In a postcard sent to Wilfred Branch Talman H.P. Lovecraft tells Talman (who designed a bookplate for HPL) to check out Henry S. Whitehead's novelette, "The Black Beast" inf the latest issue of the pulp magazine ADVENTURE. It is indeed one of Whitehead's best macabre tales, worth rediscovering if you've read it before. Lovecraft paid a long visit to Whitehead's home in Dunedin, Florida, and it struck me that the references to the inferior characteristics of the black natives in the tale would seem extremely racist to many modern readers, given the attitudes prevalent among the pseudo-liberals. Anyone here familiar beith the story? Whitehead is forgotten in a sense because his housekeeper inadvertantly threw out his papers after his sudden death, but he ranks right up there with Lovecraft, Smith, and Howard IMO.

jkh