A Dreamer & A Visionary; H.P. Lovecraft in His Time

This certainly is a remarkable account, and suggests that Lovecraft’s chorea minor (if that is what it was) had not entirely worn off even by this time. Brobst, a Ph.D. in psychology who was trained as a psychiatric nurse, considers the possibility of ‘chorea-like symptoms’ and also conjectures that a hysteroid seizure—a purely psychological ailment without any organic basis—may have been involved. Whether these seizures were the actual cause of his removal from high school is something that cannot now be settled.

The other piece of evidence comes from Harold W. Munro, who writes that Lovecraft had been climbing on a house under construction and had fallen, landing on his head.⁶ Munro does not date this incident (which he himself did not see but only heard about), but he implicitly links it with Lovecraft’s withdrawal from high school.

The breakdown—whether purely mental or nervous or a combination of mental and physical factors—was, clearly, something related to his schoolwork, the same sort of thing that may have caused his milder breakdown of 1906; although even ‘steady application’ in only three classes (all he was taking in his third year at Hope Street) would not seem sufficient to induce so severe a collapse. Note, however, what three courses he was taking: chemistry, physics, and algebra. He was receiving the highest marks in the first two; in algebra he was repeating a part of the course he had taken the previous year. My feeling, therefore, is that Lovecraft’s relative failure to master algebra made him gradually awaken to the realization that he could never do serious professional work in either chemistry or astronomy, and that therefore a career in these two fields was an impossibility. This would have been a shattering conception, requiring a complete revaluation of his career goals. Consider this remark, made in 1931:

In studies I was not bad—except for mathematics, which repelled and exhausted me. I passed in these subjects—but just about that. Or rather, it was algebra which formed the bugbear. Geometry was not so bad. But the whole thing disappointed me bitterly, for I was then intending to pursue astronomy as a career, and of course advanced astronomy is simply a mass of mathematics. That was the first major setback I ever received—the first time I was ever brought up short against a consciousness of my own limitations. It was clear to me that I hadn’t brains enough to be an astronomer— and that was a pill I couldn’t swallow with equanimity.⁷

Again, Lovecraft does not connect this with his breakdown of 1908, but I think the implication of a connection is strong. I repeat that this is a conjecture, but, until further evidence is forthcoming, it may be the best we have.

One more small piece of evidence comes from Lovecraft’s wife, who reports that Lovecraft told her that his sexual instincts were at their greatest at the age of nineteen.⁸ It is conceivable that sex frustration—for I do not imagine Lovecraft acted upon his urges at this time—may have been a contributory cause of his breakdown; but, for one whose sexuality was, in general, so sluggish as Lovecraft’s, I am not convinced that this was a significant factor.

As a result of this breakdown, Lovecraft virtually withdrew from the world, so that the period 1908–13 is a virtual blank in his life. It is the only time in his life when we do not have a significant amount of information on what he was doing from day to day, who his friends and associates were, and what he was writing. It is also the only time of his life when the term ‘eccentric recluse’—which many have used with careless ignorance—can rightly be applied to him.