Letters to Alfred Galpin

by S.T. Joshi, David E. Schultz (Editor)

Alfred Galpin (1901-1983) was among H. P. Lovecraft’s most brilliant and stimulating a youthful prodigy, he had already become so knowledgeable in literature and philosophy that by 1921 Lovecraft "He is intellectually exactly like me save in degree. In degree he is immensely my superior—-he is what I should like to be but have not brains enough to be." In this volume, Lovecraft's fascinating letters to his friend are collected for the first time, with footnotes and detailed commentary by the editors. Also included are the surviving letters to the Gallomo, a round-robin correspondence cycle including Galpin, Lovecraft, and Maurice W. Moe. In these letters we find fascinating accounts of Lovecraft’s dreams, remarks on the inspirations for his early horror tales, and further details on amateur journalism controversies. Lengthy letters written jointly to Galpin and Frank Belknap Long relate his travels along the eastern seaboard. As an appendix, a substantial amount of Galpin’s own writings—-some never-before published—-are included, shedding further light on the Lovecraft-Galpin relationship.

Genres: Nonfiction, Lovecraftian, Horror

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Sunand Tryambak Joshi is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections of their works.

His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.

Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.

In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.

Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.

In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.

Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.

Reviews

[Mark Redman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume of Lovecraft letters by Hippocampus press published in 2003. The letters cover over two decades starting in 1918 and the last letter by Lovecraft written in 1936. Altogether there are only 27 letters from Lovecraft to Galphin that survive - Galphin himself destroyed the others. From these 27 surviving letters we get an insight into a rich correspondence; from chemistry and astronomy to discussions about amature journalism, shared literary interests as well as some Lovecraft poetry.

`He is intellectually exactly like me save in degree. In degree he is immensely my superior - he is what I should like to be but have not the brains enough to be.'

Some of the letters give fascinating accounts of his travels to Salem, Marblehead, Quebec and Nantucket, debunking any myths that he was completely reclusive. The letters about his travels are every bit as interesting and insightful as anything Lovecraft wrote. Lovecraft also discusses fascinating accounts of dreams in which we get a full account of what would become the short stories `Statement of Randolph Carter' and `The Greenmeadow,' it is easy to see how Lovecraft was inspired by his dreams and turned them into early horror stories.

For me the best of the letters is one in which we get the poem called `Medusa - A Portrait.' This is a brilliant but venomous poem HPL sent as a rebuttal in feud between Ida C Haughton who was the current president of (UAPA). The poem by itself is very good, but when it's put into context I can't help but admire the way Lovecraft has the final word in this bitter feud.

Ultimately I enjoyed these letters for giving an insight into Lovecraft the man behind the cosmic horror stories. Our understanding of Lovecraft is all the richer for these letters. On the downside some of the letters are fragments, so for the most part you are only getting one part of the correspondence - that of Lovecraft, but don't let that put you off.

If you are a collector or avid fan of Lovecraft then these letters are a must, they are rich, insightful and revealing.