REH to Unknown Recipient, 13 June 1934
Sept 8, 2016 20:56:09 GMT -5
Post by bobbyderie on Sept 8, 2016 20:56:09 GMT -5
So, this came up on Facebook. The original poster, Bob Meracle, posted:
The inclusion with the Conan typescripts would suggest a connection with R. H. Barlow (whom Robert E. Howard had sent several typescripts to); but the name on the letter, although effaced, is too long to be "Barlow," and we know REH sent Barlow a letter dated the very next day (14 June 1934, in CL3). My suspicion is that this was actually sent to an unknown friend of Barlow's, whom Lovecraft had mentioned in a few letters had written a report on voodoo among the Geechee:
Well, well—& so a friend of yours, like William B. Seabrook, has come into first-hand contact with the horrors of Damballa & his serpents. Who knows what waddling nigger washerwoman may not be a potent & dangerous mamaloi with power to evoke nameless horrors & send hideous zombis stalking through the land!
(OFF 83) HPL to R. H. Barlow, 21 Oct 1933
Thanks tremendously for the voodoo report, which I've read with extreme interest. your friend seems to have been quite an amateur Wm. B. Seabrook--& the experience must have been powerfully moving in its way. Later on, if you ever make a copy, I certainly wouldn't mind a spare carbon. Those "geachi" blacks must be rather an interesting study.
(OFF 85) HPL to R. H. Barlow, 13 Nov 1933
That voodoo encounter surely was picturesque--I'd hardly care to get into such close quarters with a crowd of excited blacks, but anthropological zeal will carry one far. So the "geechis" owe their superiority to insular isolation! I believe that, in general, all the Carolina island negroes are called "gullahs", & that their dialect differs from that of the mainland blacks. No doubt the geechis are a variety of these.
(OFF 88) HPL to R. H. Barlow, 29 Nov 1933
But, still very much uncertain.
One of the "lots" August Derleth Offered to sell to me( and I gladly snapped it up) was a collection of manuscripts which included 3 signed typewritten Conan stories. I sold the 3 a couple decades ago, but held onto this cool note that was sandwiched between them.
The inclusion with the Conan typescripts would suggest a connection with R. H. Barlow (whom Robert E. Howard had sent several typescripts to); but the name on the letter, although effaced, is too long to be "Barlow," and we know REH sent Barlow a letter dated the very next day (14 June 1934, in CL3). My suspicion is that this was actually sent to an unknown friend of Barlow's, whom Lovecraft had mentioned in a few letters had written a report on voodoo among the Geechee:
Well, well—& so a friend of yours, like William B. Seabrook, has come into first-hand contact with the horrors of Damballa & his serpents. Who knows what waddling nigger washerwoman may not be a potent & dangerous mamaloi with power to evoke nameless horrors & send hideous zombis stalking through the land!
(OFF 83) HPL to R. H. Barlow, 21 Oct 1933
Thanks tremendously for the voodoo report, which I've read with extreme interest. your friend seems to have been quite an amateur Wm. B. Seabrook--& the experience must have been powerfully moving in its way. Later on, if you ever make a copy, I certainly wouldn't mind a spare carbon. Those "geachi" blacks must be rather an interesting study.
(OFF 85) HPL to R. H. Barlow, 13 Nov 1933
That voodoo encounter surely was picturesque--I'd hardly care to get into such close quarters with a crowd of excited blacks, but anthropological zeal will carry one far. So the "geechis" owe their superiority to insular isolation! I believe that, in general, all the Carolina island negroes are called "gullahs", & that their dialect differs from that of the mainland blacks. No doubt the geechis are a variety of these.
(OFF 88) HPL to R. H. Barlow, 29 Nov 1933
But, still very much uncertain.