Online at HathiTrust, Bulletin of the Providence libraries, a monthly listing of new books, 1900-1901. Lovecraft then aged about 9½ to 10½, the Bulletin then sent to “each party holding a card in the Public Library”. So presumably the Lovecraft household had a copy via someone, if not Lovecraft himself. Perhaps his family preferred the more exclusive Athenaeum (the city’s private library), but it would have been a social faux pas not to also support the cause of the grand new Public Library through membership of it.
An interesting glimpse into the catalog available to the young Lovecraft. Here are some of the books on the ‘new books’ shelves at the Providence Public Library, in those years, and presumably also still there to be picked up in Lovecraft’s teenage years…
Egyptian Magic.
London Burial Grounds.
Babylonian Religion and Mythology.
Imagination in Dreams, and their study.
The Riddle of the Universe (Hackel).
It also appears to have had a good folklore section, with volumes on Danish, Irish, and other national folklores being added in a single year.
For a complete list of the journals and other periodicals taken in 1906, when the fifteen year old Lovecraft might have been expected to start taking an interest in the more specialised and tehcnical of them, see the 1906 Annual Report.
Picture: Providence Public Library, [March] 1900. Picture: Collection of Providence Public Library. Lovecraft then 9½ years old, the picture taken to document the newly opened new Children’s Library (details). One wonders at the similarity of a boy, third from the left, to the young Lovecraft.
Lovecraft, circa age eight. Hair, ear shape, slight chin-cleft, and general appearance all very similar.
HPL’s name appears at least in Appendix 13 “Acknowledgment of gifts, exchanges, etc.” of the 38th Annual Report for 1915 as a donator of “3 nos.” (p. 78) – one wonders of which “nos.”, perhaps of the United Amateur?
Furthermore, if you look at the “Step Ladder” (vol. 1[1920], no. 5[June], p. 75, as well as in vol. 3[1921], no. 3[August], p. 48, both also online at HathiTrust), you will find HPL being member no. 421 of the “Order of the Bookfellows” among many others’ names who appear among his acquaintances. I wonder if the membership list could have inspired him in some way: Among the members we find e.g. the name “Markham” in vol. 1(1920), no. 4(April), p. 57 as the name of member no. 329 – and a few months later (Dec.) in the very year HPL first mentions “Arkham”. Since we do not know for sure the origin of the name “Arkham”, to me it seems very possible that the name “Arkham” was – either consciously or unconsciously – inspired by his fellow member no. 329.
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On the photo: reading the 1900-02 Annual Reports for the Library, the note often struck is “shortage of funds”. It strikes me that putting Whipple Van Buren Phillips’s grandson front-and-centre, and in a photo very possibly one of those destined for the Paris World’s Fair of April 1900… that might just be construed as a calculated ploy for some extra funds from one of the biggest entrepreneurs in the city? 🙂
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