As we head toward the anniversary of “Dagon” (The Vagrant Nov 1919, first appearance of “Dagon”) it strikes me that there’s an imminent opportunity for starting a new diary blog, possibly to be named The Compleat Diary and Almanak of Mr. H. P. Lovecraft, Gent.
In which one blog post per day would briefly summarise Lovecraft’s doings (and thoughts or dreams) on that particular day in history. Or simply note the location at which he resided, or what the weather of the day was, if he was otherwise unknown at that point in time. The Diary might be written in the fairly brief and straightforward ‘dashed note’ manner of his 1925 Diary, with additional placenames and personal names.
Such a blog would take some 17-18 years to complete, if run at one post per day. But, if done correctly and diligently each day, it would soon become a very fine achievement.
It might be reduced to a 10-12 year project if there were two posts per day, staggered by a decade, e.g.:
1st November 1919
1st November 1929
I’m not sure such a Diary could be made to progress more quickly that that, due to the levels of research involved on some posts. Some days in New York would be very complex, others very easy. Though even determining the exact weather and night-sky at a particular spot on a particular day can be quite a challenge, more so if one also looks beyond the simple meteorological tables. Such things become even more difficult after the mid 1920s, due to the copyright lock-down. The authors of the blog would need to be solid Lovecraftians, and have access to all the letters published to date, and vast amounts of the scholarship.
The staff roster would probably need to be:
* Chaser of weather, stars, migrations, moon and tides.
* Collator of news events that Lovecraft may have noted.
* Letter archivist and search wizard.
* Letter reader and highlighter.
* General Admin Assistant (who chases and feeds the above through to…)
* The blog post summary-writer (who also notes sources, via footnotes).
* Proofreader and hyper-linker of names/places in the resulting blog post.
* Perhaps a quick-fire pen-&-ink sketch artist and sketch-mapper.
* The Project Producer, a heavyweight scholarly oversight and backstop.
* Editor of the 1890-1919 weekly/monthly summary, something on which someone might work alone.
Initially there might be a role for a graphic designer, perhaps working to evoke something of the feel of the old Almanacs which Lovecraft collected and enjoyed. Photos would probably be best left out, to be added judiciously in a final print edition, since really good picture research would be a very tough task on a daily basis.
