W. Wiles, “The Corner of Lovecraft and Ballard”, Places, June 2017.

“H.P. Lovecraft and J.G. Ballard both put architecture at the heart of their fiction, and both made the humble corner into a place of nightmares.”

A good long article, in a landscape and urbanism journal. Though the author doesn’t know about a possible ‘root’ for this in Lovecraft’s life, to be found in his mother’s apparent belief in and fear of… “creatures that rushed out from behind buildings and from corners at dark” as her madness deepened. The quote was from Clara Hess, a neighbour of his mother…

“I remember Mrs. Lovecraft spoke to me about weird and fantastic creatures that rushed out from behind buildings and from corners at dark, and that she shivered and looked about apprehensively…” — Memories of Clara L. Hess, given in De Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography.

This sources to: Clara L. Hess, letter to The Providence Journal newspaper, 19th September 1948, later reprinted by Derleth (with some additions gleaned from an interview with her, including the “corners” item) in the book Something about Cats and other Pieces, Arkham House, 1949, under the title “Addenda to H.P.L.”

If you’re interested in this topic, you may also be interested in two hours of the Lovecraft philosopher Graham Harman, speaking at the Secret Life of Buildings Symposium: 21st October 2016.