Perhaps by this time you will have heard the sad news of Lovecraft's passing. He died on Monday morning, March 15th, from gastro-intestinal and kidney trouble (chronic Bright's disease) from which he had suffered for years. The news is infinitely depressing, and all who knew him personally or even by correspondence are stunned by the shock. .. . He made clinical notes of the progress of his malady for the doctor till the pen dropped from his fingers.

Plans are already under way for the publication of an omnibus volume of H. P. L.'s work, to contain about thirty of his stories, his best poems, and esaays; his own written choice to be followed as much as possible in the selection. August W. Derleth and Donald Wandrei are in charge of the undertaking. Wandrei is also planning to publish privately a selection of H. P. L.'s letters. This last, I venture to say, will establish him as one of the greatest letter-writers who ever lived, and will exhibit manifold angles of his astounding genius. Unparalleled erudition, scholarship, critical ability, wit, humor, fancy, generosity-- a hundred other admirable traits are displayed to the fullest in the correspondence to which he gave, toward the end, at least half of his time. He gave untiring and invaluable mentorship to many young writers; and I know of at least one occasion where he played, with infinite wisdom and thoughtfulness, the difficult role of father-confessor to a young woman. The loss to literature is incalculable; but the heritage he has left will establish him among the greatest writers of modern times.