ALS signed “Luveh-Karaph,” one page, 5.5 x 9, August 7, 1935. Addressed from the home of author R. H. Barlow in DeLand, Florida, a handwritten letter to Lovecraft’s 18-year-old protege, Robert Bloch, the future author of Psycho, to whom Lovecraft salutes as the “Noble & Diabolic Dr. Prinn.” In part: “Congratulations once more! It’s getting to be a habit! You surely are a WT future these days… ‘the boy who made good!’ I shall avail ‘The Faceless God’ + other items with new expectancy, + trust that this reception by the public may prove favourable! Shall be interested to see how good ol’ Nyarlathotep fares in your hands!
And so you’re getting to be such a noted literary authority that neophytes + aspirants drag you out of bed seeking sage advice! Bless my soul! But such are the responsibilities of fame + competence! Trust you’ve duly set honest Mr. Leiberhan [ostensibly Fritz Leiber] on the right path, + that the Fictioneers will attend to any points you may have overlooked. Which reminds me that Sultan Malik…of Redwood City [E. Hoffmann Price] has been entertaining your friend Ralph Milne Farley — showing him around San Francisco + initiating him into the mysteries of the Chinese Theatre. Ask Farley about it when he gets back.
Your recent reading seems to be all in the right direction. [James Branch] Cabell is a good stylist, even though some of his things tend to seem a bit artificial, forced, + repetitious. [Joris-Karl] Huysmans is the supreme classic of decadence…somebody has called ‘Against the Grain’ ‘the bible of the 90’s.’ I’ve also read his ‘La Bas.’
Glad your fame has been accepted, + hope the other things turn out well. I’ll look up that cinema if I encounter it anywhere. Hope your woodland vacation will prove a thorough success — I’ll be glad to hear about it later.
I continue to have a good time down here. My super-hospitable hosts are now urging me to remain all winter — not going home till next May — but I don’t believe I could arrange to do this, much as I dread the physical ordeal of a northern winter. I can’t perform serious work without my library + files — hence imagine I’ll be at 66 before the month is out. Shall pause at St. Augustine + Charleston…The other day we visited Rock Springs, about 20 m. S.W. of here — where amidst a picturesque wooded valley a crystal stream issues forth from twin black tunnels in the side of a lofty tree-crowned cliff of hard-packed clay. About 60 ft inside the layer of these tunnels there is a vast hidden chamber of eternal night — once used by the Indians as a refuge — beyond which another aperture leads back to unplumbed + inconceivable abysses of inner Earth. A great place — hope to see it again.
You’ll be sorry to hear of the death on July 22 of young Robert Nelson — author of sundry verses in WT + of ‘Lost Excerpts’ in the FF — after an illness of 17 days. Too bad! Yrs for the Litany of The Worm.” In very fine condition.
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