An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

Poem (68 lines in 7 stanzas); written in late 1914. First published in the Acolyte(Summer 1944). The work is an English translation of a Latin translation of an eighth-century Runic poem printed in Hugh Blair’s A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian(1763), dealing with the military exploits of Regner Lodbrog. HPL relied heavily on an English paraphrase supplied by Blair of the final six stanzas; this is why the first stanza contains more deliberate gaps than the others. HPL quotes some lines of the Latin version as an epigraph to “The Teuton’s Battle-Song” ( United Amateur,February 1916). HPL misconstrued Blair’s remarks on Wormius (Ole Wurm, 1588–1654) and assumed that he dated to the thirteenth century; he is so mentioned when HPL attributes to him the Latin translation of the Necronomicon(see “History of the Necronomicon”).

See S.T.Joshi, “Lovecraft, Regner Lodbrog, and Olaus Wormius,” CryptNo. 89 (Eastertide 1995): 3– 7.

Reid, Dr.

In “Pickman’s Model,” a physician who, as a student of comparative pathology, ceased his acquaintance with the artist Richard Upton Pickman,

< previous page page_224 next page > < previous page page_225 next page >

Page 225

claiming (in Pickman’s indignant words) that the artist was “a sort of monster bound down the toboggan of reverse evolution.”

“Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson, A.”

Short story (2,060 words); probably written in the summer or fall of 1917. First published in the United Amateur(September 1917) as by “Humphry Littlewit, Esq.” First collected in Writings in the United Amateur(1976); corrected text in MW

The narrator, Littlewit, is entering his 228th year, having been born on August 20, 1690. He provides some familiar and not-so-familiar “reminiscences” of Johnson and of his literary circle—Boswell, Goldsmith, Gibbon, and others—all written in a meticulous re-creation of eighteenth-century English. Littlewit is the author of a periodical paper, The Londoner,like Johnson’s Rambler, Idler,and Adventurer,and—like HPL—he has a reputation for revising the poetry of others. He undertakes a revision of a poetic lampoon that Boswell directs toward him (this lampoon is actually found in the Life of Johnson). Much of the other information in the sketch is derived from Boswell’s biography or from Johnson’s own works.

Renshaw, Anne (Vyne) Tillery,

amateur journalist from Mississippi, instructor, and associate of HPL. Renshaw was a well-known figure in amateur journalism in the 1910s, publishing many poems (whose radicalism HPL chided in “Metrical Regularity” [ Conservative,July 1915] and “The Vers Libre Epidemic” [ Conservative,January 1917]) and editing The Pinfeather(for which HPL wrote “To the Members of the Pin-Feathers…,” November 1914), Ole Miss’(for which HPL wrote the essay “Systematic Instruction in the United” and the poem “A Mississippi Autumn,” both in the December 1915 issue), The Symphony(which published HPL’s poem “The Smile” [July 1916] and about which HPL wrote in the essay “Symphony and Stress” [ Conservative,October 1915]), and other papers. HPL was assistant editor for The Credential,a paper designed to publish the work of new amateurs, edited by Renshaw; only one issue (April 1920) is known to have been published. In late 1916 HPL, Renshaw, and Mrs. J.G.Smith (about whom nothing is known) teamed up to form the Symphony Literary Service, apparently a professional revision service; this appears to be the first time HPL engaged in such an enterprise, but the service does not seem to have lasted for very long. In 1919 HPL supported Renshaw’s successful candidacy for Official Editor of the UAPA (“For Official Editor—Anne Tillery Renshaw,” Conservative, July 1919). HPL met Renshaw for the first time in Boston on August 17, 1921. At that time she was teaching at the Curry School of Expression; some time previously she had been head of the English department at Research University in Washington, D.C. On April 11, 1925, Renshaw, back in Washington, drove HPL, George Kirk, and Edward L.Sechrist around the city on a sightseeing tour. Some evidence suggests that HPL may have been doing further work for Renshaw in a revisory capacity during the late 1920s. Little is heard of her until early 1936, when Renshaw, now running her own school of speech, proposed to HPL the revision of a manual on speech and grammar, entitled Well-Bred Speech. HPL undertook an exhaustive revision of Renshaw’s very crude draft, writing entire chapters (including those on “Words Frequently Mispronounced,” “Bromides