1 00:00:01,200 --> 00:00:04,160 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:14,040 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,959 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and we 4 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:20,960 Speaker 1: recently spent a weekend at Salt Lake Comic Con Fanics, 5 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 1: and we sat on some panels and we had a 6 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:26,319 Speaker 1: live stuff you Missed in History Class show. We sure did. 7 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: This particular show has been requested a number of times, 8 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,199 Speaker 1: often at Halloween time, but we did it as a 9 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:35,160 Speaker 1: live show at a science fiction and fantasy pop culture 10 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:38,559 Speaker 1: you kind of convention instead. Plus every day is every 11 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: day is Halloween in my books, that's true. It's also 12 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: been on Holly's wish list for a while. So we 13 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: dived into the odd, sad, fascinating life of HP Lovecraft. Yep, 14 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:51,720 Speaker 1: and this one ran a little bit long. I was 15 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: actually worried that we would run over our panel time 16 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: and not get finished, but we managed. So we'll hop 17 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: right into it and let the listeners that were not 18 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:07,959 Speaker 1: at Panic get to hear it. Hi, you guys are awesome, 19 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: Thank you for being here. Yes, oh I should. I 20 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:12,520 Speaker 1: want to take your picture. But the there's a lot 21 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: of light, that glary light. It's not gonna do so sure, 22 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,160 Speaker 1: that's great. Okay, So we're gonna give you a warning 23 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:24,039 Speaker 1: up front to in fact one, if you love love Craft, 24 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:27,480 Speaker 1: which I'm presuming a lot of you do, we're not 25 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: going to talk a lot about his writing because his 26 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:33,039 Speaker 1: life is fascinating and weird. Um, and you'll kind of 27 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: I don't know how much how much of any of 28 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:37,760 Speaker 1: you know about his life story and his biography, but 29 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: if you start looking at that, it really becomes a 30 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,759 Speaker 1: parent where his writing comes from. So we're focusing on 31 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:48,320 Speaker 1: his life because that's the thing. Uh. Second, I wrote 32 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: this outline for today and it runs a little bit long, 33 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:52,640 Speaker 1: so we're gonna have to buzz through and hopefully we'll 34 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: have time for questions at the end. But if we don't, 35 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, and it's my fault, and you can chase 36 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: me and pelt me with garbage. Also, if you got 37 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:05,120 Speaker 1: that reference, I love you anybody, No old old letterman. Um, 38 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: they've pelted at us with rocks and garbage. No okay, Um, 39 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: that came on past my bedtime. I didn't have a bedtime. 40 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,160 Speaker 1: Much like HP Lovecraft, laves are different. We're going to 41 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:19,000 Speaker 1: talk about that. My life was like the opposite of 42 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:24,840 Speaker 1: HP Lovecraft. It's in terms of rules and structure and nutrition. Yeah, 43 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: all of which no joke, y'all. Um, we're going to 44 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 1: talk about that in a minute. So we will hop 45 00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:33,160 Speaker 1: right in. Should we say the thing about Hello and 46 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,679 Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast? Yes, Hello and welcome to the podcast. 47 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and I'm 48 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: going to take off my glasses because I'm a little 49 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:44,239 Speaker 1: bit blund and I can't read up close, and I'm 50 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:46,720 Speaker 1: old and I don't want to admit it. Um. They 51 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: have a thing called bifocals. I have two pair. I'm 52 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,960 Speaker 1: young and vibrant. It's not bifocals time. It's totally bifocals time. 53 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: I'm hagging out. But I have special ones that are 54 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:01,639 Speaker 1: just for the computer. Uh So, we're gonna hop right 55 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: in and start talking about the amazing, astonishing, weird, troubling, 56 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about the difficult stuff. Um, 57 00:03:09,639 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 1: there's some racism dot coming, so brace uh So. Howard 58 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: Phillips Lovecraft was born on August eighteen ninety two Winfield 59 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:20,920 Speaker 1: Scott Lovecraft and Susie Phillips Lovecraft, and when he was 60 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 1: still a toddler in things already started to get weird 61 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: because his father, Winfield, began having very intense hallucinations. And 62 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 1: he first evidenced this problem when he was on a 63 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,680 Speaker 1: business trip in Chicago and he was in his hotel 64 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:38,360 Speaker 1: room and started crying out that a maid had insulted him. 65 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 1: There was no maid there, and that his wife was 66 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: being assaulted on the next floor up. But Susie had 67 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: not traveled with him on this trip. There was no 68 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: maid in the room. None of this was his wife 69 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: was not there. Over the course of the next five years, 70 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: Winfield loved Craft's illness waxed and Wayne and the family 71 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:01,360 Speaker 1: lawyer Albert eve Baker, assumed legal guardian ship over him. 72 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,400 Speaker 1: He was placed in a mental institution and he remained 73 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: institutionalized until his death on July nineteenth of eighteen nine. 74 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 1: And there have been lots of theories about what was 75 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:15,240 Speaker 1: behind his hallucinations and his obvious mental illness, and a 76 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:20,000 Speaker 1: lot of doctors and historians believe that though his cause 77 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:23,280 Speaker 1: of death was listed as general parissus, that he really 78 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,400 Speaker 1: died of syphilis. And so Susie and Howard, now with 79 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:31,640 Speaker 1: no husband or father, moved in with Susie's parents, Whipple 80 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: and Robie Phillips at four fifty four Angel Street in Providence, 81 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: Rhode Island, and Howard had actually been born in this house. Uh. 82 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,240 Speaker 1: Susie had traveled there to her parents home when she 83 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: was due, even though she and Winfield at the time 84 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: we're living just south of Boston. So weird for me 85 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,760 Speaker 1: to think of him as Howard as I did this 86 00:04:50,839 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 1: research and started talking about him, like to my husband 87 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: or friends, as I was discovering things would be like 88 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:57,160 Speaker 1: and then Howard did this, and they would be like, 89 00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:00,200 Speaker 1: who's Howard about hpl crap? They're like, he said, love 90 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:05,039 Speaker 1: grabbed Mike. He's Howard to me. So so, the stress 91 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:08,760 Speaker 1: of losing her husband caused Susie's own mental health to 92 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:13,160 Speaker 1: also decline. She became really obsessed with her son as 93 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:15,800 Speaker 1: all that she had left in the world, and she 94 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 1: was also not the only adult to be doating on him. 95 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:23,720 Speaker 1: His aunts and his grandparents also really indulged him and 96 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 1: cherished him. Yes, Susie had two sisters, and she's routinely 97 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: described as sort of the dippy one um, which is 98 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:34,560 Speaker 1: kind of sad and cute at the same time, but 99 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: Susie's adoration of young Howard definitely crossed into really extreme territory. 100 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: For example, she allowed him to eat whatever he wanted, 101 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,440 Speaker 1: and she should never do with a child. Um. So 102 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:48,960 Speaker 1: like if you ask a five year old what they 103 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:51,120 Speaker 1: want to eat, the cake and ice cream, which is 104 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: exactly what he ate a great deal of as a child, 105 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:56,720 Speaker 1: so his nutrition really suffered. Uh. And he also had 106 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: no set schedule for sleeping, so no bedtime, no wake 107 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:01,440 Speaker 1: up time. He just kind of lived on his own 108 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:05,159 Speaker 1: little vampire hours. She also kept his hair. I like 109 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:09,360 Speaker 1: that you said, vampire hours. She also kept his hair 110 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 1: and long curls until he was six, although he asked 111 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 1: to have them cut off way before that. And then 112 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:18,080 Speaker 1: once she did cut off his hair, she would talk 113 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:22,279 Speaker 1: about how ugly it made him, which bothered him understandably 114 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:24,240 Speaker 1: for the rest of his life. If you ever read 115 00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:27,160 Speaker 1: accounts of neighbors there, I'll be all kind of discuss 116 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:30,280 Speaker 1: how Susie just constantly told them how ugly her child was, 117 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:32,719 Speaker 1: which is such a terrible thing to do to a 118 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:36,360 Speaker 1: kid about his hair. It will even beyond that. She 119 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 1: would describe his face and be like, oh, it's long 120 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,159 Speaker 1: and pointy and which is Susie did it wrong. She 121 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:45,039 Speaker 1: is not a model of parenthood. But this lack of 122 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:48,000 Speaker 1: structure and emotional stability in his life, I think he 123 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: said stability. What he said stability? I said, what stability 124 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:55,160 Speaker 1: should I not have? It was instability? Well, I said, 125 00:06:55,160 --> 00:07:00,960 Speaker 1: the lack of structure. So I'm told this happens in 126 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:04,839 Speaker 1: the studio every time. Uh, normally it's the opposite. I 127 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,920 Speaker 1: got overconfident, right, yeah, sometimes it's mean, it gets overconfident. 128 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: It's good, that's good. So, yeah, he didn't have stability. 129 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: He didn't have structure. But the good news, I suppose, 130 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: is that it did not keep him from developing into 131 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: a really incredibly bright child. He was sort of a 132 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: sponge for information. He started reading allegedly around age three, uh, 133 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: and his grandparents books. Their book collection was extensive. They 134 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,280 Speaker 1: had a really lovely library and he basically burned through 135 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,360 Speaker 1: that as a kid. He also started writing as a 136 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,120 Speaker 1: at a really young age. One of the first stories 137 00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:40,280 Speaker 1: that he wrote he did when he was five or six, 138 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: and it was around the same time that his grandmother died. 139 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: He called it The Little Glass Bottle. And in this story, 140 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: a sea captain finds a distress note floating in a bottle, 141 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:54,080 Speaker 1: and he follows the map that's included in there to 142 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 1: try to find the person who's in distress. When he 143 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: gets there, he finds another bottle with another out, and 144 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:03,920 Speaker 1: that note says, quote, dear searcher, excuse me for the 145 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:06,400 Speaker 1: practical joke I have played on you, but it serves 146 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: you right. And then the captain says that he would 147 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:15,600 Speaker 1: like to kick the prankster's head off the end. Uh So, 148 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: while we said we were going to talk about his writing, 149 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:19,200 Speaker 1: you know, it's a five or six year old. That's 150 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: some pretty impressive work, I suppose. Uh. He only attended 151 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: school with other children for a year initially before his 152 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:28,680 Speaker 1: mother withdrew him, So he was also missing out on 153 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 1: some pretty important formative social interaction with peers during this time. 154 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:35,520 Speaker 1: And the precise reason that he stayed out of school 155 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: is not entirely clear. Uh. He stayed out for two years, 156 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: and he was a very nervous child, and usually that 157 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: anxiety that manifested in a number of physical ways is 158 00:08:46,679 --> 00:08:49,199 Speaker 1: referenced as the reason he was probably not going to school. 159 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,760 Speaker 1: But it is also just as possible that Susie was 160 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: really struggling with this idea of separation and letting her 161 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:58,640 Speaker 1: son go off to school and be an entity outside 162 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:01,960 Speaker 1: of herself that did not depend on her. Uh, particularly 163 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:04,319 Speaker 1: after her husband's breakdown in death. This was all I mean, 164 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:07,360 Speaker 1: within a few years of her husband dying, And so 165 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:10,240 Speaker 1: in any case, he was during that time schooled at 166 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:14,680 Speaker 1: home and tutored both by professional tutors and by his relatives. 167 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:20,520 Speaker 1: During these two years of home schooling, he discovered Edgar 168 00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:24,840 Speaker 1: Allan Poe, and he also learned about sex from medical textbooks, 169 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: which made him decide it was completely unappealing. He did 170 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:31,120 Speaker 1: not like that idea at all, and he started writing 171 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:34,840 Speaker 1: longer and more developed pieces of pros. He went back 172 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,240 Speaker 1: to school in nineteen o two when he was twelve. Yeah. 173 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:41,480 Speaker 1: That uh, that learning set about sex from medical texts 174 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 1: really really messed with his head for the rest of 175 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: his life. But the next big thing that happened at 176 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:50,280 Speaker 1: this point was when he was fourteen, his grandfather, who 177 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:53,400 Speaker 1: he really adored, died suddenly. And his grandfather really is 178 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:55,720 Speaker 1: often credited as the person that introduced him to like 179 00:09:56,280 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: stories of the supernatural and ghost stories and taught him 180 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:01,440 Speaker 1: not to be afraid of the dark, and so they 181 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:05,440 Speaker 1: had this relationship that then was suddenly severed, and the family, 182 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,560 Speaker 1: which was already struggling financially, then had to sell the 183 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:11,280 Speaker 1: large house that they were living in, and for the 184 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:15,240 Speaker 1: first time in his life, as he remembered it, Howard, 185 00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:18,160 Speaker 1: who moved into another, much smaller home with his mother, 186 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:22,040 Speaker 1: then had to experience life without just vast expanses of 187 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:24,640 Speaker 1: square footage to explore and play in, and with no 188 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,560 Speaker 1: servants to attend to him. He really dreaded going to 189 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: high school, but once he got there, he actually kind 190 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:34,160 Speaker 1: of enjoyed it. He got along with most of his peers, 191 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:38,079 Speaker 1: and he did relatively well scholastically, despite having a constant 192 00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:41,160 Speaker 1: struggle with getting to school on time, maybe because he 193 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:45,000 Speaker 1: didn't have a bad time, and his writing took another 194 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:49,440 Speaker 1: leap forward, his literary voice started to really develop. Yeah 195 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:52,200 Speaker 1: nineteen o five, he wrote a piece called The Beast 196 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:53,960 Speaker 1: in the Cave, and this told the story of a 197 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:56,400 Speaker 1: man who's lost in a cave and he is being 198 00:10:56,440 --> 00:10:59,960 Speaker 1: tailed by some sort of creature and this person eventually killed. 199 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,640 Speaker 1: Is this eight like beast that's following him, only to 200 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:05,880 Speaker 1: realize that it was actually something that had once been human, 201 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:08,439 Speaker 1: And then he wrote the picture in nineteen o seven, 202 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:12,280 Speaker 1: which is about this artist that paints this monstrous beast 203 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:15,560 Speaker 1: and then has later found killed, presumably by the same 204 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: beast that he had created on canvas. And then in 205 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 1: nineteen o eight he penned a twenty word tale which 206 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:26,960 Speaker 1: was titled The Alchemist, in which a French aristocrat inherited 207 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: a cursed castle. And in each of these posed influences 208 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:35,000 Speaker 1: really really evident, but Lovecraft's own literary voice really can 209 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:39,000 Speaker 1: be seen in its infancy. Lovecrafts schooling continued to be 210 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:42,040 Speaker 1: kind of inconsistent. He stayed out of high school for 211 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:45,280 Speaker 1: a year following the nineteen o four nine to five 212 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,600 Speaker 1: school year, and that later was attributed to having a 213 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:52,199 Speaker 1: nervous breakdown. But that year is also when he started 214 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:56,840 Speaker 1: producing his first published writing, although it wasn't fiction yet. Yeah. 215 00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:00,320 Speaker 1: First he had two letters published, one in the Evidence 216 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:05,400 Speaker 1: Journal in which he condemned astrology and another in Scientific 217 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: American calling for the cooperation of the astronomy community in 218 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:13,400 Speaker 1: the hunt for objects beyond Neptune. And then he began 219 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:17,160 Speaker 1: writing a series of astronomy articles for the Pawtuxet Valley 220 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:21,360 Speaker 1: Gleaner and for the Providence Evening Tribune. When he got 221 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: back to high school, he didn't take a full course load. 222 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:28,360 Speaker 1: He took chemistry, algebra, and physics only, although he wound 223 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: up dropping his algebra course after the first quarter. That 224 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:35,160 Speaker 1: was his last year of school. He never actually graduated, 225 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,880 Speaker 1: and although he later wrote as though he h as 226 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:41,640 Speaker 1: though he did, saying quote, I suffered a nervous collapse 227 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:46,440 Speaker 1: immediately after graduating, which prevented altogether my attending college. And 228 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:49,679 Speaker 1: he would also later write that quote A cultivated family 229 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:53,040 Speaker 1: is the best school, and that he was unconcerned about 230 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:56,000 Speaker 1: those gaps in his formal education, but that sentiment was 231 00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:59,120 Speaker 1: going to change as he aged. Bixt up, we will 232 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:02,640 Speaker 1: talk about Lovecrafts poor health, but first we will take 233 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:11,079 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. So the precise nature of love Crafts 234 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:15,720 Speaker 1: delicate health is pretty unclear. So he complained a lot 235 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:19,320 Speaker 1: of a variety of physical maladies throughout his life, such 236 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:23,600 Speaker 1: as chronic indigestion and headaches and fatigue in addition to 237 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:27,160 Speaker 1: his depression and nervousness, and the jumble of symptoms that 238 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:30,520 Speaker 1: he described really could be attributed to any number of problems, 239 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 1: but no doctor ever gave a comprehensive diagnosis uh So, 240 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:38,560 Speaker 1: theories after the fact have mentioned everything from hypochondria to 241 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:42,840 Speaker 1: something like hyperinsulinism. He kept complaining of just a general 242 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:46,439 Speaker 1: weakness of health throughout his life, although he didn't usually 243 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:48,800 Speaker 1: go to the doctor to get medical attention for it, 244 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:51,880 Speaker 1: and it's possible that his poor health was at least 245 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,720 Speaker 1: partially psychological. Yeah, I mean, when you have a mother 246 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 1: who's telling you you're delicate and infirm from day one 247 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:00,440 Speaker 1: of your life, you might start to believe that you 248 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:03,800 Speaker 1: are delicate and infirm. Uh. And he also never adopted 249 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:06,600 Speaker 1: a healthy diet, a consequence of that lack of nutritional 250 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:09,720 Speaker 1: guidance as a child, which almost certainly contributed to a 251 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:13,280 Speaker 1: general feeling of unwellness. He ate a lot of sweets 252 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: even into his adult life. But what's really kind of 253 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:19,320 Speaker 1: odd and surprising maybe is that he did not over indulge. 254 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:23,720 Speaker 1: He was super weight conscious, so even though he uh 255 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:27,040 Speaker 1: he was five eleven, he tried to stay under a 256 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,800 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pounds, which is quite them because he 257 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:32,240 Speaker 1: thought that he would look more aristocratic if he stayed 258 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:35,080 Speaker 1: really slender. So he's gonna have cake for dinner, but 259 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:39,359 Speaker 1: not much, A small morsel, that's all. He gets Lovecraft's 260 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:42,520 Speaker 1: years immediately after high school or kind of a blank slate. 261 00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 1: He didn't do much between nineteen o six and nineteen 262 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:49,160 Speaker 1: fourteen except for taking a correspondence coursing chemistry. Yeah, he 263 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:52,120 Speaker 1: was obviously into science, but he realized that while he 264 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:56,920 Speaker 1: loved particularly both chemistry and astronomy for their quote glamour 265 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:01,920 Speaker 1: and mystery and impressiveness, uh he didn't really have the 266 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:03,760 Speaker 1: discipline that it was going to take to do the 267 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:07,040 Speaker 1: hard work that is required of scientists should they pursue 268 00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:09,760 Speaker 1: that as a career. Uh So. He also toyed with 269 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: illustration during this time, but he thought he was terrible 270 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:16,840 Speaker 1: and abandoned it, and according to his own recollections, he 271 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:19,680 Speaker 1: read a lot during this time. He wrote as in fiction, 272 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:23,600 Speaker 1: he was reclusive, not really leaving the house often or 273 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:27,200 Speaker 1: socializing with anyone other than his mother. And for her part, 274 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:33,080 Speaker 1: Susie was also growing increasingly eccentric and really reclusive, and 275 00:15:33,160 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: she encouraged this shut in behavior. And he later wrote 276 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 1: that this solitude that he chose as a young man 277 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:44,640 Speaker 1: stemmed in part from embarrassment and social anxiety. He said, quote, 278 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 1: I shunned all human society, deeming myself too much of 279 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:51,200 Speaker 1: a failure in life to be seen socially by those 280 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: who had known me as a youth and had foolishly 281 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:57,000 Speaker 1: expected great things of me. Eventually, though, by the time 282 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,920 Speaker 1: he was in his mid twenties, Lovecraft started to grow 283 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,160 Speaker 1: out of this aimless, loafing period of his life, and 284 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,080 Speaker 1: he once again became interested in the world outside of 285 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:10,600 Speaker 1: his house. He started writing astronomy articles again and joined 286 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,880 Speaker 1: the amateur journalism movement, which afforded him some social connections 287 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:18,320 Speaker 1: that his life had really been missing before this point. Yeah, 288 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:20,280 Speaker 1: he has had some friends as a kid, but what 289 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:23,000 Speaker 1: I always found interesting in researching him is that most 290 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:24,840 Speaker 1: of the people that talk about him as though he 291 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:27,800 Speaker 1: was a friend are actually adults in his circle, So 292 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:32,120 Speaker 1: he really was not getting other other peers of his age. 293 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,200 Speaker 1: And the United Amateur Press Association, of which he became 294 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:37,600 Speaker 1: a member, had its own wild dramas that could be 295 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:40,200 Speaker 1: a whole episode on its own, because there was some 296 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:44,640 Speaker 1: crazy things going down. But Lovecraft, who had this odd 297 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:50,320 Speaker 1: habit of favoring eighteenth century vocabulary and grammar, uh managed 298 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,040 Speaker 1: to become pretty well known and actually quite influential in 299 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:56,200 Speaker 1: this group, and he also learned at this time the 300 00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:59,680 Speaker 1: hard lesson that criticism is a part of every writer's 301 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:01,640 Speaker 1: life is just a natural thing you have to accept. 302 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:05,080 Speaker 1: But while he claimed that it did not trouble him, uh, 303 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,920 Speaker 1: everyone that he knew said it privately affected him very deeply. 304 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:12,639 Speaker 1: Even the faintest critique of his work really would upset him. 305 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,800 Speaker 1: He also started corresponding a lot during this time, and 306 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:19,200 Speaker 1: he cultivated a wide range of friends he knew, primarily 307 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:22,360 Speaker 1: through letters. This was a practice that he would continue 308 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: throughout his life. In many cases, he preferred this friendship 309 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:28,960 Speaker 1: through letters to having to actually deal with people face 310 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:32,600 Speaker 1: to face. And he also started using pseudonyms in his 311 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:35,880 Speaker 1: writing uh for a really silly reason. In my opinion, 312 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: it was in part so that he could have multiple 313 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,200 Speaker 1: pieces published in any given amateur journal at one time 314 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:46,639 Speaker 1: without being accused of hogging the space. Um. He just 315 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:49,160 Speaker 1: wanted people to publish everything he wrote, and he didn't 316 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:51,600 Speaker 1: want to get in trouble for it in a community 317 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:55,240 Speaker 1: that was largely about like sharing and helping one another. Uh. 318 00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: But these were not paying gigs. You should be very 319 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,040 Speaker 1: very clear, Like this was this whole idea of a 320 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:03,040 Speaker 1: whture journalism at the time was built on people writing 321 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:06,080 Speaker 1: for their friends and other like minded peers, but not 322 00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:08,480 Speaker 1: really for the broader audience of the public. He would 323 00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:11,760 Speaker 1: have fit right in on the internet. Yeah, oh yeah. 324 00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:15,359 Speaker 1: In nineteen fifteen, he published a series of articles about 325 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:19,520 Speaker 1: planets and constellations in the Asheville, North Carolina paper Gazette News, 326 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:23,399 Speaker 1: and each of these he combined scientific facts with the 327 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:27,560 Speaker 1: mythology around the figures for which each astronomical object had 328 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:31,639 Speaker 1: been named. That's me, I'm so sorry, what a jerky 329 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:34,199 Speaker 1: If it helps, it's one of our colleagues from house 330 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:38,800 Speaker 1: to works. It happened right in the pause, and I 331 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:41,840 Speaker 1: was like, what's happening now, it's Matt Frederick texting me. 332 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:47,000 Speaker 1: So he took advantage of this platform to include quotes 333 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:50,480 Speaker 1: of verse from a quote recent writer. That recent writer 334 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:54,119 Speaker 1: was in fact himself, although he never said so in 335 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,960 Speaker 1: the text of the articles. Again he yeah, I love that. 336 00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,600 Speaker 1: He just will keep putting himself out there in new 337 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:02,840 Speaker 1: ways and quote himself as a different source. I think 338 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:06,320 Speaker 1: what Whitman used to write this glowing reviews of his 339 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:10,520 Speaker 1: own poetry. This is not an unheard of practice. Uh. 340 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,080 Speaker 1: And he also during this time started self publishing a 341 00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:16,760 Speaker 1: periodical called The Conservative, and he started that in nineteen fifteen, 342 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:19,240 Speaker 1: and he would put out this paper on and off 343 00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:21,920 Speaker 1: for eight years. So he really was pretty committed to it, 344 00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: and he used it as a sort of pulpit from 345 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:27,439 Speaker 1: which he could preach against the evils of spelling reform, 346 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:29,840 Speaker 1: which he thought was terrible. Again, he was really into 347 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:34,600 Speaker 1: eighteenth century spelling and grammar. But he also extolled the 348 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:38,560 Speaker 1: superiority of the white race as he published his papers. 349 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:42,720 Speaker 1: There were some problems, Yeah, love Craft biographer Else Bragg 350 00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:46,440 Speaker 1: the camp makes the case that for somebody like love Craft, 351 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:49,080 Speaker 1: he was felt himself to be a failure who was 352 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:51,840 Speaker 1: not living up to his potential. It was really easy 353 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:54,720 Speaker 1: to buy into white supremacy. This was a belief that 354 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,800 Speaker 1: comfort in him and made him feel superior. So we're 355 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:03,600 Speaker 1: gonna loop back to this obviously racist worldview a little later. Yeah, 356 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 1: he's a complex person. Uh. In an effort to gain 357 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 1: some sort of independence from his mother, Lovecraft made this 358 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:15,720 Speaker 1: really odd move. In nineteen seventeen, he applied to enlist 359 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:19,360 Speaker 1: in the National Guard after the US declared war on Germany. 360 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:21,640 Speaker 1: So everything you've heard up to this point, I'm sure 361 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:23,600 Speaker 1: you like me or like this is not for you, kid, 362 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:26,359 Speaker 1: um like how he thought he was going to be 363 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,040 Speaker 1: able to endure this is an utter mystery. They make 364 00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 1: you get up early. If they make you get up early, 365 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:34,800 Speaker 1: they make you not eat cake all the time, and 366 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,680 Speaker 1: they make you do physical things which he didn't like. Uh. 367 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:42,119 Speaker 1: So Fortunately, a family friend who was serving as the 368 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:44,480 Speaker 1: local head of the draft board and was also a doctor, 369 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 1: talked him out of it. Uh. He really was like, you, 370 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:50,200 Speaker 1: you're not going to hack this, although Lovecraft later wrote 371 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,679 Speaker 1: quote it would have either killed or cured me. I 372 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:55,600 Speaker 1: think the odds are in favor of one of those 373 00:20:55,640 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 1: two things. Uh. Not long after that pretty bad idea, though, 374 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,320 Speaker 1: things started to pick up for Lovecraft as a writer. 375 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:06,320 Speaker 1: He started revising the work of some of the other 376 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:09,640 Speaker 1: members of the United Amateur Press Association and getting actually 377 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,959 Speaker 1: paid to do so. Then this really remained his career 378 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:15,400 Speaker 1: for the rest of his life. So while he developed 379 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:20,720 Speaker 1: his own stories, ghost writing became his primary literary occupation, 380 00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:24,040 Speaker 1: and in some ways this was the absolute perfect fit 381 00:21:24,119 --> 00:21:26,960 Speaker 1: for Howard Lovecraft. It made use, of course, of his 382 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,160 Speaker 1: literary talents, and he had a wide network of potential 383 00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:32,760 Speaker 1: clients that he had cultivated both through being parts of 384 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,680 Speaker 1: part of these amateur press groups and through his correspondence 385 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,159 Speaker 1: with other writers. But it was also not lucrative for 386 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,520 Speaker 1: him because unfortunately he took way too much time with 387 00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:47,280 Speaker 1: every single assignment. Plus he thought it was unbecoming to 388 00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:50,480 Speaker 1: even discuss money. He had this whole weird gentleman complex 389 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 1: and like his personal rules of life, and you never 390 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 1: talked about money, which when he was never ever collecting 391 00:21:57,400 --> 00:21:59,840 Speaker 1: on his invoices, he would just let them go and 392 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,199 Speaker 1: ever pursue them if somebody refused to pay him. In 393 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,920 Speaker 1: Howard's mother's Susie, whose mental health had continued to decline, 394 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:10,879 Speaker 1: was committed to the Butler Hospital for the Insane, and 395 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:13,440 Speaker 1: that was where her husband had died more than two 396 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:18,840 Speaker 1: decades earlier. Lovecraft visited his mother often, although never inside 397 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:21,800 Speaker 1: the hospital, and she died two years after having been 398 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:26,560 Speaker 1: admitted in one due to complications from a gallbladder surgery. Yeah, 399 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:30,280 Speaker 1: there's a lot of noise in history, uh, historical pieces 400 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:32,399 Speaker 1: and biographies about him about how he would not go 401 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:34,480 Speaker 1: in the hospital. His mother had to come out to 402 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:36,960 Speaker 1: the hospital's garden and they would visit there, but he 403 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:41,320 Speaker 1: refused to enter the building. Um and after Susie's moved 404 00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:43,440 Speaker 1: to the hospital, so he is kind of out from 405 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:47,040 Speaker 1: under his mother's constant um, you know, clucking at that point, 406 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:49,280 Speaker 1: for the first time in his life, he actually started 407 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:53,400 Speaker 1: to venture out beyond Providence thanks to conventions that were 408 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:56,880 Speaker 1: arranged by his fellow amateur journalists. So he first traveled 409 00:22:57,080 --> 00:23:00,320 Speaker 1: to Boston in July of nineteen twenty and an Actually 410 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:03,919 Speaker 1: he intended this was like a week long event that 411 00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:06,160 Speaker 1: that they had put together, and he intended to commute 412 00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:10,119 Speaker 1: back to Providence every night, which sounds crazy to me. Uh, 413 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:12,480 Speaker 1: But his friends eventually convinced him to just stay in 414 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:14,480 Speaker 1: the city and they arranged places for room to stay, 415 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:17,560 Speaker 1: and he ended up really really enjoying the trip, and 416 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:20,600 Speaker 1: he started to make regular trips to Boston to spend 417 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:22,960 Speaker 1: time with the friends that he had there. They're not 418 00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,760 Speaker 1: that far apart. I'm imagining this was happening on a train. 419 00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:30,760 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I would imagine. But even so, I mean, 420 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:33,159 Speaker 1: you know, like I would, what do you want to 421 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:36,200 Speaker 1: go like to Park City every night to back and forth, 422 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:38,480 Speaker 1: like so I thought a commune I would want to do. 423 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:41,520 Speaker 1: But like they're they're not on opposite ends of their 424 00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:46,040 Speaker 1: everything in New England is close to everything else in 425 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:53,320 Speaker 1: New England. UH. At a similar meeting in February, Lovecraft 426 00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:56,520 Speaker 1: spoke at a panel theme quote, what have you done 427 00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:00,400 Speaker 1: for amateur journalism? And what has amateur journalism done for you? 428 00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:03,440 Speaker 1: Reading from a paper that he had written on the topic, 429 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:06,280 Speaker 1: he said, quote, what I have done for amateur journalism 430 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:09,800 Speaker 1: is probably very slight, but I can at least declare 431 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: that it represents my best efforts towards toward aids the 432 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:17,399 Speaker 1: aspiring writer. What amateurdom has brought me is a circle 433 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:21,639 Speaker 1: of persons among I am not altogether an alien. What 434 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:26,040 Speaker 1: I have given amateur journalism is regrettably little. What amateur 435 00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:29,720 Speaker 1: journalism has given me is life itself. It's just sort 436 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:33,680 Speaker 1: of charming. And apparently the crowd erupted in thunderous applause. 437 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,440 Speaker 1: So they were I think Howard was like their pet 438 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 1: project in some ways, Like they saw that he was 439 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:41,399 Speaker 1: a little socially awkward, and they really tried to, like, 440 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:43,800 Speaker 1: you know, bring him along into their groups. So they 441 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,399 Speaker 1: were very happy. It felt very validating to know that 442 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:48,600 Speaker 1: he felt he had found his life there good because 443 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:50,600 Speaker 1: that sentiment is kind of like I haven't done anything 444 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:53,000 Speaker 1: for y'all. But she sure, I haven't given me a lot. 445 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:55,359 Speaker 1: I think it was. It was, you know, he was 446 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: trying to be a gentleman about it. Uh So, when 447 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,840 Speaker 1: his mother died, which was of course this dating, his 448 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,280 Speaker 1: aunt Lilian came to live in the house with him 449 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,360 Speaker 1: that he and his mother had been living in. So 450 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,240 Speaker 1: his other aunt Annie also stayed there from time to time, 451 00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:11,280 Speaker 1: so when she wasn't traveling for work or vacation. So 452 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:13,399 Speaker 1: while he had kind of gotten out from under the 453 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 1: influence of his mother, he was then coddled by his 454 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,880 Speaker 1: aunts in place of Susie. And all three of them 455 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,720 Speaker 1: were living largely off of the small estate he had inherited. 456 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,280 Speaker 1: And this was not, we should be clear, a lot 457 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:28,680 Speaker 1: of money. The three of them weren't really bringing in 458 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,679 Speaker 1: an income of any sort at any sustaining rate, so 459 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:35,800 Speaker 1: they just chipped away at this relatively small inheritance. Yeah, 460 00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:37,840 Speaker 1: and aside from the loss of his mother, this was 461 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:42,359 Speaker 1: really a massive period of change for Howard Lovecraft. For one, 462 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,199 Speaker 1: he had met a woman named Sonya Greene at an 463 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:48,240 Speaker 1: amateur journalism conference when the two of them struck up 464 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:52,320 Speaker 1: a correspondence, since that was his preferred mode of communicating 465 00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,400 Speaker 1: with people. Sonja was a milliner who lived in New York. 466 00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,679 Speaker 1: She made hats if you didn't know what a milliner does, uh, 467 00:25:57,720 --> 00:25:59,840 Speaker 1: And she was an immigrant from Ukraine who had moved 468 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,200 Speaker 1: to the US when she was nine. She had been 469 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,000 Speaker 1: married briefly before, but she was on her own and 470 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:07,680 Speaker 1: she was making really, really good money by the time 471 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:10,440 Speaker 1: that she met Howard, so she was a completely independent woman. 472 00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:14,560 Speaker 1: The two of them started meeting for visits and providence, 473 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:18,000 Speaker 1: and in Boston she met Howard's aunts, who liked her, 474 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:21,640 Speaker 1: and he wrote that it was quote despite a racial 475 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:25,720 Speaker 1: and social chasm. During this early stage of friendship that 476 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:29,119 Speaker 1: was turning into a courtship, Lovecraft turned out a significant 477 00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:32,000 Speaker 1: amount of work in the form of stories and prose poems, 478 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,959 Speaker 1: but he was still also working as a ghostwriter, and 479 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,840 Speaker 1: he also, during all of this, seemed to have no 480 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,120 Speaker 1: clue that Sonia was interested in him. Why he would 481 00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:42,840 Speaker 1: think a woman would want to travel back and forth 482 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:46,240 Speaker 1: to visit him constantly without liking him is beyond me. 483 00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,359 Speaker 1: But uh. When she actually kissed him for the first time, 484 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:51,480 Speaker 1: it was after he had had written a piece that 485 00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,200 Speaker 1: was based on an outline she had had prepared, which 486 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:55,800 Speaker 1: was one of the things he did as a ghostwriter. 487 00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,280 Speaker 1: She was so excited and or I don't know if 488 00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:00,640 Speaker 1: he had written it yet her if he had seen 489 00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:02,119 Speaker 1: the outline and really loved it, but she was so 490 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:06,399 Speaker 1: excited that she kissed him spontaneously, and he was completely flustered, 491 00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:08,359 Speaker 1: and she kind of teased him and asked him what 492 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:10,520 Speaker 1: it was about, and he told her at that point 493 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:14,239 Speaker 1: that he had not been kissed since his infancy. So, 494 00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:16,159 Speaker 1: in addition to all that other weirdness, he was not 495 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,280 Speaker 1: really getting regular affection. So he really didn't know how 496 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:21,679 Speaker 1: to deal with human being. He had a number of 497 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:26,000 Speaker 1: issues and another big change that happened in his life 498 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:30,399 Speaker 1: at this time was his first paid writing publication. A 499 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:34,520 Speaker 1: publisher named J. C. Hanneburger had started a new magazine 500 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:39,000 Speaker 1: called Weird Tales, and Lovecraft's friend of friends all wanted 501 00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:41,320 Speaker 1: him to submit his work to it, and up until 502 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:43,560 Speaker 1: this point he had considered his own writing to be 503 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:46,760 Speaker 1: something that he produced for his friends, a hobby for 504 00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:51,040 Speaker 1: a gentleman. But he finally gave in. Weird Tales bought 505 00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,359 Speaker 1: Dagon first, and then others, including The Hound and the 506 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,600 Speaker 1: Rats and the Walls. Yeah, he apparently didn't want to 507 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,159 Speaker 1: submit in the proper format, like he submitted the ings 508 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:01,679 Speaker 1: and they wrote back and said, hey, you got a 509 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,760 Speaker 1: double spice spaces or something, and he's like, so, he 510 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:06,520 Speaker 1: probably could have made a lot more money right off 511 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:09,560 Speaker 1: the bat, but he didn't want to do it. Uh. 512 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:12,480 Speaker 1: And we're about to get into Lovecraft's marriage, but first 513 00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 1: we're going to pause for another sponsor break and then 514 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:24,520 Speaker 1: we'll jump in. So Lovecraft's relationship with Sonia had progressed. 515 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,920 Speaker 1: She was, according to her own account, the aggressor in this. 516 00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:30,400 Speaker 1: It's unclear when the two of them started to talk 517 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:34,200 Speaker 1: about marriage and him moving to New York, but they 518 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,119 Speaker 1: did apparently talk about it, and that's exactly what happened. 519 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:41,200 Speaker 1: On March third, four. They were married in St. Paul's 520 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 1: Chapel in New York's Financial District, and that was chosen 521 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,840 Speaker 1: by Lovecraft because it dated back to seventeen seventy six 522 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: and notable men of the Revolutionary era had attended services there. Yeah, 523 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,080 Speaker 1: he wasn't particularly religious, he didn't have any interest in it, 524 00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:58,440 Speaker 1: but he just liked the history of it. And I 525 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,240 Speaker 1: will give you a little bit of a spoiler alert 526 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:02,880 Speaker 1: because the reason we don't know when they started talking 527 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,920 Speaker 1: about marriage and really how their romance progressed is because 528 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,520 Speaker 1: it didn't last. And when it ended, Sonya burned all 529 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,160 Speaker 1: of her letters. So we have a big gap where 530 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:14,520 Speaker 1: we don't know what happened between the two of them. Uh. 531 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:17,440 Speaker 1: And they were a really odd couple. Sonia was Howard's 532 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:21,160 Speaker 1: absolute opposite. So while he was this sort of you know, odd, 533 00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:25,000 Speaker 1: awkward quiet, didn't love to talk to people, she was outgoing, 534 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:27,560 Speaker 1: she was super determined, she was confident. She was a 535 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: businesswoman that was running her own show. Uh. And it 536 00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,959 Speaker 1: has long been debated what exactly they saw in one another, 537 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 1: but for a brief time, they really did seem genuinely 538 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:40,400 Speaker 1: happy together. Howard actually wrote to a friend right after 539 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,560 Speaker 1: they got married to quote two or one another bears 540 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:47,480 Speaker 1: the name Lovecraft, a new household is founded. He was 541 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: really inspired by Sonia, and he claimed that she had 542 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:53,520 Speaker 1: prevented him from a plan to quote seek oblivion, i e. 543 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:59,640 Speaker 1: Commit suicide. So it didn't last. Sonya claimed that Howard 544 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:04,000 Speaker 1: was a particularly loving husband she had to initiate any 545 00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: romantic contact and found him adequate in that regard, but 546 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,960 Speaker 1: rather undemonstrative and having any feelings for her. He never 547 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:17,000 Speaker 1: used the word love in any way. Additional stress on 548 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:20,080 Speaker 1: the marriage came from a drop in income for Sonya. 549 00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:25,240 Speaker 1: She was basically supporting Howard and he was only occasionally 550 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:28,680 Speaker 1: selling stories basically when he felt like it. So instead 551 00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: of supporting just herself, she was supporting two people without 552 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: a lot of contribution from the other one. Yeah, when 553 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:37,000 Speaker 1: that's a person who says things like I appreciate you 554 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:40,040 Speaker 1: and never says I love you, I would not enjoy 555 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,840 Speaker 1: that marriage at all. Everybody's got their own dynamic. But 556 00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,720 Speaker 1: I can see why she eventually kind of wearied of 557 00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,440 Speaker 1: there's a bit that you're going to say next. Yeah, 558 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:50,320 Speaker 1: So here's the other problem. He had a lot of 559 00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:54,320 Speaker 1: rants against immigrants and Jews, and she would remind him 560 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,120 Speaker 1: that he had in fact married an immigrant Jew himself. 561 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,160 Speaker 1: But what he would tell her in these moments was 562 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:05,640 Speaker 1: you are now Mrs hp Lovecraft. Like somehow in marrying 563 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,000 Speaker 1: him and taking his name, he had wiped away her 564 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:12,600 Speaker 1: ethnicity and she was now part of his his okay group. 565 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:16,360 Speaker 1: What jerk is he? Pretty jerky like that plus never 566 00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:18,680 Speaker 1: saying I love you, plus like plus all the other 567 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:20,400 Speaker 1: things that we're gonna talk about a little bit problem. 568 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,600 Speaker 1: I see why she left. So before she left, though 569 00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 1: they first downgraded to a smaller apartment, she took it, 570 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,200 Speaker 1: took a job in Cincinnati, and he didn't follow her 571 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:32,880 Speaker 1: when she did that. Um, when she she left for that. 572 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,440 Speaker 1: At the end of this was the first of several 573 00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,360 Speaker 1: jobs that would keep the two of them separated. He 574 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,000 Speaker 1: was no longer enthralled by living in New York and 575 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:46,200 Speaker 1: was actually starting to hate it. Shy, I can get 576 00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:49,720 Speaker 1: how that might happen, but he ended up returning to 577 00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:54,080 Speaker 1: Rhode Island, rapturous once again to be in Providence, and 578 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,600 Speaker 1: before long the marriage was basically over. Yeah, he while 579 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,280 Speaker 1: they were living in New York, they had they had 580 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: always been living in Brooklyn, but they downgraded to what 581 00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:06,280 Speaker 1: he considered to be a gross immigrant neighborhood. Um. And 582 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,080 Speaker 1: that really, in some ways, some historians will say, fueled 583 00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,320 Speaker 1: a lot of his sort of next phase of writing 584 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:14,480 Speaker 1: and kind of the weirder, more disturbing stuff. And also 585 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:16,200 Speaker 1: because there was a point at which, while he was 586 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:18,920 Speaker 1: living in the apartment by himself, the apartment was completely 587 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,560 Speaker 1: robbed and all he was left with was the were 588 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,560 Speaker 1: the clothes on his back, and so he just was like, 589 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,120 Speaker 1: this place sucks. All of these immigrants suck. I hate 590 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,640 Speaker 1: it here. Everything is horrible. I Am going back to white, 591 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:35,040 Speaker 1: wealthy Providence, Rhode Island. So he's a charmer, basically, is 592 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:39,480 Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Yeah. Uh. The next phase of his 593 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,600 Speaker 1: life from n to nineteen thirty seven would actually though, 594 00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:45,640 Speaker 1: produce his most famous works, probably the ones we all 595 00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:47,920 Speaker 1: fell in love with if we're Lovecraft fans, including Call 596 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:51,560 Speaker 1: of Cathulu, in which Weird Tales paid up whopping hundred 597 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,840 Speaker 1: and sixty five dollars for, which is not small potatoes 598 00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:58,000 Speaker 1: at that point, and as he started to develop this 599 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:01,760 Speaker 1: impressive body of stories which were interconnected in both obvious 600 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,360 Speaker 1: and subtle ways, he was really truly hitting his stride 601 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:08,400 Speaker 1: in terms of creativity. He also made some really interesting 602 00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:11,800 Speaker 1: acquaintances in the nineteen thirties, including a friendship that started 603 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:14,040 Speaker 1: with a letter from a fan in nineteen thirty one. 604 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,520 Speaker 1: When Howard went to visit this fan, a man named 605 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:21,440 Speaker 1: Robert Barlow, in nineteen thirty four, he discovered that Barlow 606 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:24,680 Speaker 1: was only sixteen, But in spite of the oddness of 607 00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:28,360 Speaker 1: all that, Lovecraft stayed with Barlow and his mother, but 608 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,000 Speaker 1: for seven weeks that summer and the two of them 609 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,600 Speaker 1: became friends. Yeah, he would return on subsequent summers, and 610 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:38,200 Speaker 1: as Lovecraft's creative star really rose in the nineteen thirties 611 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,640 Speaker 1: and he actually started to garner this following of fans 612 00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:46,760 Speaker 1: from his weird fiction, his financial star was completely sputtering out, so, 613 00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:49,440 Speaker 1: having never managed to make any sort of consistent income, 614 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,640 Speaker 1: his capital his in what he had been willed by 615 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,040 Speaker 1: his his father and then his mother was dwindling really quickly, 616 00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,240 Speaker 1: and his ghostwriting and his editing work barely an abled 617 00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: him to scrape by, and then rather abruptly, it all 618 00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,040 Speaker 1: came to an end. Lovecraft died of intestinal cancer in 619 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,600 Speaker 1: March of nineteen thirty seven, at the age of forty six. 620 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,319 Speaker 1: The cancer had already spread throughout his body by the 621 00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:16,400 Speaker 1: time he saw a doctor. Then only four friends attended 622 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:22,040 Speaker 1: his funeral. Yeah, there's basically a pretty um consistent opinion 623 00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:25,160 Speaker 1: among historians and biographers that if he had not been 624 00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:28,000 Speaker 1: foolish and waited so long, he possibly could have have 625 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:31,760 Speaker 1: really been treated for his cancer and potentially survived much longer. 626 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:34,000 Speaker 1: But because he didn't want to go to doctors, he 627 00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:37,080 Speaker 1: missed out on that opportunity. Uh. And it wasn't until 628 00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:41,920 Speaker 1: Lovecraft's friends August Derleth and Donald Wandre began publishing collected 629 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,400 Speaker 1: Lovecraft stories in book form in the nineteen forties that 630 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:48,759 Speaker 1: Lovecraft gained this much wider audience outside of all of 631 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:51,799 Speaker 1: his little niche followers and his friends, and his work 632 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:54,400 Speaker 1: quickly became famous in ways he could never have imagined. 633 00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:57,719 Speaker 1: So it's a safe bet that's seeing things like Kissilu 634 00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:01,120 Speaker 1: plushies and his image on T shirts. Uh, you know, 635 00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:03,640 Speaker 1: his work being adapted into films, and Gamma del Toro 636 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,799 Speaker 1: working forever on Mountains of Madness, which better come out 637 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:10,440 Speaker 1: at some point. Um. It would blow his mind. I mean, 638 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:12,520 Speaker 1: there's no way he could have conceived of this level 639 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:16,800 Speaker 1: of popularity. So there was a great deal of affectation 640 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:21,680 Speaker 1: to HP Lovecraft's personality. When his father died, Howard had 641 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:25,480 Speaker 1: inherited the somber wardrobe, and he weren't as an adult, 642 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:28,040 Speaker 1: even though the clothes at that point we're really pass a. 643 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:31,879 Speaker 1: He only gave up wearing his father's old clothes when 644 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:34,560 Speaker 1: they became threadbare to the point of just being unwearable, 645 00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:38,200 Speaker 1: and growing up in a world of adults more than 646 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:41,560 Speaker 1: children with few rules. In this endless supply of reading material, 647 00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:44,640 Speaker 1: you really start to see that Lovecraft sort of developed 648 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,600 Speaker 1: this patchwork of ideas about the world that really stayed 649 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:50,560 Speaker 1: with him long past his formative years. Like he loved 650 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:53,800 Speaker 1: the classical world, he became an avid Anglophile, even taking 651 00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:56,680 Speaker 1: up the side of the British in any discussions of 652 00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:00,839 Speaker 1: the U S Revolutionary War. He often lobbied for New 653 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:06,239 Speaker 1: England to rejoin the British Empire. I don't I don't 654 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:09,480 Speaker 1: think that New England would go for that. Uh. And 655 00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:11,840 Speaker 1: he would sink God Save the King rather than the 656 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:17,719 Speaker 1: star spangled banner, which I'm sure annoyed no one. He 657 00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:22,120 Speaker 1: adopted eighteenth century century colloquialisms and his speech and his writing, 658 00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,879 Speaker 1: and he also had this deep, unending love of Republican Rome. 659 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:28,719 Speaker 1: And after reading about a book by a proponent of 660 00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: temperance named John B. Gaw as a child, Howard swore 661 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,280 Speaker 1: he would never ever drink, and he actually did remain 662 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:37,240 Speaker 1: sober his entire life. But this is one of several 663 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:40,360 Speaker 1: areas where the assertion of his personal the assertions in 664 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,480 Speaker 1: his personal writing really don't always line up with reality. 665 00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:44,840 Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about a lot more of 666 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:46,799 Speaker 1: that in a moment. But while he claimed that he 667 00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:49,799 Speaker 1: was quote nauseated by even the distant stink of any 668 00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:53,239 Speaker 1: alcoholic liquor, it was known there are records of him 669 00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:56,719 Speaker 1: attending parties where alcohol was certainly served. So there's a 670 00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:59,759 Speaker 1: disparity between what he claimed was his belief system and 671 00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:02,600 Speaker 1: his sort of life rules and how he actually lived. 672 00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,920 Speaker 1: In many ways. There's also, as most people know, and 673 00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:09,879 Speaker 1: as we mentioned a little bit ago, some really unpleasant 674 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:14,560 Speaker 1: racism in Lovecraft's life story. Even his beloved cat that 675 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:17,760 Speaker 1: he had as a child he named a racist slur. 676 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:21,239 Speaker 1: And the most problematic aspect of his life is that 677 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:25,960 Speaker 1: the racism that colored most of his thinking about it. Yes, 678 00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:28,759 Speaker 1: so there were times in his life, most of his 679 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:31,399 Speaker 1: life until quite near the end, he thought anyone who 680 00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:34,759 Speaker 1: was not white was inferior, and he used language to 681 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,880 Speaker 1: describe anyone who was not a white dude as along 682 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,840 Speaker 1: the lines of quote twisted rat like vermin from the ghetto, 683 00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:46,319 Speaker 1: uh and mongrels when he would describe them. But this 684 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:49,880 Speaker 1: is another area that is really contradictory in his life. 685 00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:55,920 Speaker 1: For example, he spoke extremely openly of having disdain for Jews, 686 00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:59,839 Speaker 1: even when writing sets criticisms as quote. But the very 687 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,600 Speaker 1: spirituality which gives elevation to the Semitic mind particularly unfits 688 00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:07,759 Speaker 1: it for the consideration of tastes and trends and Aryan 689 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:10,440 Speaker 1: thoughts and writings. But in spite of that, he married 690 00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:13,960 Speaker 1: a Jewish woman. But then she wasn't a Jewish immigrant 691 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:18,520 Speaker 1: anymore when she became Mrs Lovecraft. I don't know, question mark. Uh, 692 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:20,960 Speaker 1: this really horrified me when I found it, so I'm 693 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:24,600 Speaker 1: sorry that I'm sharing it, but it's really it's important. Uh. 694 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:27,640 Speaker 1: When one of his friends in New York when he 695 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:30,320 Speaker 1: had lived there, hinted that he had been romantically linked 696 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:34,080 Speaker 1: with a black woman, Lovecraft was completely appalled and disgusted, 697 00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:36,719 Speaker 1: and he said that any white man who did so 698 00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:40,480 Speaker 1: should have the word Negro branded on his forehead. But 699 00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:44,800 Speaker 1: not so cool. No, But in his dealings with actual 700 00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:50,719 Speaker 1: individual human members in the many ethnicities and religions that 701 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,160 Speaker 1: he spoke ill of, they described him as a man 702 00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:58,359 Speaker 1: who was kind, generous, and unselfish, which really contradicts all 703 00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:01,240 Speaker 1: the vile things. He would stay and right all the time, 704 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:05,120 Speaker 1: and to explain his on kin congruity, Sony Green would 705 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,959 Speaker 1: later say in something that we couldn't stop laughing about 706 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:11,520 Speaker 1: at dinner last night. I think he hated humanity in 707 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:17,200 Speaker 1: the abstract. Yeah, he could write this horrible stuff and actually, 708 00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:19,880 Speaker 1: confronted with a human he did try to be a 709 00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:22,279 Speaker 1: gentleman and was like, oh, you're interesting and nice, So 710 00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:26,040 Speaker 1: he just couldn't. There was a big disparity. Uh, And 711 00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:29,880 Speaker 1: even in ninety three is he called Hitler a clown. 712 00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:32,440 Speaker 1: He also said that he sort of liked him and 713 00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:36,480 Speaker 1: understood his position, but he was also at the same time. 714 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:38,200 Speaker 1: This is what was mind blowing to me, Like, I 715 00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:40,160 Speaker 1: don't know how he did the math in his head 716 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:42,880 Speaker 1: to reconcile all of this. He was a huge supporter 717 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,480 Speaker 1: of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal, and he 718 00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:48,759 Speaker 1: became a Democrat at the same time, and he said 719 00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:51,920 Speaker 1: that socialism was inevitable, but also wrote quote, I am 720 00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:55,799 Speaker 1: an unreserved fascist. Um. This was all in the same year. 721 00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:58,440 Speaker 1: He was a very busy year for him, and it 722 00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:01,279 Speaker 1: really seemed it starts to seem as though maybe he 723 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:05,120 Speaker 1: really liked to rile people up while simultaneously playing this 724 00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:08,520 Speaker 1: role of the fragile, kind gentleman. So it's It's one 725 00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,520 Speaker 1: of those things that's very hard to kind of knit 726 00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 1: together in one's head. Like how these two sort of 727 00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:17,520 Speaker 1: disparate concepts assisted in one person. I wonder that in 728 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:20,680 Speaker 1: terms of racial justice, like the political parties that exist 729 00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:24,239 Speaker 1: today have been through multiple shifts. Yeah, so like, But 730 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:27,440 Speaker 1: at the same time, yeah, it doesn't make any sense. No, 731 00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,920 Speaker 1: his stuff was very He was wacky, wacky, gent, but 732 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,759 Speaker 1: in his last few years he softened considerably, which is 733 00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,960 Speaker 1: also sometimes novel one would expect. Politically, he had started 734 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,640 Speaker 1: out as a youth being ultra conservative, but over time 735 00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:43,040 Speaker 1: he shifted his thinking to a point that he said 736 00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:46,440 Speaker 1: he became a socialist liberal. And he of course changed 737 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:49,560 Speaker 1: his tune on both Hitler and fascism in that same year. 738 00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:53,400 Speaker 1: So by late nineteen thirty three, uh, he was completely 739 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:56,520 Speaker 1: against them and continued to write against them vehemently for 740 00:40:56,600 --> 00:40:59,280 Speaker 1: the remainder of his life, which is only three years. 741 00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:02,719 Speaker 1: His stance against Hitler may have played a part in 742 00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:06,920 Speaker 1: his turnaround on Judaism as well, because shortly before he died, 743 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,760 Speaker 1: he actually attended a New Deal rally, and he wrote 744 00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:13,200 Speaker 1: glowing praise of the Rabbi Stephen Wise, who was that 745 00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:17,320 Speaker 1: event's main speaker. At the very end of his life, 746 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:22,040 Speaker 1: it appeared that Lovecraft had some very real regrets about 747 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:25,080 Speaker 1: his very idle youth that he spent being coddled and 748 00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:28,360 Speaker 1: encouraged to be a gentleman but not getting any practical education. 749 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:32,440 Speaker 1: He wrote in a letter to a friend in ninety six, quote, 750 00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:35,400 Speaker 1: if I were young again, I would take some clerical training, 751 00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:38,279 Speaker 1: fitting me for more lucrative work. It's my mistake that 752 00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:41,319 Speaker 1: I never thought about money when I was young, and 753 00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:43,680 Speaker 1: I just wanted to end on a slightly positive note, 754 00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,319 Speaker 1: since we have a rule about nothing too sad when 755 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:49,640 Speaker 1: we do these live shows, no bummer. So for as 756 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:54,839 Speaker 1: problematic as he was all of those really problematic personality traits, 757 00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:59,080 Speaker 1: what really is perhaps most surprising about uh HP Lovecraft 758 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:02,000 Speaker 1: is how much people that actually met him and spent 759 00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:05,680 Speaker 1: time with him seemed to just genuinely like him. Uh 760 00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:09,120 Speaker 1: and fellow writer George Julian Hutaine said of Lovecraft, quote, 761 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:13,040 Speaker 1: Somehow I had never been ambitious to meet Lovecraft. I 762 00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:16,440 Speaker 1: had an impression that he was very heavy and ponderous. 763 00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:20,680 Speaker 1: He is apparently all those things I detest. Yet from 764 00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:24,279 Speaker 1: the minute I met him, I liked HP. Lovecraft immensely 765 00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:28,120 Speaker 1: so that that's so hard to imagine, given like all 766 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:32,000 Speaker 1: the things we just described about his but that's kind 767 00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:34,480 Speaker 1: of part of the appeal, right. The complexity of humanity 768 00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:41,600 Speaker 1: is what makes it fascinating and sort of beautiful. So 769 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:44,359 Speaker 1: thank you so so much to Salt Like Comic Con 770 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,240 Speaker 1: for inviting us, and particularly to Ryan Call who wrangled 771 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:49,920 Speaker 1: all of the details of our appearance there. And it's 772 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:53,120 Speaker 1: just a generally fabulous chap. Yeah. I can't stress enough 773 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:57,520 Speaker 1: that is one of my favorite cons to go to. Yeah, 774 00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:01,439 Speaker 1: And they're just they're really well organized and it's it's 775 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:04,000 Speaker 1: an enjoyable event all the time, Salt Lake City. As 776 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:06,879 Speaker 1: we've said before, it's beautiful and I had a good 777 00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:08,960 Speaker 1: time both times. At this point, you've gone three times. 778 00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,560 Speaker 1: I've gone twice. Yeah. And I had a friend meet 779 00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:14,440 Speaker 1: me out there from l A who I don't get 780 00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:16,759 Speaker 1: to see enough. And she was saying, like she's been 781 00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:19,080 Speaker 1: to other cons sometimes with me, even though it's not 782 00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,640 Speaker 1: really always her gam, but she was really like, this 783 00:43:22,719 --> 00:43:26,160 Speaker 1: is a really low stress because everything is really well 784 00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:28,799 Speaker 1: organized and it's nice and close together and there's not 785 00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:30,880 Speaker 1: She was like, this isn't a few cons where I 786 00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:35,720 Speaker 1: never felt frantic. I agree, that's like perfect, it's great, 787 00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:37,440 Speaker 1: It's not like. Comic Con is also going to be 788 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:40,440 Speaker 1: releasing some of the other panels from the show as podcasts, 789 00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:42,719 Speaker 1: so we'll be sure to include the links to that 790 00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:44,839 Speaker 1: podcast feed in our show notes so that you can 791 00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:47,960 Speaker 1: listen to them if you're interested, and then ones that 792 00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:50,080 Speaker 1: Holly and I are on we will be sure to 793 00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:55,440 Speaker 1: tell folks about on our social media. Yeah. Uh. And now, 794 00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:57,640 Speaker 1: because we are still in the month of March, I 795 00:43:57,680 --> 00:43:59,959 Speaker 1: think this is our last episode that will appear in March. 796 00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:03,000 Speaker 1: We are still in tripod months for people to try 797 00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:06,200 Speaker 1: out new podcasts. So because they're the last one and 798 00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:07,680 Speaker 1: I still have, I have more than one to go, 799 00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:12,040 Speaker 1: I'm recommending to this time very different. Uh. The first 800 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:15,960 Speaker 1: one is called Return Home, and it is a um, 801 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:20,240 Speaker 1: you know, fictional narrative podcast that is a little bit creepy, 802 00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:26,120 Speaker 1: a little bit funny. Um, it's got a really interesting cast. 803 00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:29,719 Speaker 1: Sometimes it's campy, sometimes it's spooky, but it's basically the 804 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,960 Speaker 1: story of a person who returns to their hometown to 805 00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:38,000 Speaker 1: realize that that place is got some unique characteristics and 806 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:39,680 Speaker 1: and it plays out from there. And I have really, 807 00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:43,399 Speaker 1: really enjoyed following it. It's gone several short seasons now 808 00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:46,120 Speaker 1: and it's super fun. Uh. The other one that I love, 809 00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,000 Speaker 1: Love Love is called It came from the Depths of Netflix, 810 00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:54,640 Speaker 1: which is a bad movie review podcast, but it's really 811 00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:56,960 Speaker 1: unique and that most podcasts like that are just kind 812 00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,560 Speaker 1: of about ripping on the movie. But this is interesting 813 00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:03,279 Speaker 1: because the break down the entire uh premise and the 814 00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:06,319 Speaker 1: plot of any given movie that they have watched, and 815 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:08,440 Speaker 1: then they will talk about what could have improved that 816 00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:11,200 Speaker 1: movie and made you know, both the narrative and the 817 00:45:11,239 --> 00:45:15,080 Speaker 1: actual production better, whether or not they would suggest it 818 00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:17,520 Speaker 1: to friends for a fun viewing, etcetera. And it's just 819 00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:19,720 Speaker 1: it's got kind of a fun, positive spin. I highly 820 00:45:19,719 --> 00:45:23,239 Speaker 1: recommend it. So those two podcasts again our return Home 821 00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:25,840 Speaker 1: and it came from the Depths of Netflix. And we 822 00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:28,680 Speaker 1: bet that you have podcasts that you love or maybe 823 00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:30,320 Speaker 1: you don't love, but you think they would be perfect 824 00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:32,280 Speaker 1: for a person that you know that maybe hasn't gotten 825 00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,040 Speaker 1: in on podcasts yet, you should recommend it to them. 826 00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:37,960 Speaker 1: Like open people up to the world of information and 827 00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:40,839 Speaker 1: entertainment that's available to them through podcasting, and you can 828 00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:43,400 Speaker 1: do that. You can spread your word on social media 829 00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:46,880 Speaker 1: using the hashtag tripod that's try t r y p 830 00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:50,399 Speaker 1: o D So try out a podcast, uh and yeah 831 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,800 Speaker 1: share it that way everybody can enjoy hearing your recommendations. 832 00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:57,880 Speaker 1: I also have listener mail. This listener mail is from 833 00:45:58,080 --> 00:46:01,400 Speaker 1: our listener David, who has a couple of connections to 834 00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:05,359 Speaker 1: previous topics that we talked about, and he says, Hi, 835 00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:07,440 Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy. I've been listening to the podcast for 836 00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:09,000 Speaker 1: a couple of years and it's become one of my 837 00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:12,160 Speaker 1: staples for my daily commute to work. Being history geek, 838 00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:15,040 Speaker 1: I find him in formative and fascinating, but I never 839 00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:17,520 Speaker 1: thought I would find personal connections to the subjects you 840 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,920 Speaker 1: talk about on the show until recently. The first was 841 00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,400 Speaker 1: your podcast on Ira Aldridge. I work at the Folder 842 00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:26,440 Speaker 1: Shakespeare Library, where, among the many items in our vast collection, 843 00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,560 Speaker 1: we have a few artifacts on Mr Aldridge. One is 844 00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:33,040 Speaker 1: a playbill dated eighteen thirty three announcing his first appearance 845 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:35,960 Speaker 1: at Covent Garden in the role of Othello. Last year 846 00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:37,920 Speaker 1: we put it on public display as part of an 847 00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:41,880 Speaker 1: exhibition at the Folder on Shakespeare in America. This particular 848 00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:44,880 Speaker 1: playbill has an etching of Ira Aldridge in costume on it. 849 00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:47,319 Speaker 1: I should note that the term playbill refers to a 850 00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:50,759 Speaker 1: poster like item and not the ubiquitous playbill programs that 851 00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:53,120 Speaker 1: you get in theaters today. He sent us a link 852 00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,680 Speaker 1: to a digitized version of it, and he says, we 853 00:46:55,719 --> 00:46:58,800 Speaker 1: also have a manuscript of lines from act three, Scene 854 00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:02,719 Speaker 1: three of Othello, written by Idra Aldridge himself. That manuscript 855 00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:05,319 Speaker 1: has unfortunately not yet been digitized. But we have other 856 00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:08,200 Speaker 1: items as well. If you want to explore our collection, 857 00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:10,520 Speaker 1: check out our web website, which is folder dot e 858 00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,760 Speaker 1: du And then he says, but the episode that struck 859 00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:15,840 Speaker 1: me the most was the recent one about the Atlanta 860 00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:19,320 Speaker 1: Temple bombing. My grandfather was one of the FBI agents 861 00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:22,960 Speaker 1: who investigated the bombing and arrested the perpetrator. It's one 862 00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:25,320 Speaker 1: of the many stories he had about his FBI days, 863 00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:27,800 Speaker 1: But the when my mother thinks affected him the most. 864 00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:30,719 Speaker 1: Not long after the bombing, he took her and her 865 00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:32,960 Speaker 1: siblings to the temple so they would always remember the 866 00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:37,920 Speaker 1: destruction that prejudice could produce. After his passing, in and 867 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:41,160 Speaker 1: his eulogy, my uncle recounted a mon a moment when 868 00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:43,800 Speaker 1: my grandfather gave him a picture of the bombings aftermath 869 00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:47,440 Speaker 1: and told him it was quote a symbol of stupidity. 870 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:49,560 Speaker 1: When I mentioned the podcast to my mother, she said 871 00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:52,320 Speaker 1: my grandfather never got over being upset that the perpetrator 872 00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:55,320 Speaker 1: was acquitted. My uncle suggested I read one of the 873 00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:58,000 Speaker 1: books that Holly used for research, titled The Temple Bombing 874 00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:00,360 Speaker 1: by Melissa Green, for a good history on the bombing. 875 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,320 Speaker 1: My grandfather is sadly not mentioned in the book, likely 876 00:48:03,400 --> 00:48:06,800 Speaker 1: due to Hoover's dislike of the press, but knowing my grandfather, 877 00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:09,919 Speaker 1: he was likely more than fine with the anonymity. From 878 00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:12,319 Speaker 1: what my mother tells me, agents were instructed never to 879 00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:15,359 Speaker 1: talk to the press during Hoover's reign. A reporter from 880 00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:17,120 Speaker 1: the a j C, which I believe at the time 881 00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:19,840 Speaker 1: was called The Atlantic Constitution yet used to be two papers, 882 00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:22,120 Speaker 1: the Atlantic Constitution in the Atlanta Journal, and then they 883 00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:25,680 Speaker 1: merged into the Atlanta Journal Constitution. UH found my grandfather 884 00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,560 Speaker 1: and tried to interview him after the bombing. As the 885 00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:32,359 Speaker 1: family story goes, my grandfather replied with no comment, which 886 00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:35,200 Speaker 1: when those exact words were published in the article, Hoover 887 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:37,880 Speaker 1: became angry that one of his agents was identified, and 888 00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:40,600 Speaker 1: he transferred him to make in Georgia. It wasn't the 889 00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:42,680 Speaker 1: brightest spot in our family history, but it was a 890 00:48:42,719 --> 00:48:45,759 Speaker 1: big event. Nonetheless, your episode on the bombing brought back 891 00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:47,759 Speaker 1: a lot of memories of my grandfather, for which I 892 00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:50,920 Speaker 1: must express my gratitude. UH, David, thank you so much 893 00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:53,880 Speaker 1: for sharing that with us. It's always really amazing to 894 00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:56,880 Speaker 1: hear people's personal connections to any of the stories that 895 00:48:56,920 --> 00:48:59,480 Speaker 1: we talked about, UH, and it's quite moving. As well 896 00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:03,399 Speaker 1: as the cool ira Aldrich stuff. I encourage everyone go 897 00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:05,919 Speaker 1: check out folder dot e d u and look at 898 00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:08,560 Speaker 1: their archives because some of the stuff they have online 899 00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:10,960 Speaker 1: is really amazing. I poked around there for a bit 900 00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,840 Speaker 1: and lost some time, but not in a bad way. UH. 901 00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:15,399 Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can 902 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:17,960 Speaker 1: do so at History podcast at how stuff works dot com. 903 00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:20,360 Speaker 1: You can also find us across the spectrum of social 904 00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:23,399 Speaker 1: media as missed in History. That means on Twitter at 905 00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:26,640 Speaker 1: misst in history, on Instagram at miss in history, Facebook 906 00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:28,920 Speaker 1: dot com, slash missed in History. You get the idea 907 00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:32,480 Speaker 1: almost any UH social platform you can go to. If 908 00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:35,040 Speaker 1: you look for missed in History, you will find us. 909 00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:37,719 Speaker 1: You can also find us at our website, which is 910 00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:40,360 Speaker 1: missed in History dot com as well as our parents 911 00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:42,759 Speaker 1: site how stuff Works, where you can type in almost 912 00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:45,120 Speaker 1: any topic in the search bar and you're gonna come 913 00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,320 Speaker 1: up with a lot of really fun information to explore. 914 00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:49,960 Speaker 1: So please come and visit us at missed in History 915 00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:56,279 Speaker 1: dot com and how stuff Works dot com for more 916 00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:58,560 Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Is It, how 917 00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:03,279 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com, woven u, even Na