An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

Novelist, poet, and amateur journalist residing in central Massachusetts. She was the daughter of amateur writer Jennie E.T.Dowe (about whom HPL wrote an elegy, “In Memoriam: J.E.T.D.,” Tryout, March 1919). She was the editor of The Muffin Man(April 1921), which contained a parody of HPL, “Falco Ossifracus: By Mr. Goodguile”; also of Aftermath(a paper issued after amateur conventions). She published one novel professionally, Our Natupski Neighbors(Henry Holt, 1916)—about Polish immigrants in Massachusetts—and short stories for professional magazines. HPL claimed that Miniter turned down the job of revising Bram Stoker’s Draculafor publication. Miniter first met HPL at an amateur convention held at her home at 20 Webster Street in Allston (a suburb of Boston) in July 1920, and again at amateur conventions in Allston on March 10, 1921, and in Maiden (another suburb of Boston) on April 12, 1923. She invited HPL to spend two weeks with her and her cousin Evanore Beebe in Wilbraham, Mass., at which time she told HPL about the local legendry (including the story of whippoorwills used in “The Dunwich Horror”). See HPL’s memoir, “Mrs. Miniter— Estimates and Recollections” (1934; first published in the Californian,Spring 1938). HPL also wrote an elegy, “Edith Miniter” ( Tryout,August 1934). In 1934–35 HPL was assembling material for a memorial volume on Miniter to be published by W.Paul Cook, but it never materialized; but he ended up with many of her papers and manuscripts (now at JHL). One, a letter written in 1853 by her great-uncle George Washington Tupper, a forty-niner, inspired the minor character named Tupper in “The Shadow out of Time” (1934–35). Much of Miniter’s work in the

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amateur press has now been collected in Going Home and Other Amateur Writings(Moshassuck Press, 1995) and The Coast of Bohemia and Other Writings(Moshassuck Press, 2000) Mladdna.

In “‘Till A’ the Seas,’” an old woman who, in the distant future, is (along with a young man named Ull) the last surviving member of the human race. When she dies, Ull is left alone. Moe, Maurice W[inter] (1882–1940).

Teacher, amateur journalist, and longtime friend and correspondent of HPL. Moe taught English at Appleton High School (Appleton, Wis.) and later at West Division High School in Milwaukee. He came in touch with HPL no later than the end of 1914 and maintained a substantial correspondence from that time until HPL’s death; it was at Moe’s suggestion, in the summer of 1916, that he, HPL, Rheinhart Kleiner, and Ira A.Cole begin a round-robin correspondence cycle, the Kleicomolo. Later, in 1919–21, Moe, HPL, and Alfred Galpin formed the Gallomo correspondence group. For a time Moe made copies of all the correspondents’ contributions, but these copies do not appear to survive. A devout theist, Moe argued repeatedly with HPL on religion, but their discussions—at times heated but never acrimonious—appear not to have altered either individual’s viewpoints significantly. In one of these argumentative letters (May 15, 1918; SL1.60–66) HPL recounted a dream that later served as the basis for “Polaris” (1918). Moe contributed frequently to the amateur press (and also to scholarly journals on education: see “Amateur Journalism and the English Teacher,” English Journal, February 1915) but never edited a paper of his own. He did, however, establish the Appleton High School Press Club for his students; they issued a paper, The Pippin. HPL wrote two poems commemorating two issues of the paper (those for December 1918 and May 1919), although neither poem was published at the time. Through this press club HPL became acquainted, in late 1917, with Alfred Galpin, then a student at Appleton High School. In 1917 HPL also wrote a brief poem, “To M.W. M.” (in “News Notes,” United Amateur,July 1917); HPL’s play Alfredo(1918) includes Moe as a character under the guise of Cardinal Maurizio; still later HPL wrote the poem “On the Return of Maurice Winter Moe, Esq., to the Pedagogical Profession” ( Wolverine,June 1921), commemorating Moe’s move to Milwaukee. HPL’s “The Unnamable” (1923) features, in Joel Manton, a character clearly based upon Moe. HPL met Moe for the first time on August 10, 1923, when Moe came to Providence; they later went by bus to Boston, where they met Moe’s wife and two small boys, Donald and Robert. The next day HPL took Moe, Albert A.Sandusky, and Edward H.Cole on a walking trip to Marblehead, but after trudging for hours the latter three protested and refused to go any further; HPL, still spry, grudgingly relented.