Wright, Farnsworth

Description

At first glance the letter is unassuming: A chunk is missing; it’s not signed; and the back is covered in pencil scrawl. Like a good Lovecraft yarn, the letter only reveals itself by peeling back each layer. We apologize in advance, as it’s a complicated story.

The addressor: Farnsworth Wright was the editor of Weird Tales for 179 issues from 1924 to 1940. Wright had Parkinson’s disease and by 1930 was no longer able to sign his letters, which explains the missing signature. Letters by Wright are rare and desired because Weird Tales is where Lovecraft developed his Cthulhu series.

The addressee: R.H. Barlow, is the controversial friend, co-author with, and literary executor of H.P. Lovecraft. This letter was written when Barlow was 17 years old. Brown University’s H.P. Lovecraft collection digitized thousands of documents from Barlow and Lovecraft, including correspondence directly related to the subject of this letter.

The subject of the letter: C.L. Moore (i.e. Catherine Lucille Moore, 1911–1987) was among the first women to successfully write science fiction. Moore’s first professional sale was her phenomenally successful short story “Shambleau”, which appeared in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales (edited by Wright). Wright in this letter informs Barlow that the rights to Shambleau reside with Moore and not Weird Tales.

Barlow and Moore were friends and wrote each other copiously. Brown University holds letters from Moore to Barlow. In those letters in late 1934 Barlow suggested to Moore that he publish two of her short stories (including the well-known Shambleau), apparently without compensation to Moore. On September 10, 1934, Moore wrote to Barlow: “Yes, Wright has all rights to Shambleau. That is, I didn’t reserve any…” and On December 31, 1934, Moore wrote to Barlow: “Now for your idea. I think it’s perfectly swell. Nothing could be nicer than to have a copy of my own stories in that form. Do you think Mr. Wright would let us do it? My fiancé insists that we both have written permission from him first…” (source: letters digitized by Brown University).

Ergo, this letter with said permission from Wright. Further, by placing this letter in context with the letters at Brown University we see that Barlow and Moore had worked out details of publishing Moore’s stories before Wright wrote this letter.

Now to Barlow’s handwritten notes on back of the letter.

Barlow writes, “What he meant by that, I am uncertain…” “accustomed to paying through the nose, I wrote once more…” “I was trying my darndest to prevent it slipping out of my reach!” etcetera. Our theory is that these notes are a draft letter from Barlow to Moore and the “he” in question is not Wright, but rather publisher W.L. Crawford (1911–1984).

Around the time Barlow would have received this April 25, 1935, letter from Wright, there are five letters from Moore to Barlow at Brown University archives—all dealing with the fact that Crawford, the publisher of Marvel Tales at Fantasy Publications, had just offered Moore a percentage of each book sold if she would publish the two stories in question with him. Moore wrote to Barlow that, “It [i.e. publication with Crawford] would, I suppose, mean the end of our non-commercial idea of publishing Shambleau and a few others in book form, but if it really means money, I can’t turn it down.” (March 2, 1935, at Brown University). This quote directly relates to the Shambleau publishing project discussed in the letter on offer.

R.H. Barlow shaped H.P. Lovecraft and his estate. This letter—in context with the letters at Brown University—shows Barlow’s efforts to publish Moore’s works with no compensation to Moore and his reactions once Crawford steps in and offers to pay Moore.

This item is a puzzle piece in the complicated web of Barlow’s influence on science fiction. From the collection of Allen R. Charpentier, member of the Science Fiction League as early as 1935 and attendee of the First World Science Fiction Convention in 1939.