Hi,

I'm auctioning an original letter from H.P. Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith,
together with the original envelope addressed by HPL to Smith, both housed in a
custom-made case by Roy Squires. This is a three-day auction, ending on
November 19th:

[tinyurl.com]

Thanks,
Mike

Sold!
US $2,425.00
6 bids (US $1,200.00 starting bid)

Wish I had that sort of spare cash.

B.

I haven't brought this up before, but how do people feel about private ownership of letters and the like, by people like CAS? I feel that they deserve to be preserved for the public, for posterity, and thus deserve to be held by public institutions, for use by future researchers. Thus, the climate of buying and selling only fosters a mentality that all literary products and documents are just commodities, things to buy, beg, borrow, or steal, in order to then turn around and sell for a profit, deserved or not.

This sort of mentality led to the theft, years ago, of the sole Gothic text, because it was seen as valuable in terms of dosh only, not valuable as in a cultural artifact.

And the end result is that I sorrow, and grieve for our future citizens, deprived of the knowledge that could be gained and cherished, preserved and passed on, as is our duty.

My interest in such pieces are the words and not the format. As long as a some version exits in paper or electronic media I'm happy for those will more wallet than sense to trade them.

Quote:

"literary products and documents are just commodities"

It is sad but this applies to everything theses days a thought which allows me to segue in to the fact that today is:

BUY NOTHING DAY

November 26 2004 or the 27th in the uk

[www.adbusters.org]
[www.buynothingday.co.uk]

unfortunately I had my three monthly hosting bill so I did buy something.

P.S thanks to all 3 votes the competition has received.

I wonder who the other two voters were?

It is an unfortunate fact, but public depositories such as the Bancroft Library and John Hay Library of Brown University often take up the collection of a particular writer's papers only long after the way has been shown by private collectors. Without people like Roy Squires and the late Jack Grill, much would have been lost. Having said that, there is a particular class of collector for whom I have nothing but scorn. This is the troll who refuses to make his treasures available to other interested parties. Luckily I have not run into too many of these.
Best,
Scott

Scott Connors Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It is an unfortunate fact, but public depositories
> such as the Bancroft Library and John Hay Library
> of Brown University often take up the collection
> of a particular writer's papers only long after
> the way has been shown by private collectors.
> Without people like Roy Squires and the late Jack
> Grill, much would have been lost. Having said
> that, there is a particular class of collector for
> whom I have nothing but scorn. This is the troll
> who refuses to make his treasures available to
> other interested parties. Luckily I have not run
> into too many of these.
> Best,
> Scott


Me neither. Although I do think the courtesy of some HPL "scholars" has something to be desired. For example, I was asked by one such to provide a transcript of the letter I was auctioning on eBay. Since the letter was no longer mine, I suggested that this individual contact the new owner directly. (Plus, I had provided a transcript when the letter was mine, both on this board and on the eBay auction page.) However, I own another HPL letter, a 6 page missive to Frank Belknap Long. I spent several hours typing this up for this individual and sent it to him. Never heard a word back. If people on the C.A. Smith board are interested in the transcription, I'd be happy to post it here, as most "Weird Tales" fans are quite nice, as are most HPL scholars. Not even a few trolls can ruin the bunch.

Best,
Mike

Mike,

I, for one, would be delighted to see your transcript, even if only to see what is mentioned in the letter. I just hope he mentions something about poetry in there...:D....

What if there was an organisation or association dedicated to ensuring that copies and transcripts of material like letters and the like were made available to interested institutions, and which encouraged others to donate such materials ... would you be interested in joining?

voleboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mike,
>
> I, for one, would be delighted to see your
> transcript, even if only to see what is mentioned
> in the letter. I just hope he mentions something
> about poetry in there...:D....
>
> What if there was an organisation or association
> dedicated to ensuring that copies and transcripts
> of material like letters and the like were made
> available to interested institutions, and which
> encouraged others to donate such materials ...
> would you be interested in joining?

Hi,

Here's the letter (minus the drawing by HPL of Poe; I'll try to take a digital image of that). As to remarks on poetry -- quite a bit on Longfellow! (Did you know that two of HPL's poems were included in the Library of America's _American Poetry_ volume? I guess that was a warmup for the forthcoming LoA edition of his collected tales, to be edited by Peter Straub.) Since I own the letter, which is 80% unpublished, I assume it's ok to post it here for the purposes of scholarship, but if I am violating any copyright restrictions I hope someone better versed than me will let me know.

I'd be happy to contribute to an organisation like the one you suggest. The HPL "scholar" who contacted me wanted a photocopy of one letter for an electronic archive of all of HPL's unpublished correspondence, which sounds like a terrific project. I took the time to transcribe the letter below for this project, but whether it will be included is anyone's guess, since he never acknowledged receipt. No good deed goes unpunished, as so many HPL protagonists find to their peril...

Best,
Mike
___________________________________________________

598 Angell St.,
Providence, R.I.,
July 17, 1921

My dear Mr. Long: --

My postcard from the Boston convention probably apprised you of the delight I experienced at receiving your recent letter & story -- a delight which caused me to break every law of courtesy by disregarding your 'please return' notice & pouncing upon "The Eye Above the Mantel" for the next _United Amateur_. I can say without flattery that this tale is the best amateur story I have seen for generations -- to equal it, one has to go back to 1889, when Ernest A. Edkins (the literary giant of his day) published "Phantasms" in _The Brilliant_. It stamps you as a genuine artist -- the thing is perfect of its kind, & certainly surpasses my own clumsy flights of fancy. The atmosphere, language, repetitions, nomenclature, &c. all show that you have not studied Poe & Dunsany in vain; & I believe you will receive a flood of praise when the tale appears in print -- as it should very soon now. I have changed practically nothing -- only one or two constructions & artificial names in the interest of euphony & precedent. The names, by the way, are in general infinitely clever. You have joined Dunsany as a Theogonist & inventor of a new world! What amazes me is the advance you show over the "Box of Horror" stage. That was perceptibly youthful work in places -- this is something for which no concessions or apologies are needed! Surely 'calculating objectivity' works with you! I hope I do not sound fulsome -- I do not mean to be -- but in all sober truth I did not think there was an amateur living who could weave a phantasy like that! For Pegana's sake, keep it up! Let me see everything of this sort you write, & I will guarantee them a place. I shall use more in the _United Amateur_ if I can get them, & I can promise you a critical notice which will encourage you.

I appreciate highly your expressions of sympathy regarding my recent bereavement, & I am regretful to hear that your own mother has been so dangerously ill. I hope that her present improvement may prove the beginning of a complete recovery. A major bereavement has the effect of increasing one's listlessness & killing one's ambition. I cannot concentrate on any definite work, & have written nothing for aeons! One feels that there is no especial reason for doing anything when there is no one in particular to show it to. My father died when I was very young -- so that he is only the vaguest of memories to me.

Regarding art & life -- I hope I did not convey an extreme picture in outlining my attitude. When I spoke of minimising the emotions I did not mean trying to abolish them -- anything so opposed to nature would be inartistic. I meant rather that it is better to rule emotions than to be ruled by them. I am myself much less emotional than the average person, but endeavour not to impose my own perspective on others.

Your deism, as I view it, is a mode of thought which although perfectly logical in its heyday -- the 18th century -- has been rendered shaky by subsequent scientific discovery. Clear-cut atheism & materialism seem to me the only tenable hypotheses today. You speak of immortality as if one's personality were something apart from his material structure, yet when we analyse personality we can trace every quality to the atoms & electrons of the body. Certainly, these electrons were never thus assembled till the body in question took form; & equally certainly they will never be thus assembled again. When a man dies, his body turns to liquids & gases whose molecules soon enter into an infinitude of new combinations -- there is nothing left. Haeckel has dealt so clearly with this subject in "The Riddle of the Universe" that it is really superfluous for me to repeat the arguments here. As to free-will -- like the Epicureans, whose school I followed, I used to believe in it. Now, however, I am forced to admit that there is no room for it. It is fundamentally opposed to all those laws of causality which every phenomenon of Nature confirms & verifies. Man cannot 'supplement & change the forces of Nature' because he is himself but a force of Nature. It is hardly a pleasant belief, but truth was not made to please.

Your remarks on literature proved highly interesting to me, & I find myself largely in agreement. Longfellow was a poet of exquisite cultivation, & had the truly European love of old & mellow things, but was held in check by an insipid environment. He was a real artist, but an undernourished one. It is a coincidence that you should hit upon that passage in "My Lost Youth," since those very lines were favourites of mine when I was nine or ten years old. Their suggestions of unknown seas and lands fascinated me -- & do still. Certainly, no one should try to deny to Longfellow the possession of a rare power of fancy & imagery which under warmer skies might have blossomed gorgeously. But his world was the sunny surface world we all see, & the old, hackneyed body of illusions which our grandfathers mistook for cosmic laws. If we would find a man superior to time & space -- a fearless pioneer soul daring to delve into the most remote & forbidding abysses of the phantasmal universe -- in other words, a genuine artist of titanic scope & godlike independence -- we must look southward and bow before America's one great contributor to the literary firmament -- he needs no name, being one of the Olympians. In this connexion I enclose for your perusal a newspaper cutting Mrs. Houghton recently sent me. I must ask its return, since I have nothing else covering just the same ground. If I ever acquire any kind of fortune, one of my first extravagances will be some genuine Poe autograph letters. [on next page: a drawing of Poe, bat, raven, and woman by HPL.]

Regarding Mrs. Whitman's book -- I think it was only natural & sensible of her to quote others regarding Poe, rather than draw upon her own knowledge & observation; since she was known to be a partial witness. She wished, in her book, to refute Griswold's sneaking memoir in that conclusive, impersonal fashion which is after all most convincing & effective. What _she_ saw in Poe, or thought of him, might not have had much weight; but what other disinterested persons saw & thought was the best sort of ammunition to employ against calumny.

What you say of romanticism & realism agrees in the main with my own opinions. The Continentals have many advantages over the Anglo-Saxons as authors of fiction, but in their emancipation from senseless restrictions & illusions they forget the essentially _selective_ nature of all art, & the necessity for some observance of the principle of _proportion_ -- or good taste, as one may term it. It is certainly not true that _anything_ is a legitimate subject for art _in any degree_. In art, I think, some semblance of the proportions of life must be maintained -- it is injudicious to isolate repellent sections of life & magnify them in detail. Of course, one may say that what is repellent to one nation or culture is not necessarily so to another -- yet I fancy there is enough universality amongst all the heirs of European culture to warrant the acknowledgment of certain standards & boundaries. American realism is deficient in its total exclusion of the imagination. Its exponents forget the inevitable mental associations which accompany even the commonplace. Like Wordsworth's "Peter Bell", they see in a primrose by the river's brim only a yellow primrose -- nothing more!

For me the conscious phantasy is the only interesting literary type. You say you wish you had been born in 1830. I should prefer to have been born about 1800, so as to be fully mature by 1830, & thus able to participate in the literary movements of the time. Lately I re-read Lytton's "The House & the Brain," & felt again the fascination I felt in childhood. Have you read Stoker's "Dracula"? In parts -- especially the first part -- it is inimitable. Another notable tale by the same author is "The Jewel of the Seven Stars." As I think of these things I long to write something more myself -- yet of late when I sit down to compose, every idea flees irrecoverably. I am getting old & vacant. If I grow much more stupid I shall be attempting poetry again!

I am interested in your opinion of "The Green Meadow" & "The Crawling Chaos", & encouraged by your belief that the latter does not excel my exclusive work. Of the two, "The Green Meadow" is decidedly the inferior -- WP Cook, who is to print it, does not like it very well. Personally, I think "Randolph carter, "Dagon," "The Temple," & "The Nameless City" are the best things I have done. I have won the story laureateship again this year, but do not yet know _which_ of my entries captured the award. "Randolph Carter" seems to me the most likely one -- I have never written anything better than that, & probably never will. Did you see Mrs. Minister's parody on this piece in _The Muffin Man_? If not, pray tell me at once, & let me send you one of my duplicates. It is inimitably clever.

WV Jackson is indeed a highly remarkable person -- perhaps the most remarkable of all the amateur journalists. Besides being a poet she is a musician & artist -- especially skilled in water-colours & pen-&-ink drawing. The spiritualistic fallacy excites ridicule in some, but I can excuse it as one of the pardonable eccentricities of a profound & authentic genius. The next _United Amateur_ will contain much matter pertaining to Mrs. Jackson, including a portrait on the cover & critical essay from my pen. This issue will also have your "Eye Above the Mantel."

You are now 1st Vice-President of the United, elected by unanimous vote, & I am sure you will uphold the traditions of the office in adequate fashion. Campbell will be your greatest aid, with Fritter as a close second. They will, if you desire, help you to choose a recruiting committee. In practice, the functions of the two vice-presidents overlap -- both departments often working on the same recruits. The newly elected 2nd V.P. is Mrs. E.B. North of State College Pa., with whom it would be advisable for you to get in touch as soon as recruiting work starts in earnest.

I attended the convention of our rival the National in Boston, & had five strenuous social days which utterly exhausted me. I returned home on the evening of the 6th, & have been outdoors only once since! During this event I met my old political enemy William J. Dowdell & signed a treaty of peace with him -- behold the photograph, which please return! The next National convention will be in your own city, & I hope you will attend. The personnel of such an affair is naturally somewhat heterogeneous, but it is interesting withal. I had never before attended a convention. Politically the right candidates won -- Mrs. McLoughlin beat Miss Hyde by a vote of 98 to 48! Our own Washington convention is said to have been very quiet -- delegates being conspicuous by their absence. Our activities are more literary than social, hence we do not place so much stress on conventions.

But I must close, & take a glance at the New-York Tribune before descending into the demon-haunted chasms of that temporary death called sleep. Again, let me congratulate you on "The Eye Above the Mantel."

With every good wish, I remain
Most Sincerely Yrs
H P Lovecraft

Mike!

Thank you so very much for posting the letter. I had a great time reading it, and a throwaway remark made in it helps indirectly support one thesis I made in a recent essay!

I hope to speak to you privately soon about it.

ciao!

Mike Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Scott Connors Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It is an unfortunate fact, but public
> depositories
> > such as the Bancroft Library and John Hay
> Library
> > of Brown University often take up the
> collection
> > of a particular writer's papers only long
> after
> > the way has been shown by private collectors.
>
> > Without people like Roy Squires and the late
> Jack
> > Grill, much would have been lost. Having
> said
> > that, there is a particular class of
> collector for
> > whom I have nothing but scorn. This is the
> troll
> > who refuses to make his treasures available
> to
> > other interested parties. Luckily I have not
> run
> > into too many of these.
> > Best,
> > Scott
>
>
> Me neither. Although I do think the courtesy of
> some HPL "scholars" has something to be desired.
> For example, I was asked by one such to provide a
> transcript of the letter I was auctioning on eBay.
> Since the letter was no longer mine, I suggested
> that this individual contact the new owner
> directly. (Plus, I had provided a transcript when
> the letter was mine, both on this board and on the
> eBay auction page.) However, I own another HPL
> letter, a 6 page missive to Frank Belknap Long. I
> spent several hours typing this up for this
> individual and sent it to him. Never heard a word
> back. If people on the C.A. Smith board are
> interested in the transcription, I'd be happy to
> post it here, as most "Weird Tales" fans are quite
> nice, as are most HPL scholars. Not even a few
> trolls can ruin the bunch.
>
> Best,
> Mike

Mike,
I'm usually the one who asks folks on eBay for transcriptions, and I am usually pretty good about thanking them for their help. However, the last 18 months have not ben good ones for me personally, so it is conceivable that in the press of personal emergencies I may have neglected to thank you. I don't recall this Long letter, though that doesn't mean anything. I will pass your comments along to the usual suspects.
Best,
Scott

Mike,
Out of curiosity, from whom did you purchase this letter? Long sold his letters from HPL to Samuel Loveman, who claims to have destroyed them. However, there are a few which seem to be floating around. One is at the Thomas Cooper Library of the University of South Carolina, but that's the only one I know of. The reason why I ask is in hope that we might be able to find a cache of letters to Long that Loveman did not destroy.
Best,
Scott

Hi Scott,

No, it wasn't you -- and I hope that things have become less hectic for you recently. (Isn't Arnold supposed to turn Sacramento into a sybaritical paradise? At least that's the rumors we hear in the Davis boonies...) The person I sent the transcription to has the initials DL, and he runs a website. But perhaps I shouldn't have been so testy about the lack of acknowledgement; it's just that it takes me a long time to touch-type!

I don't know the provenance of the letter. I purchased it from Lloyd Currey, and he might be forthcoming about its history. It came in a folding case with a bookplate initialled DGH, which I thought might refer to David Hartwell, but that's all speculation on my part. I'll see if I can find out more about the letter for you.

Best,
Mike

Can I just say that I am officially excited?