I’m very pleased that the legendary Lovecraft researcher Randy Everts has chosen Tentaclii to help publish an important new essay on Lovecraft in Providence. His essay reveals, for the first time, one of Lovecraft’s previously unknown local friends — Chester Alywn Mowry (1898-1945).
With his permission I have slightly tweaked the essay, formatted it with my usual book style, and added my footnotes plus a few extra pictures. My thanks to Randy for this great opportunity.
“Yeh—keep it up [meaning, the use of new American slang and twang], & you’ll have even Mowry rolling his rrr … ’s in mid-western style yet!” (Letter from Lovecraft to James F. Morton of January 1928).
Download: Randy Everts, “Unknown Friends of H. P. Lovecraft: No.1, Chester Alwyn Mowry”. (PDF, formatted for 6″ x 9″ print, 8,000 words inc. footnotes).
A very interesting article, particularly since I am an astronomy enthusiast myself who grew up in northeastern Connecticut, not far from Rhode Island. I might, however, suggest that the excerpt from Lovecraft’s letter to Morton does not necessarily imply that Mowry’s speech was very formal and non-American. The general speech in eastern New England, perhaps especially in earlier years, is known for its treatment of the letter r and its non-rhotic character. I still cannot roll my r’s. The eastern New England pronunciation of r was by no means limited to educated or formal speech – although it does appear that Mowry was an educated man, either formally or through his own efforts. I have never thought of this manner of speaking as non-American, although the origin of the accent can be traced back to early English immigrants.
It also wouldn’t surprise me if the meetings of “The Skyscrapers” were open to the public, rather than just to members. Then and now such open meetings are a good way to attract new members. A search for meeting announcements in Providence newspapers of the time might settle that point.
Thanks for the additional information Horace.
1) If, as you say, Lovecraft was then alluding to Mowry’s inability to rolls his r’s in his speech, then that fact would still help to place him as someone from New England – just by a different route than the one I was able to suggest.
2) And yes, it would be interesting to see if “The Skyscrapers” advertised their meetings in Popular Astronomy or suchlike, although (given Lovecraft’s comments on the sudden discovery of how out-of-date his knowledge was) he may well have given that journal up by the late 1920s if not earlier. It would certainly also be interesting to see if “The Skyscrapers” advertised that particular meeting in the local press, or not. It seems it was a monthly meeting, judging from the historical listing on their website.
Many thanks for publishing this essay on the blog!