The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1903), by George Gissing. Apparently one of H.P. Lovecraft’s favorite books, and one on which he based his personal philosophy of life. Sonia stated that she received a copy of it early in their courtship, with instructions to read it to better understand him.
Curiously the book isn’t listed in Lovecraft’s Library. My guess on that would be that S.T. Joshi had to weigh Sonia’s solo revelation about the book, against Lovecraft’s apparent utter silence on Gissing in all his other walks of life and voluminous correspondence. And the similar silence of his bibliophile friends on the book. But if you’d like to take a look, the book is available here: Dutton U.S. first edition online digital facsimile and as .mobi for Kindle.
It’s curious that we have only Sonia’s recollection of her husband’s interest in the work of George Gissing, particularly The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft. David Schultz told me that there is no reference to Gissing in the Joshi-Schultz electronic archive of Lovecraft’s correspondence. Lovecraft might have appreciated other works by Gissing, particularly By the Ionian Sea and Veranilda. He might have liked the depiction of slum life and of literary life in others of Gissing’s novels. I suspect that both the Providence Public Library and the New York Public Library had ample holdings of Gissing’s works, but which of them (if any) Lovecraft may have read, apart from Ryecroft, we really don’t know.
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