t of
the Lovecrafts, a Devonshire family which has furnished a great many
clergymen to the Church of England, and the Allgoods of Northumberland,
a history-honored family of which several members have been knighted.
The Allgoods have been a military line, and this may account for
Lovecraft's militarism and belief in the justice of war. On the maternal
side he is a typical Yankee, coming from East English stock which
settled in Rhode Island about 1680. Lovecraft is a student of
astronomy--it is a domineering passion with him--and this love was
apparently inherited from his maternal grandmother, Rhoby Phillips, who
studied it thoroughly in her youth at Lapham Seminary, and whose
collection of old astronomical books first interested him. Lovecraft
came from pure-blood stock, and he is the last male descendant of that
family in the United States. With him the name will die in America. He
is unmarried.

As he was about to enter college at the age of eighteen, his feeble
health gave way, and since then he has been physically incapacitated and
rendered almost an invalid. Being thus deprived of his cherished hope to
further his education and prepare himself for a life of letters, he has
contented himself with his home, which is just three squares from his
birthplace, and where he lives with his mother. And his home life is
ideal. His personal library--his haven of contentment--contains more
than 1500 volumes, many of them yellowed with age, and crude examples of
the printer's art. Among these treasured books may be found volumes
which have passed through the various branches of his family, some
dating back to 1681 and 1702, and methinks I can see Lovecraft poring
over these time-stained bits o' bookish lore as the monks of old
followed the printed lines with quivering fingers in the taper's
uncertain, flickering light. For Lovecraft appeals to me as a
bookworm--one of those lovable mortals whose very existence seems to
hang on the numbered pages of a heavy, clumsy book!

His connection with organized amateur journalism is of recent date. On
April 6, 1914, his application for membership in the United Amateur
Press Association of America was forwarded to the Secretary. Like a
great many of the recruits, Lovecraft was completely ignored for several
months. In July of last year he became active, and he has proven to be
an invaluable asset to the literary life of the Association. He is _not_
a politician. However, his literary act