{"id":62226,"date":"2023-11-18T02:13:41","date_gmt":"2023-11-18T02:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/?p=62226"},"modified":"2023-12-25T11:30:29","modified_gmt":"2023-12-25T11:30:29","slug":"christmas-with-lovecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2023\/11\/18\/christmas-with-lovecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas with Lovecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

New at the HPLHS Store, the gift book Christmas with H.P. Lovecraft<\/a><\/em>. Sadly not a themed selection from the letters. Rather it… “primarily comprises Lovecraft\u2019s published and unpublished poems which deal with Christmas, winter, the solstice, and related themes.” Plus “The Festival”. A 48-page limited edition of 500 copies.<\/p>\n

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Here, however, is one of the ‘Christmas’ letters…<\/p>\n

[December 1934] “My aunt & I had an exceptionally pleasant Christmas, & I hope the same is true of yourself. We had a tree for the first time in over a quarter of a century. All our old-time tree ornaments were long ago dispersed; but I laid in a new & inexpensive stock at Woolworth’s & Kresge’s [1] — tinsel star & rope, globular baubles, set of lights, stand, & abundant shreds of tinsel to hang from the branches like the Spanish moss of the far south. The result was really delightful & impressive, & I’ve spent considerable time admiring & gloating. We had numerous though inexpensive presents — my best one from my aunt being a picture of the oldest house in Providence (the Stephen Hopkins house — 1742 only a block & a half from our door), drawn by a local artist & simply framed. We began the day most auspiciously by listening to the great British Empire broadcast — which I hope you did not miss. Etheric conversations between London & the uttermost reaches of our [Empire’s] Dominions — Australia, Tasmania, Canada, India, South Africa, & so on — with other area sages from Scotland, Ireland, Liverpool, & a country place in the Cotswolds … & finally an address by the King. I don’t know when I’ve ever had a greater imaginative stimulus. [2] After it was over I turned face down the dollar bill that was tied on top of one of my gifts …… I couldn’t bear to see the features of one who was instrumental in the cruel tearing of these colonies from the Empire in whose fabrick they rightly belong! <\/p>\n

Later in the day came a turkey feast at the boarding-house across the back garden (home of the late [cat] Sam Perkins), a general unveiling of gifts, & a session of conversation & contemplation by candlelight & tree-light. At the boarding-house Mrs. Spotty (little Sam Perkins’s mother) received a catnip mouse as a Christmas gift, & seemed very well pleased with that traditional feline delicacy. I couldn’t locate any of the members of the Kappa Alpha Tau [his local shed-top cat ‘club’] — the weather being inauspicious for sessions atop fence & clubhouse — but trust they all partook of ample Yuletide cheer. Well — unless something goes wrong, the New York convention season will open Monday morning — the last day of 1934. Barlow hit the metropolis Christmas Day, & is staying at a rather luxurious hotel in 102nd St. which Long found for him. His tastes in lodging are so sumptuous & sybaritical that he couldn’t get about the country as cheaply as I do!”<\/p>\n

[1] “Kresge’s”:<\/p>\n

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“S.S. KRESGE’s 10c STORE”, Westminster Street, Providence. Note what might be an “American Cheese” sign.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Typical Kresge’s interior, with tentacular balloons, 1948. Later became KMart.<\/em><\/p>\n

[2] The Empire broadcast:<\/p>\n

Live, the hour was an intricately coordinated triumph of radio engineering and clear evidence of the new medium\u2019s global reach. The British Empire then still ruled a quarter of the world\u2019s people, thus Lovecraft\u2019s fond cry of \u201cGod Save the King!\u201d was no vapid archaism.<\/p>\n

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New at the HPLHS Store, the gift book Christmas with H.P. Lovecraft. Sadly not a themed selection from the letters. …<\/p>\n

Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62226"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62663,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62226\/revisions\/62663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}