My new 8,000 word essay on the historical context of one of science fiction’s most famous stories, ‘Some Notes On the Origins of Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space”‘ will be available in my forthcoming paperpack Lovecraft in Historical Context: further essays and notes.
Some Notes On the Origins of Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space”
22 Friday Jul 2011
Posted in Historical context, New discoveries, Scholarly works
Steve Mariconda had a very interesting lecture at MythosCon in which he showed old maps and photos of the Quabbin region. In particular, he showed that geographical features of the area are echoed in the story — in fact, there was one house that might have been the inspiration for the Gardner farm (the stretch of the new road, the old road to the north, the pastures, etc.).
There’s even a “Nabby Gardner” buried at a local graveyard — and Joshi pointed out how unusual it is to find a nick-name (for Abigail) on a tombstone.
Very interesting, thanks! It does rather beg the question though – how did said landmarks and farm escape the flood waters of that immense 40-square-mile reservoir? If Lovecraft had based it on a real farm that was set to be flooded by Quabbin, a reservoir then only in the very early stages of initial surveying, then the farm would be well underwater by now along with all its local landmarks and graveyards. We would not be able to find it today. Or was Mariconda working only from old maps and photos of the area, pre-flooding?
We do know he was visiting spots near North New Salem (just to the north of the now- reservoir area) in Summer 1928, but that would be too late for “Colour”. Are there any records of his visiting the area in summer 1926 (which would seem the most likely date of influence)? If there were, surely Joshi would have mentioned it.
I’m just getting to that point in Joshi’s “I Am Providence” – it seems Lovecraft spent most of that summer exploring and re-exploring his beloved Providence, so glad was he to be back from NY. I can’t find any details about trips out to the west of Boston in 1926 or earlier. Of course, I guess he may have been browsing local history pamphlets and publications as they appeared on the shelves on the local libraries – and could thus have had a wider knowledge of places without actually visiting them. He would also have seen newspaper reports about the Quabbin proposals.
Yes, he was using only old maps and photos (including a very useful surveyor map). My memory is a bit hazy, but I believe that “Pierce” and varieties of it were quite common names in the area, and there was even a hill close to the proposed “Gardner fram” that was named after this family.
Steve also showed a recent satellite photo of the area which shows that the site of the house is indeed well under water — but not too far from the edge of the reservoir.
I don’t recall what was mentioned of possible visits to the area, but it was mentioned. (Steve also pointed out Frank E. Winsor’s Providence connection.)
Updated to version 1.1 – added a paragraph about the names ‘Nahum’ and ‘Gardner’.
Updated to version 1.2 – removed the entire section on Quabbin, Vermont, etc. That section is a tad too speculative and unbalances the essay (coming, as it did, in the middle of the meteorites section). It’ll feature as a seperate mini-essay when the 2011 Summer School essays find their way into a paperback (soon).
Updated to version 1.3 – added information on the mention of an unknown colour in “From Beyond” (1920), and made additions to the ‘further reading’ list. Thanks to the Headmistress of the Lovecraft Summer School for pointing me in the direction of “From Beyond”.