Literature in the Making
On February 24, 1931, H.P. Lovecraft began writing his celebrated novella "At the Mountains of Madness". At some point prior to that, he literally sketched out his ideas for the story on an old envelope he had lying around. After filling one side, he tore the envelope open and continued to jot down his ideas and even sketched a picture of one of the story's Elder Things.
That envelope is still extant and in the Lovecraft Collection of the John Hay Library at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The HPLHS has worked with the library to create a highly accurate replica of that original envelope and we offer it here for collectors and HPL fans alike. This document provides a unique insight into Lovecraft's creative process. We see his early articulation of thoughts and images for the story. Even better, we see them in his own hand as they were written out by a man so frugal that he made good use of both the outside AND inside of an envelope he no longer needed. The postage stamp is no longer extant on the original envelope (perhaps HPL reused it?). Our replica features a custom designed stamp honoring the John Hay Library and depicting Lovecraft from Virgil Finlay's portrait of him as an 18th century gentleman.
Our Standard Edition is the most accurate recreation of the original document we could mass produce; the original document is here recreated at its original size and format and printed on two sides of a torn open envelope. Our Deluxe Edition features the replica from the Standard Edition in a double-sided float frame with a handsome engraved museum-style plaque on the front. The float frame allows you to easily turn the frame around to see the other side of the sketch or reverse the image to your preferred side.
We have always loved this glimpse into Lovecraft's process as a writer and we're very excited to share our replica with fans of HPL's work.
Deluxe Edition frame is 12"x12"x1". Standard Edition is roughly 10"x10".
