20 Tuesday Dec 2022
Posted in Scholarly works
60,000 items from 1927 pop open at Hathi in the New Year. Including the 1927 Rhode Island Historical Society collections, the 1927 issues of Books for all (quarterly bulletin of the Providence Public Library, aka ‘what Lovecraft had access to after he came back from New York’), and the year’s Providence magazine (Board of Trade journal, often with good pictures of local places).
19 Monday Dec 2022
Posted in Scholarly works
A new open-access issue of Journal of Gods and Monsters, including “Prosthetic Gods, Projected Monsters: Technology, Insanity, and Imagining the Human Subject in H.P. Lovecraft and Georges Bataille”.
18 Sunday Dec 2022
Posted in Odd scratchings
Colonial Newport, as Lovecraft would have known it. Pencil sketches by Vernon Howe Bailey.
17 Saturday Dec 2022
Posted in Scholarly works
Call: Entre science et magie : les savoirs dans les cultures de l’imaginaire. Trans: ‘Between Science and Magic: knowledge in the cultures of the imagination’. Deadline: 13th January 2023. May require that papers be in French.
17 Saturday Dec 2022
Posted in Maps
The Newport Map project, historic maps for one of Lovecraft’s favourite places.
Incidentally, just to save someone time in future, apparently Newport’s Fort Dumplings — at first sight a very likely Lovecraft haunt — was demolished by 1907.
16 Friday Dec 2022
Posted in Picture postals
This week on ‘Picture Postals from Lovecraft’, another hazy New York City skyline from the 1930s. In this case an early spring 1933 view from Hotel Bossert, by Samuel H. Gottscho. The original negative scan is at the Library of Congress. I’ve here flipped it so the view is correct, cleaned some gunge and colourised.
This is similar to the first view of New York City ‘lit up at evening’ which Lovecraft had from 110 Columbia Heights, near the Brooklyn Bridge. Hotel Bossert was just a short way south of that location. It shows more or less the same view as Lovecraft saw, albeit a little south, not lit up in the evening twilight, and a decade or so later (perhaps a new skyscraper or two).
On the views and relevant addresses see my earlier post on the view from Columbia Heights. I’m still hoping to find a similar ‘early evening + lights coming up’ view from the 1920s or 30s.
15 Thursday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, New books
The sumptuous fine letterpress production Dark Dreamlands III, announced early in 2021, is now available. You can also currently pick up all three beautifully illustrated and typeset books in a discounted bundle. Might make someone a nice Christmas present?
14 Wednesday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
New on Archive.org to borrow, poet Brett Rutherford’s Night Gaunts : an entertainment based on the life and writings of H.P. Lovecraft, with additional poetica Lovecraftiana.
I see it can also be officially had free on the Poet Press website in HTML.
I further see that his Tales of Terror: The Supernatural Poem Since 1800 – Supplement 1, appeared in 2021 and is available on Amazon UK. Currently Amazon UK’s useless search only finds Volume 1 for a title-search for “The Supernatural Poem Since 1800”, but Volume 2 on is also available there. Click on the author’s name-link.
13 Tuesday Dec 2022
Posted in Kittee Tuesday, Scholarly works
S.T. Joshi goes back to school in his latest blog post. News also of a travel book Creepy Cat’s Macabre Travels which has a chapter giving the author’s take on the modern-day city of Providence, Joshi’s musings on Algernon Blackwood as a probable appreciator of felines, and some updates on the forthcoming volumes of Lovecraft letters.
12 Monday Dec 2022
Posted in Historical context, Maps, Scholarly works
A map of early Providence by Richard F. Barlett, from Arthur E. Wilson’s popular history of early Providence Weybosset Bridge (1947). The combination of cover view and map allow one to orient oneself in similar pictures that look down on the very early bridge in Providence. Such as the 1762 one Lovecraft was enamoured enough to ask for a copy of, when he visit the private Shepley Library and Museum in Providence. Such views lack almost all modern landmarks and so are difficult to place. There are starred numbers on this particular map, and the key is found in small lettering on the ornate title plaque.
11 Sunday Dec 2022
Posted in Odd scratchings
Oh well, that didn’t last very long…
A bizarre and abrupt ruling, and difficult to fathom. So far as I know I’ve only ever had this one Twitter account and have never been suspended. Hardly used it after set up, let it go dormant for years, then started using it again when Elon took over. I guess some AI flagged that ‘re-activation’ as suspicious? Or perhaps there really was a ‘Harry Magic’, who got banned once decades ago? Oh well, ‘easy come, easy go’. I’ll be taking my talents to LinkedIn instead.
11 Sunday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
“The surf at Watch Hill, Rhode Island”, Providence. Possibly Watch Hill Beach, Westerly.
Cleaned a bit and with text label removed for added existential appeal. Probably the best vintage Rhode Island surf picture I’ve seen, in many years of perusing the cards. It’s now of an age to be public domain, please use it how you like.