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H. P. Lovecraft Beats the Winter Blues

Weird fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft lived in New York City between 1924 and 1926. In March 1924, he moved to Brooklyn to marry milliner Sonia H. Greene and to chase the writer’s life. Greene lived in a comfortable Flatbush apartment and she happily supported her new husband’s literary endeavors.

By January 1925, the couple’s domestic situation had markedly changed. After several months of health and financial difficulties, Greene moved to Ohio to work in a department store. Lovecraft began renting a room in Brooklyn Heights, a neighborhood he described as a “region of brick & brownstone, within sight of the sea, & with an old-world air of musty stateliness.”

David J. Goodwin is writing a biography on H. P. Lovecraft and his years in New York City. He is the author of Left Bank of the Hudson: Jersey City and the Artists of 111 1st Street

ByDavid Goodwin

Start

Lovecraft moved into a rooming house at 169 Clinton Street on December 31, 1924. His second-floor room carried a Victorian charm with “tasteful white woodwork” and “deep window seats” overlooking the intersection of Clinton and State streets. He arranged his furniture, books, art, and household goods to create a “library-study effect.” He would grow to loathe both the building and Brooklyn Heights.

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Greene and Lovecraft regularly attended plays and movies during their time together in New York City. While Greene was visiting from Ohio on January 13, 1925, the couple enjoyed The Student Prince, a “splendid musical play” by composer Sigmund Romberg, at Jolson’s 59th Street Theatre at 932 Seventh Avenue. The theater existed in the building housing a videotape business in this 1962 photograph.

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H. P. Lovecraft ghostwrote a short story, “Under the Pyramids,” for the magician and escape artist Harry Houdini in the spring of 1924. The story was published as “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs” in Weird Tales magazine later that spring. Houdini offered Lovecraft a pair of complimentary tickets for his January 15, 1925 performance at the 5,300-seat Hippodrome Theatre. Lovecraft found it to be “a pleasantly immense house.” Houdini and Lovecraft would maintain a professional relationship until the performer’s unexpected death in 1926.

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On January 24, 1925, Lovecraft and several of his friends traveled to Yonkers, New York to watch a winter solar eclipse from a high hilltop. An avid amateur astronomer since his youth, Lovecraft braved the cold weather to witness the event. Afterward, the group visited the Philipse Manor House, a historic building dating from 1682 in downtown Yonkers. “A fine old man” gave Lovecraft and his friends a tour of the site.

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Staying with friends in Mount Vernon, New York, Lovecraft’s elder aunt Lillian Clark visited New York City on January 28, 1925. After “a thorough examination” of the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lovecraft and his aunt treated themselves to a meal at the St. Regis Hotel. Lovecraft savored a veal chop and indulged in a dessert of Charlotte Russe.

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