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H.P. Lovecraft:
Letters to Alfred Galpin and Others

By H.P. Lovecraft
Edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz

Back Cover Text

The world of amateur journalism that H. P. Lovecraft entered in 1914 introduced him to a variety of interesting and accomplished individuals, some of whom remained his colleagues for the rest of his life. One of these was Edward H. Cole, a writer and editor from Massachusetts whom Lovecraft met frequently in the succeeding two decades. The two discussed the byzantine world of amateur journalism in their long, if sporadic, correspondence.

Cole introduced Lovecraft to John T. Dunn, a young man in the Providence area who helped to found the Providence Amateur Press Club. Dunn, as an outspoken Irish-American, clashed with Lovecraft repeatedly on the question of Irish independence.

Some years later, Lovecraft became acquainted with Alfred Galpin, who proved to be a prodigy in the realms of literature, philosophy, and music. Their correspondence also lasted for decades and contains some of Lovecraft’s most profound discussions of weird fiction, materialism, atheism, and other subjects.

In the mid-1920s Lovecraft came in touch with Adolphe de Castro, a former colleague of Ambrose Bierce. Lovecraft struggled with revising de Castro’s weird fiction, advised him on the writing of a memoir of Bierce, and in later years engaged in intense discussions regarding a treatise on early Christianity that de Castro was writing.

Throughout these letters, Lovecraft reveals himself to be learned, courteous, patient, and at times outspoken, revealing many sides of his personality not always visible in his weird fiction. The letters have been thoroughly annotated, and a great deal of ancillary material by the correspondents in question has been supplied.

Contents

  • Introduction (18 pages)
  • Letters
    • To Edward H. and E. Sherman Cole (118 pages)
    • To John T. Dunn (37 pages)
    • To Alfred Galpin (154 pages)
    • With Adolphe de Castro (58 pages)
  • Appendix (66 pages)
    • Alfred Galpin
      • Mystery
      • Two Loves
      • Selenaio-Phantasma
      • Remarks to My Handwriting
      • Marsh-Mad
      • The Critic
      • Stars
      • Some Tendencies of Modern Poetry
      • The Spoken Tongue
      • The World Situation
      • The United’s Policy 1920–1921
      • Form in Modern Poetry
      • Picture of a Modern Mood
      • Nietzsche as a Practical Prophet
      • To Sam L.
      • The Vivisector
      • Four Translations from Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Pierre Baudelaire
      • Scattered Remarks upon the Green Cheese Theory
      • Department of Public Criticism
      • Intuition in the Philosophy of Bergson
      • Ennui
      • A Critic of Poetry
      • From the French of Pierre de Ronsard (“Amours”—Livre II.)
      • Echoes from Beyond Space
      • Red . . .
      • En Route (An American to Paris, 1931)
      • November
      • Lament for H. P. L.
    • Edward H. Cole
      • Some Words for Mr. Lovecraft
      • Edith Miniter
    • Edith Miniter
      • Little Pilgrimages to the Homes of Amateurs
    • Adolphe de Castro
      • Ambrose Bierce As He Really Was
      • Let There Be Light!
      • from “Had I Another Hundred Years”
    • The Poe Acrostics
      • In a Sequester’d Providence Churchyard Where Once Poe Walk’d, by H. P. Lovecraft
      • Edgar Allan Poe, by Adolphe de Castro
      • St. John’s Churchyard, by R. H. Barlow
      • In a Providence Churchyard, by Maurice W. Moe
      • Where He Walked, by Henry Kuttner
  • Glossary of Frequently Mentioned Names (6 pages)
  • Bibliography (14 pages)
  • Index (11 pages)

Bibliographic Information

H.P. Lovecraft: Letters to Alfred Galpin and Others. By H. P. Lovecraft, Edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press; 2020; ISBN 978-1-61498-291-3; paperback, 497 pages.

Purchasing This Book

This book may be purchased in paperback from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble or directly from the publisher, Hippocampus Press.

 
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