‘The Man Who Collected Lovecraft’

I picked up a new work by Marcos Legaria, the author of L’Affaire Barlow: H.P. Lovecraft and the Battle for His Literary Legacy. Legaria is a leading authority on R.H. Barlow, the young fan of H.P. Lovecraft who became his literary executor after his death. The Man Who Collected Lovecraft came out from S.T. Joshi’s Sarnath Press.

This volume is more of a companion to the prior work, as its subtitle, “How R.H. Barlow Built His Vaults of Yoh-Vombis,” refers to the collection of manuscripts, pulp magazines, and other materials from his contacts with weird-fiction and science-fiction authors. We learn how he built it up, as well as what happened to it after his death.

Robert H. Barlow (1918-51) was a young fan and correspondent with Lovecraft from an early age. He even hosted Lovecraft at his family’s home in DeLand, Fla., for extended stays during two summers. Barlow collaborated with Lovecraft on some stories, got into amateur publishing, and, for reasons that are hopefully clear from the prior work, was named by Lovecraft as his literary executor. Sadly, that document was not part of Lovecraft’s formal will.

Barlow seems to have followed Lovecraft’s wishes, as well as presenting many papers and documents to the John Hay Library at Brown University in Providence, R.I., which are there today. It seems clear that others were more than willing to sell off their Lovecraft documents instead of having them preserved this way. Though, as noted in the prior work, others would wrestle this away from Barlow.

Things start with Barlow beginning his collecting, especially reaching out to Lovecraft, and others, to get their original manuscripts, which he would then type up for them and send those in exchange. Some of this material would later be published in his two amateur journals, which have been reprinted in another volume by Joshi through Sarnath Press. This covers several years and a few chapters.

Then something occurred in 1936. I have no idea what. Due to this, both Barlow and his mother left their home and headed to Kansas City. Barlow would actually go to visit Lovecraft for a while before heading to Kansas City. This was important, as there they learned they were sixth cousins, and Lovecraft named Barlow his literary executor.

Barlow, as far as I know, never returned to his home in Florida, though his mother did about five years later. Barlow stopped adding to his collection, leaving much of it at the family home in Florida, and taking only some of it with him. Soon after, Lovecraft passed away, and the events covered in L’Affaire Barlow occurred.

After all of that, Barlow then headed to Mexico to start a new life in the field of anthropology. It is here he passed away in 1951, by suicide.

At this point, we move into the part of the work dealing with the disposition of his collection, much of it done under the guidance of Barlow’s literary executor, George Simisor. Some of it he microfilmed, and other materials, especially the books and magazines, he tried to sell on behalf of Barlow’s mother. By the time she passed away, there was still a lot of stuff at the Barlow home, which they were still trying to sell off. And some was left when the home was sold to a cousin. I have no idea what happened to it.

I am also unclear as to what happened to the microfilm reels created by Simisor. What bothered me was the material that, in my view, should have gone to a library for archiving instead of being sold off to collectors, and who knows what has happened to it.

I guess this shows that you need to be very clear as to how you wish your possessions to be handled after your death, and by whom.

The work also contains four appendices. The first lists the contents of the letters and miscellaneous items from Barlow that Simisor microfilmed. The second is a catalog of his library in Mexico. The third is a list of the books from his collection that his mother put up for sale after his death. And the fourth lists the books he had after his mother’s death and the sale of the DeLand home and its contents to a cousin.

Overall, this is an excellent work. This isn’t one that would appeal to most people, but for those who wish to learn more about the people around Lovecraft, this adds to the knowledge of at least one of them.

I would certainly like to see a more complete examination of Barlow’s life. Hippocampus Press does have a collection of his fiction and poetry, which I hope to get soon.