A new seven part Ken Burns documentary series on Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. Perhaps relevant to those seeking to understand the context for Lovecraft’s post-1935 turn away from “fascistic socialism”, toward broadly supporting FDR in the later New Deal period (albeit via his own idiosyncratic ‘aristocratic’ misunderstanding of the New Deal)…

“No monk in his cell was ever more withdrawn from the excitements and occupations of ordinary life than that beaked and bony dreamer, sitting in his aerie on “The Ancient Hill”. Yet such was the scope of his intellectual curiosity that he even developed an academic interest in government and a singularly romantic conception of the New Deal, gorgeously complicated with Utopian ideologies that would have astonished even Mr. Roosevelt. Who, in Lovecraft’s opinion, was about to produce an authentic Millennium out of his presidential hat. The embroideries contributed by Lovecraft included adequate provisions for indigent gentlemen and scholars, baronial largesse for the peasantry, liberal endowments for those desiring to practise the arts and sciences, a stiff educational test for voters, and the gradual substitution of an aristocracy of intellect for the present aristocracy of wealth.” (E.A. Edkins)

A very nicely designed and illustrated 1943 booklet, While Benefit street was young by Margaret Bingham Stillwell (1887-1984). A short but vivid first-hand childhood account of a street and area that Lovecraft knew well, around the turn of the century. Written by an academic who was, back then, a slightly older youth than Lovecraft was (circa age 14-ish, to his 11-ish?). Sadly there’s no Kindle or OCR version, but it can be freely read online at HathiTrust.

Encyclopedia Brunoniana states that the booklet was…

intended to defend the street of her childhood from a reputation of sordidness and disrepair suggested by David DeJong’s [David Cornel De Jong] novel, Benefit Street. … She continued her campaign with the publication in 1945 of The Pageant of Benefit Street [144 pages, sadly not online].

Lovecraft on the vexed question of Scottish independence, on which the Scots vote next week.

“North and South Britons” was published under the pen name “Alexander Ferguson Blair” in The Tryout, May 1919. Presumably his poem was written in response to the increasing likelihood of Irish independence following the end of the First World War, and a consequent fear that the Scots would also ask for independence.

North and South Britons

Man is so much with prejudice imbu’d,
That love and hate arise from latitude;
What else can cause such petty strife to breed
Along the Cheviots and flowing Tweed?
No sober sense could disagreement bring
‘Twixt Britons with one country and one King.
Beyond the seas, the Colonies are built
Alike by men of breeches and of kilt;
On fields of war, with blood of heroes dy’d,
Stand sturdy Scots and Saxons side by side:
In harmony the martial music comes
From Scottish bagpipes and from English drums;
Amid such scenes none stops to boast his birth
As being north or south of Solway Firth;
There Fife and Devon, Ayr and Dorset blend,
And all for one united land contend.
How strange that men, so brotherly abroad,
Cannot be brothers on their native sod!
Would that each Scot and Saxon might be free
From local feuds, and childish jealousy.
Who shall the one above the other place,
When both are mix’d in one imperial race?
Rule on, belov’d Britannia, rule the waves—
No Britons, North or South, shall e’er be slaves!

A Tree in the Wind (Scott Hansen) has been lucky enough to find a set of the Selected Letters. He kindly shares his luck by providing 64 pages of his favorite letters from the expensive Vol. 1.

Front page obituary for Henry S. Whitehead: 23rd November 1932, The Evening Independent, St. Petersberg, Florida.

I hadn’t heard before that he was a 32nd degree Mason (therefore, a Master Mason at the height of the Scottish rite), or that he only spent the winters in the Virgin Islands (on Santa Cruz).

Dr H.S. WHITEHEAD
DUNEDIN MINISTER
CLAIMED BY DEATH

FRIEND OF ROOSEVELT, IN LINE FOR VIRGIN ISLE POST, WAS NOTED WRITER, LECTURER

The Rev. Dr. Henry Sinclair Whitehead, 50, author, traveler, lecturer, and probable choice of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt for governor-general of the Virgin Islands, died this morning at 6 o’clock at his home in Dunedin where he had been living for the past three years.

Dr. Whitehead graduated from Harvard university in 1904 with President-elect Roosevelt and was his close friend.

Funeral services will be conducted at St. Peter’s Episcopal church this city, Friday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock, In charge of the Rt. Rev. John D. Wing, D. D., Bishop of South Florida, assisted by Chaplain E. A. Edwards, rector of the church, and other clergy of the diocese. Temporary Interment will be made in a receiving vault at the Royal Palm cemetery. Arrangements are in charge of the John S. Rhodes Funeral home.

Dr. Whitehead was well known in this city, having supplied at St. Peter’s Episcopal church here for the past two summers. He is survived by his father, Henry H. Whitehead, 836 27th avenue north.

Dr. Whitehead came to Dunedin from New York City where he was curate of St. Mary’s church, Virgin of New York, for three years. He was also curate of the Church of Advent, Boston. Mass., for three years. In Dunedin be was priest in charge of the Church of Good Shepard.

Dr. Whitehead was born in Elizabeth, N.J., the son of Henry H. Whitehead and Mary McMullen Whitehead, the latter now dead.

Dr. Whitehead also graduated from the Berkley Divinity school of Littletown, Conn., and at one time was rector of the Trinity church of Bridgeport, Conn.

He spent nine winters in the Virgin Islands as acting archdeacon and became familiar with Island customs. Dr. Whitehead wrote short stories, occult fiction, boys’ stories, and several novels, many of them about the West Indies. One of his weird stories, entitled “The Passing of the God” won wide fame in London, England was lauded in a collection of the best weird stories of the world. He also achieved the selected list of the O. Henry Memorial award.

Dr. Whitehead was a member of the American Geographical society of Washington. D.C. and the Author’s Guild of America. He was a 32nd degree Mason and a member of the Harvard club. He was nationally known as a lecturer and writer.

He was an authority on boys’ camps and contributed to the Living Church of the Anglican Communion and the Commonweal of the Roman church.

Although Dr. Whitehead made his living as an author he was well known as an Episcopalian priest and a strong Anglo-Catholic.

His father and friends left this afternoon for Dunedin, accompanied by Chaplain Evan L Edwards, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal church here.

Here’s a picture of Lovecraft’s sometime editor, ol’ Farnsworth Wright of Weird Tales. He was probably a few years into Parkinson’s Disease at that point. Scan via Leigh Blackmore, who has kindly just overhauled Farnsworth Wright‘s formerly weak Wikipedia page.

Love the idea that there was once an era when a tailored suit could be worn with a flat cap, without people pointing and staring. Bring it back 🙂