Well, well, dipping at random into the new Letters to Family books of Lovecraft’s letters, as yet unread by me in a proper manner…

1) I find one H.P. Lovecraft, then editor of The Conservative, sitting down to a chicken dinner with the radical Sunrise Club in New York City in 1922. He had been invited along as a guest by Morton. The meeting was on ‘pro and anti-censorship’. Lovecraft found the speakers risible, shallow and presenting no real logical arguments, except for a crude fellow called “Rinn” (interrupting though not a speaker, seemingly)* and a far more rigorous and longer contribution from Morton. This suggests that — even in his older years — Morton may have had more influence, intellectually and via his public speaking, than might be assumed from a perusal of his earlier pamphlets. I’ve updated the post slightly.

2) Also in Letters to Family, the fact that Lovecraft extensively covered the Brooklyn Museum for a second time in 1922, doing it thoroughly than before. Thus he must have seen the giant octopus (seen recent posts) in the Invertebrates Hall at that time. Again, I’ve updated the post slightly.

* – Joseph Francis Rinn (1868-1952), American magician most active in the early decades of the 20th century, author of Sixty Years of Psychical Research.