:28:12 Sean On the Lyra whilst burns. Yeah. 01:09:28:22 - 01:09:30:10 Sean And boy, does he. 01:09:31:03 - 01:09:50:22 Sean You know, the Sonia and Howard were married in late March of 1924. This is this is November. You know, it's been eight months since he moved to New York and started it. And by this point in time it's all gone to hell. 01:09:51:02 - 01:09:54:05 Andrew Clearly know handwriting's on the wall and he knows it's going to be over soon. 01:09:54:05 - 01:10:20:19 Sean Yeah. And he greets it with kind of been a difference, you know, which you hear how unhappy he was once he moved to the the home a little apartment in in Redhook, you know. But yeah, clearly 6 months in and you know she's not going to be able to continue to take care of him and he's got Nero, she's got health problems and know he's not doing a particularly good job at it. 01:10:20:21 - 01:10:23:02 Sean Finding a job, Right. He is not. 01:10:23:16 - 01:10:27:12 Andrew Even in this letter. I got to go get that job. But first, I have get a haircut. 01:10:27:12 - 01:10:46:16 Sean Yeah, no, I've got to write a letter to the guy, but I've got to write letters to everybody else. I know first, and then I'll see if I can write a letter if I still have it in me to write a letter, the guy who might give me a job. So anyway, I didn't want to acknowledge that because he does right out of the gate before he you know, he talks about what's going on at home and then eventually gets into the diary portion. 01:10:46:16 - 01:10:46:23 Sean Yeah. 01:10:47:22 - 01:11:16:01 Andrew He starts off this letter with some comments about stuff that's happening back home in Providence. And then he mentions right away in like the beginning of the third paragraph, the your description of the Temple of Music at the park fascinated me greatly. And he he hopes it will be immortalized in postcard form, which of course it was. We talked about it when that episode we did about the concert that he and Annie went to see at the very Temple of Music that they're talking about about nine years after this letter was written. 01:11:16:01 - 01:11:19:10 Andrew And they appear in the photo. That is the postcard. 01:11:19:12 - 01:11:40:13 Sean Yeah, and it is, you know, Roger Williams Park is still there and it's still a essential thing. And in talking with and Annie, yeah, it's sort of a right sorry with that Lillian you know, they're going over. I think he's starting working off her letter and the different topics that she's brought up and there's this interesting excursion. 01:11:40:14 - 01:11:48:13 Sean Oh, oh. And you know, as Lovecraft tends to be, he's pretty knowledgeable about what's going on in Punic archeology. 01:11:48:13 - 01:12:26:18 Andrew Well, he mentioned I mean, clearly she brought it up because the topic was getting newspaper coverage and I went and I don't know if you had a chance, but I went and found the clippings that he apparently included with this letter. And yeah, in The New York Times, starting on about September 14th of 1924, there was a lengthy article, the title of which is Pompeii Finds Rival in Ruins in Sahara, and it quotes at length this Italian music teacher named Dr. Bruno Rosselli, who had visited the excavations and came back to New York and had lots of glowing stories to tell of what was going on there. 01:12:26:22 - 01:12:52:21 Andrew And then on September 28th, there's an even much bigger article called Forgotten City Found in African Land. Dr. Roselli of Vassar describes a visit to Leptis Magna, built by the Romans. And it's a very lengthy piece. The leftist Magnum was was being uncovered by the Italians. Right. There was an archeologist named Renato Bato Orsini, who was only in his mid-thirties. 01:12:53:04 - 01:12:55:07 Andrew And they had they knew it was there, but. 01:12:55:23 - 01:13:15:09 Andrew World War One and various other things had prevented them from actually doing anything. And by 1924, they the Italian government finally got its act together enough to actually send people out there. And this young guy, Bernardo Renato Bartolini, was the leader of the expedition. And yeah, they were finding a lot of amazing stuff at Leptis Magna. 01:13:15:09 - 01:13:38:15 Sean And I was kind of amazed, not that I'm any kind of expert on Gustave Flaubert, but I think of Flaubert and Madame Bovary, and I was not familiar with Salambo at all, and it was interesting that it actually came about in his interest in Leptis Magna, came about because of Madame Bovary and all of the. Legal backlash. 01:13:40:08 - 01:13:45:16 Sean That he got from that book and its immorality. You know, people were it was one. 01:13:45:16 - 01:13:46:10 Andrew Of these endless. 01:13:46:14 - 01:14:07:08 Sean Absolutely shocking for the time. And we read it now. And, you know, it's it's a bit "?" but so Flaubert I wanted to find a subject matter for his next work that could not bring any legal ire. So he wanted to do something that would where he could talk about the social issues he wanted to, but set it in a classical time. 01:14:07:08 - 01:14:15:09 Sean Right. So it wouldn't be considered a scandalous indictment of his own age. And of course, you know, the critics fell completely for it hook, line and sinker. 01:14:15:09 - 01:14:23:16 Andrew Yeah, they ate that book up, man. Yeah. And it it did spark a huge renewed interest in ancient Rome and Carthage. And all that stuff. 01:14:23:16 - 01:14:34:13 Sean And a couple of failed operas. A couple, Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky, both attempted to do it as operas, and neither of those two operas were finished. The first before apparently nothing rhymes with salami Salambo. 01:14:34:17 - 01:14:46:23 Andrew The first I had ever heard of Salambo was in the movie Citizen Kane. Where where Citizen Kane's wife stars in a doomed production of yet a third totally fictional opera called Salambo. Oh. 01:14:47:14 - 01:14:54:05 Sean Dude, we're going to sit down and write an outbreak called Salambo, which brings a mythos elements to it, and it'll be a little exciting that. 01:14:54:05 - 01:14:59:09 Andrew Circumflex over the old making it in. How do you pronounce it? Makes it exotic and unpronounceable. 01:14:59:19 - 01:15:08:01 Sean It makes it so nothing rhymes with it. So Gorski is sitting there going, SalamBoom. So I'm bored. I don't I can't finish this. I'm sorry. Yeah. 01:15:08:14 - 01:15:26:00 Andrew And then he also Marc, he says, not only left us Magna, but also ancient Carthage, the real old Punic town of Hamilcar and Hannibal. And he says, I'll send the cutting a full page from the Times which I also tracked down. And you know who was behind that expedition, don't you? 01:15:26:07 - 01:15:27:19 Sean I'm going to go with Byron. 01:15:28:01 - 01:15:48:02 Andrew It's our old buddy Byron Khun de Prorok. He's the French nobleman, that Lovecraft. But there was another guy named Byron Khun de Prorok got turned on to it by a French archeologist named Jules Renaud, and it actually forms the bulk of his book. Digging for Lost African Gods is all about his. 01:15:48:04 - 01:15:49:00 Sean Oh, his additions. 01:15:49:00 - 01:16:13:23 Andrew To Carthage and the opening chapter. I'm telling you, this is there's got feature film written all over it because according to Prorok, he was just sort of bumming around in Carthage and found this old Roman cistern that this creepy old dude was living in. And he interviewed him. It turned out the creepiest dude was Jules Renaud. Who was this aged eminent French archeologist who was dying. 01:16:14:01 - 01:16:24:01 Andrew And it's literally like the opening scenes of the movie where the old archeologist passes the baton to the new Young Count de Prorok. You know, I've. 01:16:24:01 - 01:16:26:05 Sean Said I don't know anything about archeology. 01:16:26:05 - 01:16:34:06 Andrew I've spent 15 years studying Carthage, and I've, you know, exhausted all my resources and my health is now at the breaking point. The tomb. 01:16:34:06 - 01:16:34:18 Sean Is hidden. 01:16:34:18 - 01:16:35:21 Sean Behind the dust. 01:16:35:23 - 01:16:50:19 Andrew Yeah. It's almost literally that there's a little. A few days after this letter was written, another big article came out in The Times called Curse Still Hovers over Carthage. And it's a huge two page article. And if you'll indulge me, I just. 01:16:51:03 - 01:16:51:11 Sean Show. 01:16:51:21 - 01:17:12:02 Andrew The the ruins at Carthage, like, you know, the tomb of Toutankhamon and so many other famous archeological sites. There were legends, rumors of a curse that anybody who disturbed these remains would suffer, of course, the dire consequences. And this article is all about the curse of Carthage and. I'm just going to read this little section called Renaud's Last Words. 01:17:12:13 - 01:17:39:22 Andrew Then came Jules Renaud, the distinguished French archeologist and the most eminent authority on the ruins of Carthage. He had devoted 15 years to scientific labor when he was joined by Count de Prorok. Together they excavated a Roman cistern in which Renaud insisted upon living for closer research. The dampness caused pneumonia, and he succumbed among the ruins In the winter of 1920, his last words to count de Prorok were, Well, I suppose the curse me at last. 01:17:40:11 - 01:18:08:24 Andrew Prince de Waldeck, who came to Carthage with Count de Proroks Expedition, was killed last June at the ruins. He was speeding to board a homeward bound liner when his automobile capsized and its burned wreckage were most of the films he had just taken from the plane of Paulette in doozy, French Ace and recent World Flier. On the day preceding his death, he received a double decoration from the French government, one for his heroism throughout the war, the other for his achievements in Carthage. 01:18:08:24 - 01:18:33:11 Andrew Count de Prorok is the sole survivor of his original expedition to Carthage. Yet in spite of this long list of tragedies, he is undaunted in his determination to spend is life in the excavation of its ruins and in the search for dead cities of the Sahara as the final discovery of the present season. Immediately before his departure for the United States, he unearthed a Punic Curse tablet in the cemetery surrounding the temple of the Goddess, which she did. 01:18:34:09 - 01:18:56:16 Andrew It was found among thousands of urns containing the bones of children who had been fed to the flames of Baal Moloch. If I were of a superstitious trend of mind, he says, the inscription on the stone, which dates from the fourth century B.C., would doubtless cool my ardor for Carthaginian excavation for it reads, quote, May the curse of Baal Amon Shatter to pieces eternally. 01:18:56:16 - 01:18:58:17 Andrew Whoever touches this tombstone. 01:18:59:22 - 01:19:00:18 Sean A very nice. 01:19:01:01 - 01:19:25:13 Andrew So, you know, Lovecraft and his aunt were obviously totally captivated by newspaper like this. You know, you know, Carthage, of course, is a fabulous archeological find. But the Prorok was more of an adventure and a newspaper headline grabber. And he was a real academic. And some of the discoveries that they were making there at Carthage were a little sketchy. 01:19:26:15 - 01:19:29:22 Andrew But it is fun reading and is very cinematic. 01:19:29:23 - 01:19:40:13 Sean I don't know about you, but I have sort of a bias against French archeologists. Yes, it's the black thing. Some of them are very shade from Raiders of the Lost Ark. You know, I am a shadowy. Reflection of you Dr. Jones. You know so well that yeah, that is a whole bunch of, you know, fun and looking at what the current events are that lead to Lovecraft fired up. And I was also kind of struck in this letter of how much. Like It seems Lillian and Howard were in terms of their interest because he's like, I read a great werewolf book. You got to read it. I'm reading about this. You got to read, you know, And yeah, it's like you got to come to New York and see this this, you know, these small bay and windows and, you know, the different things that really float Howard's boat. 01:20:16:20 - 01:20:23:11 Sean There seems to be, you know, it just seems like like Lilian and Howard are two two peas from the same pod. 01:20:23:17 - 01:20:39:04 Andrew Speaking of werewolf books, he is coming up shortly. He says, Glad you like the Baring-Gould book. And I had heard that name before, but had never looked into it. Sabine Baring-Gould is a very interesting guy indeed. Yeah. He wrote the Book of Werewolves in 1865 and then he. 01:20:39:04 - 01:20:40:23 Sean Wrote the the Himalayan word. 01:20:40:23 - 01:20:53:13 Andrew Christian was Christian. So he wrote a book called A Book of Ghosts in 1904, but he was prolific in every way. He he he wrote over a thousand books and had 15 children. I mean, this guy was a busy. 01:20:53:13 - 01:20:54:12 Sean Very busy guy. 01:20:55:00 - 01:21:01:19 Andrew And yeah, he was a British clergyman, one of these classic, you know, vicars who spent. 01:21:01:19 - 01:21:06:13 Sean James in sort of anything academic and spare time. I write werewolf books and those books. 01:21:06:13 - 01:21:10:09 Andrew And every kind of book. I mean, he was, he wrote on a lot of different kinds of subjects. Yeah, it. 01:21:10:09 - 01:21:32:01 Sean Was, it was interesting to see that. I also was fascinated by these references to the the the breaches Bible and the vinegar Bible that came in there. I Had you ever heard of those before? No. Yeah. So there are Bibles with different essentially with different misprints in them. But you know, just like if mint a coin and you spell, you know, Denver wrong or, you know, whatever, that, that makes the coin incredibly valuable. 01:21:32:04 - 01:21:51:14 Sean So in one of the first English translations of the Bible is known as the Geneva Bible, and that's also the bridge's Bible. And the Bible was soundly rejected. There was another Bible done around the same time, which now is the King James Bible. 01:21:51:22 - 01:21:53:01 Sean And guess who didn't like The Geneva Bible? King James ? You're good. You? Very good. So so these quickly became sort of the shunned English Bibles, but became known as the Bridges Bible because in the translation, Adam and Eve took fig leaves and made breaches out of them. And, you know, some people were very appalled by that, you know, egregious as translation when it must be loincloths or aprons not breaches. 01:22:20:10 - 01:22:23:16 Sean You know, they didn't have seams up the sides and trouser legs. 01:22:23:16 - 01:22:24:02 Sean And you don't. 01:22:24:02 - 01:22:30:06 Andrew Want to get me started on things. The Bible got wrong this week. Breaches is the least of it. 01:22:30:06 - 01:22:51:23 Sean Well, yes, you know. Well, another example, you know, and we to talk about the you know, the infallibility of the Bible and yet the vinegar Bible shows up in the vinegar. Bible is famous because of a typo that was added to it where the word vineyard was accidentally typeset as vinegar. And that's makes it an incredibly valuable and rare bible. 01:22:51:23 - 01:22:55:12 Sean So should you start Bible collecting? 01:22:55:12 - 01:22:58:14 Andrew That's one trip to eBay. You can be sure I will not be making. 01:22:58:14 - 01:23:11:17 Sean These things go for top dollar, you know, seven or 8000 bucks if you want to get one. So it's not completely out of your reach. You know, But nonetheless, it was interesting to Howard and it's interesting enough for us, he talks about. 01:23:12:03 - 01:23:20:07 Andrew You know, the only way he could get paid by Henneberger for some of his earlier stories to weird tales was Henneberger gave him $60 worth of credit to go buy books. 01:23:20:09 - 01:23:35:05 Sean Yeah, well, it seems it was an editing job that that had done sort of as a try out thing, because this was right around the time where Farnsworth Wright, had not yet gotten the right job as editor of Weird Tales and was still looking at Lovecraft form. And apparently. 01:23:35:05 - 01:23:36:20 Sean It was a publication that never came to actual existence. I forget the name, but I was like fun stories or humorous stories. It's something that seemed entirely inappropriate to Lovecraft, but he did a little bit of editing work for it and classic in and burger form, which to be fair to. Henneberger Henneberger sounds like he was in dire financial straits, you know, And so instead of paying anybody who worked for him, he just kept starting new magazines. 01:24:01:20 - 01:24:12:24 Sean And so, yeah, he pays Lovecraft with, you know, sorry, I don't have a check for you, but here's a $60 credit over at Scribner's. And that's what Howard takes. 01:24:13:00 - 01:24:27:06 Andrew And he talks. I managed to gather up a very respectable five foot shelf, which is in quotes in the letter, and that's a reference to the Harvard Classic series, which was marketed as the five foot shelf of books that will give you a complete college. 01:24:27:06 - 01:24:29:24 Sean Education and market it with the linear feet of it. 01:24:29:24 - 01:24:33:09 Andrew Yeah, they it was, yeah, the Harvard classics that was tagline. 01:24:33:09 - 01:24:52:11 Sean Well, if you'll indulge me for a second, because, you know, Lovecraft talks about going, you know, shopping with Frank Belknap Long and the lovely Clark oh, red mustache. It's very, very well Frank Belknap Long in his biography of Lovecraft, also recounts the same story. And it is it's always interesting to hear two different people tell the same story. 01:24:52:11 - 01:25:03:14 Sean So If you if you'll humor me and I'll share with you. So this Frank Belknap Long talking: When I arrived at the bookstore, Howard was standing on a movable stepladder at the rear of the shop, removing and. Examining books from the Shelves, putting some of Them back and dropping others into the quite large black leather shopping bag that he customarily carried at that early date. It resembled the large paper bags that are popular with supermarket shoppers, and it accompanied him on all of his later travels. in lieu of a briefcase usually supplemented by a Small suitcase when his trips were extensive. Whether it Remained the same bag. Four or Five years later, I cannot Be certain. It always remained shiny and unworn looking the instant he saw me, he descended quickly from the stepladder and removed about three books. From the bag, stacking them With a pile of four or five previously selected volumes on The book dealer's desk I then noticed some of the titles The Hill of. Dreams by Arthur Makin Plays of Near and Far by Lord Dunsany And a number of other volumes on America. Good Crawford cross-reference there, because that is our shopping list. Yeah. You were just in time To help the old gentleman out. He said your sharp, youthful Eyes will keep me from missing something that may have been hidden away. And covered with dust. I'll overlook it. Something I may really want. But I don't know what you really want. I said. you seem to have been ransacking the entire shop. There's another stepladder over there, he said, gesturing into the shadows. Just climb up and look around. If you find anything you feel I should buy, take you down and show it to me. How many books do you intend to buy? I asked. Not so many, but I've just started. I will make at least a few more purchases. I had a vision of Howard leaving the shop with so many books I would have to. Help him carry them. The proprietor, meanwhile, emerged From an alcove near the front of the store and seemed pleased by the number of books which Howard. Had set aside. Toward the end of his foraging. Howard ripped down several volumes and then added them to his pile so swiftly that I found myself. Wondering if he had done justice to whatever interest they had for him. He was up and down the ladder a half A dozen times. I selected one book and he was so pleased with the title that he did not even open it, but simply nodded and placed it with the others. It sounds like how I buy books, so he goes on a little bit more detail, but I just I thought it was fun to up little Lovecraft on the stepladder. And, you know, and it's interesting too, because Long's biography, This Is A Dreamer on the Night Side, was published in 1975. 01:27:16:08 - 01:27:35:13 Sean So it's 50 years after the memory, clearly, you know, And when we read Lovecraft's account of it, it's like, Oh, and I wanted Sonny to buy a book for himself that I picked up on the tab. And Long doesn't apparently remember that or make any, you know, any reference of it. So again, it's just that interesting. Rashomon effect of two different people telling the same story, you know, years apart. 01:27:36:00 - 01:27:39:12 Andrew And he offers to lend any and all of them to Aunt Lilian. 01:27:39:12 - 01:27:45:03 Sean Yeah yeah. And yeah his shopping his shopping tastes are interesting. And yeah. 01:27:45:20 - 01:27:58:08 Andrew If you yeah, if you had free run of Scribner's, I mean you could, you could get lots of different things you could get, but it's, it's heavily focused on colonial America and weird fiction. I mean those are obviously his interests. 01:27:59:03 - 01:28:00:15 Andrew So that makes perfect sense. 01:28:00:15 - 01:28:09:10 Sean But still. Well so I don't know if you're familiar particularly familiar with the the plays of Lord Dunsany. 01:28:09:22 - 01:28:15:07 Andrew I've skimmed one or two. Yeah. Enough to know that I don't feel Like reading anymore. 01:28:15:07 - 01:28:30:04 Sean Old fashioned style of drama. And you know, I would generally say, you know, most plays of the early 20th century don't hold up particularly well. They're not reproduced particularly often. You know. 01:28:30:18 - 01:28:35:02 Andrew They seem to the kind of plays that are written to be read, not written to be performed. 01:28:35:07 - 01:28:43:07 Sean I think that's often the case. But one play crossed my mind that's in plays of near and. 01:28:43:07 - 01:28:48:06 Sean Far that had Andrew Leman all over it. Oh really? Have you read the play. 01:28:48:22 - 01:28:51:19 Sean Cheezo from 1917? 01:28:53:00 - 01:28:54:24 Andrew I can't say that I have pity. 01:28:55:06 - 01:28:55:14 Sean All right. 01:28:55:14 - 01:29:03:10 Sean It took some effort to find out much about Cheezo, but when I saw it listed, I was looking at just what were the plays, this different collection. I was like, What a bizarre name. For a play. What is Cheezo about? 01:29:05:15 - 01:29:08:01 Andrew Well, corn puffed, corn, snacks, wheat. 01:29:08:01 - 01:29:09:09 Sean It's about synthetic Cheese Food 01:29:09:21 - 01:29:16:09 Sean Dunsany writed it in 1917 and it's a play about a man who. 01:29:16:09 - 01:29:19:04 Sean Makes a synthetic cheese substitute. Wow. 01:29:19:08 - 01:29:27:09 Sean And his daughter up giving some of a synthetic cheese substitute to her pet mice. And it kills them. Ha ha. 01:29:27:09 - 01:29:30:21 Andrew So doesn't create a breed of super warrior mice. 01:29:30:21 - 01:29:40:14 Sean No, no, it doesn't know. It reminded me of Ibsen's Enemy of the People. Then apparently it's delicious. And it contains more. I know they call it milk fibers or some. 01:29:40:23 - 01:29:43:00 Andrew More man boosting testimony. 01:29:43:14 - 01:29:50:01 Sean Exactly. In there. I was reading one critic called it the most ridiculous and unrestrained. 01:29:50:01 - 01:29:51:18 Sean Satire in Dunsany 01:29:51:18 - 01:29:56:09 Sean Entire corpus. So next time you're looking for an exciting drama. 01:29:56:09 - 01:30:00:03 Andrew It sounds like the next episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theater. Exactly. 01:30:00:03 - 01:30:09:13 Sean So. Or somebody at least Charlie Dowd, has been off to the theater and seen a dodgy production of Cheezo. So. But nice to know that synthetic cheese food products were alive and. 01:30:09:13 - 01:30:14:04 Andrew Well, and I will definitely have to check that out. You're right. It does sound like it has my name written all over it. 01:30:14:06 - 01:30:29:12 Sean One other thing from the shopping list that, of course, you know, I didn't know anything about these different architecture books and a lot of them she was looking for. But the one that Lovecraft says was Belknap's choice, which is "the thing in the Woods" by Harper Williams. Do you know anything about that? 01:30:29:12 - 01:30:30:19 Andrew I don't I didn't follow that one up. 01:30:30:19 - 01:31:03:18 Sean Yeah. So it's a story about a monster and his brother. Really? Yeah. Now, this novel had only just been published in 1924 in the United States, but it was published back in the UK in 1913, and Harper William's real name was Marjorie Williams. And she also happens to be the author of another very well-known work, The Velveteen Rabbit. 01:31:03:18 - 01:31:17:16 Sean Really? Yeah. Which is I think it's published under her name, Marjorie Williams. Bianco, Huh? And yeah, what just what an interesting thing that a prototype for the Dunn, which is written by the same woman who wrote The Velveteen. 01:31:17:16 - 01:31:18:16 Andrew Rabbit under. 01:31:18:17 - 01:31:31:18 Sean A pseudonym, under an assumed name. And, you know, just like Harper Lee. Sure, you have Harper. Harper Williams was an author I'd never heard anything of. So anyway. Yeah. Interesting. Well, literal rabbit. 01:31:31:18 - 01:31:33:18 Andrew There's a lot of that going around in this letter, too. 01:31:33:18 - 01:31:34:08 Sean Yeah, sure. 01:31:34:13 - 01:31:38:20 Andrew Of of things that the, you know, six degrees of separation kind of stuff. Yeah. 01:31:38:20 - 01:32:02:04 Sean No doubt. So then after that, we, we've started to move into the diary pages where, you know, he's accounting the different things that he did in case any of you were wondering if the jackhammers are still going next door, that strange noise you may be hearing is the jackhammers next door. But his journey to Elizabeth, New Jersey. 01:32:02:04 - 01:32:15:05 Andrew Elizabeth in New Jersey now, he says that this this trip, he had been planning it for a long time, but they actually got motivated to actually do it because this editorial appeared in The Times, which he has enclosed. And I. I have. 01:32:15:12 - 01:32:16:23 Sean You written all over it to. 01:32:17:17 - 01:32:22:19 Andrew It. The editorial in question was published in the Sunday, October 5th issue of the newspaper. 01:32:23:00 - 01:32:24:01 Sean Also, it's just come out. 01:32:24:04 - 01:32:29:07 Andrew Is just a just the day before he actually took the trip, just before this letter was written, Right? 01:32:30:00 - 01:32:39:14 Sean No, no, this was written this letters written the end of the first week of November, so about a month. But he's he's talking about the last month's worth of activities. 01:32:39:14 - 01:33:07:13 Andrew So the title of the editorial is Ann Arbor and Elizabeth. And it's because there's a married couple that's getting divorced and they're arguing over where to live. The wife refuses to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the husband says she wants to live in Elizabeth. And the husband says Elizabeth is better than a root cellar. And this sparks the outrage of the editorial writer for The New York Times, who goes on to defend Elizabeth, New Jersey. 01:33:08:16 - 01:33:26:23 Andrew He says that town calls itself the Rail. And Harbor City is expanding in manufacturing and claims the welterweight boxing champion, who is very much better known than anybody living in Ann Arbor. Elizabeth is nearly 200 years older, which is proved by the condition of some of its buildings. It was named in honor of the wife, Sir George Carter. 01:33:26:23 - 01:33:55:02 Andrew It if Elizabeth has no university, the first sessions of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton were held there in the home of the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson in 17 seven. Ann Arbor has no such distinction. Its university had its beginning in 1837 shot. There was a time when Elizabeth was living in the past. And on General Winfield Scott, that monumental soldier occupied an elm shaded mansion on one of its ancient streets and gave the tone to its society. 01:33:55:02 - 01:34:25:19 Andrew Elizabeth honored some of the earlier presidents by perpetuating them in marble. The there. It's rich in revolutionary memorials, deader than a root cellar, dead with two trunk lines roaring through it and murdering sleep dead with the Chamber of Commerce rending the skies with boasts of its greatness dead with a new marble post office and a police force that is the terror of bootleggers at the crossroads dead with the mammoth factories going up in the backlots and with the latest automobile in every yard dead with the population bursting all bounds. 01:34:25:24 - 01:34:36:22 Andrew 52,130. In 1900 and 170,000. Today, a livewire city, not a dead one. So this this vehement. 01:34:37:02 - 01:34:37:17 Sean Defense. 01:34:37:18 - 01:34:38:05 Andrew Of this. 01:34:38:10 - 01:34:38:22 Sean Energetic. 01:34:38:22 - 01:34:47:11 Andrew Defense of Elizabeth in the New York Times is what finally got Lovecraft to enact his plan to go visit the town, which he then describes Momentous day. 01:34:47:13 - 01:34:51:05 Sean He sure does. Have you ever been there? I've never been. I've never been there either. But I. 01:34:51:05 - 01:34:53:07 Andrew Looked it up and it looks like a place like to visit. 01:34:53:09 - 01:35:02:04 Sean Although I suspect that today's Elizabeth, New Jersey, is quite different from Howard's because take a look at where the Newark airport is. 01:35:02:12 - 01:35:03:05 Andrew Oh, well, there is. 01:35:03:05 - 01:35:06:15 Sean That the Newark airport is just immediately north of Elizabeth. 01:35:06:20 - 01:35:11:04 Andrew It's just across the river from Staten Island. It is practically New York City. 01:35:11:05 - 01:35:35:08 Sean It's really because I you know, when he described his journey, I was like, it didn't make any sense to me until I busted out a map and realized how wrong my concept of the geography around Manhattan was, because I had always pictured Staten Island sort of being to the south east of Manhattan. And in fact, it's actually south and even a little southwest of it, you know, going over. 01:35:35:08 - 01:35:53:13 Sean So then the notion of him being in Brooklyn and then going down to to Staten Island and then going across the north edge of Staten Island, where he's then, you know, just right under the Hudson River, and then taking the ferry across into. You know, Elizabeth made perfect sense what I was looking at. Yeah. 01:35:53:22 - 01:36:02:23 Andrew The way he describes it gives you the impression that it's, you know, rural and colonial. And it just sounds very far away from New York City. Sure. And wasn't then and it certainly isn't. 01:36:02:23 - 01:36:25:23 Sean But I would say yes and no, because also, you know, he spends a lot of time describing New York City, too. And, you know, Madison Madison Square is still a square with a garden in it. And, you know, a lot of the places he's going, the New York of 100 years ago is really, really different. And, of course, as you know, New York built out to its boundaries. 01:36:26:04 - 01:36:57:06 Sean People overflowed into both Brooklyn, to the east and into Jersey to the west. Sure. So, you know, it has had huge transformations, you know, as being one of the handful of places in the world that's new York adjacent. But he does you know, he certainly does love it there. And, you know, is such a I know he's so eager to share its charms because I think he feels that Lillian's going to feel the same way about it. 01:36:57:06 - 01:37:19:16 Sean Oh, if only you were here. Sure. And I suspect you know, and Annie has already been up to go on tours with Howard in New York, and Lillian hasn't apparently at this point. And I think Howard sees Lillian as the more receptive to the same sort of antiquarian charms that seduce Howard. Right. So I think he's really eager to want to share this with somebody who. 01:37:19:23 - 01:37:21:18 Sean Who knows a good Gambrell. 01:37:21:18 - 01:37:22:23 Sean Roof when she sees one. 01:37:22:23 - 01:37:29:18 Andrew And and I dig them. Dormers I believe you went and looked at pictures of a lot of the houses that he names. 01:37:29:19 - 01:37:32:16 Sean I did, I looked at I looked at lots of pictures. 01:37:32:16 - 01:37:41:13 Andrew Yeah, I did too. And I understand he loves them, but some of these houses look like to my eye, these are the plainest, most boring looking houses. 01:37:41:14 - 01:38:04:01 Sean I would tend to agree that the one thing I was happy in this go round, you know, I don't have a background in architecture. And so, you know, Lovecraft's always gone off about, oh, those Gambrell roofs, oh, those Gambrell roofs. And I was like, What the hell's a gamble roof again? You know what? What exactly is that? And I finally saw a picture that completely and I think permanently solved it for me. 01:38:05:10 - 01:38:10:09 Sean Picture a classical American barn. Yeah, that's a Gambrell roof. 01:38:10:14 - 01:38:12:06 Andrew With the with the change of the angle. 01:38:12:06 - 01:38:33:07 Sean It's a change in the angle. It's the roofline is relatively shallow and then relatively steep. Right? Poof. It's done. And then on the ends, it has its it's gabled on the end. So, you know, it's the open end of a triangle. I mean, it's not perfectly triangular, but, you know, again, a classic barn that's a Gambrel roof. You got. 01:38:33:07 - 01:38:35:10 Andrew That is that is a helpful way to picture. 01:38:35:10 - 01:39:10:07 Sean It. Look, I've looked at that's one of those words. I've looked up lots of times. And then I go, What's a dormer again? And I go back to Dormers done. It was it was a Dutch roof. Okay, I got that now, you know. But yeah, the nuances of colonial architecture, if you're into all that's what sounds like a swell place to go or it sounds like it was at least as well place to go, because one of the websites I went to covers a lot of the buildings that Lovecraft endorses here, and it has pictures of them mostly from the 1900 to 1930 and pictures of them now. 01:39:10:07 - 01:39:30:12 Sean It's it's called Historic Buildings of Elizabeth. It's a website. If you just Google historic buildings of Elizabeth, you'll get it. And most all of the places Lovecraft sites are on there. And then maybe, you know, half a dozen more. So cool. Yeah, it is a good visual way. You know, we won't bore you guys with trying to describe you know, what this house looks like. 01:39:30:13 - 01:39:31:07 Sean You can just go. 01:39:31:07 - 01:39:36:12 Andrew Looks like we'll post pictures of some of them and links to the places where you can see pictures of more of them. Yeah. 01:39:36:14 - 01:39:42:13 Sean If you're into Mini Dormer, many dormer. GAMBRELL Roofers. Well, yeah. Yeah, exactly. 01:39:42:13 - 01:39:49:15 Andrew I tried. My first trip to eBay from this letter was trying to track down the the historical guidebook that he mentioned. 01:39:49:24 - 01:39:51:19 Sean The one he mailed to Lillian. 01:39:51:19 - 01:40:10:12 Andrew Printed in 1914, and he had sent a copy to Lillian. There may still be copies out there, but nobody's selling one on eBay, so I could not find it there or anywhere else that I, you know, looked in a happy trust in Project Gutenberg and all the places where I normally go looking for old books and I couldn't find any trees. 01:40:10:17 - 01:40:12:13 Andrew Too bad. Maybe I'll. I'll keep my eyes open. 01:40:12:15 - 01:40:36:15 Sean Yeah, well, you know, that's the kind of thing that some crazed listener or other person that you can go, Oh, Grandpa has one of those on the shelf, I'll go grab it. So and then we get into the section as he's wandering around. Well, I did think it was interesting. There was a two part journey that he goes to but stays there till quite late at night and then goes all the way back to Brooklyn or not to Brooklyn, but it goes all the way back to to Sonia's, right. 01:40:36:21 - 01:40:44:00 Sean And then next day goes to right on back. Yeah. Yeah. And apparently it was an inexpensive journey to go across that Staten Island. 01:40:44:04 - 01:41:05:07 Andrew I think, you know, all basically easily accessible public transportation, right? Yeah. Right after he starts talking about how he saw this creepy house that gave him the inspiration to write a new story, which would go on to be the shunned house. He then says, We notice across the street a splendid colonial public building whose red brick facade, white pillars and Keystone, small pained windows arouses the highest expectations. 01:41:05:12 - 01:41:32:13 Andrew Restless, we conjure up an pre-revolutionary British images as we strive to decipher the modest cornerstone. Then us illusion drops with a dull, sickening thud as we find that the place is a brand new Jewish built only last year. So it made me wonder is it? Until he discovered that it was actually recently built? He was very excited. So it's like, is it the style that he likes or is it the actual age of the building that is floating his boat? 01:41:32:13 - 01:41:49:03 Sean I mean, I think at first he's seduced by the style because I think he thinks it's a pristine Georgian building because it's built in the style of a Georgian building. And then it's only when he finds out that it's new, right? He goes, oh, because it's it's but I think it doesn't have the actual history. It's just a nice imitation. 01:41:49:08 - 01:42:11:07 Andrew But it earlier in this letter, he says, you know, ancient Rome and Greece had all there was to say in mass in line and he is absolutely definitive about that. And he who he is best today, who copies most faithfully. So it's like on the one hand, he seems to be arguing that it's the style that matters. It doesn't matter when it was built, as long as it follows the proper architectural principles. 01:42:11:07 - 01:42:34:08 Andrew It's a great building. But here in this case, he he gets to a building that stylistically would seem to be exactly perfect. But when he discovers that it's actually new, he suddenly loses all interest in it. Yeah, I just think it's it's, it's one of these classic Howard having it both ways or, you know. Sure. You know, you know, on the one hand it's the style that matters. 01:42:34:08 - 01:42:43:14 Andrew The the details are not important, but in this case the style doesn't matter because it's new and therefore no good, even though it's a perfect copy of the thing, I would. 01:42:43:14 - 01:42:47:04 Sean Say actual history. I think not not you know a content that's. 01:42:47:04 - 01:42:54:13 Andrew What this made you know. But yeah, is it really the style or is it really the history? And it seems to be it's really the history that he likes. 01:42:54:13 - 01:43:38:18 Sean Yeah, he then makes reference to the the Newport synagogue which is you know, from the mid-18th century and refers to Toros and Mendez and I wasn't familiar with them specifically. So I took a look at that, which was pretty interesting that the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, when they were kicked, essentially kicked out of Spain and Portugal, a number of them fled into the Caribbean, not entirely sure why that made a sensible destination, but apparently Barbados was a haven for for Jewish people in I guess we're talking in the early 17th century. 01:43:39:04 - 01:43:50:16 Sean But because it was under British law, they rights were fairly severely limited there. And they eventually moved to Rhode Island. 01:43:50:24 - 01:43:51:15 Sean Because. 01:43:51:15 - 01:44:23:08 Sean Of the more liberal religious freedom. And because I I've always thought, what the heck is a synagogue doing, you know, in in Newport in the middle of the 18th century. So Taurus set up he and several other people in his congregation, the first synagogue. And then it was a woman. The Mendez he's referring to was Rachel, who then there were British laws which prohibited Jews from entering the mercantile class and actually doing business. 01:44:23:19 - 01:44:49:10 Sean But she challenged them again with a group of other Jewish merchants and prevailed. And they got they weren't given naturally full citizenship, you know, it's one of these separate but equal things. But again, perhaps it's better than no accommodation being made for them. And so again, I thought it was really interesting that it was a Jewish woman who was one of the driving features behind that. 01:44:49:10 - 01:44:52:10 Sean So one of those little two weird things that you fall. 01:44:52:11 - 01:44:54:06 Andrew Around books, a whole huge thing. 01:44:54:06 - 01:44:55:04 Sean Yeah, it's pretty interesting. 01:44:55:08 - 01:45:04:02 Andrew I was interested to hear him that, you know, he talks about going back into Greenwich Village and hooking up with Hart Crane. 01:45:04:03 - 01:45:05:22 Sean Yeah, Yeah. And he's a little more positive. 01:45:06:04 - 01:45:14:07 Andrew Kind of, you know, a rather sympathetic description of Hart Crane. I hope he'll sober up with the years for there's really good stuff and a bit of genius in him. 01:45:14:10 - 01:45:40:10 Sean Yeah. And Andy Cummings scooping Hart Crane up out of the gutters, which was also, you know, I love when we get these situations where there's a brush with somebody who's not really famous yet Cummings was just had just the year before published his first book of poems. You know he's a guy on the rise, but he's not you know, he's not he's not the ones we learned about in school because he just hasn't done those creative those works yet. 01:45:40:10 - 01:45:47:07 Andrew So but the the highly coveted Chinese ivory box of Hart Crane, it would be very interesting. 01:45:47:07 - 01:45:49:13 Sean To see the cult of the bloated woman. Yes. 01:45:49:13 - 01:45:54:13 Andrew What was in that Chinese ivory box? I'd to know. 01:45:54:13 - 01:45:56:09 Sean It's a stash box. You know what it is. 01:45:56:17 - 01:45:57:21 Andrew Hart Crane, you know. 01:45:58:08 - 01:46:11:20 Sean Yeah. And then we get, you know, this exhaustive tour of all the places that Lovecraft goes. And what I would love to do, actually be fun to sit down, do it together. I mean, print out a large format vintage map. Oh, did Gertie draw them all in? 01:46:12:05 - 01:46:15:11 Andrew I did. This is just the walk he took with George Kirk. 01:46:15:14 - 01:46:23:15 Sean Oh, okay. All right. Well, that's. That's kind of how I was thinking of having different color codes to sit and look at all the pictures that we could. 01:46:23:15 - 01:46:55:24 Andrew Easily do the other trips. But I was, for whatever reason, my fancy was captivated by the walk he describes After the meeting up at Kirk's apartment. He Kirk decided to walk everybody home, including McNeill, who lived, you know, four miles away. Right. So Kirk and Lovecraft walk McNeill from the Upper West Side to Hell's Kitchen. Yeah. And then Kirk and Lovecraft stay out all night long and spend, you know, the next 12 hours wandering all over Manhattan. 01:46:55:24 - 01:47:21:18 Andrew They basically walk the length and breadth of Manhattan that day, stopping at the automat and the cafeteria and the American radiator building and Times Square and all these other places. And yeah, I was for whatever reason, I was captivated by that. So I did map it out and Will will post this map. I The Great Gatsby, thanks to Donovan, because I knew that Lovecraft and Kirk, at least for some time, lived in the same apartment building. 01:47:21:18 - 01:47:24:21 Andrew Right. But that's not where Kirk was living at this time. 01:47:24:21 - 01:47:26:16 Sean Yeah. This is not Red Hook apartment. 01:47:26:16 - 01:47:45:19 Andrew This is not the Red Hook. Yeah, this is on the Upper West Side, just a block away from Central Park and a few blocks north of where Frank Belknap long lived. So when they when they started out their walk, they walked basically the entire length of Central Park. And then another 20 blocks to get to McNeil's house. It was a very long walk. 01:47:45:21 - 01:47:47:20 Andrew Yeah. At 130 in the morning. Yeah. Yeah. 01:47:48:03 - 01:48:21:09 Sean The I just got curious. I was reading that section of the term Hell's Kitchen. Yeah. And wondered where that came from. And it, it has an odd connection back to my family, which is apparently the first recorded usage of it came from Davy Crockett. Know who, in referring to you referred to Lots of the Irishman he had met were perfect gentlemen, however the the Irishman from five points or to mean to swab Hell's Kitchen. 01:48:21:10 - 01:48:41:03 Sean Well, I fell and Hell's Kitchen apparently was, you know, as rough neighborhood as Manhattan had in the middle of the 19th century. And so that but anyway, that was, you know, and it's so funny because now it's a fashionable real estate marketing term. You know, it's a it's a joyous place to live. Everybody could afford to live there. 01:48:41:08 - 01:48:43:11 Andrew Our dear friend Liz Stanton lives in Hell's she? 01:48:43:13 - 01:48:53:13 Sean Yeah, that's great. Yeah. The Davy Crockett connection is that my grandfather wrote the the motion picture and the song you know, Davy. 01:48:53:13 - 01:48:55:23 Andrew Davy Crockett. There you go. That's Sean's granddad. 01:48:56:04 - 01:49:16:09 Sean Way back in the fifties. So anyway, I was amused to see how Davy Crockett and I see Davy Crockett hopelessly connected to the Alamo. But I didn't really expect to see him tied to the the West side of New York. So I also stumbled across the fact that the when the guys went over there, we're looking at the footings of the Queensboro Bridge. 01:49:16:10 - 01:49:34:08 Sean Ah, that's the feelin Groovy Bridge from Simon and Garfunkel that the song is called the 59th Street Bridge Song, Right. Which is the Queensboro Bridge, which is not in fact mentioned in the song. But, you know, and when you swing on the lamppost and feel groovy, well, you know, that's where the well. 01:49:34:13 - 01:49:52:15 Andrew I don't know if they were feeling groovy when they were there, but the reason they went over into that neighborhood was because they wanted to see the Jane Taylor mansion, which he mentions only briefly. Yeah, but I wondered, well, who was Jane Teller? So I looked her up and it turns out she was a her name was Jane Crosby, born in 1881. 01:49:52:15 - 01:50:13:07 Andrew She ran an antique shop in that neighborhood, and she bought this mansion because she wanted to foster the revival of colonial art. She wanted to teach women how to spin their own yarn and weave their own cloth. And she she founded this thing called the Society for the Revival of Household Industry and Domestic Arts. And I went and found a photo of her. 01:50:13:09 - 01:50:56:13 Andrew And, you know, talking about your granddad, she sure reminded me of my mom, who published, you know, Quilters newsletter, magazine and and sort of helped found the entire revival of interest, American interest in quilt making in 1960s. So she and I found in one of the articles I found about Jane Keller, there was a mention that there had been a profile of her in the New York Herald in 1921, So I tried to find her and I found article in the New York Herald from March 9th of 1921, Charred bones spell century old mystery heap disclosed in East 61st Street Mansion, a mystery which it is believed may go back. 01:50:56:13 - 01:51:20:01 Andrew A century was disclosed yesterday when plumbers at work in the famous Colonial mansion at four 19/61 Street uncovered a heap of charred human bones. The bones, which included part of a skull, were found on the first floor where a portion of the flooring was ripped out to permit the installation of water pipes. The find was made known by a man named Anderson, who has been living in the old mansion for only a few months. 01:51:20:10 - 01:51:40:17 Andrew The police and, the medical examiner knew nothing of the find last night, How the bones got into the hole where they were discovered probably never will become known. Persons who viewed them said they must have been there at least half a century and possibly a full century old. Residents of the neighborhood could not recall ever having heard of a crime or mystery with which the old house was identified recently. 01:51:40:17 - 01:52:08:15 Andrew The house was purchased by Jane Teller, an antiquarian. According to storekeepers in the vicinity. She intends restoring it to the condition it was in in the days immediately following the close of the Revolutionary War. Then it was known far and wide as a stopover on the New York Boston Stagecoach run. The house was built in 1799. The original occupant was William Stephen Smith, son in law of John Adams, second president of the United States and one time chief of staff of Washington's Army. 01:52:09:00 - 01:52:20:08 Andrew So, Jane, tell her this nice little old lady who was trying to teach him how to spin yarn lived in a haunted mansion where the room, the charred remains of a human were found beneath the floor. 01:52:20:08 - 01:52:22:23 Sean And somehow Lovecraft was beckoned to go visit the. 01:52:22:23 - 01:52:27:10 Andrew Chancellor for both the colonial artifacts and the murder mystery. 01:52:28:05 - 01:52:46:01 Sean So I looked at a lot of, you know, these buildings and, you know, some of them are still extant and some of them aren't. Yes, but the American Radiator Company building very Ghostbusters. Well, that was my exact thought. I'm like, dude, it's the Ghostbusters building. And it's designed by a Rhode Island guy, Raymond Hood, who designed also the Tribune Tower and Rockefeller Center. 01:52:46:03 - 01:52:48:08 Andrew He was he had some pretty good hits. 01:52:48:08 - 01:53:12:18 Sean Yeah. So the ghost in Ghostbusters, the building is at 55 Central Park West. But I think the reason that, you know, both you and I looked at the American radiator and thought that's the Ghostbusters building is because it's got all these. So as you go up higher levels, the building has setbacks and so the footprint of the building becomes smaller and narrower and it has a little bit of a feeling of a ziggurat, which it certainly does. 01:53:12:21 - 01:53:15:10 Andrew And it's ominous. Black with gold, decorative trim. 01:53:15:10 - 01:53:35:00 Sean Yeah, absolutely. It has that. Well, the it's a big actual building at 55. Central Park West doesn't have all that neat stuff. And they actually I think the the the production designer copied the stuff from the American the general sense of the American radiator building because it feels much more like a Yeah. There's more evil going on there. 01:53:35:00 - 01:53:53:22 Sean Yes. And then the whole description of the Crips and stuff underneath and this whole vaulted thing and apparently that was just part of the industrial design to make for easier access to the furnaces and boilers and the the underpinnings was that, you know, make a modern but century old office building go. 01:53:53:23 - 01:53:54:03 Sean Well. 01:53:54:09 - 01:54:17:23 Andrew Raymond Hood, although he you know, he did design some very stylish buildings yeah apparently he he was much more interested in the practical aspects of architecture. And, you know, he he wasn't designing them to look good. He was designing them to. Well, yeah. And, you know, so the stuff that catches our eye and seems esthetically wonderful, I think was an afterthought as far as the actual architect was concerned. 01:54:17:23 - 01:54:22:08 Sean Well, that's that's what he would want you to believe because he doesn't want you to know about the Sumerian gods. 01:54:22:08 - 01:54:22:19 Sean Exactly. 01:54:22:19 - 01:54:29:16 Andrew Then you'll catch on to his grand scheme when no human being designs buildings like this. 01:54:31:03 - 01:54:33:22 Sean Nice brush with famous in Teddy Roosevelt. Second. 01:54:35:02 - 01:54:49:15 Andrew I was interested. They went to Grand Central and saw the DeWitt Clinton. Right. Which was. And Lovecraft says, Oh, it's the actual engine in cars run in the New York Central 1831, which was apparently on display there at Grand Central. I looked into it and I'm not sure Lovecraft was right about it. 01:54:49:15 - 01:54:54:14 Sean I thought the same thing that he's probably looking at a replica is that they built a functioning replica. 01:54:54:14 - 01:55:11:13 Andrew Original was scrapped only a couple of years after it was built in 1831. But they very shortly they built a functioning replica for exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Right. And that replica was kept for many years and put on display in many different places. 01:55:11:13 - 01:55:14:24 Sean Because that locomotive would have been almost 100 years old by the time Lovecraft saw. 01:55:14:24 - 01:55:27:00 Andrew It. And it was I don't know if you want to look at pictures of it, but the rail cars are just modified stagecoaches like from the Old West. So it's a fascinating looking train. And it's currently on display at the Henry Ford. 01:55:27:00 - 01:55:30:03 Sean When you think 80, 1830 is that that is really early. 01:55:30:03 - 01:55:36:03 Andrew And it was there was I went on Wikipedia, there's a photo and I said there can't be a photo. 01:55:36:03 - 01:55:36:23 Sean Exactly. 01:55:36:23 - 01:55:41:14 Andrew Of the original locomotive because that was a it was scrapped in 1833. And photography. 01:55:41:14 - 01:55:43:02 Sean Not even a daguerreotype at that point. 01:55:43:02 - 01:55:50:03 Andrew Barely existed in 1833. So I don't know. Even the photo on Wikipedia must be of the replica, not the real thing. 01:55:50:03 - 01:55:52:07 Sean That would sound sound far more plausible. 01:55:52:07 - 01:56:08:00 Andrew So it was interesting to hear him talk about how he succeeded in making coffee from Sonia's written instructions. And he made spaghetti. And I'm he talks about, you know, her magic homemade sauce. I would kill to know what Sonja's spaghetti sauce recipe. 01:56:08:01 - 01:56:13:09 Sean Against a can of crushed tomatoes, a tablespoon of tomato paste and a note of salt and. 01:56:13:09 - 01:56:14:10 Andrew Pepper. I want it. 01:56:14:13 - 01:56:14:19 Sean Yeah. 01:56:15:09 - 01:56:17:07 Andrew Well, he does make it sound good. 01:56:17:07 - 01:56:20:21 Sean We'll put another. We'll put another bounty out there for you. 01:56:21:09 - 01:56:26:00 Andrew He talks about he's super excited because Edward Lloyd Sechrits is coming to town. 01:56:26:11 - 01:56:28:02 Sean Yes, he's super excited. 01:56:28:02 - 01:56:53:13 Andrew Super excited. And Sechrist is going to be staying at the old Brevoort House on Fifth Avenue at Eighth Street, where Washington Irving and his literary coterie used to lounge about the lobby. That hotel. I was trying to find pictures of that and discovered in the process that that hotel in the Tweny's was owned by Raymond Teague, who founded the auto prize, which is what sparked Charles Lindbergh to try to fly from New York to Paris. 01:56:53:13 - 01:56:55:08 Sean Oh, to try and win the prize. Yeah. 01:56:55:08 - 01:57:14:15 Andrew And Lindy got the prize in the lobby of the Bridgeport Hotel. So that hotel was not only famous with Washington Irving a few years after this letter was written, it would be affiliated with Lucky Lindy, and it was torn down, of course, in 1954 after after 100 years, that hotel is now an apartment building that built on the same side. 01:57:15:03 - 01:57:34:17 Sean We've talked about after being sort of the social butterfly when he recaptures this month of those poor, lonely years living in in New York. And he's clearly he's very busy and he's hanging out with the boys and he's excited to have secrets come and you're going to go, you know, And he goes on these walking trips with the guys. 01:57:34:17 - 01:57:59:20 Sean Then somebody new comes to town and is like, I'm going to take him on a tour of all my favorite places. One of the things I did to prep for the episode was I printed out calendars for October and November of 1924 to look at. Sure, Lovecraft did. And it is an interesting exercise because, you know, you see that the number of days where he's off walking with the boys, you know, comprises almost 50% of the month. 01:57:59:20 - 01:58:07:18 Sean Wow. That's covered in here. There are some split days where he's like oh, I was at the hospital and then did some chores. And I was that you know, I went by the hospital. 01:58:07:23 - 01:58:09:14 Andrew In the middle. I wrote the Shunned house. 01:58:09:14 - 01:58:33:24 Sean Yeah, exactly. The shunned house does seem to have taken three days to write. And then he had a once it was a draft of it was done. He went over it with Belknap Long and got some more feedback on it from there. And then actually finished it up. But yeah, he's really he's really busy and it's I guess, you know, it's hard to know how. 01:58:34:09 - 01:58:35:16 Sean Solicitous or not. 01:58:35:16 - 01:58:53:21 Sean He is of Sonia how actually helpful or not he I mean he is going by in the hospital. He is visiting some, he's clearly doing a lot of other stuff to me. Then as you know, he hates games of any kind, and yet he goes and buys chess set and sits and plays chess with her and she kicks his ass. 01:58:53:21 - 01:58:57:16 Andrew And it is interesting how how many purchases he describes making in. 01:58:57:23 - 01:58:59:10 Sean Buying a nice mechanical pencil. 01:58:59:11 - 01:59:06:14 Andrew He's spending money left and right in this letter. So some of it is store credit from Scribner's. But sure, still it's like, you. 01:59:06:15 - 01:59:09:21 Sean Know, and he's going for ice cream and he's going out to dinner with him outside. 01:59:09:22 - 01:59:19:13 Andrew And has Hungarian goulash for the first time with the boys. So brutal. Brutal as brutal. All kinds of. Yeah, he's he is. He's out there. 01:59:19:13 - 01:59:36:21 Sean Yeah. And, you know, when you go back to the first paragraph or two, you know, and he's already talking about their incredible financial distress. Right. He throughout is talking about, Oh, I got to find a new place to live and almost is going to be too expensive, Right? Oh, I got to go look for a job. Well, tomorrow. 01:59:36:22 - 02:00:00:02 Sean Yeah, and tomorrow and tomorrow. So. Yeah, it is a cumulatively and I think that gets back to one of the things I like best about this letter is what an interesting cumulative portrait of a month in the life of HBO while he was living, you know, in those New York years and while he was still together with Sonia before the, you know, the years where he was. 02:00:00:24 - 02:00:02:12 Andrew As together as they ever. 02:00:02:12 - 02:00:10:06 Sean Were. Yes, together as they ever were. Yeah. And then then he's off, you know, by himself, I guess I was thinking, oh, you get together with the boys every two weeks. 02:00:10:06 - 02:00:11:01 Sean Or something but. 02:00:11:05 - 02:00:13:06 Andrew Oh, no, it's like every other day. It's quite. 02:00:13:06 - 02:00:17:16 Sean It's quite frequent. Yeah. And if it's not a formal meeting of the whole game. 02:00:17:23 - 02:00:22:24 Andrew It will go down to Hell's Kitchen to visit McNeil. Exactly. It's because he and leads are not talking. 02:00:23:06 - 02:00:24:22 Sean Exactly because of the $8 debt. 02:00:25:14 - 02:00:31:20 Andrew It's like from back to the future, you know, is going to kill. Yeah. McNeil Over a matter of $8. 02:00:31:23 - 02:01:04:06 Sean They do make a reference to the fancy hundred dollar radio set. Oh, yeah. And then, you know, that seemed really expensive for a radio at the time. But after doing some research on it, you know, 1924 is really right when the radio is really starting to take off and people are going from, you know, your your crystal, your crazy uncle who might have put together his own one in 1921 or 1922 to where they're really being mass marketed and in keeping with, you know, cars or anything else, it's like, how much do you want to spend? 02:01:04:23 - 02:01:14:11 Sean I have a Radiolab ad in front of me that shows their line of radios 1924, and they start at $35 and they go to 425. 02:01:14:15 - 02:01:15:04 Andrew For 20. 02:01:15:04 - 02:01:16:04 Sean Five. Yeah, that's. 02:01:16:05 - 02:01:17:05 Andrew You know, I'd scream. 02:01:17:10 - 02:01:25:06 Sean You know, high def radio. Yeah. So it was interesting to see that, that the $100 radio store really the middle of spectrum. 02:01:25:15 - 02:01:34:04 Andrew And does it give any indication in your ad how portable a $100 radio set would be because even a small radio in 1924 was a. 02:01:34:07 - 02:01:54:20 Sean Pretty big have these look you know like the smallest ones looked the size of a of a toaster you know you wouldn't want to it's not portable in any sense although some of them do say you need to supply your own batteries for them. But the batteries I've seen for them are like half the size of an automobile battery. 02:01:54:20 - 02:02:10:20 Sean I mean, they're the great big things. And then some of these are full on, you know, console shoes that are really like a piece of furniture. Exactly. So but that was interesting that that it struck me as a shockingly high price. And then after digging into it. 02:02:10:20 - 02:02:12:18 Andrew I was actually on the lower end of the middle. 02:02:12:18 - 02:02:41:14 Sean Yeah. There's a fleeting reference in the letter to Miss Wilkins Play. Yes. Oh, about Salem. Yes. And of course Corey Johnson for Human. And since Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible Tiffany has owned the Salem, and rightly so. The The Crucible is a staggering piece of work. You know, really one of the great dramas of, of American dramatic literature. 02:02:42:12 - 02:02:59:00 Sean So but I had never even heard of Giles Corey Yeoman. And I was like, as we were talking about early 20th century dramas, you know, they like a great many of them were done and have fallen away. So I found a review of Giles, Corey Yeoman and beginning of it I found quite captivating. 02:03:00:04 - 02:03:20:03 Sean It is not probable that any theatrical manager will venture the experiment of producing the Giles Corey Yeoman of Miss Mary Wilkins, especially after the failure of the mutilated and perverted version produced in this city and elsewhere by Theater of Arts Letters. 02:03:20:24 - 02:03:26:18 Sean I was like, Man, man, I was like every actor, the director, everybody is cringing when you pull out that. 02:03:26:18 - 02:03:27:18 Sean And oddly enough. 02:03:28:18 - 02:03:50:01 Sean The rest of the review doesn't really go into what he found so egregious about it. And it's relatively kind towards the play itself. So it seems to me that whatever was so offensive about it was in this company, staged the play and not intrinsic to the play itself. 02:03:50:07 - 02:04:05:21 Andrew I started to read it. You can get it on Project Gutenberg. Yeah, the Mary Wilkins who wrote this play is Mary Wilkins Freeman. She was a writer from Vermont. And she wrote she wrote weird literature, including The Shadows on the Wall. If memory. 02:04:05:21 - 02:04:06:21 Sean I think that's right. Yeah. 02:04:07:15 - 02:04:18:13 Andrew And Lovecraft had encountered her stuff before, and I went and tried to read the play, which you can get on Project Gutenberg. I didn't make it past the first few pages because it's. 02:04:18:17 - 02:04:20:03 Sean Pretty stilted and tedious. 02:04:20:03 - 02:04:29:13 Andrew It is pretty stilted and tedious, and it is hard to imagine an entertaining evening of theater being produced from the words that I read on the page. 02:04:29:13 - 02:04:35:23 Sean Yeah, it's probably hard to imagine a mutilated and perverted version of it too, but who knows? 02:04:35:23 - 02:04:37:17 Andrew That's the one where they added the shower scene. 02:04:37:17 - 02:05:00:09 Sean I was going to say that they're all costumed only in chocolate sauce. I had gone looking. I was just wondering if any of the drug stores still existed. Hetherington's and the also went to Park and Telford's to to get his picture on nuts. Yeah. Which is just you know, because in New York sometimes, you know, you find some of these businesses are still there. 02:05:00:09 - 02:05:07:20 Sean Yeah. The building where the park and Telford's grocery store used to be is still there, and it is home on the third floor. 02:05:08:08 - 02:05:09:09 Sean To the NBA. 02:05:09:24 - 02:05:10:17 Andrew Really? 02:05:11:05 - 02:05:14:24 Sean So there's a little bit of trivia for you, but it hasn't apparently been a grocery store since of. 02:05:14:24 - 02:05:17:18 Andrew Their head, I presume. You mean like head offices of the league? 02:05:17:18 - 02:05:18:12 Sean Yeah. Apparently, though. 02:05:18:12 - 02:05:19:24 Andrew They only take up one floor. 02:05:19:24 - 02:05:22:11 Sean That's you would think they'd have a whole office building. 02:05:22:11 - 02:05:23:12 Andrew Fabulous tower of. 02:05:23:12 - 02:05:29:07 Sean Their own, I guess. I don't know. Maybe it's only one part of it or something, but the. Apparently they're the tenant on the third floor. 02:05:29:07 - 02:05:47:05 Andrew Well, I. Hetherington's appears to be long gone. I did find the location where it was, and I put it on this little map. Hmm. Hetherington's is right across the street from Grand Central. And so they stopped there twice. Once on their way to Grand Central, where they got postcards. And then after Grand Central, they went back to Hetherington's for ice cream sundaes. 02:05:47:20 - 02:06:02:00 Andrew And that was close to the end of their day. But yeah, Hetherington's Hetherington's is torn down. Although I didn't find the historical Elizabeth New Jersey guidebook on eBay. I did score a copy of Daedalus by JB's all day. 02:06:02:07 - 02:06:04:02 Sean Ooh. 02:06:04:02 - 02:06:06:08 Andrew Which should arrive later this week. Well. 02:06:06:19 - 02:06:09:10 Sean That will keep you occupied for an hour. We've. 02:06:09:15 - 02:06:19:08 Andrew Well, like Lovecraft, I buy books based on their covers and titles. And then seldom get around to actually reading them. It remains to be seen whether I'll find a time to actually read. 02:06:19:14 - 02:06:20:20 Sean Well, your birthday is coming. 02:06:20:20 - 02:06:22:01 Sean Maybe I'll get you a big. 02:06:22:02 - 02:06:26:04 Sean Black leather bag that you can use to put these eBay acquisitions. 02:06:26:04 - 02:06:47:13 Andrew Around it. Yeah, that'd be nice. But yeah, we've covered Hall Dayne before. He was a popularizer of science and as a biologist at the time and he, he was another prolific writer and Daedalus is sort of a book about the, the ethics of science and will will mankind actually benefit from scientific discoveries or I. 02:06:47:13 - 02:06:48:08 Sean Wish we knew. 02:06:48:08 - 02:06:58:09 Andrew Or will will it be destroyed by them if we don't evolve our ethics as fast as we evolve our science? And that's still an open question, although. 02:06:59:24 - 02:07:01:10 Sean Some days look more promising, some. 02:07:01:10 - 02:07:07:16 Andrew Days look like no, the in the sky net will become aware very soon and we will all be dead. 02:07:08:06 - 02:07:24:09 Sean Yeah, well, in some ways it's back to the Robert E Howard versus Lovecraft. Yeah. Think you know should are we better off as barbarians each other over the head with clubs or you know, will will our scientific civilization end up being our utter undoing so. Well. 02:07:24:23 - 02:07:34:23 Andrew Haldane was thinking of that in 1924 when he delivered this lecture and published it in book form. And thanks to science, I can buy a copy the internet. Very, very. 02:07:34:23 - 02:07:55:16 Sean So what is what science does? Science brings us the Internet. We referred to a little bit earlier, but we do see the several places where he he fails to get a job over the course of the month. And it is interesting that through Sechrist and his buddy Price is trying to get a job at Anderson Galleries, seems to be a upscale, very. 02:07:55:24 - 02:07:57:06 Andrew Very high end art Chris. 02:07:57:12 - 02:07:59:19 Sean Christie's type place. And looking at it. 02:07:59:19 - 02:08:04:15 Andrew For I went and found some of their auction catalogs from the 1920s. Yeah yeah it's fancy schmancy. 02:08:04:15 - 02:08:21:05 Sean Yeah there's a very much at the feel of Sotheby's or Christie's. But again, nothing seems to have come of it. And you know, the Houdini connection and nothing seems to come of it. And you know, Lovecraft just does not his heart does not seem to be in it. 02:08:21:17 - 02:08:22:05 Andrew No. 02:08:22:11 - 02:08:26:00 Sean And This is a guy who, you know, middle aged and has never had a job. 02:08:26:00 - 02:08:33:00 Andrew And and being an editor of fancy art catalogs does sound like it potentially closer. 02:08:33:00 - 02:08:34:24 Sean Than some of the other jobs he looked at. Yeah. 02:08:35:16 - 02:08:40:11 Andrew But but not good enough to motivate him to actually seek it, apparently. Yeah. 02:08:40:11 - 02:08:42:12 Sean Well, he's got to get that haircut. 02:08:42:12 - 02:08:45:15 Andrew Yeah, he it has been a while. He looks pretty shabby. 02:08:46:23 - 02:08:58:24 Sean See Lovecraft with a man bun. Yeah. I don't know that there's more details of the traipsing and, you know, every nook and cranny of, you know, Manhattan and every. 02:08:58:24 - 02:09:01:09 Andrew Elizabeth, New York. Yeah. 02:09:01:09 - 02:09:22:20 Sean It's finding all you know, in any place where particularly the 18th century and lived on in a physical form you know just tickled him ticklish then didn't go anywhere. But you know, that really is the journey. But I think it was fun and informative to, you know, to really see what. 02:09:23:08 - 02:09:26:07 Sean Does it all seem to happen. It's so fast to me. 02:09:26:07 - 02:09:42:15 Sean I think that was one of the biggest takeaways, too, was this notion of he's married in March, this is what October looks like. Yeah, you know, and within a couple of months, you know, he'll be living on his own and Sonia will be Sonia West. 02:09:42:15 - 02:09:55:21 Andrew And this letter has at least two feature films built into it, one about the Carthage Exploration. Sure. And one just the walk that he takes with Kirk. Yeah. And all the stuff they see and all the lengthy conversations that they have. 02:09:56:03 - 02:09:58:01 Sean My dinner with Andre and going around and. 02:09:58:01 - 02:10:11:13 Andrew Totally picture it as a movie. Yeah, that, yeah, this, this is a very cinematic letter full of sights and sounds and, you know, tastes with the spaghetti sauce and the goulash and. 02:10:11:13 - 02:10:12:07 Sean The sunday 02:10:12:07 - 02:10:18:04 Andrew Sun griddle, the strudel and the sunset and this strange double double moon effect. 02:10:18:04 - 02:10:21:14 Sean And I wasn't able to come up with any good explanation for that. 02:10:22:00 - 02:10:24:08 Andrew It's something bad at the Automat. They must have both. 02:10:24:10 - 02:10:31:20 Sean So I was going to blame it on the American radiator building. And the beat goes there. You go out there. Something's up messing with the moon. 02:10:31:20 - 02:10:43:23 Andrew But yeah, and you know, legend stretching back to murder mysteries in colonial mansions and the pole cottage and the Van Dykeman farmhouse. And there's just so much. Yeah. 02:10:43:23 - 02:10:50:11 Sean Georgia going to Francis Tavern where George Washington said farewell to his troops at Tom's Chophouse. 02:10:50:11 - 02:11:07:18 Andrew This you know, this restaurant that had been it's gone now but it was still there then and it had been continuously operating, you know, 200 years. It's it's it's an amazing collection of stuff. And every other sentence leads you on a fascinating tangent into some. 02:11:07:23 - 02:11:17:10 Sean Was really a rich one and a fun journey I think so. Well, thanks for exploring it with me and sharing it with the people before. 02:11:17:10 - 02:11:36:09 Andrew We we should probably mention that Miskatonic missives has gone to the printer. What?! if you haven't already heard? Our labor of months has now reached the next phase of its evolution. Man, it's been quite a while. Yes, we have been working on that for quite a while, but we've finished the final round of proofreading on all three books over this just past weekend. 02:11:36:09 - 02:11:58:22 Sean Yeah. And if you're wondering what the heck we're talking about,Miskatonic Missives is basically essentially this show in book form. We've taken three letters by Lovecraft and explored them in great amount of detail. And so when somebody refers to a story in there, we are reprinting the whole story or at least excerpts from what's in there. And there's lots of maps and illustrations and visuals to help. 02:11:59:07 - 02:12:24:17 Andrew And scholarly articles by other people. The original stuff, the original stuff, new, original, commissioned artwork. Yeah, yeah. They're, they're Helios House Press and our Jensen Jones and Caitlin Fitzgerald and Justin Baird. They have been our our collaborative partners in this enterprise. And they ran the Kickstarter and the books have gone to the printer. Now we're going to focus on finalizing all the fun bonus extras that you get with the set and then get that stuff off to the printer. 02:12:24:17 - 02:12:31:08 Sean And the plan is hopefully around the first of the year. We'll have goodies in hand. Yeah, it's hard to know. 02:12:31:10 - 02:12:33:18 Andrew Hard to know. It's a little bit out of our hands because. 02:12:34:03 - 02:12:44:17 Sean That's the current best prognostications. So we'll we'll monitor that. But anyway, if you want to get in on all that, I head over to Helios house. 02:12:44:19 - 02:12:45:13 Andrew We'll put a link. 02:12:45:13 - 02:12:59:13 Sean Yeah there we go. Our thanks today go to the lovely folks at Hippocampus Press who published letters to family and family friends. Right. And that is this letter appears towards the end of volume one. 02:13:00:03 - 02:13:15:19 Andrew I'd also like to throw out a personal thanks to Donovan Loucks, who was kind enough to answer my emails very, very promptly to provide some of the New York City addresses that I knew I had somewhere, but it would have taken me hours to find and Donovan was able to them instantly. 02:13:15:19 - 02:13:27:18 Sean Donovan keeps a big personal database of every geographical location that shows up, either in a Lovecraft story or in the letters from Lovecraft's real life. So you want. 02:13:27:18 - 02:13:36:04 Andrew To know where George Kirk was living in 1924? Or remind yourself of McNeill's Hell's Kitchen address. Donovan Since you have those. 02:13:36:04 - 02:13:37:02 Sean Ice cream sundaes. 02:13:38:19 - 02:13:48:16 Andrew You can learn more about Donovan's work at H.P. Lovecraft.com, where he runs the H.P. Lovecraft Archive. And you can learn more about hippocampus. Press at hippocampuspress.com. If you. 02:13:48:16 - 02:13:49:18 Sean Enjoyed today's episode. 02:13:49:18 - 02:13:54:09 Sean We'd be glad to hear from you via email. At voluminous at each play, just talk. 02:13:54:12 - 02:14:02:16 Andrew Or just send a message in Morse code using a jackhammer like our next door neighbors are to tell your friends. 02:14:02:24 - 02:14:06:21 Sean Is help. Yes, found them. I found an incinerated human remains. 02:14:07:19 - 02:14:12:00 Andrew Tell your friends post review a rating or send them a good old fashioned letter. 02:14:12:08 - 02:14:14:10 Sean I'm your obedient servant, Sean Branney. 02:14:14:10 - 02:14:17:02 Andrew And I'm cordially and respectfully yours. Andrew Leman. 02:14:17:02 - 02:14:19:07 Sean You've been listening to voluminous. 02:14:19:12 - 02:14:20:24 Sean The letters of H.P. Lovecraft. 02:14:20:24 - 02:14:59:13 Andrew Brought to you by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Come check out all we have to offer at HPLHS.org