1921
Mother dies at Butler Hospital on May 24 following gall bladder surgery. Lillian Clark, his widowed maternal aunt, moves in with Lovecraft and Annie Gamwell. At the national convention of the National Amateur Press Association (NAPA), held in Boston July 2–4, Lovecraft meets Sonia Haft Greene. (Born Sonia Haft Shafirkin in the Ukraine in 1883, Greene works as a manager at a Manhattan women’s clothing store.) Writes to Kleiner: “Mrs. G. has an acute, receptive, and well-stored mind; but has yet to learn that impersonal point of view which weighs evidence irrespective of its palatability.” Sonia Greene visits Lovecraft in Providence, September 4–5. During the year Lovecraft writes several stories, including “The Nameless City,” “The Quest of Iranon,” “The Outsider,” “The Other Gods,” “The Music of Erich Zann,” and begins “Herbert West—Reanimator”; he also writes three essays explicating his materialist philosophical beliefs (posthumously published as “In Defense of Dagon”).
1922
“Herbert West—Reanimator” appears in Home Brew, February–July, the first professional publication of his fiction. Sees Loveman, Kleiner, Long, and amateur journalist James Morton during visit to New York, April 6–12, arranged by Sonia Greene. In a letter to Moe, Lovecraft praises the “mystical sight” of the city skyline while expressing revulsion at the “stewing mongrel flesh” of the Lower East Side. Visits Gloucester and Magnolia, Massachusetts, with Sonia Greene, June 26–July 5, and then goes to Cleveland, July 30–August 15, where he sees Galpin and Loveman and meets their friend Hart Crane. Initiates correspondence with artist and poet Clark Ashton Smith, whose artwork has been shown to him by Loveman: “What a world of opiate phantasy & horror is here unveiled, & what an unique power and perspective must lie behind it!” Returns to New York in mid-August and spends two months there as Sonia Greene’s guest, living in her apartment at 259 Parkside Avenue in Brooklyn while she stays with a neighbor. Appointed interim president of the NAPA in late November. Visits Marblehead, Massachusetts, in mid-December and is elated by its colonial architecture. (Later writes of viewing the town at sunset: “In a flash all the past of New England—all the past of Old England—all the past of Anglo-Saxondom and the Western World—swept over me . . . That was the high tide of my life.”) In the course of the year writes “Hypnos,” “What the Moon Brings,” “Azathoth,” “The Horror at Martin’s Beach” (with Sonia Greene), “The Hound,” and “The Lurking Fear.”
1923
Visits the Salem-Marblehead area three times between February and April. Revives The Conservative for two issues in March and June. After first issue of Weird Tales appears in March, Lovecraft submits “Dagon,” “Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family,” “The Cats of Ulthar,” “The Hound,” and “The Statement of Randolph Carter” to the magazine; all of them are accepted. Discovers the weird fiction of Welsh writer Arthur Machen. Visited in Providence by Sonia Greene in July and by Moe in August. Travels to Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Marblehead; and Chepachet and Pascoag, Rhode Island, during the summer. Writes “The Rats in the Walls,” “The Unnamable,” and “The Festival,” and revises three weird stories by Providence writer Clifford M. Eddy Jr. for publication in Weird Tales.
1924
Marries Sonia Greene on March 3 at St. Paul’s Chapel in lower Manhattan. In a letter to his aunt Lillian announcing the marriage, Lovecraft writes that Sonia is “the most inspiriting and encouraging influence that could possibly be brought to bear on me . . .” Ghostwrites “Under the Pyramids,” story published in Weird Tales under Harry Houdini’s name. Declines offer to become the editor of Weird Tales. Meets weekly with a group, later known as the Kalem Club, that includes Kleiner, Long, Morton, Arthur Leeds, Everett McNeil, and George Kirk. Enjoys walking around New York at night looking for 18th-century buildings. Writes “The Shunned House” in October. Reads Algernon Blackwood’s story “The Willows,” which he calls “perhaps the most devastating piece of supernaturally hideous suggestion which I have beheld in a decade.” Works briefly as a salesman for a collection agency, but is unable to find a job in publishing. On December 31 Sonia moves to Cincinnati to work for a department store, while Lovecraft moves into a one-room apartment at 169 Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights.
1925
Sonia leaves Cincinnati job and returns to Brooklyn, February 23–March 19, then goes to Sarasota Springs, New York, for a rest cure. Lovecraft explores New York City, Long Island, and northern New Jersey on his own and with members of the Kalem Club. Ends involvement with the increasingly inactive UAPA. Sonia returns to Brooklyn for a visit, June 9–July 24. Lovecraft writes “The Horror at Red Hook,” “He,” and “In the Vault,” August– September, and begins work on essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” In November Sonia takes job with a department store in Cleveland.
1926
Writes “Cool Air.” Sonia visits, February 15–March 5. Lovecraft decides to leave New York and writes to his aunt Lillian: “What I want are rest & oblivion—or at least, a seclusion amidst ancient scenes wherein I may cast off the actual modern world in a quiet round of reading, writing, & pilgrimages to quaint & historick places. I want to dream in an atmosphere of my childhood . . .” Returns to Providence on April 17 and takes apartment at 10 Barnes Street, in the same building as his aunt Lillian. Begins correspondence with younger writers August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. Revises story “Two Black Bottles” for Wilfred B. Talman. Writes “The Call of Cthulhu,” “Pickman’s Model,” “The Silver Key,” “The Strange High House in the Mist,” and begins fantasy novella “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.”
1927
Finishes “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” in January (novel remains unpublished during his lifetime). Between January and March, writes novella “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (also unpublished during his lifetime) and “The Colour Out of Space,” which he will describe as his favorite among his stories. Sells “The Colour Out of Space” to Hugo Gernsback, editor of Amazing Stories, for $25, and it is published in the September issue. Visits Newport, Boston, Salem, and Marblehead with Wandrei in July. “Supernatural Horror in Literature” appears in The Recluse. (“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown.”) Tours New England in late August. Writes “The Very Old Folk” and begins doing revision work for Adolphe de Castro, a former associate of Ambrose Bierce. “The Horror at Red Hook” appears in the British anthology You’ll Need a Night Light, edited by Christine Campbell Thomson, the first hardcover publication of Lovecraft’s work.
1928
“The Colour Out of Space” is listed on the “Roll of Honor” in Edward J. O’Brien’s annual anthology Best Short Stories. Ghostwrites “The Curse of Yig” for Zealia Bishop. Stays with Sonia for six weeks in the spring at 395 East 16th Street, Brooklyn, while she attempts to establish a hat shop in the neighborhood. Visits Vermont, Massachusetts, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and the Endless Caverns in New Market, Virginia, during the summer, and writes “Observations on Several Parts of America” about his travels. Writes “The Dunwich Horror” in August and sells it to Weird Tales for $240.
1929
When Sonia seeks a divorce, Lovecraft institutes proceedings in Rhode Island on grounds of desertion but never signs the final decree. Spends three weeks in New York in April, then visits Virginia colonial sites, Washington, and upstate New York; writes “Travels in the Provinces of America” after returning to Providence. Takes sightseeing airplane flight over Buzzards Bay during visit to Cape Cod in August. “The Call of Cthulhu” appears in anthology Beware After Dark!, edited by T. Everett Harré. Writes “Fungi from Yuggoth,” a sequence of 36 sonnets, at the end of the year.
1930
Ghostwrites “The Mound” for Zealia Bishop. Visits Charleston, South Carolina, April 28–May 9, and then returns by way of Richmond and New York City, where he sees paintings of the Himalayas by Russian artist Nicholas Roerich and meets Hart Crane again at
Loveman’s apartment. (Writes to aunt Lillian: “When he entered, his discourse was of alcoholics in various phases . . . but as soon as a bit of poetic & philosophical discussion sprang up, this sordid side of his strange dual personality slipped off like a cloak, & left him as a man of great scholarship, intelligence, & aesthetic taste, who can argue as interestingly & profoundly as anyone I have ever seen.”) Ghostwrites “Medusa’s Coil” for Zealia Bishop. Visits Kingston, New York, and Athol, Massachusetts, before returning to Providence in mid-June. Writes “An Account of Charleston.” Attends NAPA convention in Boston in July. Begins extensive correspondence with pulp writer Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Cimmerian. (Writes to Howard in October: “I agree with what you say about suggestion as the highest form of horror-presentation. The basis of all true cosmic horror is always violation of the order of nature, and the profoundest violations are always the least concrete and describable.”) Visits Quebec City; writes to Clark Ashton Smith: “Never before have I seen such a place, & never do I expect to again! All my former standards of urban beauty are superseded & obsolete.” Completes story “The Whisperer in Darkness” in September and receives $350 from Weird Tales for it. Corresponds with pulp writer Henry Whitehead.
1931
Completes lengthy travelogue “A Description of the Town of Quebeck” in January. Writes novella “At the Mountains of Madness,” February–March; it is rejected by Farnsworth Wright, the editor of Weird Tales. Begins correspondence with Joseph Vernon Shea and with 13-year-old Robert Hayward Barlow, who later serves as his literary executor. Winfield Shiras, an editor at G. P. Putnam’s Sons, asks Lovecraft to send him stories for a possible collection, then rejects them. (Lovecraft writes to Shea in August: “The grounds for rejection were twofold—first, that some of the tales are not subtle enough . . . & secondly, that all the tales are too uniformly macabre in mood to stand collected publication.” Earlier in the same letter, he writes: “There is no field other than the weird in which I have any aptitude or inclination for fictional composition. Life has never interested me so much as the escape from life.”) Leaves in early May on southern trip to Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Miami, and Key West, returning to Providence in late July. Visits New York City, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire in the fall. Writes “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” November–December. “The Music of Erich Zann” is included in anthology Creeps by Night, edited by Dashiell Hammett. Begins writing for the “Bureau of Critics” column of the National Amateur (continues contributions until December 1935).
1932
Writes “The Dreams in the Witch House,” January–February, and sells it to Weird Tales for $140. Submits several stories to Vanguard Press for a possible collection, but they are rejected. Leaves in May on visit to New York, Washington, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, New Orleans (where he meets pulp writer E. Hoffmann Price), Mobile, Atlanta, Richmond, and Philadelphia. Returns to Providence on July 1. Aunt Lillian Clark dies on July 3. Writes to Moe: “The vacuum created in this household is easy to imagine, since my aunt was its presiding genius and animating spirit.” Begins ghostwriting stories for Hazel Heald (will write or revise five stories for her in 1932–33). Travels to Boston, Montreal, and Quebec, August–September, and to Salem and Marblehead in October. Begins major revision of E. Hoffmann Price’s “Through the Gates of the Silver Key,” a sequel to Lovecraft’s 1926 story “The Silver Key.” Visits Long in New York after Christmas (will continue annual New Year’s visits to Long until 1935–36).
1933
Joins Sonia in Hartford, Connecticut, for two days in March, the last time they see each other. Completes revision of “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” in April. Begins correspondence with 16-year-old Robert Bloch and encourages him to write fiction. (Bloch will become a prolific writer of horror, crime, and science fiction stories, including the novel Psycho.) Moves with his aunt Annie into a five-room apartment at 66 College Street in May. Visited in July by Helen Sully, a friend of Clark Ashton Smith, and begins correspondence with her. Writes “The Thing on the Doorstep” in August. Travels to Quebec and Montreal in September. Allen Ullman, an editor at Alfred A. Knopf, considers a collection of Lovecraft stories but eventually rejects the idea. Revised version of “Supernatural Horror in Literature” is partially serialized in The Fantasy Fan, appearing between October 1933 and February 1935, when the magazine ceases publication. Writes 3,000-word autobiography, “Some Notes on a Nonentity,” in late November.
1934
Leaves Providence in mid-April and visits New York and Charleston before arriving on May 2 in De Land, Florida, where he stays with Robert Hayward Barlow and his family until June 21. Returns to Providence in early July by way of Charleston, Richmond, Washington, and Philadelphia. Travels through New England in late summer and spends a week on Nantucket. Begins novella “The Shadow Out of Time” in November.
1935
Completes “The Shadow Out of Time” in February after going through several drafts. August Derleth proposes to his publishers Loring & Mussey that they issue a collection of Lovecraft’s works, but they reject the idea. Lovecraft visits Barlow in Florida, June 9–August 18, then travels through Charleston, Washington, and New York before returning to Providence in mid-September. Revises “The Diary of Alonzo Typer” for William Lumley. Astounding Stories buys “At the Mountains of Madness” and “The Shadow Out of Time.” (Lovecraft writes to Shea that the $595 earned from the two sales “is a veritable life-saver, for I was never closer to the bread-line than this year.”) Writes “The Haunter of the Dark” in early November.
1936
Collaborates with Kenneth Sterling on “In the Walls of Eyrx.” Edits and revises booklet Well Bred Speech for Anne Tillery Renshaw. After Howard commits suicide on June 11, Lovecraft writes “In Memoriam: Robert Ervin Howard,” which appears in Fantasy Magazine in September. (Writes to E. Hoffmann Price: “It is hard to describe precisely what made his stories stand out so—but the real secret is that he was in every one of them, whether they were ostensibly commercial or not.”) Barlow visits Providence, July 28–September 1, and Lovecraft works with him on the story “The Night Ocean.” Corresponds with artist Virgil Finlay, Willis Conover, a young science fiction fan, and young science fiction writers Henry Kuttner, James Blish, and Fritz Leiber. “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” with woodcut illustrations by Frank Utpatel, is published in book form by William Crawford under the imprint of the Visionary Publishing Co.; only 200 copies are bound, and few are sold.
1937
Becomes seriously ill in January from cancer of the small intestine and kidney failure. Enters Jane Brown Memorial Hospital on March 10. Dies at 7:15 A.M. on March 15. After a service in the chapel of the Horace B. Knowles funeral home, Lovecraft is buried with his parents in Swan Point Cemetery on March 18.
Note on the Texts
This volume contains 22 tales by H. P. Lovecraft, written between 1919 and 1935 and arranged in approximate chronological order of composition. The texts of these tales have been taken, with one exception, from three collections of Lovecraft’s works edited by S. T. Joshi: The Dunwich Horror and Others (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1984), At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels (Arkham House, 1985), and Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (Arkham House, 1986). “The Shadow Out of Time” is reprinted from The Shadow Out of Time (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2003), edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz.
The Joshi editions present texts of Lovecraft’s works that attempt to reflect his original intentions as closely as possible, based on an examination of extant manuscripts, typescripts, periodical appearances, and book editions. Of the 22 tales in this volume, the Joshi texts of 17 are based on manuscript and/or typescript copies in the John Hay Library at Brown University, and one is taken from a typescript in a private collection. For the texts of three, the source is the magazine Weird Tales. One tale, “The Shunned House,” is reprinted from a privately published book edition.
Lov
ecraft published widely in magazines, but evidence suggests that his editors often revised his work without consulting him. He did not publish a collected edition of his works, and aside from a number of stories that were anthologized, only two of the tales included in this volume appeared in book form during his lifetime, both of them in private press limited editions: The Shunned House (Athol, Massachusetts: The Recluse Press, 1928)—of which, out of a printing of 300 sets of unbound sheets, only a handful of copies were bound during Lovecraft’s lifetime—and Shadow Over Innsmouth (Everett, Pennsylvania: Visionary Publishing, 1936), of which 400 copies were printed and 200 bound. The remaining 20 tales included in this volume first appeared in book form in the posthumous collections The Outsider and Others (Arkham House, 1939) and Beyond the Wall of Sleep (Arkham House, 1943).
The following is a list of the tales included in this volume, indicating the collection from which each has been reprinted, the source on which its text is based, the first publications, and the probable date of composition, as established by S. T. Joshi in H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (West Warwick, Rhode Island: Necronomicon Press, 1996).
Dunwich The Dunwich Horror and Others, S. T. Joshi, ed. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1984). Corrected eleventh printing.
The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft Page 96