This article is from the August 2023 issue of Fraternal Review titled H.P. Lovecraft.
Lovecraft held his ancestors in high regard. But he seemed to gravitate toward one in particular. He refers to his famous relative as: “Capt. Abraham Whipple, a privateersman of phenomenal boldness and energy who could be counted on to lead in any active measures needed.” And lead he would. Lovecraft tells us of the preparations made:
"According to the Smith diary a company of about 100 men met at 10 P.M. on Friday, April 12th, 1771, in the great room of Thurston’s Tavern at the Sign of the Golden Lion on Weybosset Point across the Bridge. Of the guiding group of prominent men in addition to the leader John Brown there were present Dr. Bowen, with his case of surgical instruments, President Manning without the great periwig (the largest in the Colonies) for which he was noted, Governor Hopkins, wrapped in his dark cloak and accompanied by his seafaring brother Esek, whom he had initiated at the last moment with the permission of the rest, John Carter, Capt. Mathewson, and Capt. Whipple, who was to lead the actual raiding party. These chiefs conferred apart in a rear chamber, after which Capt. Whipple emerged to the great room and gave the gathered seamen their last oaths and instructions.”
Where would Lovecraft see himself in this impressive lineage? Robert M. Price speculates that Lovecraft created at least one character who was autobiographical in nature. Wilbur Whateley, in the story “The Dunwich Horror,” is, in Price’s opinion, a fictional stand-in for Lovecraft himself. Price asserts that: “Wilbur’s being raised by a grandfather instead of a father, his home education from his grandfather’s library, his insane mother, his stigma of ugliness (in Lovecraft’s case untrue, but a self-image imposed on him by his mother), and his sense of being an outsider all echo Lovecraft himself.”
Lovecraft himself would later reflect that he identified with a different character. In a 1928 letter to August Derleth he would state: “[I] found myself identifying with one of the characters (an aged scholar [Henry Armitage] who finally combats the menace) toward the end.” Perhaps the battle between these characters was a subconscious battle of sorts for the author, a battle between the man he was and the man he wished to be.
Winfield Scott was Lovecraft’s father. He was committed to Butler Mental Hospital where he would die when Lovecraft was 8 years old. It is believed that he was suffering from late-stage syphilis, though Lovecraft maintained that his father became sick from overwork and insomnia.
Lovecraft’s father’s passing led to Whipple Van Buren Phillips, his maternal Grandfather and a descendent of Capt. Abraham Whipple, taking over as Lovecraft’s father figure. Phillips was a member of Manchester Lodge No. 12 and in 1870 he became the charter Master of Ionic Lodge No. 28 in Greene, Rhode Island, to which in 1900 he donated a portion of his property to build the lodge building which still stands today.
We know from Lovecraft’s own words that, due to a childhood illness that kept him bound to the house, he spent a great deal of time during his most formative years devouring the books on the shelves in his Grandfather’s vast library. In this space, he would develop a love for weird fiction and mythology that would later inform the direction that his writing would take for years to come. While he doesn’t mention them, it is very likely that H. P. also got his hands on some of his Grandfather’s Masonic books as well. In “The Dunwich Horror” it is said that Wilbur “would pore diligently over the queer pictures and charts in his grandfather’s books, while Old Whateley would instruct and catechize him through long, hushed afternoons.”
Later in this story, in reference to books found in Wilbur Whateley’s library, we learn that: “Armitage had an idea that the alphabet might be something esoterically used by certain forbidden cults which have come down from old times, and which have inherited many forms and traditions from the wizards of the Saracenic world. That question, however, he did not deem vital; since it would be unnecessary to know the origin of the symbols if, as he suspected, they were used as a cipher in a modern language. It was his belief that, considering the great amount of text involved, the writer would scarcely have wished the trouble of using another speech than his own, save perhaps in certain special formulae and incantations. Accordingly, he attacked the manuscript with the preliminary assumption that the bulk of it was in English.”
It is not known if H. P. ever entered the Masonic lodge building in Greene, but it seems likely that he would have been influenced by the Freemasons who called it home. While it may simply be a coincidence that Lovecraft used names like Tillinghast, Wilcox, and Whaley in his tales, these are all names that can be found on the list of the Past Masters of Ionic Lodge No. 28.
It’s also possible that a quasi-Masonic society influenced the future author in one area of his life. Lovecraft’s Grandfather was instrumental in starting a lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars in a Hopkins Hollow church. The IOGT was dedicated to promoting a lifestyle of total abstinence from alcohol. And, notably, throughout his life, Lovecraft was a teetotaler who looked down on anyone who drank alcohol.
Lovecraft died at the age of 46 from intestinal cancer. At the time, he was financially destitute and would never know the cult following that continues to grow for him to this day. In fact, no tombstone was erected for him until the 1970s, when fans raised money and placed a proper stone at the location. Carved into Lovecraft’s stone are these words: “I am Providence,” echoing the author’s words in a letter that he had written to James Ferdinand Morton: “I am Providence, & Providence is myself—together, indissolubly as one, we stand thro’ the ages; a fixt monument set eternally in the shadow of Durfee’s ice-clad peak!”
– Written by Bryan Simmons
Simmons is a Past Master of Ezekiel Bates Lodge A.F. & A.M. in Attleboro, Massachusetts, the sitting District Deputy Grand Master for the 19 East District, and a current chairman of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts’ 250th Commemoration Committee. Among other positions, he has served as the Charter High Priest of Phoenix Royal Arch Chapter, past High Priest of the Massachusetts Chapter of Research, and a Past Commander of Holy Sepulchre Commandery No. 8.
Note: The above has been extracted from a longer article that can be read at bryanco1.blogspot.com.