Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft

In which, during tumultuous times, the HPLHS opts not to read a letter. Don't worry - we'll be back. Here are a couple of other podcasts that are worth your time this week: Fanti The Memory Palace

In this letter of July 2, 1929 to Maurice Moe, HPL discusses his thoughts on marriage and, more importantly, divorce. Written after the collapse of his own marriage, Lovecraft is quite candid about the institution and his personal life. Thanks to our friends at Hippocampus Press. HPL mentions Judge Benjamin Lindsey in this letter, who co-authored The Companionate Marriage with Wainright Evans in 1927.

In the sometimes uncomfortable finale of our three-part letter to J. Vernon Shea, HPL opines on weightier topics, including the looming forces of war and peace, and issues of justice (social and otherwise) surrounding the famed Scottsboro Boys trial. CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains numerous bleeps and some awkward conversation. Not recommended for those uncomfortable with discussing racism. HPL mentions Lincoln Steffens in this letter, a famous liberal muckraking journalist who wrote about the corruption of politics in Rhode Island, St. Louis, and other places. If you want to hear more about corrupt Providence politics, we recommend the podcast Crimetown. The "nice little Jew" HPL mentions at the very end of the letter was Julius Schwartz, who would go on to become a prominent editor of famous titles at DC comics, including both Superman and Batman. Schwartz commissioned the collaborative story "The Challenge from Beyond", jointly written by Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, Abraham Merritt and C.L. Moore in 1935. You can get a copy of The Lady Who Came to Stay from our friends at Hippocampus Press. We did!

In part two of our three-part letter to J. Vernon Shea, Lovecraft visits popular culture, discussing music, plays and his favorite motion pictures. Even in 1934 movies about time-travel had plot holes. BLEEP WARNING: The majority of this episode is light and whimsical, but there are a couple of passing mentions of racist language. Sadly, the version of Berkeley Square that was viewable on YouTube has apparently vanished. But there is still a version with no sound at all, and a clip or two with sound. Our thanks to listener David Kellogg, who writes to solve the mysterious reference to the "Ah Wilderness year" that left us stumped by saying "...while Ah, Wilderness was produced in 1933, it is *set* on July 4, 1906."

In part one of this lengthy (three episode!) letter, HPL writes to his friend J. Vernon Shea. Among the many topics he delves into are Lovecraft's youthful contemplations of suicide and what kept him from going through with it. Our thanks to our friends at Hippocampus Press for their book Letters to J. Vernon Shea, Carl F. Strauch, and Lee McBride White.

In a letter to his revision client Zealia Brown Reed Bishop dated August 25, 1929, HPL emphatically defends the editorial work of his young protege, Frank Belknap Long. He gives lots of writing advice before moving on to vivid description of some of his recent local travels. You'll find this letter in The Spirit of Revision published by The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society! Music by Troy Sterling Nies. Our thanks to Christian Matzke, Sean and Jackie McCall, Mary Sullivan, S.T. Joshi, and the John Hay Library. If you'd like to see some scans of the original letters (and some of the extra things HPL included), along with portraits of Zealia, please check out the Spirit of Revision page on the HPLHS website!

In which Lovecraft speaks of many things, but most extensively on his fondness for cats. That leads to a discussion of local colloquialisms which then leads to an interesting discourse on local cheese nomenclature and Owyhee Idaho Spuds. It's a fun ride! Thanks to our friends at Hippocampus Press. This is the linoleum cut of Lovecraft by Duane Rimel mentioned in this letter. It was published as an illustration accompanying a bio of HPL by F. Lee Baldwin in Fantasy magazine. CLICK HERE to download a PDF replica of the entire article!

In which HPL writes about space travel, alien life, and the shortcomings of fictional science in a suite of letters to one of the first fans of science fiction: Nils Helmer Frome. These letters were written between December 1936 and February 1937. PLEASE NOTE: During the recording of this episode, Andrew could not recall the name of the man with whom J.B.S. Haldane corresponded, and referred to him repeatedly — and inaccurately — as a "preacher". The man in question was, in fact, Arnold Lunn, who deserved to be better remembered. Andrew regrets his failure in this matter. Music by Troy Sterling Nies. Our thanks to Hippocampus Press for their Letters to F. Lee Baldwin, Duane W. Rimel, and Nils Frome. If you want to get into a complicated discussion between two actually smart people, check out the correspondence between Arnold Lunn and J.B.S. Haldane. Lovecraft didn't care for anthropomorphic aliens like the ones on Star Trek, but our brother podcaster and dear friend Chris Lackey pointed out an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that explains why so many alien races in that universe look human. It's called "The Chase". Chris and his wonderful wife Rachel Lackey have their own Star Trek podcast that you can check out here!

February, 1937. In one of the last letters he would ever write, HPL tells Harry Otto Fischer about the things he's afraid of, and explains his etymological interpretation of the title Necronomicon. This episode is full of dodgy Greek, incuding Andrew's old article from Strange Eons. Thanks to our friends at Hippocampus Press.

In which HPL writes to the Gallomo (Alfred Galpin and Maurice Moe) of his potent dreams, his first encounter with Lord Dunsany, and his idyllic youth at 454 Angel Street in Providence. 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!

In which Lovecraft opines to his young friend Frank Belknap Long about the perils of pornography and includes a ribald cautionary poem in an 18th century style to drive the point home. Yes, this episode is safe for work. Thanks to Arkham House for their Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft.

In which HPL writes to Edwin Baird, his first editor at Weird Tales. They talk a bit of business before HPL launches into his autobiography. Yes, we have no bananas. Lovecraft mentions the name of his childhood cat in this letter, and after wrestling with very mixed feelings Andrew chose to bleep it. Thanks to Arkham House for their Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft.

In which Lovecraft writes to Donald Wandrei, a young correspondent who will go on to be one of the founders of Arkham House, and play a key role in preserving Lovecraft's legacy. This episode is coming out on the Ides of March, the 83rd anniversary of Lovecraft's death. We want to take a moment to humbly recognize HPL's vast contributions to popular culture and to our lives. Ave et Vale! Our thanks to Hippocampus Press for their Letters to Donald Wandrei and others. Both of the movies that HPL mentions in this letter are watchable online. Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang The Thief of Bagdad (1924) by Raoul Walsh

In which HPL attempts to bring good cheer to his depressed friend Rheinhart Kleiner. We hope Rheinhart took comfort from Howard's suggestions of fixing his love life by cultivating a cosmic perspective. Music by Troy Sterling Nies. Our thanks to Arkham House. Jason Thompson, who created the feature-length animated film version of The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath also created an RPG based on the never-written story HPL mentions in this letter, The Club of the Seven Dreamers. If you don't already subscribe to the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, you should consider starting! They have a very fun episode about the August Derleth story The Dark Brotherhood, which may or may not have anything to do with the Club of the Seven Dreamers.... You can hear some lines from this letter quoted in the brilliant performance of Lovecraft by Christopher Heyerdahl in the excellent Canadian film Out of Mind.

In which HPL and Robert E. Howard discuss a number of issues of the day. They opine about the Massie Affair, an incident in the Hawaiian Islands which proved a magnet for many of America's ugliest racial views. Warning: this episode includes discussion of racism. Special thanks to Hippocampus Press for their two volume edition of A Means to Freedom: the Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. If—like Lovecraft—you would like to own a complete copy of the Necronomicon, be sure to check out the work of our good friend Christian Matzke, and maybe even support it, on his Patreon page. For a better explanation of the Massie Affair than we could provide, check out this article.

In which HPL writes to Robert E. Howard during his trip to New Orleans. And in which Sean and Andrew grapple with the language of racism and other problems. Special thanks for Hippocampus Press for their two volume series A Means to Freedom: the Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.

In the thrilling conclusion of our coverage of Lovecraft's eternal letter, he tells Frank Belknap Long everything he fails to understand about art, history and much more. Lovecraftian opinions abound in this vigorous diatribe. Our thanks to Arkham House for making this letter available. To read the rest of it for yourself, check out Selected Letters: Vol. III.

HPL assaults Catholicism and other intellectual outrages. This one may ruffle some feathers as Lovecraft lays it on thick in part three of his lengthy letter to his friend Frank Belknap Long. Includes a short and pleasant detour to Quebec! Be sure to check out the website of The Museum of Jurassic Technology, and visit in person if you ever get the chance. In the gift shop they have the wonderful book No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Again. Frank Belknap Long wrote a memoir of HPL entitled Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside. In that memoir, he mentions this letter and gives us some insight into what he had said to Lovecraft to provoke HPL's anti-Catholic diatribe. "At one point covering a period of several years," Long writes, "I came close to becoming a convert to a ritualistic Catholic mysticism, perhaps because I have always been in rebellion against what I felt was the beauty-ignoring aspect of Protestantism, even when it repudiated every kind of Bible Belt fundamentalism. Despite his atheism, HPL had a great admiration for the liberal Protestant tradition, as he made plain in one of his middle-period letters to me. It is included in the third volume of Arkham House correspondence and was just about the longest letter he ever wrote to anyone. What he failed to realize was that even at that period I had no real intention of becoming a Trappist monk, and it was only the aesthetic aspects of Roman or Anglo-Catholicism that had made me just a bit less of an agnostic than I had been earlier. Basically, I would never have been able to live for long with any kind of theological orthodoxy, but in challenging some of his most firmly held beliefs, I derived a certain pleasure in playing the part of a Devil's advocate." So it seems Long deliberately tried to get a rise out of HPL by suggesting he might become a monk! Long's memoir was first published by Arkham House in 1975, but it has been recently released in paperback and digital versions by Wildside Press. And drop by the website of our friends at Hippocampus Press to see HPL's lengthy essay about Quebec and other travel writing!

In part two of HPL's lengthy letter to his friend Frank Belknap Long, Lovecraft speaks his mind about the merits of pure science. Listen as he disdains commercialism and the machine age in his diatribe celebrating knowledge for its own sake. Greeks ahoy!

In which HPL upbraids, chides and spanks his poor young friend Frank Belknap Long about weird literature (and several other topics to boot!). The first of a four part series which documents one of HPL's longest and most broad-ranging letters. CORRECTION: Andrew was in error in this episode when he said that all of the letters from HPL to Frank Belknap Long have been lost. While it's true that no one seems to know the location of any letters written after 1931, there is a fabulous trove of letters written from 1920 until 1931 currently in the hands of a private collector. If you happen to have $150,000 to spare, you could buy them! (If so, you might consider donating them to the John Hay Library at Brown University.) Special thanks to HPLHS member Kevin Miller for pointing this out to us.

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 branches of his family tree. 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.

At the suggestion of S.T. Joshi, we read a letter to James F. Morton. Brimming with snappy 1920s slang, HPL's letter grapples with his ideas on writing, creativity and the best ways to get your kicks. Lamp it! Music by Troy Sterling Nies Special thanks to S.T. Joshi and Hippocampus Press Here's an online version of Morton's 1906 book "The Curse of Race Prejudice".

Howard unfurls his most vigorous inner-cynic as he attacks political ideals and modern poetry in this letter to Washington DC poet Elizabeth Toldridge. You can see a poem Toldridge wrote about HPL at the Brown Digital Repository here. Music by Troy Sterling Nies Special thanks to Hippocampus Press for their book H. P. Lovecraft: Letters to Elizabeth Toldridge & Anne Tillery Renshaw

Just before Christmas, Lovecraft meets Vrest Orton for the first time. Howard is smitten by his young visitor. Is it a blossoming bromance or something more? Don't miss the giddy side of HPL in part two of his Christmas letter to his Aunt Lillian. Music by Troy Sterling Nies Thanks to the Brown Digital Repository at Brown University

HPL sends his aunt a very telling Christmas letter. Written while he was living in Brooklyn, the letter is revealing about both HPL and those closest to him. Music by Troy Sterling Nies Special thanks to the Brown Digital Repository at Brown University. You might need a New York Times subscription to see it, but there's a fascinating article about the crazy rich Wendel family. And while you're surfing, learn more about the fascinating Byron Khun de Prorok! Lovecraft hoped to get a job at the Paterson Museum, where his friend James F. Morton was a curator and which was founded in the very year HPL wrote this letter. HPL never got that job, but the museum did eventually get its own new building. It's still going and is worth a visit! Lovecraft mentioned a number of interesting figures in the letter we didn't have time to talk about in the episode. One was Edward Arnold, whose recent obituary HPL and his aunts had noted. Lovecraft said it was too bad his mother didn't "snap him up". He was a member of one of the founding families of Rhode Island (which also included the infamous Benedict Arnold). He mentions astronomical articles by "Brainin" and "Upton". C.S. Brainin was the editor of The Amateur Astronomer in the late 1920s, and Professor Winslow Upton was the director of Ladd Observatory in Providence when HPL was a boy and wrote articles for the Providence Journal. He also mentions enjoying the "Hoppin conceptions", which is a reference to noted 19th-century Providentian book illustrator Augustus Hoppin.

High school admirers Robert Bloch and Willis Conover both wrote fan letters to Lovecraft. Here we see HPL writing back to these two young writers who will go on to correspond with HPL and have fascinating lives after Lovecraft's death. You can learn more about Willis Conover here. You can hear his voice in this YouTube video. Music by Troy Sterling Nies Thanks to Hippocampus Press and Carrollton-Clark Publishing

In which Lovecraft delivers some unexpected bad news. Intellect collides with emotion in this letter to poet Ann Tillery Renshaw. Thanks to Hippocampus Press. Music by Troy Sterling Nies

In which HPL deploys shocking language in a feisty letter to his friend, Wisconsin schoolteacher Maurice Moe. Thanks to Arkham House. You can read a much less abridged version of this letter in the book H.P. Lovecraft: Letters to Maurice W. Moe and Others from Hippocampus Press. Music by Troy Sterling Nies.

In which Lovecraft writes his friend and fellow author of fantastic tales, Clark Ashton Smith. As wildfire threatens Smith's California home we're reminded how nothing ever really changes... Thanks to Clark Ashton Smith guru Scott Connors and to Hippocampus Press.

In which HPL writes to his mother about his delightful visit to a gathering of amateur press friends for St. Patrick's day. Sent a few weeks before her death, it's Howard's final extant letter to his mother. Special thanks to our friends at the Brown University Digital Repository where they keep and digitally share with the public many of HPL's original manuscripts. You can see a thrilling ad for David Van Bush with Lovecraft's commentary here. If you want to read some of Bush's books, you can find the one Lovecraft himself worked on here. And click here to read Practical Psychology and Sex Life.

In which we read a letter from HPL to August Derleth from November 7, 1926. We discuss unique qualities of HPL's correspondence with Derleth, and his essential role in sharing Lovecraft's works with the public. Special thanks to the helpful team at Hippocampus Press.

A set of three shorter letters written one hundred years ago, in which 29-year-old HPL dispenses relationship and life advice to one of his earliest correspondents, Rheinhart Kleiner. Hear of Lovecraft's encouragement to the lovelorn, his temptation to try the dreaded cannabis, and more! These letters come from The Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft Volume I. Our deepest thanks to Arkham House Publishing. You can find them at www.arkhamhouse.com Music by Troy Sterling Nies.

In his first letter to Robert H. Barlow, written on June 25, 1931, HPL very kindly answers a few important questions of a young fan, and begins what will prove to be a very important relationship. Our thanks to Dan Viafore for being our audio consultant. Original music by Troy Sterling Nies. Special thanks to S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. The text of the letter came from their book O Fortunate Floridian, published by the University of Tampa Press.