From magician James Harrison, a letter from H.P. Lovecraft, written to Harry Houdini! In it, HPL congratulates Houdini for acquiring Poe’s desk. Photographed at a Houdini Exhibit in Toronto.
P.S. Your recent note just came. Congratulations on the Poe desk! I hope to (see?) and ponder over it!
Thanks exceedingly for forming another link in the chain of forwarding by which the Turner letter reached me. That letter is indeed a nobly heartening influence!
Pardon informal postscript,
HPL
UPDATE: Jeffrey Savoye from The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore comments that the desk pictured above is not the desk that HPL was referring to, but rather another desk owned by Poe — a portable desk. Of course, all the pertinent facts remain the same, but apparently someone at the Houdini Exhibit mentioned above thought it was the larger desk, not the smaller one.
Does anyone know of a site like this one for Lovecraft but about Egar Allen Poe?
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Edgar Allan Poe: Evermore
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Thanks. I’ve frequent many Poe sites but haven’t found one as good as lovecraftezine (for Poe) 🙂 I’ll check out evermore
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he mentions the Turner letter, doe that refer to the artist Turner? then that makes it 4 amazing connections in this artefact, the mind boggles
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Maybe Frederick Jackson Turner?
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The desk shown is not the right desk. Houdini owned a portable desk thought to have been Poe’s. It was described in 1925 as being mahogany. The desk shown in the picture is Poe’s desk from the Southern Literary Messenger, and was purchased by William H. Koester from J. H. Whitty. It was never owned by Houdini.
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O! now I have to build one – just cause.
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Lovecraft’s humor and manner to appreciate matters itself a legend to follow and admire. Houdini acquired this mighty table from mighty POE, a great gift indeed.
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Reblogged this on Netherworld and commented:
Timeless story.
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