I Am Providence I Am Providence The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft S. T. Joshi Hippocampus Press ———————— New York Copyright © 2013 by S. T. Joshi Published by Hippocampus Press P.O. Box 641, New York, NY 10156. http://www.hippocampuspress.com All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Hippocampus Press logo by Anastasia Damianakos. Cover design by Barbara Briggs Silbert. First Ebook Edition, 2013 EPUB Edition ISBN: 978-1-61498-077-3 Kindle Edition ISBN: 978-1-61498-078-0 The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Joshi, S. T., 1958- I am Providence : the life and times of H.P. Lovecraft / S. T. Joshi. — 1st ed. p. cm. Complete in 2 volumes. In 1996, S. T. Joshi's H.P. Lovecraft: a life was published. The edition was abridged by more than 150,000 words. This new version I am Providence: the life and times of H.P. Lovecraft restores every word of Joshi's original manuscript. The text has been revised and updated in light of the new information on Lovecraft that has emerged since 1996—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-9824296-7-9 (alk. paper) 1. Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips), 1890-1937. 2. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. 3. Fantasy fiction—Authorship. 4. Horror tales— Authorship. I. Title. PS3523.O833Z72 2010 813'.52—dc22 [B] To Kenneth W. Faig, Jr Donald R. Burleson and David E. Schultz Preface I don’t imagine that the publication of so large a biography of H. P. Lovecraft needs a defence today: his ascent into the canon of American literature with the publication of the Library of America edition of his Tales (2005), and, concurrently, his continued popularity among devotees of horror fiction, comics, films, and role-playing games suggest that Lovecraft will remain a compelling figure for decades to come. What may perhaps require some justification is my decision to issue this unabridged version of a biography that I wrote in 1993–95 and that was published in truncated form in 1996. In the nearly fifteen years since that time, a surprising amount of new information about Lovecraft—his life, his work, and his milieu—has emerged, necessitating some significant revisions in various portions of this book. Foremost in this regard must be cited Kenneth W. Faig, Jr, who with others has dug even deeper than before into Lovecraft’s paternal and maternal ancestry. Other research by Steven J. Mariconda, David E. Schultz, T. R. Livesey, Robert H. Waugh, and any number of others has resulted in changes both large and small. I believe I have also benefited from the pertinent criticisms of a number of reviewers of the truncated edition. A reader of the earlier version might ask: Exactly what is new about this edition aside from the bare addition of more than 150,000 words? In all humility I am now unable to answer this question in any detail. My pruning of the version I wrote in 1993–95—comprising more than 500,000 words—was on the level of both individual words, phrases, and sentences and some entire sections. One gauge of the kind and degree of omissions can be gauged by the number of footnotes in the trimmed and the full version; to choose a chapter at random, Chapter 14 in the earlier version had 75 footnotes; the current version has 98. In this version, therefore, I am even more determined to specify the documentary basis for my assertions. In the past decade and a half, important publications by and about Lovecraft have made the biographer’s life much simpler, at least in terms of citations. Far and away the most significant in this regard is Peter Cannon’s exemplary compilation of memoirs of Lovecraft, Lovecraft Remembered (1998), a volume so close to definitive that it scarcely ever need be done over again. I have some small quibbles with Cannon’s selections: for example, I wish he had not included the truncated version of Sonia Davis’s memoir of her husband, successively edited by Winfield Townley Scott and August Derleth, and had included the first of Muriel Eddy’s memoirs rather than a later one; as a result I have cited these (and a few other) items from sources other than Lovecraft Remembered. The most radical development is the extensive publication of Lovecraft’s letters, especially to important correspondents such as August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, and Donald Wandrei. And yet, because the Arkham House edition of Selected Letters (1965–76) is still the most widely available and convenient compendium of Lovecraft’s letters, I have in general cited it even in cases where it has been superseded by these later editions. I have not cited any specific editions of Lovecraft’s fiction, essays, or poetry. In terms of the fiction, Barnes & Noble has issued for the first time a collection of all Lovecraft’s original fiction (2008); but the first printing was marred by many typographical errors. As of this writing, I have received a promise from the in-house editor that these errors will be corrected (perhaps, however, not all at once), so that subsequent printings of the volume should be definitive. The book is, of course, not annotated, and readers interested in the background behind Lovecraft’s stories might wish to consult my three Penguin editions (1999–2004), along with such volumes as From the Pest Zone: Stories from New York (2003). Lovecraft’s essays are now conveniently gathered in Collected Essays (2004–06; 5 vols.), and his poetry in The Ancient Track: Complete Poetical Works (2001). I would like to repeat the many friends and colleagues who have, over the past thirty years, materially aided me in my research on Lovecraft. Among those who actually knew or corresponded with Lovecraft, I can thank Frank Belknap Long, J. Vernon Shea, Donald Wandrei, Robert Bloch, Mrs. Ethel Phillips Morrish, and Harry K. Brobst; sadly, all but the last of these are no more. Among students and scholars, I have learnt most about Lovecraft’s life and work from the three individuals to whom this book is dedicated—Kenneth W. Faig, Jr, David E. Schultz, and Donald R. Burleson; but other individuals, such as Dirk W. Mosig, Steven J. Mariconda, Peter Cannon, J. Vernon Shea, George T. Wetzel, R. Boerem, Scott Connors, Richard L. Tierney, Matthew H. Onderdonk, Fritz Leiber, M. Eileen McNamara, Donovan K. Loucks, Stefan Dziemianowicz, T. E. D. Klein, Perry M. Grayson, Scott D. Briggs, Marc A. Michaud, Sam Moskowitz, Robert M. Price, A. Langley Searles, and Richard D. Squires should not be overlooked. I am most grateful to Donovan K. Loucks for assembling the photographs for this book The John Hay Library of Brown University remains the chief repository of Lovecraft manuscript and printed material, and its Lovecraft Collection is now in the capable hands of Rosemary Cullen. She and Lovecraft Collection is now in the capable hands of Rosemary Cullen. She and her staff have allowed me unprecedented access to its bountiful documents. As in so many of my recent projects, I am sincerely grateful to David E. Schultz for his customary care in the design of this book, and to Derrick Hussey for his courage and confidence in publishing it. —S. T. JOSHI Seattle, Washington June 2009 Contents Preface 1. Unmixed English Gentry 2. A Genuine Pagan (1890–1897) 3. Black Woods & Unfathomed Caves (1898–1902) 4. What of Unknown Africa? (1902–1908) 5. Barbarian and Alien (1908–1914) 6. A Renewed Will to Live (1914–1917 [1]) 7. Metrical Mechanic (1914–1917 [II]) 8. Dreamers and Visionaries (1917–1919 [I]) 9. Feverish and Incessant Scribbling (1917–1919 [II]) 10. Cynical Materialist (1919–1921 [I]) 11. Dunsanian Studies (1919–1921 [II]) 12. A Stranger in This Century (1919–1921 [III]) 13. The High Tide of My Life (1921–1922) 14. For My Own Amusement (1923–1924) 15. Ball and Chain (1924) 16. The Assaults of Chaos (1925–1926) 17. Paradise Regain’d (1926) 18. Cosmic Outsideness (1927–1928) 19. Fanlights and Georgian Steeples (1928–1930) 20. Non-Supernatural Cosmic Art (1930–1931) 21. Mental Greed (1931–1933) 22. In My Own Handwriting (1933–1935) 23. Caring about the Civilisation (1929–1937) 24. Close to the Bread-Line (1935–1936) 25. The End of One’s Life (1936–1937) 26. Thou Art Not Gone (1937–2010) Notes Bibliography Index Books by S. T. Joshi