Currently up for sale at Abebooks, a lesser Lovecraft postcard. Judging by the 10.30pm postmark, it was likely written on the evening of 17th November 1931, and then posted with others after a night stroll. Assuming he was at home at Barnes Street, this raises the interesting question of exactly where the nearest pick-up mailbox (with a late 10.30pm collection) was and how far he would have to walk from his home?
On the card “HPL” writes a brief note…
He congratulates Coates on the recent edition of Driftwind, and the frontispiece of the frequent little magazine which shows what sounds like a view of Montpelier, Vermont. Lovecraft seems to imply rapid change may be happening there and that the picture may have changed? This is not the view in question, if wide view it was, but it is perhaps indicative…
Lovecraft was at that moment very interested in how small isolated towns might change and perhaps for the worse. On his desk lay the pages that would become the famous story “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, set to be complete two weeks later on about 1st/2nd December 1931. This concern fitted well with the mood of the times, as the third winter of the Great Depression began to grip the nation.
On the card Lovecraft then supposes that Paul Cook, fellow amateur and leading collector of weird books, will be visiting Coates at Thanksgiving 1931. Thus implying that Lovecraft has not had any letter recently from either to confirm this point. Lovecraft alludes to his own usual winter hermitage with the final line… “If it were mid-July I’d surely [join?, enjoy?] him!” and thus assumes that Coates is well aware of his aversion to cold… and to a Vermont winter in particular.
The front of the card is not show or described at Abe. But it was published by the Berger Bros. of Providence, suggesting a view of Providence. Indeed it was… a quick search found the front on the seller’s own store as a good scan, and it shows the new Industrial Trust Building at night.
The November issue of Driftwind was 44 pages including a “Check List of Publications of Driftwind Press”, including H.P. Lovecraft’s The Materialist Today, later to become one of the rarest of Lovecraft’s publications. Issues of Driftwind earlier in the year had been the first to publish sonnets from the Fungi From Yuggoth cycle, and more would follow.
Lovecraft has written “If it were mid-July I’d surely envy him!” I have proofed a couple of thousand pages of Lovecraft’s letters, comparing the to-be-printed text against the original letters, so I have learned to recognise some of the quirks of his handwriting.
Ah, so it was “envy”. Yes, I thought it was slightly forward of Lovecraft, to assume open hospitality for himself at the Coates mansion.
Hello David! Had to write this here, since the comment section for the corresponding entry is closed 🙂 Just a quick note, my book “Ideology and scientific thought in H.P. Lovecraft” (https://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2020/11/19/new-book-ideology-and-scientific-thought-in-h-p-lovecraft/) is written in English.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Juan, I’ve updated the post accordingly.