page_title: H. P. Lovecraft
section_title: Return to Providence
hierarchical_section_title: H. P. Lovecraft / Biography / Return to Providence
caption_attribution_description: Lovecraft’s final home from May 1933 until March 10, 1937, when he was moved to the Jane Brown Memorial Hospital in Providence; where he died of cancer of the small intestine and kidney disease on March 15, 1937. The Samuel B. Mumford House (1825) - 65 Prospect Street - Looking East-South-East. (I (GdB) would like to add the following: When Lovecraft lived in this house, it was located at 66 College Street. S.T. Joshi writes in I am Providence: “Although the address was 66 College Street, it was set far back from the street, at the end of a narrow alley once called Ely’s Lane; the house itself was perhaps closer to Waterman Street than College.” The house was moved to its current location in 1959.) In H. P. Lovecraft's, "The Haunter of the Dark," the protagonist Robert Blake (a thinly disguised Robert Bloch, who went on to achieve fame as the author of the novel "Psycho") lived in this house in its original 66 College Street location as described below prior to his untimely demise: "Young Blake returned to Providence in the winter of 1934-5, taking the upper floor of a venerable dwelling in a grassy court off College Street—on the crest of the great eastward hill near the Brown University campus and behind the marble John Hay Library. It was a cosy and fascinating place, in a little garden oasis of village-like antiquity where huge, friendly cats sunned themselves atop a convenient shed. The square Georgian house had a monitor roof, classic doorway with fan carving, small-paned windows, and all the other earmarks of early nineteenth century workmanship." And, "Blake's study, a large southwest chamber, overlooked the front garden on one side, while its west windows—before one of which he had his desk—faced off from the brow of the hill and commanded a splendid view of the lower town's outspread roofs and of the mystical sunsets that flamed behind them." And, "His studio was in a north attic room, where the panes of the monitor roof furnished admirable lighting." Look closely in the windows on the upper left, and you just might see Robert Blake’s shade still looking in what was the direction of Federal Hill in “The Haunter of the Dark.” This is where Lovecraft wrote: 1933 "The Thing on the Doorstep" 1933 The revised, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" 1934-35 "The Shadow Out of Time" 1935 "The Haunter of the Dark" Photo taken by Will Hart on 17-August-1990.
context_page_description: Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American writer of weird fiction and horror fiction, who is known for his creation of what became the Cthulhu Mythos.
  Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life in New England. He was born into affluence, but his family's wealth dissipated soon after the death of his grandfather. In 1913, he wrote a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fiction. During the interwar period, he wrote and published stories that focused on his interpretation of humanity's place in the universe. In his view, humanity was an unimportant part of an uncaring cosmos that could be swept away at any moment. These stories also included fantastic elements that represented the perceived fragility of anthropocentrism.
  Lovecraft was at the center of a wider body of authors known as "The Lovecraft Circle". This group wrote stories that frequently shared details among them. He was also a prolific writer of letters. He maintained a correspondence with several different authors and literary proteges. According to some estimates, he wrote approximately 100,000 letters over the course of his life.
context_section_description: Back in Providence, Lovecraft lived in a "spacious brown Victorian wooden house" at 10 Barnes Street until 1933. The same address is given as the home of Dr. Willett in Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The period beginning after his return to Providence—the last decade of his life—was Lovecraft's most prolific; in that time he produced short stories, as well as his longest works of fiction: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and At the Mountains of Madness. He frequently revised work for other authors and did a large amount of ghostwriting, including The Mound, Winged Death, and The Diary of Alonzo Typer. Client Harry Houdini was laudatory, and attempted to help Lovecraft by introducing him to the head of a newspaper syndicate. Plans for a further project were ended by Houdini's death.
  Although he was able to combine his distinctive style (allusive and amorphous description by horrified though passive narrators) with the kind of stock content and action that the editor of Weird Tales wanted—Wright paid handsomely to snap up "The Dunwich Horror" which proved very popular with readers—Lovecraft increasingly produced work that brought him no remuneration. Affecting a calm indifference to the reception of his works, Lovecraft was in reality extremely sensitive to criticism and easily precipitated into withdrawal. He was known to give up trying to sell a story after it had been once rejected. Sometimes, as with The Shadow over Innsmouth (which included a rousing chase that supplied action) he wrote a story that might have been commercially viable but did not try to sell it. Lovecraft even ignored interested publishers. He failed to reply when one inquired about any novel Lovecraft might have ready: although he had completed such a work, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, it was never typed up. A few years after Lovecraft had moved to Providence, he and his wife Sonia Greene, having lived separately for so long, agreed to an amicable divorce. Greene moved to California in 1933 and remarried in 1936, unaware that Lovecraft, despite his assurances to the contrary, had never officially signed the final decree.
caption: Lovecraft's final home, May 1933 until March 10, 1937
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