A suitably seasonal ‘picture postals from Lovecraft’ post this week. Lovecraft moved into his under-heated “dismal hovel” of a room at 169 Clinton Street on the edge of Red Hook, on the 31st December (he was then “half moved”) – 1st January 1925 (“moved final load”). In that he was lucky, for if only a little later he would have run smack into the first of the “Worst Snowstorms In New York History”, beginning with two days of “howling gusts” though the city’s canyons on 2rd-3rd…
“New York City was the unwelcome recipient of 27.4 inches of snow [in the month], the most ever recorded for any January up to that time. … A relentless snowstorm that lasted two days occurred from January 2rd-3rd [and landed 12 inches on the city]. On January 12th the city required 12,000 shovelmen to tackle another snowstorm that clogged the streets. January 20th New York City was hit with two blizzards in one day. January 27th more snow fell and then the coup de grace; the giant storm on January 30th that affected the metropolitan area.
Lovecraft’s letter home, his first in January, seems all but oblivious to this. Though his 1925 Diary laconically has “snowstorm” on the 2nd. But possibly he did not wish to alarm his aunts. Also, he was well used to the severe New England winters of the time, and knew how to wrap up if he had to go out. On the 3rd he was out meeting Kirk and the gang at a cafeteria.
Atlantic Avenue, a few blocks east along from the Atlantic Avenue – Clinton St. intersection where his favoured grocery was. But nevertheless the picture evokes Lovecraft venturing out to “send express package” which he did first thing on 5th January.
After all, despite the duration and windiness of the great storm, its 12 inches of snow was a trifle by the weather standards of the period. And it would have been drifted and banked heavily by the extreme winds.
More curious is the 12th January, re: the above “On January 12th the city required 12,000 shovelmen to tackle another snowstorm that clogged the streets”. Lovecraft’s letters mention this date and “to Loveman’s over the icy pavement”, and his Diary has himself “visit[ing] SL [Loveman] in ice storm” and then… he goes strolling over the frozen Brooklyn Bridge with Kirk!
After leaving SL at his airy domicile, and starting on a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge & up through Chinatown, Kirk and I decided to surprise Loveman with a birthday gift…
Not impossible I guess, if thousands of “shovelmen” had been at work at clearing it since 5am, the pedestrian walkways had been gritted, and the storm had just passed leaving a sparkling day and few people to crowd the bridge and obstruct strolling. According to the Diary he reaches and “walk[s] Chinatown” with Kirk. Not bad, for a cold-averse old gent!
Brooklyn Bridge in snow, by Max Kuehne.
And finally here is a picture by Lena Gurr of Brooklyn, possibly made in the 1920s (she was was roughly the same age as Lovecraft), evoking the more salubrious snowy side-streets of Brooklyn once they were made walkable again…
Again, the picture evokes Lovecraft, this time with one of ‘the gang’.
