Providence R.I., outward bound, 1906.
“Into this bay of [Providence] used to come the shipping of all the world, and about a century ago it was a veritable forest of masts. The great storm of 1815 caused the bay to overflow and inundate the whole waterfront. Full-rigged ships were cast up on Market Square, and one schooner was driven some distance up Westminster Street — past the corner known as Turk’s Head. Never hath so great a storm lash’d the shore since. The shipping has sadly fallen off during the last fifty or sixty years, but the bay is still beautiful — as it will always be in spite of decadence and Bolshevism [i.e.: the revolutionary socialism of 1919].” — Lovecraft, letter to Galpin, 30th September 1919.
“Providence, of the old brick sidewalks and the Georgian spires and the curving lanes of the hill, and the salt winds from over mouldering wharves where strange-cargoed ships of eld have swung at anchor.” — Lovecraft, “Observations on Several Parts of America”, 1928.
“Providence, whaling ships, streets and roads that climb uphill and end against the sky, long s’s [in 18th century books], narrow winding streets with old bookshops near a waterfront amidst which one cannot be sure where one is, dark rivers with many bridges…” — Lovecraft, letter to Morton, January 1931.
“The effect of night, of any flowing water, of the peep of day, of ships, of the open ocean, calls up in the mind an army of anonymous desires and pleasures. Something, we feel, should happen; we know not what, yet we proceed in quest of it.” — R. L. Stevenson, noted by Lovecraft as entry No. 222 in his Commonplace Book of story ideas. He had found it quoted in John Buchan’s The Runagates Club (1928). It was to be his last entry in his Commonplace Book.
