{"id":28886,"date":"2019-07-24T07:30:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T04:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tentaclii.wordpress.com\/?p=28886"},"modified":"2019-07-24T07:30:59","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T04:30:59","slug":"a-letter-from-marblehead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2019\/07\/24\/a-letter-from-marblehead\/","title":{"rendered":"A letter from Marblehead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lovecraft must surely have noted this letter from his beloved Marblehead<\/a> in Weird Tales<\/em> for August 1926.<\/p>\n

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The idea of the high lonely house which “overlooks the ocean”, and in which the inhabitant opens the pages to let in weird imaginings, rather resembles Lovecraft’s “The Strange High House in the Mist”. Which was written 9th November 1926.<\/p>\n

I can find nothing about a John Paul Ward in terms of his later activities. But it would be delicious to imagine that, perhaps one summer’s day in 1927, he might have had a knock at the door and found Mr. Lovecraft standing there proffering a personal copy of his new story (Weird Tales<\/em> having turned the tale down in July 1927).<\/p>\n

In 1931, recalling his vague ensemble of inspirations for the topography of the story, Lovecraft noted that “Marblehead has rocky cliffs — though of no great height — along the neck to the south of the ancient town.” (Selected Letters<\/em> II). The house of a “J.M. Ward” is marked on an 1884 Map of Marblehead, out on ‘the neck’ near the lighthouse, facing out to the wild sea and in exactly the right position to be the home of the writer of such a letter. Could J.M.’s son or grandson have been J.P. Ward who wrote to Weird Tales<\/em>, and perhaps inspired an H.P. Lovecraft story?<\/p>\n

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We know Lovecraft had been out on the Neck before summer 1927, since it is implied in a July 1927 letter to Moe about taking Wandrei there…<\/p>\n

“took the ferry across to the Neck, where Wandrei communed with his beloved and newly-discover’d sea from the rugged cliffs. You didn’t visit the Neck…” (letters to Moe, page 154).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lighthouse on the Neck, showing the scale of the sea-cliffs there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lovecraft must surely have noted this letter from his beloved Marblehead in Weird Tales for August 1926. The idea of …<\/p>\n

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