Above: (top) possibly late 1940s judging by the style and use of colour; (bottom) an ‘instant communication’ postcard on 1909, presumably of use to those with very poor handwriting.

Lovecraft once wrote…

Prof. Kittredge of Harvard has written a book of old New England lore based on the Farmer’s Almanack — its contents and history. I have this volume — you really ought to read it! It’s as much a part of a New England education as Friend’s Beans!” — Lovecraft letter to Morton, October 1927.

Beans were a local Boston speciality and were of course a favourite and staple of Lovecraft’s frugal diet…

Fortunately I have reduced the matter of frugal eating to a science, so that I can get by on as little as $1.75 per week by purchasing beans or spaghetti in cans and cookies or crackers in packages.

Although when living alone in New York City it seems he was forced to Heinz beans…

… you take a medium-sized loaf of bread, cut it in four equal parts, & add to each of these 1/4 can (medium) Heinz beans & a goodly chunk of cheese. If the result isn’t a full-sized, healthy day’s quota of fodder for an Old Gentleman, I’ll resign from the League of Nations’ dietary committee!! It only costs 8 cents — but don’t let that prejudice you! It’s good sound food…

One hopes the results were then simmered in a pan or placed in an oven, but I have a feeling that for Lovecraft it was often a cold dish. Especially during the killer heatwave summers New York had at that time.

The choice of Heinz was perhaps because they were cheaper (we tend to forget how expensive food was compared to the cheap abundance of today). Or that Friends’ was not a brand popular in New York City and thus unobtainable there. Many food and restaurant brands were regional rather than national, at that time. Made in Boston, the brand had historical roots which would have appealed to Lovecraft’s regional rootedness…

Note also here the canned bread, presumably canned in much the same way as pemmican.

Incidentally, the book mentioned above by Lovecraft was The old farmer and his almanack. Lovecraft had acquired the 1904 original, not the 1920 edition linked above. The Hartmann letters on astrology show that Lovecraft had had The old farmer and his almanack since shortly after its publication in 1904. Judging by the contents list, one wonders if it occasionally served as an inspiration-mine for Lovecraft…

George Lyman Kittredge (1860-1941) was an expert on aspects of English literary history (Gawain, Shakespeare and others), who later became learned on aspects of the publications of Cotton Mather and the history of New England Witchcraft belief. Kittredge was the sort of person who Lovecraft might have ventured to address by letter on some point of fact, but I’m not aware of him being a Lovecraft correspondent.