An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

HPL’s so-called death diary is mentioned in his obituary in the New York Times:“As he neared the end of his life, he turned his scholarly interest to a study of his own physical condition and daily wrote minutely of his case for his physician’s assistance. His clinical notes ended only when he could no longer hold a pencil.” The diary does not survive—R.H.Barlow probably kept it after he had gone through HPL’s papers—but Barlow transcribed numerous entries from it in his letter to August Derleth of March 31, 1937 (ms., SHSW). These entries have been published as an appendix to R.Alain Everts, The Death of a Gentleman: The Last Days of Howard Phillips Lovecraft(Strange Co., 1987).

de Castro, Adolphe (1859–1959).

Correspondent and revision client of HPL. He was born Gustav Adolphe Danziger in a Germanspeaking Russian territory along the Baltic Sea, and studied at the University of Bonn. He moved to the United States in 1886, was employed at one time or another at tasks as diverse as dentist and American consul in Madrid. He became acquainted with Ambrose Bierce and did the basic translation from German into English of Der Mönch des Berchtesgarten(1890) by Richard Voss (1851–1918), which Bierce then revised and polished; it was published as The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter (serialized 1891; book form 1892). He adopted the name de Castro (from a remote Spanish ancestor) in 1921. His Portrait of Ambrose Bierce(revised by Frank Belknap Long, who also wrote a preface, after HPL turned down the job) was published in 1929; it tells of his efforts to find Bierce in Mexico in early 1920s. De Castro also wrote several treatises (e.g., Jewish Forerunners of Christianity [E.P.Dutton, 1903]), novels, and volumes of poetry. He published a short story collection, In the Confessional and the Following(1893); in 1927, seeking to capitalize upon his relations with Bierce, he came in touch with HPL (through Samuel Loveman) and asked HPL to rewrite some stories for republication. HPL stated that he managed to “land” at least three with magazines, but only two are known: “The Last Test” ( WT,November 1928; originally “A Sacrifice for Science”) and “The Electric Executioner” ( WT,August 1930; originally “The Automatic Executioner”). De Castro’s originals were reprinted in Crypt No. 10 (1982). In 1934–35 HPL considered revising de Castro’s social-political treatise The New Way,but ultimately declined. During a visit to Providence in August 1936, de Castro, HPL, and R.H. Barlow composed acrostic poems on Edgar Allan Poe in St. John’s churchyard. De Castro’s was later published in WT(May 1937).

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See Chris Powell, “The Revised Adolphe Danziger de Castro,” LSNo. 36 (Spring 1997): 18–25. de la Mare, Walter [John] (1873–1956).

British author whose weird work (a small segment of his oeuvre) HPL admired. HPL first read de la Mare in the summer of 1926 (see SL2.57) and accordingly added a substantial paragraph about him to “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” singling out stories in The Riddle and Other Stories(1923) and The Connoisseur and Other Stories(1926), notably “Seaton’s Aunt” (in the former volume), de la Mare’s best-known weird tale. HPL also spoke highly of the novel The Return(1910; rev. 1922), which, in its depiction of a man possessed by the spirit of an eighteenth-century criminal, was surely an influence on HPL’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward(1927). HPL also had praise for de la Mare’s weird poem “The Listeners” (in The Listeners and Other Poems,1912). De la Mare is today probably better known for his writings for children, but his weird tales still attract a devoted following. See Diana Ross McCrosson, Walter de la Mare(1966); Theresa Whistler, Imagination of the Heart: The Life of Walter de la Mare(1993).

Delapore,———.