An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

HPL visited Hartford, Conn., in March 1933, seeing his ex-wife Sonia for the last time. Following his move to 66 College Street in May, HPL visited sites in Narragansett County, R.I., in a car driven by E.Hoffmann Price. The Longs came through Providence in late July and took HPL to Cape Cod, and he later visited Newport in the company of James F.Morton. HPL’s third trip to Quebec occurred in September; he also spent one day in Montreal. He again visited New York for New Year’s celebrations.

In mid-March 1934 HPL’s young friend R.H.Barlow invited HPL for an extended stay at his home in De Land, Fla. HPL accepted the offer, heading south the next month, spending time in New York and Charleston, and reaching De Land on May 2. He stayed until mid-June, after which he visited St. Augustine, Charleston, Richmond, Fredericksburg, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York; the Longs then took him to Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, N.J. In August HPL went with Cook and Edward H.Cole to Boston, Salem, and Marblehead. Later that month HPL visited Nantucket for the first time, being enchanted by the antiquities there and writing of his visit in “The Unknown City in the Ocean” ( Perspective Review,Winter 1934). HPL again spent New Year’s in New York City. HPL returned to Boston and Marblehead with Cole in May 1935. The next month HPL returned to Barlow’s Florida home, staying from June 9 to August 18. HPL then visited St. Augustine, Charleston, Richmond, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, reaching home on September 14. It would prove the last of HPL’s extensive summer travels, although he did visit various sites (including Cape Cod) with Cole in September, and New Haven, Conn., and Boston (with Samuel Loveman) in October. The end of the year saw HPL’s last New Year’s visit to New York City.

Most of 1936 was full of illness (both for HPL and for his aunt Annie), poverty, and grueling revision work, so HPL did little traveling. In July HPL managed to get to Newport; and when Maurice W.Moe and his son Robert visited later that month, they took HPL to Pawtuxet and other sites in Rhode Island. HPL visited an area called Squantum Woods, on the east shore of Narragansett

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Bay, in October, and later that month visited the Neutaconkanut woods three miles northwest of his home; but thereafter he became too ill to travel.

HPL’s travel writings—whether in letters or in formal travelogues—are some of his most engaging documents. Aside from the meticulousness with which he records the history and topography of his chosen sites, the thrill he experienced at visiting antiquarian havens from Quebec to Key West is infectiously transmitted to the reader. It is possible, with HPL’s travelogues of Charleston, Quebec, and other locales in hand, to follow his footsteps exactly. On one occasion HPL wrote out a detailed itinerary from memory of the antiquarian sites in Newport for his aunt Annie (letter dated September 1927; ms., JHL). The impressions HPL derived from his travels enter extensively into his fiction from as early as “The Festival” to such important tales as “The Silver Key,” “The Colour out of Space,” “The Dunwich Horror,” “The Whisperer in Darkness,” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth”; these tales (as well as those set in his native Providence—“The Shunned House,” “The Call of Cthulhu,” The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,and “The Haunter of the Dark”) establish HPL as a significant New England regionalist as well as a master of the horror tale.

“Travels in the Provinces of America.”

Essay (19,800 words); probably written in the fall of 1929. First published in MW

The second of HPL’s great travelogues (after “Observations on Several Parts of America” [1928]), covering his travels of the spring and summer of 1929. It covers HPL’s visits to Yonkers (Vrest Orton) and New Rochelle, N.Y.; Richmond, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, and Fredericksburg, Va.; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; West Shokan (Bernard Austin Dwyer), Kingston, Hurley, and New Paltz, N.Y.; Athol (W.Paul Cook) and Barre, Mass.

“Tree, The.”

Short story (1,640 words); written in the first half of 1920. First published in Tryout(October 1921); rpt. WT(August 1938); first collected in BWS;corrected text in D