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In addition to his classics of horror fiction, it is estimated that Lovecraft wrote 100,000 letters — or roughly 15 every day of his adult life — ranging from one-page diaries to seventy-page diatribes. Perhaps 20,000 of those letters have survived, in the hands of private collectors and at the John Hay Library in Providence.

In each episode of this podcast, we'll read one of these letters (or part of it) and then discuss it. In his letters HPL reveals an amazing breadth of knowledge of philosophy, science, history, literature, art and many other subjects, and forcefully asserts some highly considered opinions (some of which can be upsetting).

And of course his letters offer a fascinating window into his personal life and times. Although we've been working with Lovecraftian material for over 30 years, we still find interesting new things in his letters, and while we don't claim to be experts we look forward to sharing them with a wider audience.

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  • Episode 13
  • Posted January 19, 2020

My Breakfast with Howard

In which Lovecraft describes both his diet and his thrift as he documents his shopping and dining habits in alarming detail. For added fun he walks the wife of sci-fi writer Fritz Leiber through fascinating (and complicated) branches of his family tree.

Music by Troy Sterling Nies. Transcript by Olivier Decker.

Special thanks to Wildside Press for their book Fritz Leiber and H.P. Lovecraft: Writers of the Dark, edited by Ben J.S. Szumskyj and S.T. Joshi.

TRANSCRIPT

StMichaelsWeybossetSt. Michael's Mount in Cornwall, shown at left, is indeed a location of Dunsanian fantasy, and we look forward to visiting one day.

And here's the ad for the Weybosset Pure Food Market where Lovecraft bought his doughnuts!

Click the link below to see a teapot made by Lovecraft's Irish ancestor, the rogue silversmith and counterfeiter Samuel Casey!