L. Sprague deCamp’s Lovecraft: A Biography has it that… “A caller once found Lovecraft’s bathtub full of empty candy boxes.” I recall seeing this elsewhere too. Can anyone direct me to a more precise reference and source, please?
Lovecraft’s bathtub mystery
17 Thursday Feb 2022
Posted in Odd scratchings
I am having some Internet difficulties at the moment, so I am not sure if the last comment went through. The source for the bathtub candy story is Muriel E. Eddy. She said that she received a “bathtub full” of empty chocolate boxes from Lovecraft’s aunts in 1924. Eddy first discussed this in the letter’s column of Startling Stories in March 1949. It can be viewed here:
https://archive.org/details/Startling_Stories_v19n01_1949-03/page/n151/mode/2up
Three years ago, you speculated on the possible reasons for Lovecraft’s apparent collection of chocolate boxes:
http://www.jurn.org/tentaclii/2019/09/26/more-unknown-memoirs-of-lovecraft/
Thanks, what I’m trying to get is the original mention, not by Eddy but from one of the others who recalled Lovecraft. It’s not in the Brobst memoir (Lovecraft Remembered, listed in “Fans” as Will Murray (interviewer), but I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere.
de Camp is a master at fudging up his references. Go to the page with the bathtub story. look for the next note reference following it. It may be right after the sentence, after the next sentence, or further down the page. Now look up the note. There will be more than one source listed in the note. Do not let the order of the sources in the note fool you. Look up ALL the sources.