The Unquenchable Mystique of H.P. Lovecraft or, Providence's Master Spirit
The Unquenchable Mystique of H.P. Lovecraft or, Providence's Master Spirit
By Carl L. Johnson
We drift into the vale of earth, The gentle falls and slopes of Swan Point Cemetery, Gather to remember and praise him, As the Seekonk with its silted memories, Ribbons at the edge of vision... Our Lovecraft, lord of the midnight shudder.
--Excerpt from At Lovecraft's Grave
By Brett Rutherford
In shadow cast by obelisk bearing cross and crown, Lies the Caller of C'thulhu, an author of renown. Those nightmare tales he wove from us perpetuate his fame, So here we gather to behold that stone which bears his name. We plumb his strange imaginings; some see what they imply. He dared embrace a simple truth that fainter hearts deny: The vilest of monstrosities are those we often find, Lurking through dark labyrinths within the human mind!
--Excerpt from In Shadow Cast
"Mock not the crows of Swan Point, for they are the Guardians of those souls which here linger. Their harsh cries call us to reverence. Their Stygian aspects invite us to mourn with them; and they would prefer we remain, to provide their lonely charges with companionship!"
--Traditional, opening proclamation for the H.P. Lovecraft Service of Tribute, spoken when this is conducted at the grave site of H.P. Lovecraft within Swan Point Cemetery, Providence.
by Carl L. Johnson
Swan Point is a quiet, picturesque cemetery situated in the northern reach of Providence's East Side, overlooking the Seekonk River. It is renowned for its many, extraordinary sculptures and serves as the final resting place for noted American statesmen and governors. Monuments erected in enduring tribute to the architects of Rhode Island's earlier history and titans of the great Industrial Age loom over an impressive array of gleaming polished marble, granite and alabaster headstones. For all of this historic splendor, however, there is one section of the two hundred acre expanse which tends to attract considerably more attention than the rest, particularly on certain days during the months of March, August and October.
This is the Philips family plot (maps tracing a path to this plot are available at the Cemetery's Chapel office), wherein repose the mortal remains of the much-acclaimed writer of horror fantasy, Howard Phillips Lovecraft (born August 20, 1890 and dies March 15, 1937), a man who was born in Providence almost 127 years ago, a man who departed this life precisely 80 years ago, at that time nearly impoverished and neglected save for a small circle of devoted friends and some regular readers of his fiction that found publication in the cheap but widely-distributed "pulp" magazines popular in his time. Yet today, he is considered by many--particularly European fans of the genre, to be the peer of Edgar Allan Poe, whom Lovecraft revered. He is also referred to as "the Stephen King of the earlier 20th Century."
H.P. Lovecraft is presently regarded as an important figure in American literature and his fame not only endures; it continues to increase! In the years since his untimely death, the very name of Lovecraft has become synonymous with gripping, supernatural suspense, and his devotees throughout America, Canada, the British Isles and Europe world continue to gather for various functions organized in celebration of his legacy. One such event is Necronomicon Providence, chiefly organized by marine biologist and H.P.L. aficionado Niels V. Hobbs, a large-scale, horror-fiction "hobnobber" which has been held in August of 2013 and 2015, coinciding with the birth date of H.P. Lovecraft, centered in the Providence Biltmore Hotel plus various locations in Downtown Providence. Both years the events drew in excess of 2000 attendees.
Lovecraft's stories seem to evince a unique capacity to evoke a reader's innate dread of the unknown, of other-worldly forces which may be lurking beneath the earth's surface, or within huge, subterranean caverns at the murky bottom of an ocean (secluded somewhere in the Mariana Trench, perhaps, the existence of which, as was the case with the dwarf planet to dubbed Pluto by discoverer Clyde Tombaugh, had been speculated about in Lovecraft's day), just beyond the clouds, or maybe even behind the eyes of a stranger...tying into that most oppressive fear of doubting one's own perception of the surrounding reality!
As chillingly convincing as can be his writings, Lovecraft avowed that he embraced no belief whatsoever in the supernatural. He was basically atheistic or agnostic, a self-proclaimed "scientific materialist" and he thoroughly prided himself on that implacable sense of the rational. "There is a certain order to the Universe," he said, "inviolable, of which I became aware even as a young child." One of his closest friends and colleague writers, the late Frank Belknap Long, stated in his biography of Lovecraft, Dreamer on the Night Side (Arkham House Publishers, 1975), Lovecraft was an extreme scientific materialist. He had no patience with anything that went contrary to what modern biochemistry or astrophysics or any other branch of science had revealed about the nature of the Universe, or life on this planet."
The sole offspring of an old, once affluent but fading New England family, young Howard was raised with an illusion, or suggestion of opulence. His father Winfield Scott Lovecraft who had been a salesman for the Gorham and Gorham Silver Company and often traveled for the business, in 1893 suffered a nervous collapse rumored, quite realistically it turned out, to have been brought on by syphilis. Scott was committed to Butler Psychiatric Hospital along Blackstone Boulevard on Providence's East Side, actually next to Swan Point Cemetery and not far from their home, and died there five years later in 1898. When Howard's maternal grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, died in 1904, the family was compelled to relocate from their spacious, Victorian manse at 454 Angell Street to a more modest dwelling down the street at 598 Angell. Later, Howard would reside there with two aunts on his mother's side, Annie Gamwell and Lillian Clark.
Howard's mother, Sarah Susan "Susie" Lovecraft, became increasingly and it could be said neurotically protective of her son, dressing him in girlish attire until his fifth or sixth year (though that was not so very unusual for the mid-to-late nineteenth century), and convincing the child that he should avoid the company of other children, due to his "homliness." (?) Herself committed to Butler Hospital in 1924, the same year as Howard's marriage to Sonia Haft Greene, a Russian Immigrant who was nine years his senior. They had met several years earlier at a literary soiree organized by Sonia. That union was dissolved after a two-years residence in Brooklyn, New York, during which span H.P. struggled to secure steady employment and pined with escalating despair and longing to return to his beloved Providence, RI.
In addition to his poetry and prose writing, H.P, Lovecraft maintained a formidable correspondence, during his abbreviated life having written what is estimated to have been in excess of 100,000 letters, many of those dozens of pages in length and some would be enhanced with his own illustrations. Naturally, whatever specimens of these missives still exist are quite valuable and highly prized by collectors. Some original, hand-written or typed manuscripts of his stories are preserved by the John Hay Library in Providence, which is located across the street from the main quadrant of Brown University, and can be viewed there upon request.
A chronic insomniac and prone to migraine headaches, Lovecraft by night walked the darkening streets of his home city, the East Side's College Hill section alluded to in his prose writings and some personal correspondences as the Ancient Hill, garnering inspiration for his haunting short stories and novellas which would be printed in the horror tabloids mostly found in newsstands and drugstores, or for regular readers by subscription. Probably the best remembered of these are J.C. Hennebergers's Weird Tales and Farnsworth Wright's Fantastic Stories. Decades later, at least ten of these Lovecraft works, including Pickman's Model, The Dunwich Horror, The Shuddered Room and Herbert West: Reanimator have been translated to made-for-television movies or theatrical releases, albeit with what many aficionados deem somewhat less than satisfactory results.
A couple of times there have emerged plans to produce a dramatic teleplay based on the life of H.P. Lovecraft. In the early 1990s, Rhode Island-born actor James Woods was approached to play H.P.L. and Adrienne Bar beau was considered for his Russian-born wife, Sonia. Ten or so years later, there was discussion of Johnny Depp to be cast as H.P.L. and Helena Bonham Carter as Sonia. That project apparently was overturned in favor those actors being featured in the motion 2010 Picture Dark Shadows, probably a prudent call! The Providence author's often reclusive life was the subject of an original play by Brett Rutherford--who had relocated from New York City to reside in Lovecraft Ian/Presque territory, entitled Night Gaunt, performed in the historic setting of Providence Athenaeum--a library several times visited by Edgar Allan Poe himself. Unfortunately, it seems that while he often was there, H.P.L, was unable to afford the library's membership fees. Presently a bust in the likeness of H.P. Lovecraft is displayed in the Providence Athenaeum, near the entrance.
One factor which delayed official recognition, or appreciation of H.P. Lovecraft in his native state of Rhode island and home city--he referred to himself as "as son of Providence--was the knowledge of his infamous, bigoted rantings which, unfortunately, in his younger adulthood he had expounded upon both in print and hand written letters. Much has been made of this, mostly because of the effusive, descriptive phrasing Lovecraft employed. Those prejudices reflected attitudes that were prevalent throughout his region, and perhaps the social class to which he aspired, during the first several decades of the twentieth century. In any serious study of Lovecraft's life it becomes apparent that he eventually discarded his misgivings about unfamiliar ethnicities and foreign cultures. Once he came to know someone whose family origins differed from his own, they were completely accepted. While certainly Lovecraft character cannot be earnestly defended nor excused for his more youthful predilections, and it was indeed indiscreet for him to have in any way recorded those anglophile diatribes, he couldn't have anticipated he would achieve such a measure of posthumous fame!
This brings us back to where I started. It is therefore rather poignant that H.P. Lovecraft succumbed to abdominal cancer and resultant nephritis, five months shy of his 47th birthday. In the last half a year of his life, Lovecraft and his aunts had just five hundred dollars with which to support themselves for their foreseeable futures. His grave in Swan Point, set next to those of his parents, was left unmarked (though his name is inscribed on the Egyptian-style, granite obelisk making the Phillips plot) for four decades until March, 1977 when a dedicated committee pooled its resources to purchase and have placed the modest, wedge-shaped headstone in the design of his parents', bearing the name Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the dates of his birth and death, and a now well-known quote from one of Lovecraft's letters to former neighbor Helen Solley, written while H.P. was still living in Brooklyn, NY and arranging to return: I AM PROVIDENCE.
H.P. Lovecraft had assumed that after his demise, his stories would fade into oblivion and soon be forgotten, along with their author. That well could have been the case, were it not for August Delete and Donald Wanderrie, who had been colleague writers and admirers of Lovecraft, having founded Arkham House Publishing in 1939, in Sauk City, Wisconsin. (The fictional New England town of Arkham, described as having been a colonial sipping port but with the passing of time degenerating into a murky haven for hidden horrors, was based on both Salem, Massachusetts and what had been the Port du Providence at Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.) The small company was originally formed to preserve the works of H.P. Lovecraft. These early efforts generated the proverbial acorn which grew into the mighty oak! A major contributor to Arkham House has been Sunland Tryambak Joshi, the preeminent Lovecraft biographer and essayist, author of Lovecraft: A Life (1996).
An annual H.P. Lovecraft tribute is organized by the writer of this article, which since the first presented on Sunday, March 15, 1987 observing the fiftieth anniversary of Lovecraft's passing, has become something of a Providence tradition. It has been noted that something "out of the ordinary" always seems to occur at these celebrations of H.P.L.'s literary legacy, often involving a sudden and eerie change in atmospheric conditions. At the service of tribute of March 14, 1998, despite the bright sunlight and partly cloudy sky, unanticipated snow flurries fell for the precise duration of a dirge being sung by an attractive young woman clad in an elegant, hooded, black velvet cloak. Once, a murder (flock) of crows gathered in branches of a nearby cedar tree, and engaged in a cacophony of loud cawing, synchronized with the readings of selections from Lovecraft stories. Maybe our late guest of honor, Mr. Lovecraft, was letting those present know of his bemusement at the posthumous honorarium, by augmenting the proceedings. But that is merely speculation, and of a decidedly "unscientific" nature!
This year's commemorative Service of Tribute recognizing the unique literary contributions of this unorthodox author of macabre fiction, and the eightieth anniversary of his passing, titled: "H.P. Lovecraft's Legacy" will take place on the front ground Ladd Observatory, 210 Doyle Avenue at the corner of Hope Street, Providence, Rhode Island, on Sunday, April 2, 2017, starting at 3 p.m. and continuing till 4 p.m. This event is open to free public attendance. Following the formal proceedings at Ladd Observatory, our tribute will conclude with a visit to H.P. Lovecraft's grave site located precisely 2 miles north in Swan Point Cemetery, 585 Blackstone Boulevard. A preliminary tour of the Observatory conducted by staff astronomers will be offered. For this occasion, attendees are welcomed and encouraged to dress in Gothic Victorian mode, or costume reflecting characters from the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. Should there be sustained rainfall during that hour, we will move the H.P.L. Service indoors. Presiding over the tribute as Master of Ceremonies will be Christian Henry Tobler, historian who makes his home in Oxford, CT. Mr. Tobler is the author of seven, scholarly and splendidly illustrated books on German medieval combat. A developer of computer applications for scientific software, he lectures and demonstrates authentic sword and hand-to-and combat techniques in the United States, Canada and Europe. He is also, of course, and Lovecraft and Poe enthusiast. I, the writer of this article who has "undertaken" to organize the literary tribute, and my twin brother Keith, are cousins to Mr. Lovecraft (2nd-cousins-twice-removed on our mother's side) which is a fact I discovered during my earliest research on H.P. Lovecraft, conducted in preparation for a previous version of this piece.
