00:00:06:09 - 00:00:09:22 Andrew Welcome to Voluminous the letters of H.P. Lovecraft. 00:00:09:23 - 00:00:14:24 Sean In addition to classic works of gothic horror fiction, HPL wrote thousands of fascinating letters. 00:00:15:00 - 00:00:19:02 Andrew In each episode, we'll read and discuss one of them. I'm Andrew Leman. And I'm. 00:00:19:02 - 00:00:22:23 Sean And I'm Sean Branney. Together, we run the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. 00:00:23:04 - 00:00:30:24 Andrew For today's letter, I chose one written on the 1st of December of 1934 to Robert H. Barlow. 00:00:31:04 - 00:00:34:19 Sean Ha! Mr. Barlow We haven't done a Barlow letter for quite some time. 00:00:34:19 - 00:00:35:13 Andrew Quite some time. 00:00:35:14 - 00:00:39:11 Sean Well, we should remedy that. -Here it comes.- Okay. 00:00:40:05 - 00:01:07:23 Andrew Acropolis of Leng. Hour of the Cosmic Beam. O Mighty Ar-Ech-Bei, Prince of Rubbish Gatherers:- Well, I'm glad to hear of your improved location, and trust You'll find it possible to tarry there during the residue of your Washingtonian sojourn. You surely are on the main stem now -- for 16th Street as a thoroughfare of activity and distinction! Glad the recent odds and ends proved of interest. 00:01:08:07 - 00:01:30:04 Andrew I never was able to figure out what who Houtain meant by calling Klarkash-Ton 'the artist who illustrated Poe'. But fancy he remembered my saying I had seen sketches of his based on Poe's stories. If so, the ones to which I referred are among the pictures in Loveman's possession. As for the two remaining Fungi, here is the sheet, 00:01:30:04 - 00:01:51:05 Andrew but it's very doubtful whether you can make anything of it. If you want to retain this scrawl, I'll have to ask for two typed copies, one to lend and the other to keep on file. Better return the scrawl with the typed copies so that I can make the proper corrections. Then I'll send it back. The manuscript of "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" perished years ago. 00:01:51:14 - 00:02:17:01 Andrew That of the verses in "The tomb" is either non-existent or inaccessible tied up in storage. The Elizabeth Berkley of the "Crawling Chaos" is Winifred Virginia Jackson, a now fairly well-known poetess, formerly active in amateur journalism. The sketch, it is scarcely a story, is based on a curious dream of hers, which formed a sort of continuation of a previous dream of my own, which I had related to her. 00:02:17:11 - 00:02:35:19 Andrew I put the whole business in my own language, and tacked on a sort of aftermath in the Dunsanian style. For the thing dates from my most intensively Dunsanian period. It was my second and final collaboration with Miss Jackson, the first being "The Green Meadow", which I think Cook published in one of his Vagrants. 00:02:36:00 - 00:02:58:05 Andrew That also was based on dreams. I took the title Crawling Chaos from my Nyarlathotep sketch (now repudiated) because I like the sound of it. The phrase humorous stars is correct. I meant to signify the ironic indifference of the cosmos. As for the number of pseudonyms I employed in those days- gawd alone could ever remember more than half of them! 00:02:58:14 - 00:03:21:02 Andrew L. Theobald Junior and Ward Phillips were the principal ones, but for minor pieces (especially humorous things, for I had more of your taste for spoofing when I was young) I had about a dozen more. Humphrey Littlewit, Edward Softly, H Paget-Lowe, etc. etc.. Including many like Lawrence Appleton and John Jay Jones, which I used only once or twice. 00:03:21:18 - 00:03:42:07 Andrew There was one name Archibald something or other, which I can't recall in full, but which I think I used several times. It would involve an endless search through amateur files to come across any of these. Thanks for the two clever sketches which go at once into my file of Barlovianna. As to forwarding something to Herr von Eshbach 00:03:42:15 - 00:04:09:08 Andrew my most diligent searching has failed to disclose anything in your envelope which could be designed for such forwarding. Hence, I must await further instructions. Hope the Crawford-Eshbach outfit will get its affairs in more coherent shape before long. It is rather a pitiful mess as it stands. Honest Hill-Billy Crawf is still trying to argue in favour of pulp tripe - and wants me to see if I can place his struggling periodical on the news stands of Providence. 00:04:09:19 - 00:04:33:15 Andrew The new issue which reached me a fortnight ago is pretty punk. The only high spot being Doc Keller's tense and sinister "Golden Bough". Day before yesterday, I received the booklet with Klarkash-Ton's "White Sibyl" and Keller's "Avalon". Here the worthy medico is at a disadvantage, for his tale is mawkish and naive, while its companion is a splendid specimen of Klarkash-Tonic fantasy. 00:04:34:09 - 00:05:01:03 Andrew Well, I'm delighted to hear that your eyes are better and hope they'll continue to improve. Certainly the absence of nervous strain is a vast help for all ailments involving hypersensitive ness, like your photophobia or dread of ligh,t are closely connected with the state of the nerves. You are so fond of activity and varied diversion that it's a pity you can't live permanently in some large city like Washington where things are constantly going on. 00:05:01:15 - 00:05:28:05 Andrew Perhaps you can, eventually. Glad the art course progress as well. Of course much of the elementary drill work is necessarily dull, but you'll gain it's thorough proficiency which you'll be very glad to have in after use. It is the lack of such technical knowledge which has imposed on Klarkas-Ton the very definite limitations apparent in his work. Glad to hear that Garoth is still on the move, and shall be interested to learn more of "The Summons". 00:05:28:18 - 00:05:53:04 Andrew Hope you'll send the enterprising Bradofsky the material he wants - for any amateur offering to print sizeable prose contributions deserves encouragement! Young Bradley will certainly be grateful for anything you can send. However, don't try to force anything when you don't feel spontaneously in a writing mood, turn to something else until that mood returns. Hope your bookbuying ventures have been reasonably judicious. 00:05:53:07 - 00:06:13:08 Andrew Remember that plenty of time lies ahead and that when you get to New York, you'll be in the midst of the thickest book center in the Western Hemisphere. Better save something to squander where the bargains are most abundant!. Yes, Eph-Li and Rhi-Mhel are both enthusiastic over your drawing, and will undoubtedly be after you for a frontispiece if the "Colour" brochure ever materializes. 00:06:13:18 - 00:06:44:16 Andrew You can certainly beat any of the alleged artists on Crawford's staff by a wide margin, though of course poor Bill is just as incapable of judging art as he is of judging literature. No, I hadn't heard any rumor of the continuance of the Chicago Circus, though it might pay at that. I have very little enthusiasm for things based on mechanical or technological "progress", though probably the exhibition contained many features worth seeing, such as the reproductions of old villages, Chinese temples and so on. 00:06:45:03 - 00:07:15:13 Andrew I'll be on the lookout for the Mexican cinema you mention. The only film I've seen lately is that of Cleopatra, which had magnificent Roman scenes, but which most exasperatingly represented Alexandria as an Egyptian city in architecture and costumes, whereas of course, it was purely a Macedonian-Greek outpost on Egyptian soil. The principal public buildings were designed by Dinocrates - the architect of the famous temple of Diana in Ephesus - and the life and customs of the city were wholly Hellenic. 00:07:15:24 - 00:07:38:23 Andrew It isn't likely that any of the Ptolemaic sovereigns - such as Cleopatra - ever put on an Egyptian costume or head-dress except perhaps on rare occasions when there was a wish to impress the native population up the Nile. It would be just as sensible to depict Calcutta as a city of Hindoo architecture, with the Viceroy in a Rajah's turban! However, the Romans scene certainly were damn good. 00:07:39:13 - 00:07:58:13 Andrew So you've read "Wieland; or the Transformation"! I never had a chance to get hold of the entire book, but possess part of it in the "Lock and Key Library". I'd like to see the whole thing as well as other efforts by Charles Brockden Brown. Charlie seems rather a difficult bird to locate. I never read "The Well of Loneliness". 00:07:58:14 - 00:08:23:12 Andrew Novels are too numerous nowadays to keep track of. The wisest thing is to wait ten or 15 years and see which ones survive and which sink into a well merited oblivion. Glad you've called on good old Miss Toldridge, and hope her moving will be as easy as possible. It was really a crime to dislodge the amiable old soul from her shelter of 30 years, but I trust she'll find the La Salle not less comfortable after a while. 00:08:24:01 - 00:08:45:10 Andrew Also, glad you've had a chance to look over a National Amateur file. I have no idea what my first contribution was, but fancy it was during Cook's years as editor. I was an all-United Partisan then, and had no interest in the national save through individual friends like Cooke. Hope E.H. Smith has all the Vagrants. Enclosed is a list of all 15 issues. 00:08:45:13 - 00:09:13:10 Andrew You'll find some of them virtually impossible to secure. Financially better? Gawd, don't be ironic! The De Castro stuff I turned down was purely speculative. For Old' Dolph is as broke as I am. And the Bishop stuff was virtually the same. Don't fancy that I ever would or could turn down any job containing any real promise of monetary returns. The book Old' Dolph wants fixed up as a rambling philosophic tome called "The New Way". 00:09:13:21 - 00:09:35:19 Andrew He has sent it on, but I don't think anything could be done with it. Just to please him. I shall read it, straighten out the style free of charge, and return it with appropriate comments. I'm sorry for the old coot - 74 half-blind, broke and with a wife and an advanced consumptive state. When I have more time, I'll tell you about some of the absurdities in this volume - 00:09:36:00 - 00:09:58:08 Andrew historical boners and bits of charlatanry which creep in despite Old Dolph's undoubtedly profound scholarship in certain lines. About Kid Bloch's "Lilies" - no, I had nothing whatever to do with it, although little Augie Derleth (to whom it was sent, and after whose work it was frankly modelled in the first place) may have furnished a few suggestions. After all, Grandpa isn't the only adviser in the gang! 00:09:59:04 - 00:10:25:06 Andrew The Fratres Vandreii? Well, Donald is in Auburn confabulating with Klarkash-Ton and paying compliments to the Sisters Sully, while Howard is home about 1152 Portland Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota. Or at least, so runs my latest information. The meeting of C A S and his most ardent worshipper was surely a memorable event. Tsathoggua's high-priest has now seen two of his fellow-necromancers in person. 00:10:25:14 - 00:10:52:17 Andrew The other, of course, being the peripatetic Malik Taus, the Peacock Sultan. Hope you haven't been sinking too much cash into colour reproductions of the Wandrei drawings. After all, you haven't many guaranteed orders as yet, and your losses may be considerable if you plunge ahead too recklessly! I surely hope you can get to New York around Yuletide. Don't know anything about the Hotel Tudor, but two bucks a day certainly is reasonable if a private bawth is thrown in. 00:10:53:02 - 00:11:11:18 Andrew Were it not for this physical requirement of yours, you could fare much more cheaply in Belknap's apartment house - for the Longs would secure you an excellent room with running water in some quiet flat upstairs for five or $6 a week.... less than a dollar a day. Better be sensible, think it over and drop Sonny Belknap a line! 00:11:12:03 - 00:11:30:17 Andrew I wish I could get around and be on hand to introduce you to the gang, but I can't be certain as yet. I'll keep you posted and inform you promptly if the chances turn out favorably. I also wish you could get up to Providence. The bus fare being $3 each way from New York with some reduction (I forget just how much) for a round trip. 00:11:31:05 - 00:11:50:22 Andrew I think you would find things tolerable at this end. If you could sleep on a camp cot, we could lodge you at number 66 sans expense. Otherwise, the boarding-house across the back garden offers excellent facilities. If you think you can make it, let me know and I'll investigate conditions in earnest. Wish to hell it weren't winter so I could be more active outdoors! 00:11:50:22 - 00:12:12:00 Andrew But anyhow, the chances are that we could get to Boston and a few other neighbouring points of interest, including "Arkham" and "Kingsport". Better try to come so long as you'll be so relatively near. New England simply has to be seen. I presume you duly received the card from Cook and me. Before long you'll get still another package from him, as interesting as the last one. 00:12:12:07 - 00:12:33:03 Andrew He keenly appreciates your own appreciation of the things he has always cherished. We had a pretty good time in Boston, although. The hellish cold got us toward the last. I nearly died getting home Sunday night. It was 28 degrees and the climb up the hill about wrecked my heart and lungs. Cook was in rather shaky shape throughout the visit and didn't feel equal to getting out to Parkers. 00:12:33:16 - 00:12:58:18 Andrew We had a pleasant evening at Cole's, however, and saw the old Royall mansion (1737) at Medford. I guess I mentioned the old family papers of Mrs. Miniter's which Cook brought along. I have them now - held in trust for some appreciative blood-heir of the deceased. Many of the items - the 1814 letters and the 49, her stationery, etc - would probably be considerably valuable bits of Americana from the collector's standpoint. 00:12:58:23 - 00:13:26:19 Andrew You'll see them if you come to Providence. I believe I told you that one of the California letters (1853) mentions Auburn. Now, about this copying of the discarded novelettes. Gawd in heaven, Son, but do you realise the daemoniack magnitude of such a task? And what a waste of energy over absolutely worthless manuscripts!!! Remember that those beastly scrawls aren't worth one cursed farthing to anybody but myself! 00:13:27:06 - 00:13:50:08 Andrew Well, I can't legitimately object to your copying the junk, although it does seem barbarous to allow you to assume such an injudicious burden. The only bother from any angle is correcting the typed version, for many passages came out a bit hazily - such as "FLAGLETS" for FLIGHTS" at the top of page nine, and "many peaked" for "many garbled" lower down on that page. 00:13:50:19 - 00:14:11:07 Andrew When you come to the pseudo-archaic letters later on, you'll be in a hell of a tangle. But it's all up to you. If you're insane enough to waste valuable time transcribing tripe, I certainly can't object to correcting the typed version! However, I solemnly warn you that the manuscripts aren't worth the trouble. Be it all on your own head! 00:14:12:10 - 00:14:34:19 Andrew Thanks vastly for the almanakc cutting. I guess I told you that I'm an ardent collector of the Old Farmer's, having a file going solidly back to 1834 and scatteringly back to 1805. Wish I could make it complete! Have you ever seen the almanack? I also have a book about it by Professor Kittredge of Harvard. And so it goes. 00:14:34:19 - 00:14:59:07 Andrew Hope I can see you during the coming month, either here or in New York. Yours under the Ninth Pnakotic Seal. HPL. P.S. have been hearing lately from Emil Petaja, a youth whose letters you've seen in the fantasy fan. He's a violinist and the other day he sent a really well written sonnet dedicated jointly to Clark Ashton Smith and me. 00:14:59:15 - 00:15:11:06 Andrew Annexed to it was a coloured crayon drawing of his - of surprising skill. I'm going to show it to you presently. Apparently, all the coming generations are artists of a sort! 00:15:12:10 - 00:15:18:00 Sean Okay, Andrew. So tell us, what was it that brought you back to a letter to Mr. Barlow? 00:15:18:01 - 00:15:24:07 Andrew This letter was actually one that was recommended to me by a listener on Twitter named Ross Byrne. 00:15:24:08 - 00:15:27:03 Sean Well, what was it that attracted Mr. Byrne to this letter? 00:15:27:04 - 00:15:51:03 Andrew I asked him and one of one of the reasons he thought it would be worth reading is to further explore the relationship between Barlow and Lovecraft and specifically how Barlow came to be Lovecraft's literary executor. Hmm. I know I for one, when I first heard about that, I found it surprising. And I think we know that, you know, people like August Derleth found it very surprising. 00:15:51:03 - 00:16:09:15 Andrew Very surprising. Infuriating, downright. Yeah. And it's like. And, you know, why would Lovecraft choose a teenager who he had only known for a relatively brief amount of time to be his literary executor? And I think this letter kind of shows that Barlow was already being his literary. 00:16:09:17 - 00:16:12:11 Sean He's the switchboard of Lovecraft's life, it sounds like. 00:16:12:12 - 00:16:40:07 Andrew And he also I mean, he was just taking responsibility for preserving Lovecraft's manuscripts. Send them to me. I will type them. I will make sure. I think, you know, Lovecraft recognized that Barlow thought his work was art worth preserving, even if Lovecraft didn't. Sure. Barlow did write. It's like and it's, you know, it just goes to drive home the point that Barlow's youth didn't make any difference to Lovecraft. 00:16:40:07 - 00:16:59:01 Andrew He respected him. And, you know, Barlow was already doing the job of a literary executor, even while Lovecraft was still alive. So when you look at it that way, it kind of makes more sense. You know, I can easily imagine, you know, Derleth wanted to get his hands on the stuff because he wanted to revise it and put his own name on it and make a buck. 00:16:59:01 - 00:17:00:10 Sean From and sell it again. Yeah. 00:17:00:11 - 00:17:07:22 Andrew Yeah. But Barlow wanted to preserve it because Barlow thought it was genius works of art that should be saved for all time. 00:17:08:05 - 00:17:39:17 Sean For me, one of the things that as we've gone through so many of the letters I found really instructive is the difference in tone between Lovecraft's letters to Derleth and his relationship, say, with somebody like Barlow, or actually the majority of the correspondence, his his epistles re relationship with Derleth is remarkably formal and has very little personality and and I think affection perhaps. 00:17:40:17 - 00:17:59:13 Sean So it's interesting to see that. Yeah but it's such a warmer relationship that he has. And of course he's, you know, spending spending a good amount of time with the Barlow's down and to land Florida and August Derlethh is one of the of course one of the relatively few correspondence that is not coming out to hang out with Lovecraft. 00:17:59:13 - 00:18:24:16 Sean And let me take you to Marblehead and we'll go do this and that. It's like Derleth is sort of ensconced out there in the prairie country and stays there. Yeah. And almost everybody else is at least coming through New York or New England. And there's so much travel for the rest of the crowd. And even a fellow like Clark Ashton Smith out in Auburn, California, is I don't know, there's a warmth in the relationship. 00:18:24:16 - 00:18:47:20 Sean Yeah. And a chumminess that that perhaps I don't see in the Derleth relationship unfair as I have not read all of the Derleth letters but I've looked through them on several occasions going, Oh, we should do another Derleth letter. And in a lot of ways they're less compelling for our purposes because they tend to have some less nuance than they're. 00:18:47:20 - 00:19:01:17 Andrew Very professional and they're very down to business. And yeah, you know, Lovecraft is going to be playing with Barlow even from, you know, the way he the he sets the time and date is the Acropolis of laying the hour of the cosmic beam. They are having fun together. 00:19:01:21 - 00:19:02:04 Sean Right. 00:19:02:04 - 00:19:04:10 Andrew In a way that he doesn't have fun with. August. 00:19:04:20 - 00:19:07:06 Sean Yeah. And I'm not sure that anybody really does. Yeah. 00:19:07:11 - 00:19:26:18 Andrew Ross also thought, you know, he liked this letter because it's emblematic and other in other ways. He talks about a lot of interesting figures that I don't think we have any letters to some of the figures that are mentioned in this letter, and they're interesting figures in the in the science fiction and fantasy fan community of the early thirties. 00:19:26:18 - 00:19:30:06 Andrew And they go on to become, you know, very influential in their own way. 00:19:30:16 - 00:19:55:14 Sean Sure. And this is also almost a catalog of Lovecraft's correspondence in 1934, kind of use writing to and talking to. He really kind of touches base on a great number of the figures who are significant in his life. So yeah, it's a great way if if somebody were trying to become acquainted with Lovecraft's correspondence circle. Yeah, just figuring out everyone to whom is referred in this letter. 00:19:55:23 - 00:19:57:24 Sean Yeah, that's pretty good. 00:19:58:02 - 00:19:59:05 Andrew I couldn't track them all down. 00:19:59:05 - 00:20:03:03 Sean I couldn't either. I can't imagine there's a couple of them. Like, who the heck are you? Yeah. 00:20:03:12 - 00:20:24:09 Andrew So he starts by talking about, you know, clearly Barlow has is trying to type the poems from the fungi from the cycle. Right. And Lovecraft has sent him the last two and saying, you know, it's very unlikely you'll be able to read them. But whatever. Do it, do what you want, but you got to send them back to me so I can correct your type in case you. 00:20:24:15 - 00:20:25:12 Sean Didn't do my writing. 00:20:25:12 - 00:20:33:22 Andrew Yeah, because Lovecraft had had a lot of experience with people who had misread his writing and type things wrong and books were published that were full of errors. And yeah. 00:20:33:22 - 00:20:54:17 Sean It sure drives home the difference, too, between these guys living in such an analog world. You know, where there is the manuscript, there is exactly one copy and it's full of strikethrough and strikeouts and then you go from the manuscript then, okay, Now we also have a typescript that may or may not be riddled with errors. And then and who. 00:20:54:19 - 00:20:58:01 Andrew And you know, who has who has that typescript. Right. You know. 00:20:58:02 - 00:21:02:21 Sean Wall of sleep. I don't have a copy of it anymore, you know? Right. It's like it's, it only exists. 00:21:03:04 - 00:21:09:09 Andrew Yeah. The magazine that published it has the only known copy and Yeah, it is, it is very interesting. 00:21:09:09 - 00:21:22:12 Sean Yeah. When you consider that ah a lot of the work you know, we're writing on, you know, we'll go through a dozen different drafts and back and forth and this is added and revised and suddenly in draft eight you go back and pick up that paragraph that was, we cut out back in draft three and you know. 00:21:22:14 - 00:21:28:14 Andrew Yeah. Now nowadays there is no original, I mean it just, it was, it was never a piece of paper that had. Right. Yeah. 00:21:28:14 - 00:21:36:00 Sean There's not a thing, you just make a thing when you, when and if you need one. But yeah. It's such a different, Yeah. Such a different deal. 00:21:36:00 - 00:21:46:09 Andrew So it's fun to hear him talk about his own many nom de plume that he used as an amateur. He can't even remember all of them himself. ARCHIBALD Something or. 00:21:46:09 - 00:21:48:16 Sean Other. Humphrey Little wit. Yeah. 00:21:48:21 - 00:21:55:09 Andrew Archibald something, rather, was Archibald Mainwaring, apparently. So that we've solved that mystery of the missing home. 00:21:55:10 - 00:21:55:23 Sean Thank God. 00:21:55:23 - 00:21:56:13 Andrew Pseudonym. 00:21:56:14 - 00:21:59:10 Sean Yeah, that's true. I'll show up in some amateur press essay or something. 00:21:59:17 - 00:22:09:09 Andrew Yeah, I think it was one that he used only once or twice. And it's. It's based on some other real person whose name was like Mainwaring. I forget exactly what the name was. 00:22:09:09 - 00:22:12:09 Sean But Edward Softly. Yeah, he. 00:22:12:09 - 00:22:26:23 Andrew Does have he does have some good fun pseudonyms. It is kind of funny. Yeah. And then he goes on to talk about a bunch of different figures in fandom who are many of them? Young, aspiring publishers themselves. Yeah. 00:22:27:01 - 00:22:27:18 Sean Spark hair. 00:22:27:19 - 00:22:37:13 Andrew Von Eshbach. Yeah. Lloyd Arthur Ashe. Bach. Interestingly, they were all from Pennsylvania. I don't know what it is about Pennsylvania, but it's a hotbed of the science fiction fandom in the nineties. Well. 00:22:38:10 - 00:22:44:13 Sean As it seemed to be sure. What was the name of the town where Baldwin and. 00:22:44:14 - 00:22:45:05 Andrew Cohasset and. 00:22:45:05 - 00:23:01:24 Sean Washington Rimal lived? And then you've got all the Wisconsin tribe, right? Mo And right, right. So you get these little pockets of of it. But yeah, it was interesting to see that. And Marvel Tales was not a publication that that I knew it was it was. 00:23:01:24 - 00:23:26:18 Andrew Only there only were every three or four issues published I think. Yeah. This guy, he calls him Hillbilly Crawford because he came from the Hill country in Pennsylvania. So hillbilly. Crawford But his his name was William L Crawford, and he was a young guy in his early twenties when he at the time this letter was written and a big science fiction fantasy fan with ambitions to print magazines. 00:23:26:18 - 00:23:50:08 Andrew And he wrote to people like Lovecraft to solicit contributions for his magazines. He had one called He one he was going to call unusual stories, I think, and then Marvel Tales and a lot of it. Lovecraft submitted things which were supposed to be printed in unusual tales, but were actually printed in Marvel stories because Crawford couldn't quite get it all together and published two magazines simultaneously. 00:23:50:10 - 00:23:55:23 Sean Don't worry, the Disney lawyers will take care of Marvel tales that won't be around long at all. 00:23:57:00 - 00:24:11:04 Andrew So true. And Crawford is also the guy who published the Shadow over Innsmouth in book form. Right. And he wrote a charming memoir about that, which is reprinted in that Peter Cannon's Anthology of Lovecraftian Memoirs. But telling the. 00:24:11:04 - 00:24:11:16 Sean Story of. 00:24:12:02 - 00:24:15:12 Andrew Of what it took to print that book and and. 00:24:15:19 - 00:24:18:03 Sean Never quite get the muscle bound. Yeah. 00:24:18:03 - 00:24:28:01 Andrew He he printed he printed like 200 copies and only a little over 100 of them were ever bound. And he doesn't even know what happened to the remaining the ones that were printed and never bound destroyed anything. 00:24:28:01 - 00:24:35:06 Sean And someone's garage and someone dies. And so someone's descendants go, Oh, it's a bunch of grandpa's old crap and chuck it in the bin. 00:24:35:09 - 00:25:10:10 Andrew Well, Crawford went on to become, you know, he continued to be very influential in the fan circuit. And he and his wife went on to create science fiction conventions. And there's even an award named after him for the best first fantasy novel, the William L Crawford Award. That's still being presented. I think so. CRAWFORD You know, Crawford was an ambitious young fan in the early 1930s and spent I think he passed away sometime in the 1980s, but he spent his whole life, you know, loving and promoting science fiction and fantasy and horror and all that stuff. 00:25:10:10 - 00:25:35:19 Andrew Eshback he also mentions in this paragraph here, von Eshbach or Lloyd Arthur Bach, he was another Pennsylvania fan and publisher. He he eventually made friends with L. Ron Hubbard. You Oh, dear. And he's the guy who quoted Hubbard as saying, I want to start a religion. That's where the real money is. So I don't know if I don't know if Hubbard actually said that, but Eschenbach said he said it. 00:25:35:19 - 00:25:39:07 Sean Well, tell me, would you be shocked if l. Ron Hubbard had said that I. 00:25:39:07 - 00:25:39:21 Andrew Would not be. 00:25:39:21 - 00:25:40:22 Sean Shy, nor would I. 00:25:41:18 - 00:26:02:06 Andrew And then he drops the name of Doc Keller, another Pennsylvanian, but not a young kid. Keller was actually ten years older than Lovecraft, and he was a psychiatrist named David H. Keller, and he had been a psychiatrist for the troops in World War One and one of the pioneers of studying shellshock, as it was called at the time. 00:26:02:06 - 00:26:32:16 Andrew Sure. And he was apparently ultra right wing conservative and very cynical, gloomy sort of personality. But he wrote science fiction and and he was actually a very popular science fiction writer during the twenties and thirties and often appeared in places like Weird Tales and the other established magazines. So Keller and Crawford had published. Crawford also reached out to Keller to publish stuff of his, and he had published Lovecraft mentions. 00:26:33:15 - 00:26:59:18 Andrew I received the booklet with Clark, Ashton's White Sibyl and Keller's Avalon, and that was a booklet published by William L. Crawford that just contained those two stories. The full title of Keller's story was The Men of Avalon, and so Keller and Clark Ashton Smith were both, you know, well-established figures who contributed stories for this young kid, William L Crawford, to publish in, you know, not quite book form, but headed in that direction. 00:26:59:20 - 00:27:14:03 Sean It's interesting that talk about Keller as a hardened, you know, right wing figure and Lovecraft in describing his story as being mawkish and IEEE. Yeah. And comparing unfavorably to the works of Clark Ashton Smith. 00:27:14:10 - 00:27:36:12 Andrew As a psychiatrist. Keller went on later to be sort of one of the earlier Lovecraft scholars, and it was Keller who actually was the first to suggest, apparently in about 1948 that Lovecraft may have inherited syphilis from his parents. Mm hmm. Which was not the case. But Keller, as a psychiatrist, threw that out there as a possible explanation for Lovecraft. 00:27:36:12 - 00:27:38:13 Sean Honestly, it's not the worst theory I've ever heard. 00:27:38:13 - 00:27:46:24 Andrew Oh, yeah. You know, it's not implausible, right? But it's it's interesting that Keller had that medical weight behind him when he made that suggestion. 00:27:46:24 - 00:27:47:07 Sean Sure. 00:27:47:10 - 00:28:02:06 Andrew Bradofsky, he mentions it was the president of the National Amateur Press Association at the time. And much and that Lovecraft came to Braddock's defense. I couldn't figure out who Gareth or Bradley are. 00:28:02:10 - 00:28:04:11 Sean I have solutions for neither. 00:28:04:11 - 00:28:06:12 Andrew Yeah, Bradley is unfortunately a very common name. 00:28:06:12 - 00:28:13:06 Sean Yeah, I kind of thought that those were probably folks out of the amateur press circle. But yeah, with names that are not obscure enough to make an easy find. 00:28:13:06 - 00:28:41:03 Andrew So I also found this letter interesting because he mentions So you've read Wieland or the Transformation. I never had a chance to get hold of the entire book. I only own the excerpt from it that's in this Lock and key library series, and you know, we've we've done some work with the supernatural horror literature stuff, right? And it's just interesting to realize that some of these works that Lovecraft sites in Supernatural horror and lecture he hasn't actually read or at least not read it. 00:28:41:03 - 00:28:42:12 Sean Hasn't read it in its entirety. 00:28:42:12 - 00:28:52:05 Andrew Yeah, because they were hard to get a hold of. And he's basing his comments in supernatural horror and literature. She some sometimes on just excerpts and fragments that he could get. 00:28:52:06 - 00:29:07:24 Sean Yeah it would be interesting to do a breakdown of things where you could document that he had read the entire work. Yeah, because some of them clearly are obscure pieces that are probably not in print and not readily available at the library for him to take a look at. At the time he was working on the essay. 00:29:08:08 - 00:29:12:22 Andrew I know you you lament my eBay addiction. 00:29:13:20 - 00:29:21:09 Sean But I have no qualms at all with your eBay addiction. I have to see. I see the incoming wall of freight in the poor, sweaty whoops, man. I have. 00:29:21:09 - 00:29:26:24 Andrew To confess that this week we should be receiving the ten volume lock and key library that contains. 00:29:27:21 - 00:29:28:07 Sean The. 00:29:28:07 - 00:29:49:02 Andrew Very excerpt that Lovecraft read, because I was interested to just see this is the part of it that Lovecraft read. Right. And it is. And it's not it doesn't take up much space and it's it's full of other it's full of other interesting stories and fragments of stories as well. So and it wasn't expensive. So we're going to be getting that whole lock and key set this week sometime. 00:29:49:05 - 00:30:13:13 Sean I can't wait. Yeah, I enjoyed the section. I thought it reminded me a little bit of when we were working on the Zealia Bishop thing, that when he's talking about the relationship with the Castro. Yeah, because it gives us a lens into the business experience of being H.P. Lovecraft. Yeah. De Castro has got all of his work, but he has no money with which to pay me. 00:30:13:13 - 00:30:31:12 Sean I am too broke to actually take on and do this work. Right. You know, and that Lovecraft is often buried with, you know, people who want him to work on things. But he has to find the work that's going to actually be remunerative. You know, and this is this is 1934. So you're in the heart of the Great Depression. 00:30:31:23 - 00:30:56:22 Sean This is Lovecraft. You know, financially at close to his lowest point. You know, really, really the the thirties went nothing but downhill for him. Yeah. So I thought you know when we think of his work with these these collaborators and you know some of the work is not him you know, working on the fiction with him but actually working on, you know, essays or, you know, other books or. 00:30:57:14 - 00:31:12:08 Sean DeCastro was the beard stuff that was, again, it's work for Lovecraft, but not perhaps in a good way, right for him. So I thought this was just a little revealing insight into the day to day life of all. In 1934. 00:31:12:08 - 00:31:27:22 Andrew And when we were doing our book about the bishop letters, you know, we Lovecraft was not I don't want to say he was not a good businessman, but he he let his client, he gave good value for the money. I mean, he worked hard for the little money that he got. 00:31:27:22 - 00:31:48:12 Sean Yeah. I think it's fair to say he wasn't a good businessman. If you're going to measure business by, you know, the financial success and the amount of effort relative to the amount of of benefit, you know, a cost benefit kind of thing, some of his relationships with people, you know, sure, he's he's coming, you know, putting in 100 hours of work and not charge it and $6. 00:31:48:12 - 00:32:06:03 Andrew You know and even in this letter you know this you know, Dolph will send me this book that he wants me to write and I'll fix it up for him and I'll send it back without charging him because he's 74 and his wife has tuberculosis and he doesn't have any more money than I do. So, you know, Lovecraft is a softy in that way. 00:32:06:03 - 00:32:21:16 Sean Sure. Yeah. And yeah, it was still, though, in the Zeaulia bishop thing, too. And and it's like there are times where, you know, at one point she owed him quite a bit of money. He's he's fairly meek in, in trying to, you know, get what is actually owed. And to her credit she she did eventually pay off her. 00:32:21:16 - 00:32:25:12 Andrew Yeah but he's also sympathetic because he knows the reason she isn't paying him is because she. 00:32:25:13 - 00:32:25:22 Sean Doesn't have. 00:32:25:22 - 00:32:34:08 Andrew Money. He doesn't have money either. So he's not being you know, he's not pounding on her door, insisting on getting paid. He's he's understanding of her predicament as well. 00:32:34:08 - 00:32:36:15 Sean Right. Wow. That's Great Depression. A lot of that going around. 00:32:36:15 - 00:32:58:02 Andrew Yeah. There at the he mentions now apparently, you know, Barlow has asked what's up with the Wandrei and all that stuff and Lovecraft is telling him and he says South argue is high priest Clark Ashton Smith has now seen two of his fellow necromancers in person, the other, of course being the peripatetic Malik House, the Peacock Sultan. It took me a while to figure out who he was referring. 00:32:58:02 - 00:32:59:14 Sean To and who is the Peacock. 00:32:59:14 - 00:33:11:20 Andrew Sultan. Well, Malik's house is a figure from you know, Yazidi. Legendary. But the real person that he's referring to, I think, is Hoffman Price. Oh, because Malik was one of Lovecraft's nicknames for Hoffman. 00:33:11:20 - 00:33:12:15 Sean Right. There we go. 00:33:12:15 - 00:33:17:04 Andrew So I sat who? That's who I think he means when he says, Malik House, the Peacock Sultan. 00:33:17:05 - 00:33:38:14 Sean Well, nicely deduced I, I enjoyed the the section where Barlow is talking about apparently has floated the idea of going to New York and where he's going to stay. And and I just wanted to know whether the Longs knew that Lovecraft was saying, Oh, Barlow could stay in your spare room and, and it'll be cheap and then we can put him up there. 00:33:38:14 - 00:33:54:15 Sean I was just like, I mean, clearly Lovecraft was not only close with Frank Belknap Long, but the whole family went on long road trips together. They all clearly knew each other. I mean, maybe they really were so, so close to family that he knew there'd be no possible objection from the Longs. But it's still kind of Give me a chuckle. 00:33:54:17 - 00:34:12:02 Andrew Yeah, I guess I read that. I think I might have read that a little differently because he says you can fare much more cheaply in BelKnap's apartment house, and the throwing in the word house makes me wonder if Lovecraft meant another room in the building, but not necessarily the Lovecraft's apartment. As such. I don't know. 00:34:12:04 - 00:34:15:08 Sean I don't know. Oh, well, not the Lovecraft apartment. I mean. 00:34:15:11 - 00:34:30:10 Andrew The Belknap apartment. Yeah, the Long families apartment building. Not necessarily the Long Families apartment. I have no idea. But because Lovecraft throws in, I can fare more cheaply. And it made me wonder if the Longs owned the whole building or. 00:34:30:10 - 00:34:33:00 Sean Yeah, maybe so. It wasn't. It wasn't Mr. Long a dentist? 00:34:33:00 - 00:34:57:05 Andrew He was a dentist. Yeah. He they were successful. They had money, so I don't know. But it is what I do think is interesting is this physical requirement that you must have your own bathroom. So it was very interesting, which, you know, for a a gay kid who's only, what, 17 or 18 years old, I can imagine that being an important detail in your lodging. 00:34:57:11 - 00:35:05:21 Andrew So it was interesting that Lovecraft regarded the need of a private bathroom as a physical requirement. Why do you sleep on a camp cot at my house? What difference does it make? 00:35:05:22 - 00:35:16:10 Sean Well, you know, and. And thrift. Thrift. Oh, thrift, you know, Lovecraft knew how to how to save. And if you want to scrimp, you don't worry about having, you know, a luxury like a private bath. Yeah. 00:35:17:10 - 00:35:25:20 Andrew He talks about the all the fascinating vintage documents that that they had. He had a building going over with W Paul Cook. 00:35:25:20 - 00:35:30:12 Sean I'm assuming you've bought those on eBay and they'll be coming presently right? 00:35:30:12 - 00:35:33:16 Andrew I haven't thought to look for those yet, but they're probably if they're. 00:35:33:16 - 00:35:34:08 Sean Sick, if. 00:35:34:08 - 00:35:47:03 Andrew They're, if they're anywhere, they're probably at the, at the Hay library. That's where they belong. All right. But he talks about, you know, Mrs. Miniter, family papers, and that was Edith Miniter. I think we've covered her before. 00:35:47:04 - 00:35:48:08 Sean We talked about her. Yeah. 00:35:48:08 - 00:36:02:06 Andrew Yeah. Well, she had recently passed away. She had just died in 1934. So apparently the gang from the amateur press circle was serving as her executors of some kind, and all of her family papers were making the rounds of the amateur press gang. 00:36:02:20 - 00:36:09:13 Sean I think my favorite part of this whole letter is in this paragraph quite near the end where he's talking about the discarded novelette. 00:36:09:13 - 00:36:13:00 Andrew And that, I think, is why Ross Byrne really wanted us. 00:36:13:00 - 00:36:40:03 Sean Yeah, the two most and least for page count, significant pieces of fiction that Lovecraft wrote, Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and the case of Charles Dexter Ward, both of which Lovecraft held in such low esteem that he handwrote the manuscripts and went, Oh, these are terrible. Stuck them in the bottom drawer and left them there to molder. And, you know, young Barlow has taken on the odious job of typing them. 00:36:40:04 - 00:36:45:09 Andrew Yeah, the Herculean task, I mean, and truly. And for dream quest. Rather thankless. 00:36:45:09 - 00:36:50:04 Sean Task. Sure. And I think as far as Lovecraft seems not even a worthwhile endeavor. 00:36:50:04 - 00:36:55:07 Andrew Yeah, it's like you're crazy if you want to do it. But then again, if you want to do it, I'm not going to stop you. 00:36:55:08 - 00:36:55:18 Sean Sure. 00:36:55:18 - 00:37:01:22 Andrew But I think that's key to why Barlow makes sense as a literary executor. Barlow will do it. 00:37:02:01 - 00:37:10:02 Sean Sure, Because he. He The mere fact that Lovecraft wrote them right imbues the these manuscripts with a value that Lovecraft himself doesn't see. 00:37:10:07 - 00:37:27:06 Andrew I know Dream Quest has never been your favorite Lovecraft story. Yeah, it's not my favorite either but I think I. I, I like it a little bit more. And it is interesting to think that Lovecraft just thought it was twaddle. Not even worth rereading. 00:37:27:10 - 00:37:55:17 Sean Well, see, I think the same thing about Charles Dexter Ward, where I would say it's not my favorite of the pieces of fiction, but there's a lot to it. And it's it's, it's a pretty interesting story. And this is one of the things I've always felt, you know, as we've spent so much time with the you know, you and I have reworked so many of the Lovecraft stories, and I so believe that more than I know, maybe it's because I know the work better. 00:37:55:17 - 00:38:20:13 Sean But if he had had a good editor, somebody who understood what he was trying to accomplish, so he didn't go in there and wreck things. Right. But just tidy up and take out some of the junk. You don't and take out some of the prolix language. And just somebody who had a deft editorial hand. Yeah, I think could have taken Lovecraft from being a pulp writer who had a hard time selling stuff in his age. 00:38:20:19 - 00:38:39:16 Sean I think he could have been acerbic when he could have been a very successful commercial genre writer in his time if somebody had again who got Lovecraft and what he's trying to do, but also could just, you know, again, the stories could just most of them as most things that most people write could benefit from a good objective editor. 00:38:39:21 - 00:38:50:23 Andrew Do you think that if he had had that, would he be the famous figure that he is today, or would he has been like Seabury Quinn subsequently forgotten? Yeah. 00:38:50:23 - 00:39:16:01 Sean Had a candle that burned out back then. You know, I think there is some underlying spark of genius in his work, which is why he endures. And people, you know, here almost a century later still are being attracted to this material. There's some yeah genius acquire that that floats people's boat and I you know as long as the editor wasn't wrecking that. 00:39:16:01 - 00:39:39:00 Sean Yeah I think he still would perhaps you know had his his moment in the sun and endured. I don't I don't, I don't know what it is that makes a writer who has a like Seabury Quinn who is incredibly popular in his own time and then by, you know, the forties and fifties, you know, people. Yeah. 00:39:39:02 - 00:39:40:11 Andrew Just had moved on. Yeah. 00:39:40:14 - 00:39:49:01 Sean Yeah. There's not there's nothing that seems to remain in those works that really get people fired up. Man. We're going to get hate mail from the Seabury Wind Historical Society. 00:39:49:04 - 00:39:49:20 Andrew And rightly so. 00:39:49:24 - 00:40:11:19 Sean Yeah, those guys are tough over the radio, but I agree. I think it it is an interesting question. What what makes that happen and is it something about the audience or is it something about the material? You know, could could Van Gogh have been a great painter of his own time or could he not? You know, was he just too too far ahead of the curve? 00:40:11:19 - 00:40:16:05 Sean And, yeah, the world wasn't ready for him. And then suddenly, a century later, the world's. 00:40:16:11 - 00:40:30:10 Andrew Well, that that reminds me again of a figure who's mentioned in this letter who's David Keller, the psychiatrist. Because when I was doing a little bit of homework about there are a number of people who think he was really underrated for his time and sorry. 00:40:30:10 - 00:40:30:22 Sean As an author. 00:40:30:22 - 00:40:57:24 Andrew As an author, yeah. I mean, he reminds me of Lovecraft in a couple of ways, but one of which is, you know, that his ideas were more interesting than the writing itself and that if you reread him now, you realize there was more to him than than people were giving him credit for at the time. Right. So this guy, Keller, although he seems to have been an unpleasant fellow in many ways, might be I've never read any stories by David Keller. 00:40:57:24 - 00:41:09:12 Andrew I think his first one was called The Revolt of the Pedestrians or something. And it was it was a science fiction story that that imagined a society that was so gridlocked by traffic that that actually walking was illegal. 00:41:09:16 - 00:41:11:01 Sean Oh, he'd been to Los Angeles. 00:41:11:01 - 00:41:28:22 Andrew He had been in Los Angeles. Apparently that's how things are in Pennsylvania. But anyway, that was like one of his first science fiction stories. And now that I know about him. Yeah. What? You know, I had not been aware of him before reading this letter. I kind of want to go read some David Keller stories to see if if, like Lovecraft, he's a guy who was popular. 00:41:28:22 - 00:41:43:17 Andrew Well, unlike Lovecraft, he was popular in his day and is now forgotten. And Lovecraft was unknown in his day and is now, you know, not only famous but infamous stories. And then this letter, we'll have to put it on the website because, you. 00:41:44:01 - 00:41:45:12 Sean Know, the sign off, the. 00:41:45:12 - 00:41:50:03 Andrew Sign off, he he signs this letter with a very bizarre little. 00:41:50:03 - 00:41:52:16 Sean Yeah, almost a hieroglyphic sort of thing. 00:41:52:16 - 00:42:04:02 Andrew Yeah. Which is which is his stylized HPL monogram. But but in three different forms in the same monograph and it's just a weird little doodle. 00:42:04:12 - 00:42:06:05 Sean Is an odd and odd thing. 00:42:06:05 - 00:42:18:24 Andrew Yeah. So we'll just put it on you after you've listened to this episode. If you haven't already been to the website, go check it out. Because the little monograph that Lovecraft uses to sign off this letter is is a head scratcher and interesting. 00:42:19:02 - 00:42:21:13 Sean And now we know what the Ninth Pnakotic SEAL looks like. 00:42:21:13 - 00:42:24:16 Andrew Now we know what the next Pnakotic we'll have to use that from now on. 00:42:24:16 - 00:42:29:16 Sean We should. All right. All right. Well, this was good fun. So thank you for bringing this in for us, Andrew. 00:42:30:02 - 00:42:43:02 Andrew And thanks to Ross Byrne for suggesting it. Ross Goodman The letter today actually from O Fortunate Floridian, the Book of Letters to R H Barlow, that was published by the University of Tampa Press. 00:42:43:08 - 00:42:49:07 Sean You can learn more about them by googling University of Tampa Press. It's what I do. 00:42:49:21 - 00:42:52:08 Andrew I'm your obedient servant, Andrew Leman. 00:42:52:11 - 00:42:54:18 Sean And I'm cordially and respectfully yours Sean Branney 00:42:54:18 - 00:42:59:01 Andrew You've been listening to Voluminous the letters of H.P. Lovecraft. 00:42:59:01 - 00:43:05:16 Sean If you've enjoyed the show, we'd appreciate it if you take a moment to post a review or better yet, telephone or to about voluminous is. 00:43:05:16 - 00:43:38:06 Andrew Brought to you by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Come check out all we have to offer at HPLHS.org