What kind of pen did HPL use?

[J-WO]

The reason I ask this is because my favoured pens our made by Cross, a company based in Rhode Island and founded in the the mid-nineteenth century.

It would be nice to think the grand old man used the same brand as me, but I could equally see him using a quill or something equally as archaic.

 

[j d worthington]

As I recall, it was a Waterman's... he was very picky about his pens, and would spend entire days testing out various pens in shops, until he found just the right point with the proper flow (see SLIII.394-95); though he did, on at least one occasion, use a "self-filling Conklin" given him by Maurice Winter Moe when his own apparently fell out of his pocket during one of his journeys (cf. SLI.141).... This sort of thing is chronicled not only in his own correspondence, but in accounts by friends....

 

[J-WO]

Thanks. I was worried this sort of thing might have been lost to the ages but obviously not. Fair play to HPL for his pickiness- one couldn't just write The Shadow Over Innsmouth with any old scribbler!

(One of these days I'm really going to have to look at the man's correspondence.)

 

[j d worthington]

His correspondence can often be as, if not more, interesting, than his fiction. He wrote widely; both in the sense of having correspondents all over the globe and in the breadth (and often the depth) of types of subjects. He was prodigiously well-read (both in the classics and in the popular magazines of his day), as well as fascinated with history, geography, the various sciences, and (especially toward the latter part of his life) politics, not to mention aesthetics, folklore, certain branches of philosophy, etc., etc., etc. He also could vary in approach from a very simple, straightforward style of prose to an extreme archaism (which, it is often overlooked, was assumed most often tongue-in-cheek), to numerous dialects (some of which today would be highly politically incorrect), to an often rather racy slang. And, from what various people who knew him have said, his letters are very much like the way the man talked, so it is almost like having the experience of listening to him hold forth on various topics.

Yes, some things will make a modern wince (especially surrounding the subject of "race"); but overall he stands out as one of the greatest letter-writers in history, both in terms of prolificity and sheer interest of the epistles themselves....

 

[J-WO]

I remember reading a snippet where he wrote to a friend that he (Lovecraft) was getting married in order to make use of neglected Georgian architecture. It struck me as something you'd never read in any of his tales; very whimsical and ironic.

Regarding the way he talked, its a pity we have no recording of it. Like Orwell, he's one of those last great writers to remain silent to posterity.

I checked out Waterman pens, BTW. Very classy. No idea about the 'self-filling Conklin, though. Must have been a twenties thing.

 

[j d worthington]

I don't recall that particular bit from his correspondence... but, as I'm going through it again, I'll keep an eye out....

But, yes, that is something one doesn't get much from his fiction (though a rather dry sense of humor is certainly there at times, and even a rather tongue-in-cheek approach with certain things, such as "Herbert West -- Reanimator"): Lovecraft had a very strong sense of humor and a sparkling wit... and he seemingly adored horrendous puns... the sort that would be the delight of our Ursine friend here at Chrons....

 

[J-WO]

If forums and blogs were around back then I dare say he'd have written about four stories!

 

[rkukan]

. . .

Regarding the way he talked, its a pity we have no recording of it. Like Orwell, he's one of those last great writers to remain silent to posterity.

Actually, HPL did make some records--of his singing! He had a pleasant light tenor, and as a young man committed a few tunes to wax cylinders. Later he saw to it that these recordings were "accidentally" smashed, but maybe a few strayed into the hands of family friends, and are still sitting in someone's attic. . .

 

[j d worthington]

LOL. Yes, his account of that is delightful. "The wail of a dying fox terrier" indeed....

Actually, I believe it was Maurice Winter Moe who suggested that the members of the Kleicomolo correspondence circle make dictaphone recordings of some of the letters. I don't recall anything stating that such actually happened, but if so, it would be wonderful if someone could come across those old recordings. We would then not only hear the voice of Lovecraft himself, but of several of his friends and colleagues from the amateur journalism movement....

 

[J-WO]

Actually, HPL did make some records--of his singing! He had a pleasant light tenor, and as a young man committed a few tunes to wax cylinders. Later he saw to it that these recordings were "accidentally" smashed, but maybe a few strayed into the hands of family friends, and are still sitting in someone's attic. . .

Wow. Any idea what songs?

 

[rkukan]

Wow. Any idea what songs?

Probably pop tunes of the day (c.1906). HPL retained a nostalgic fondness for these the rest of this life.

 

[j d worthington]

You know, people really shouldn't provide me with opportunities like this to ride my hobby-horse in public.... *ahem*:

I am very much interested, in Mr. Mo's idea of an oral conversation between the Kleicomoloes, to be conducted by means of a phonograph. I once owned an Edison machine of the primitive type, with recorder and blanks; and I made many vocal records in imitation of the renowned vocalists of the wax cylinder. My colleagues would smile to hear some of the plaintive tenor solos which I perpetrated in the days of my youth!! But sad to say, I gave the old machine away about a year ago to a deserving and not too musical youth who occasionally performs useful labour about the place. I wish now that I had retained it! However, I am sure that I could obtain the use of a commercial dictating machine at some store -- to run the records of my associates, if not to make one of my own. I presume that if I were to enter this field, Mr. Mo would expect me to roll my "rrrr....'s" most faithfully. I should indeed be charrrmed to parrrrticipaate in such a prodedurrre! This subject brings up memories of the days of a decade ago, when my phonograph was in constant use. I remember one record -- a song called "Starlight", which was truly Western in its cadences: "Good Nity, my Starrrrlight, hearrrt of my hearrt"... etc. etc.

-- letter to the Kleicomolo, April 1917, Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner, p. 89​

(This bit about the letter "r" refers to a controversy about the proper rolling of the letter in different regions, and resulted in Lovecraft good-naturedly gigging Moe as something of a pedantic stickler on the topic, at every opportunity, including writing a little verse squib, "Epitaph on ye Letterr Rrr......":

Dearr readerr, pause -- and shed a tearr,
Forr one that lyth interred herrre.
Poorr Masterr Rrr scant welcome found
On sterrn New-England's rocky ground;
Sorre spurrn'd on Earrth, and torrn with woes,
In burial soon he gain'd repose:
Today we hearr the roll no morre,
Save that of ocean on the shorre!

-- The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft, p. 220​

As for what happened with those records:

My dear Mo:--

I am interested in your experiences as a phonograph star. Something over a decade ago I conceived the idea of displacing Sig. Caruso as the world's greatest lyric vocalist, and accordingly inflicted some weird and wondrous ululations upon a perfectly innocent Edison blank. My mother actually liked the results -- mothers are not always unbiased critics -- but I saw to it that an accident soon removed the incriminating evidence. Later I tried something less ambitious; a simple, touching, plaintive, ballad sort of thing a la John McCormack. This was a better success, but reminded me to uch of the wail of a dying fox-terrier that I very carelessly happened to drop it soon after it was made. I have since confined my artistic talents to literature....

-- from a letter to Maurice Winter Moe, May 15, 1918, in Selected Letters I: 1911-1924, p. 60​

 

[J-WO]

Dance hall's loss became weird fiction's gain.

Still, an HPL Country and Western album would have been... interesting.

 

[j d worthington]

That is putting it mildly....

 

[J-WO]

'Rollin', rollin', rollin',
keep them Shoggoth's rollin'
Rawhide!
Don't try to understand 'em,
just roll 'em up and brand 'em!
Think that I'm losing mah mind!'


I'll stop now, I think...

 

[j d worthington]

LOL. Oh, dear....

Actually, part of the reason he mentioned the song's Western qualities may be because a subject of discussion earlier in the letter were the Western ballads sung by the cowboys out on cattle drives and the like, which were being recorded and written down by folklorists, musicologists, etc.; and the discussion also involved their relationship to the early border ballads....

 

[Toby Frost]

Whatever pen it was, sometimes, towards the end of the story it... ran low on ink... and kept stopping... and starting just as his characters... were going mad... and occasionally made up words... Ia! Cthulhu ftaghn!... and showed us glimpses of... mysterious things like... the tri-lobed burning eye!

I'll get my coat now.

 

[J-WO]

Whatever pen it was, sometimes, towards the end of the story it... ran low on ink... and kept stopping... and starting just as his characters... were going mad... and occasionally made up words... Ia! Cthulhu ftaghn!... and showed us glimpses of... mysterious things like... the tri-lobed burning eye!

Addendum: Of the mysterious disappearance of Tobytwo, few facts can be ascertained. In his artist's garret were found his notes, of which the above gibbering was the last entry (plus a request for someone official to add a desperately rational addendum); a tri-lobed pen with tentacles and indigestion; and an Elder-Thing passably capable of impersonating Clint Eastwood In Rawhide.

As of writing, the Rhode Island Police have ascribed the matter to a simple case of misadventure...

 

[Lobolover]

Now I am slightly interested : he recorded what pen he used , but was there a particular type or brand he despised ? I'm sure he would be capable to find fault with the "modernity" of such a device .

 

[j d worthington]

I don't recall seeing mention of a specific brand, no; but there may be and I'm just not able to recall or find it. However, he did let be known the things he found unappealing about such instruments, and he absolutely hated pens which let loose too much ink with any pressure, or not enough with light pressure; or where the ink tended to clog. As for the modern variety of ball-point pens... I rather doubt he would care for them, as the feel of a particular pen in his hand -- the way it fit his grip, the ease with which it flowed over the paper, the evenness of the distribution of ink, the appearance of the letters on the paper -- all played their part in his psychological response, and mass-produced ball-points are not known for their felicitousness in any of these.....