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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 27, 2023 11:31:32 GMT -5
I'm fairly convinced now that Lovecraft's Arkham is an amalgamation of Salem, Danvers State Insane Asylum, and Haverhill which was on the Merrimack River. His friend and fellow amateur journalist, Charles W. "Tryout" Smith lived in Haverhill and HPL visited there. Downriver was Newburyport which was the inspiration for Innsmouth. Although Newburyport appeared in the "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" it was effectively split into two towns from the quaint colonial part and the seedy, run-down part. The Miskatonic River seems to be a fictional version of the Merrimack River although with a naming convention similar to the Housatonic River in western Massachusetts and Connecticut. Geographically, the Miskatonic is closer to where the Merrimack is and and more likely based upon this river valley that HPL liked to visit. If I'm right, Miskatonic University is probably a combination of Brown University, Harvard and Bradford College (the last of which is defunct and property bought and turned into Northpoint Bible College).
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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 29, 2023 14:56:59 GMT -5
I'm sketching out a tour of Lovecraft country. I've already been to Providence many times, so I'm going to focus on Boston and further north. How does this look for a list of sites to visit/drive through? I'm thinking a few days in October... See the leaves change, visit some cemeteries, stay at a dodgy waterfront hotel, get chased out in the middle of the night when the seafood tries to eat me... Thursday/Fly into Boston, get a rental car and drive to: Thursday/Copp's Hill Burying Ground ("Pickman's Model"): Battery Wharf Hotel Friday/Marblehead ("The Festival") [Kingsport]: Harbor Light Inn Friday/Salem and Danvers [Arkham] Saturday/Magnolia ("The Horror at Martin's Beach") Saturday/Gloucester: Beauport Hotel Gloucester Saturday/Ipswich Saturday/Newburyport ("The Shadow Over Innsmouth") [Innsmouth]: Essex Street Inn and Suites Sunday/Haverhill/Pentucket Burial Ground where Peaslees are buried ("The Shadow Out of Time") [Miskatonic Valley] Sunday/America's Stonehenge Sunday/Get on 93 to go south to Boston to fly home... Someone beat me to it, with the annotated photographs and everything! www.cthulhufiles.com/newengl.htmAh, well... I'm still going to do it!
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Post by GRWelsh on Jul 1, 2023 7:28:48 GMT -5
This morning I was researching the Lovecraftian locations. Marblehead is the real life inspiration for Kingsport, and I've been trying to match up the Kingsport sites in "The Festival" to the actual sites in Marblehead. I'm using "Off the Ancient Track" by Jason Eckhardt and "Antique Dreams: Marblehead and Lovecraft's Kingsport" by Donovan Loucks as resources. From the story:
NOTES: In Marblehead, there is no Back Street, but there is a Front Street. There is no Circle Court, but there is a Circle Street. There is no Green Lane, but there is a Green Street and a Green Street Court. There is no Market house, but there is an Old Town House located in Town House Square and it was the site of open-air markets in the 18th century. According to Loucks, Elm Street was once known as Back Street.
The more I look into it, the more I conclude there are dubious assumptions about real equivalents to fictional places. HPL created a fictional geography in his mind that was an amalgamation of different sources... Kingsport vaguely corresponds to Marblehead, and Arkham vaguely corresponds to Salem, but it isn't always a one-to-one correspondence when you get down to exact details of streets, buildings, etc.
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