An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

One of HPL’s most significant personal and philosophical essays, tracing the development of his rejection of orthodox Christianity from boyhood (when, under the influence of classical mythology, he actually thought he saw dryads and satyrs in the woods near his home) to maturity. HPL copied much of the essay in his autobiographical letter to Edwin Baird, February 3, 1924 ( SL1.299–302). Conover, Willis (1920–1996).

Weird fiction fan who corresponded with HPL (1936–37). Conover wished to start a fan magazine, the Science-Fantasy Correspondent,and asked HPL to contribute; HPL sent him “Homecoming” (a sonnet

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from Fungi from Yuggoth), which appeared in the first issue (November-December 1936). The poem “In a Sequestered Providence Churchyard Where Once Poe Walked” appeared in the March-April 1937 issue. Late in 1936 Conover expressed his intention to resume the serialization of “Supernatural Horror in Literature” from the point at which it had ceased in the Fantasy Fan;accordingly, HPL prepared a synopsis of the earlier segments (Conover later published this as a booklet, Supernatural Horror in Literature as Revised in 1936[Carrollton-Clark, 1974]). But Conover never ran “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” nor the celebrated portrait of HPL as an eighteenth-century gentleman, which he commissioned Virgil Finlay to draw; the latter appeared on the cover of the April 1937 issue of Amateur Correspondent,Corwin F.Stickney’s successor to Science-Fantasy Correspondent . In part as a result of HPL’s death, Conover lost his interest in weird fiction for many years. For much of his career he worked with the Voice of America. In 1975 he published his exquisitely printed memoir, Lovecraft at Last(Carrollton-Clark), containing extracts of his letters from HPL and much other interesting matter. He recommenced the Sci-ence-Fantasy Correspondent,but only for one issue (1975); that issue did, however, contain Kenneth Sterling’s fine memoir, “Caverns Measureless to Man,” along with additional letters by HPL.

See obituary, New York Times,May 19, 1996, Sec. I, p. 35.

Conservative, The.

Amateur magazine edited by HPL (1915–23). Rpt. (unabridged) as The Conservative: Complete (Necronomicon Press, 1976, 1977); selections as The Conservative,ed. S.T.Joshi (Necronomicon Press, 1990).

The magazine consists of 13 issues: 1, No. 1 (April 1915), 8 pp.; 1, No. 2 (July 1915), 12 pp.; 1, No. 3 (October 1915), 16 pp.; 1, No. 4 (January 1916), 4 pp.; 2, No. 1 (April 1916), 4 pp.; 2, No. 2 (July 1916), 4 pp.; 2, No. 3 (October 1916), 12 pp.; 2, No. 4 (January 1917), 4 pp.; 3, No. 1 (July 1917), 4 pp.; 4, No. 1 (July 1918), 8 pp.; 5, No. 1 (July 1919), 12 pp.; No. 12 (March 1923), 8 pp.; No. 13 (July 1923), 28 pp. [For complete table of contents, see S.T.Joshi, H.P.Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography(1981), pp. 173–77.]

The first issue was printed by an unidentified Providence printer. The next five issues were printed by The Lincoln Press (Albert A.Sandusky), Cambridge, Mass. The next three were printed locally, and W.Paul Cook printed the final four. HPL wrote most of the first three issues himself, but subsequently opened the magazine to prose and poetic contributions by his associates, including Rheinhart Kleiner, Winifred Virginia Jackson, Anne Tillery Renshaw, Alfred Galpin, Samuel Loveman, and others. The issue for July 1916 consists entirely of Henry Clapham McGavack’s essay “The American Proletariat versus England.” Beginning with the October 1916 issue, HPL instituted an editorial column entitled “In the Editor’s Study,” containing some of his most controversial political, social, and literary musings.

Rheinhart Kleiner reports on the effect of reading the first issue: “…many were immediately aware that a brilliant new talent had made itself known. The entire contents of the issue, both prose and verse, were the work of the editor, who obviously knew exactly what he wished to say, and no less exactly how to say it. The Conservativetook a unique place among the valuable publications of

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