James Machin, a PhD student at Birkbeck, University of London, while working on a thesis on early weird fiction, circa 1880 to 1914, has located a letter dated February 2, 1924. It was written by H. P. Lovecraft to J. C. Henneberger, the publisher of WEIRD TALES. Soon after the letter was written, Henneberger offered Lovecraft the editorship of his Chicago-based pulp magazine.
Lovecraft’s letter was found in a folder of theatrical ephemera in the archives of the Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. You can read about Machin’s discovery and view a scan of the letter by clicking here.
PulpFest 2015 will be exploring Lovecraft’s relationship with “The Unique Magazine” as part of its celebration of the 125th birthday of the 20th century’s leading practitioner of weird fiction writing. Click here to learn more details.
(Many thanks to Sam Gafford for drawing attention to this recent rediscovery. Sam writes about William Hope Hodgson, author of the novels THE NIGHT LAND, THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, THE GHOST PIRATES and THE BOATS OF THE “GLEN CARRIG,” at https://williamhopehodgson.wordpress.com/.)
