The Miskatonic Debating Club & Literary Society on Lovecraft vs. “Sax Rohmer”, making the case that Sax Rohmer borrowed from Lovecraft, or at least used the same old travel-guide that Lovecraft had used for “Under the Pyramids”.

Another panorama from Lovecraft’s city, as it was in his youth… and we’re all aware of how he loved his sweeping vistas. One wonders if this was an actual view from a tower, perhaps a view known to Lovecraft, or if a hot-air balloon was involved.

A rather dour picture in b&w, and I’ve done my best to subtly colorise it.

Update: If you want to load up Photoshop, I’ve found a coloured version with better colour…

The Johnston Sunrise local newspaper has a strong new “History Notes” article by Mike Carroll, “H.P. Lovecraft – Footsteps in Johnston”. Good local knowledge and extended use of the letters, re: Lovecraft’s visits to “Thornton and Neutaconkanut Hill”, aka “western Johnston”.

The article should be accessible outside the USA (many U.S. local newspapers block all visits from outsiders), but if not then the article is also saved to Archive.org.

In the fall of 1921 he and his aunt Annie headed west from College Hill toward “that remarkable eminence known as Neutaconhaut Hill” (the spelling is H.P.’s). From there he … took note of an observatory built in the Gothic manner that crowned the hill but was in a state of disrepair. This would have been the King Observation Tower built around 1900 by Abbie King [Abbie A. King] as a memorial to her family which was one of the oldest in that section of town. The tower was used by sight-seers before vandals severely defaced the structure. Eventually it burned down. Perhaps it was the same “incipient gangsters” that had handed Lovecraft their math papers [at school].

Neutaconhaut is the spelling in the Letters for what it today called Neutaconkanut, on which the Rhode Island Collections noted… “for Neutaconkanut, Dr Douglas-Lithgow gives sixty spellings”.

The tower is interesting. The Providence Journal called the Neutaconkanut tower an “enduring structure”, and in 1915 said it had been completed “several years ago” by Abbie A. King. But I can find no picture of it in public material. It might suggest an alternative topographical inspiration for the ‘Tower’ fragment, had Lovecraft later revisited it in the 1930s to find it partly blocked up and vandalised. Lovecraft’s removal of it from a hill to the depths of a ravine is no obstacle, since Lovecraft and his circle were adept at that sort of simple inversion for the purposes of storytelling…

“The Round Tower” (extended story-idea fragment by H.P. Lovecraft, unknown date):

“S. of Arkham is cylindrical tower of stone with conical roof — perhaps 12 feet across & 20 ft. high. There has been a great arched opening ( up?), but it is sealed with masonry. The thing rises from the bottom of a densely wooded ravine once the bed of an extinct tributary of the Miskatonic. Whole region feared & shunned by rustics. Tales of fate of persons climbing into tower before opening was sealed. Indian legends speak of it as existing as long as they could remember — supposed to be older than mankind. Legend that it was built by Old Ones (shapeless & gigantic amphibia) & that it was once under the water. Dressed stone masonry shews odd & unknown technique. Geometrical designs on large stone above sealed opening utterly baffling. Supposed to house a treasure or something which Old Ones value highly. Possibly nothing of interest to human beings. Rumours that it connects with hidden caverns where water still exists. Perhaps old ones still alive. Base seems to extend indefinitely downward — ground level having somewhat risen. Has not been seen for ages, since everyone shuns the ravine.”