Inside the John Hay Library, Brown University.

Lovecraft writes to Morton in April 1933 of his new quarters, that it…

lies in a delightfully grassy, secluded, and and-whereish court off College Street on the crest of the antient hill behind the John Hay Library. It is owned by the college, and heated by steam piped from the library.

“and-whereish”, assuming it is not a mis-transcription for ‘any-whereish’, seems at first glance to indicate that the shared garden between his new house and the adjacent boarding house was the sort of nook that was difficult to find for the first time. Which it was, as one can see here…

But a little research suggests that Lovecraft may have been implying a land-locked ‘little kingdom’? What appears to be a story in The Virginia Reel (1925) records… “the land-locked kingdom of Whereish”, presumably a sort of Gulliverian land? However, I can find no other similar uses.

The Atlantic Monthly (1953) links it more nebulously with the idea of a house… “The notion of a house, as one single definite particular and unique place to come into, from the anywhereish and every-whereish world outside — that notion must strike you as fantastic. You have been brought up to believe that a house…”.