I am currently at work on an essay regarding Lovecraft's use of the werewolf and werewolf lore throughout his literary corpus.

I have been trying to find the text of a letter which HPL sent to Weird Tales in 1925, and which H. Warner Munn cites as spurring him on to the creation of his pulpish "Werewolf-clan" series. From what has been written about this letter, including in Joshi's HPL bio., I would assume that in it Lovecraft says that it would impossible to write a story from the werewolf's point of view due to its animalistic/bestial viewpoint, but that Munn misunderstood this and saw the letter rather as a call to have people write more werewolf stories!

I can't seem to find this letter in Selected Letters, maybe I've simply missed it.

Thanks
GDC

Hi Gavin:--

There's a letter to Edwin Baird in Lovecraft's "Miscellaneous Writings" [508-10] (dated "early November 1923") which appears to be the one published in the March 1924 WT. It contains the sentence, "Take a werewolf story, for instance -- who ever wrote a story from the point of view of the wolf, and sympathising strongly with the devil to whom he has sold himself?" If you don't have access to "Miscellaneous Writings" (I couldn't find this letter in SL I), I could scan the relevant pages for you in a day or two.

-- Jim Java

Gavin Callaghan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am currently at work on an essay regarding
> Lovecraft's use of the werewolf and werewolf lore
> throughout his literary corpus.
>
> I have been trying to find the text of a letter
> which HPL sent to Weird Tales in 1925, and which
> H. Warner Munn cites as spurring him on to the
> creation of his pulpish "Werewolf-clan" series.
> From what has been written about this letter,
> including in Joshi's HPL bio., I would assume that
> in it Lovecraft says that it would impossible to
> write a story from the werewolf's point of view
> due to its animalistic/bestial viewpoint, but that
> Munn misunderstood this and saw the letter rather
> as a call to have people write more werewolf
> stories!
>
> I can't seem to find this letter in Selected
> Letters, maybe I've simply missed it.
>
> Thanks
> GDC

I was going to email a private message thank-you but my email is temporarily kaput. Thanks--
GDC

Hi Gavin:--

You're welcome. I can't tell from this message, though, whether you'd like me to get you the whole text of the letter. If you need it, I'll scan it for you.

-- Jim

Gavin Callaghan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was going to email a private message thank-you
> but my email is temporarily kaput. Thanks--
> GDC

This might be useful:

"Just before his death Lovecraft spoke to me of an ambitious project reserved
for some period of greater leisure, a sort of dynastic chronicle in fictional
form, dealing with the hereditary mysteries and destinies of generations of an
ancient New England family, tainted and cursed down the diminishing generations
with some grewsome variant of lycanthropy. It was to be his magnum
opus, embodying the results of his profound researches in the occult
legends of that grim and secret country which he knew so well, but apparently
the outline was just beginning to crystallize in his mind, and I doubt if
he left even a rough draft of his plan."

Edkins, Ernest A. "Idiosyncracies of H. P. L." In LOVECRAFT REMEMBERED. Ed. Peter Cannon. (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1998). Pages 94-95.

Jim

Excellent, thanks for all the help. Don't trouble yourselves to copy any more lengthy passages out, I'll locate them. Thanks again,
GDC

I'm still working on my "Lovecraft and Werewolves" essay; I'm on page 200 now, and it keeps getting longer, since I've expanded it to deal with Lovecraft's view of paganism. It's now called "Repentant Pagan: Lovecraft and Classicism".

I'm having trouble, however, finding an anecdote relating to Lovecraft. I've checked through all my books and biographies until my eyes are running, stayed up until 3AM looking, but still haven't been able to find it. I seem to recall a story about Lovecraft telling one of his friends, who said he found women of color attractive, that anyone who "slept with a black woman should have the 'n-word' tattooed on his forehead!". If anyone can direct me to this quote, I'd be grateful. I'm trying to connect it to Lovecraft's climax of "The Mound", in which the "white man" has his capture by his alien mistress branded into his skin.
GDC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 21 Jan 07 | 06:13PM by Gavin Callaghan.

Gavin:--

I can't believe I scored on this one. It sounded really "Sprague de Camp biography" to me, and I found what you're thinking of in chapter 11 of the paperback, "Quixote in Babylon":

"Before Lovecraft came to New York to live, Kleiner, Long, and McNeil had formed a habit of meeting weekly at their respective abodes in rotation. When Lovecraft arrived, he was soon enrolled in the group. So was Sam Loveman, who appeared in August, 1924, on another job hunt and found a berth in selling rare books. Other additions were George Willard Kirk, a bookseller; Herman C. Koenig, an electrical engineer; Arthur Leeds, a columnist and writer of adventure stories; and James Ferdinand Morton.

"Morton was an early campaigner for Negro rights, and his words on the subject infuriated the white-supremacist Lovecraft. Once Morton suggested intimacy with Negro women in terms that suggested that he had enjoyed such intimacy. Lovecraft burst out; 'Any white man who would do such a thing ought to have the word NEGRO branded on his forehead!" (235--36, Ballantine, 1976)

Let me know if you need any other info.

-- Jim Java

> I'm still working on my "Lovecraft and Werewolves" essay; I'm on page
> 200 now, and it keeps getting longer, since I've expanded it to deal
> with Lovecraft's view of paganism. It's now called "Repentant Pagan:
> Lovecraft and Classicism".
>
> I'm having trouble, however, finding an anecdote relating to
> Lovecraft. I've checked through all my books and biographies until
> mye eyes are running, stayed up until 3AM looking, but still haven't
> been able to find it. I seem to recall a story about Lovecraft
> telling one of his friends, who said he found women of color
> attractive, that anyone who "slept with a black woman should have the
> 'n-word' tattooed on his forehead!". If anyone can direct me to this
> quote, I'd be grateful. I'm trying to connect it to Lovecraft's
> climax of "The Mound", in which the "white man" has his capture by his
> alien mistress branded into his skin.
> GDC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 21 Jan 07 | 07:24PM by priscian.

priscian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gavin:--
>
> I can't believe I scored on this one. It sounded
> really "Sprague de Camp biography" to me, and I
> found what you're thinking of in chapter 11 of the
> paperback, "Quixote in Babylon":
>
> "Before Lovecraft came to New York to live,
> Kleiner, Long, and McNeil had formed a habit of
> meeting weekly at their respective abodes in
> rotation. When Lovecraft arrived, he was soon
> enrolled in the group. So was Sam Loveman, who
> appeared in August, 1924, on another job hunt and
> found a berth in selling rare books. Other
> additions were George Willard Kirk, a bookseller;
> Herman C. Koenig, an electrical engineer; Arthur
> Leeds, a columnist and writer of adventure
> stories; and James Ferdinand Morton.
>
> "Morton was an early campaigner for Negro rights,
> and his words on the subject infuriated the
> white-supremacist Lovecraft. Once Morton suggested
> intimacy with Negro women in terms that suggested
> that he had enjoyed such intimacy. Lovecraft burst
> out; 'Any white man who would do such a thing
> ought to have the word NEGRO branded on his
> forehead!" (235--36, Ballantine, 1976)
>
> Let me know if you need any other info.
>
> -- Jim Java

I tried to look into the notes (not included in the paperback edition, right?), to see where De Camp got this information from, but his system of annotation is the WORST I've EVER seen! Good heavens, is there a method to this madness? Notes are scattered at random through the text, and in every note you've got several references.

Anyway the source might be a personal comment by Frank Belknap Long, whom De Camp interviewed for the book. (But then again, it is also possible that the mention of Long in note 19 for that chapter could refer to a completely different quotation; it is impossible to tell).

Yrs
Martin

Many thanks, Java Jim and Martin. You saved me from blindness due to eyestrain. I think I like this new Internet contraption.

>>Anyway the source might be a personal comment by Frank Belknap Long, whom De Camp interviewed for the book. Martin

I don't think the source would be Long, if only because Long wrote Dreamer on the Nightside as a sort of riposte to deCamp, and in Dreamer Long makes a derrogatory comment about modern biographies which make a habit of "letting it all hang out." A better source might be Loveman, who apparently --and, I think, quite rightly-- became embittered toward Lovecraft later in life.

Gavin Callaghan Wrote:
> I don't think the source would be Long, if only
> because Long wrote Dreamer on the Nightside as a
> sort of riposte to deCamp, and in Dreamer Long
> makes a derrogatory comment about modern
> biographies which make a habit of "letting it all
> hang out." A better source might be Loveman, who
> apparently --and, I think, quite rightly-- became
> embittered toward Lovecraft later in life.

Well, there is no mention of Loveman in the note that _might_ refer to the quotation. On the other hand, there's no indication that "FRank Belknap Long (pers. com.)" does indeed refer to the quotation, or that the note is for that quotation at all (there are three references gathered in the same note). If you've seen De Camps biography, you know what I mean. His annotation has driven me to tears before. There's simply no rhought behind it.

Yrs
Martin

Martinus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>> Well, there is no mention of Loveman in the note
> that _might_ refer to the quotation. On the other
> hand, there's no indication that "FRank Belknap
> Long (pers. com.)" does indeed refer to the
> quotation, or that the note is for that quotation
> at all (there are three references gathered in the
> same note). If you've seen De Camps biography, you
> know what I mean. His annotation has driven me to
> tears before. There's simply no rhought behind
> it.

I believe, from looking it over in the Doubleday first edition, that this was actually a quote from Arthur S. Koki's M.A. thesis on Lovecraft: "H. P. Lovecraft: An Introduction to His Life and Writings". I don't believe it was ever published as a book, though; De Camp (and Joshi) consulted it at Columbia University. It is from 1962, and Joshi's bibliography lists it as "vi, 350 pp." length, with this note: "Koki has done sound work on Lovecraft's life, especially his early years (1890-1914), having consulted 'primary source materials, letters, birth and death certificates, wills,' etc. His coverage of Lovecraft's later life is sketchy and unsatisfying, while what literary criticism he offers is uncoordinated and superficial. Koki dismisses Lovecraft's 'racism' as 'characteristic of his social class.'

Hope that helps. -- JD

You're right, it's probably Long (who is the source). Long's reference in Dreamer to "letting it all hang out" could then refer to his disapproval of deCamp's use of this or other quotations.

There's a really neat unpublished thesis in the Cornell art library, which has a full-length reproduction of Flaxman's "Knight of the Blazing Cross." There's also an unpublished thesis about Ethel Reed, an American decadent artist, at Harvard or Yale, entitled "The Girl in the Poster." Someone should publish these things.

Gavin Callaghan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You're right, it's probably Long (who is the
> source). Long's reference in Dreamer to "letting
> it all hang out" could then refer to his
> disapproval of deCamp's use of this or other
> quotations.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should clarify. Though the quote could be from Long (I've not had the opportunity to read Koki's paper), I don't think it would be; as I recall, both he and Bloch were rather taken aback upon reading the first published volumes of his letters, after years of not having read them, by the signs of racism that they simply had not recalled being there -- having grown up in a milieu where such things were quite common (recall, for instance, Isaac Asimov's shock upon rereading, for inclusion in his anthology Before the Golden Age, P. Schuyler Miller's "Tetrahedra of Space", where there is a racial slur; as he noted, Miller was among the most kind, considerate, and humane of men, yet even he used such a comment... and the young Asimov hadn't even noticed it at the time, it was so common) and those didn't start appearing until 1965, three years after Koki completed his thesis. More likely would be some of the other correspondence from members of the Kalem Club in the Lovecraft collection at the John Hay library. Then again, it may have come from an interview with one of the surviving members, perhaps Sam Loveman (who died in 1976). I was simply trying to address where De Camp had come across the anecdote; the original source, unfortunately, is another thing. The best way to find out, I suppose, would be to get a copy of Koki's paper, if possible; or to query one of the Lovecraftians who have had a chance to read it.

I was wondering if someone might be kind enough to help me in locating another quote. I can no longer remember where I first read it, and am having a hell of a time finding it. I'm just about to jump out the window (don't worry, my window is less than a foot off the ground.)

It deals with an established literary figure, I forget who, who describes his first hearing about H. P. Lovecraft. The quote, as it appears in my memory, goes something like this: "The first time I ever heard of Lovecraft, was from a freaked-out weirdo in the Brown University theater department, who was crazy about his stories in Weird Tales."

I've checked Joshi's Bio, Cook's memoir, Cannon's Lovecraft Remembered, and Long's Dreamer on the Nightside; nothing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
GDC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 25 Apr 07 | 05:41PM by Gavin Callaghan.