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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- Posted April 5, 2020
Dunsany and Childhood: My Favorite Things
In which HPL writes to the Gallomo (Alfred Galpin and Maurice Moe) of his potent dreams, his personal encounter with Lord Dunsany, and his idyllic youth at 454 Angel Street in Providence.
Music by Troy Sterling Nies. Our thanks to Arkham House for their Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft.
If you want to see HPL's reference to his Eben Spencer dream, check out page 16 of The Commonplace Book. It's full of fascinating stuff!
If you want to read the book that inspired HPL's childhood village of "New Anvik", check out Snow-Shoes and Sledges by Kirk Munroe!
Here is some of the newspaper coverage HPL and his friends must have seen of Lord Dunsany's American lecture tour, including an ad for the Boston appearance that HPL himself attended.
