I’ve finished reading the Cole letters, which front the new expanded volume of Lovecraft-Galpin letters. Here are some notes.<\/p>\n
Galpin wrote a detective novel, now presumably lost (p. 19).<\/p>\n
By the mid 1930s Lovecraft had access to the latest Encyclopedia Britannica<\/em> at the Public Library (p. 34) and slightly later purchased a Modern Encyclopedia<\/em> (p. 110) that brought him right up-to-date with entries that had… “all the dope on neutrons, Nazis and the N.R.A.”.<\/p>\n The cut-price Newport passenger \/ cattle-boat boat was the Sagamore<\/em> (p. 62). No postcards are to be immediately found.<\/p>\n He describes the layout of No. 66 (p. 65).<\/p>\n The origin of his “andwhere” phrase is given (p. 67).<\/p>\n He bemoans the “new synthetick highway” from Providence-Boston, this presumably being some sort of early motorway inter-state road which the express passenger coaches soon used. (pp. 82, 132). This was fast, but very dull in terms of scenery and architecture. Lovecraft then discovered an old-school bus-line that was still taking the ‘through the towns’ route, and booked a ticket for Boston. Later he had Loveman bring him back from Boston by the old route.<\/p>\n Various friends and acquaintances were being injured or killed by the new fast cars. Munn’s father was killed, for instance (p. 87).<\/p>\n Cook was writing a werewolf novel, presumably either left unfinished or lost (p. 105).<\/p>\n Lovecraft reveals his talent for purring like a cat, loudly and well. He teaches several kittens to purr in this way (p. 122 and elsewhere).<\/p>\n The Red Rooster and New Times<\/em> (Babcock) for May 1935 had two 1920s photos of Lovecraft and “numerous photos of other amateurs” (p. 127 and footnote). This doesn’t appear to be online.<\/p>\n Mrs Miniter very early depicted ‘Lovecraft as character’. Of her “novelette of 1923” titled The Village Green<\/em>, Lovecraft stated “I am recognisably depicted!” (p. 143). In fact that was her second try. Her short “Falco Ossifracus” (1921) was a Lovecraft parody by her, published in her journal The Muffin Man<\/em> and in which Lovecraft was the supposed first-person narrator of a “Statement of Randolph Carter”-like tale. So she beat Belknap Long to it by a decade. Lovecraft noted Long was writing a novel of the Kalems in 1931 (Letters to Wandrei, page 265) but it never appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve finished reading the Cole letters, which front the new expanded volume of Lovecraft-Galpin letters. Here are some notes. Galpin …<\/p>\n