See Winfield Townley Scott, “A Parenthesis on Lovecraft as a Poet” ( FDOC211–16); R.Boerem, “The Continuity of the Fungi from Yuggoth” ( FDOC222–25); David E.Schultz, “H.P.Lovecraft’s Fungi from Yuggoth,” CryptNo. 20 (Eastertide 1984): 3–7; Ralph E.Vaughan, “The Story in Fungi from Yuggoth” CryptNo. 20 (Eastertide 1984): 9–11; David E.Schultz, “The Lack of Continuity in Fungi from Yuggoth,” CryptNo. 20 (Eastertide 1984): 12–16; Donald R. Burleson, “Scansion Problems in Lovecraft’s ‘Mirage,’” LSNo. 24 (Spring 1991): 18–19, 21; Robert H.Waugh, “The Structural and Thematic Unity of Fungi from Yuggoth,” LSNo. 26 (Spring 1992): 2–14; Dan Clore, “Metonyms of Alterity: A Semiotic Interpretation of Fungi from Yuggoth” LSNo. 30 (Spring 1994): 21–32.
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G
Galpin, Alfred (1901–1983).
Amateur writer, composer, and correspondent of HPL (1917–37). Galpin, one of Maurice W.Moe’s students in Appleton (Wis.) High School, was appointed Fourth Vice-President of the UAPA for the 1917–18 term, and HPL came in touch with him in late 1917. Galpin (who in the amateur press sometimes appeared under the pseudonym Consul Hasting) went on to hold several other positions in the UAPA—including First Vice-President (1918–1919), President (1920–21), and chairman of the Department of Public Criticism (1919–22)—but published only one issue of his own amateur periodical, The Philosopher(December 1920), which contained the first appearance of HPL’s “Polaris” and Galpin’s own weird vignette, “Marsh-Mad: A Nightmare.” HPL held off writing “The Tree” (which he had conceived no later than the summer of 1918) for several years because he felt that “MarshMad” (which he had read in ms.) anticipated the “living tree” idea. HPL reports that his philosophical thought was strongly influenced by Galpin’s (see SL1.128); it was possibly at Galpin’s suggestion that HPL first read Nietzsche in late 1918 (see Galpin’s essay, “Nietzsche as a Practical Prophet,” The Rainbow,October 1921). HPL not only wrote several birthday and other tributes in verse to Galpin —“To Alfred Galpin, Esq.” (1920), “To a Youth” (1921), “To Mr. Galpin” (1921)—but also numerous poems relating to Galpin’s high-school romances, envisioning Galpin as an ancient Greek shepherd pursuing, or pursued by, a nymph. Among them are “Damon and Delia, a Pastoral” (1918), “To Delia, Avoiding Damon” (1918), “Damon—a Monody” (1919), “Hylas and Myrrha” (1919), and “Myrrha and Strephen” (1919). HPL’s poems “To the Eighth of November” (1918) and “Birthday Lines to Margfred Albraham” (1919) are jointly dedicated to Galpin and Margaret Abraham, who shared the same birthday. HPL’s short play Alfredo(1918) features Galpin as its title character and Abraham as the character Margarita. Galpin himself wrote a homage/parody of HPL’s “Nemesis,” titled “SelenaioPhantasma” ( Conservative,July 1918), and
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at an unspecified date (probably before 1920) collaborated with HPL on the poem “Nathicana,” published ( Vagrant,Spring 1927) under the pseudonym Albert Frederick Willie (the first two names echo Galpin’s first name; “Willie” alludes to Galpin’s mother’s maiden name, Willy). By late 1919 Galpin had become, with Maurice W.Moe, a member of HPL’s correspondence cycle, the Gallomo, although it did not seem to last much more than a year.
On July 29, 1922, HPL boarded a train in New York for Cleveland, arriving the next day. He was met by Galpin, who resided at 9231 Birchdale Avenue. HPL stayed until August 15. At that time Galpin gave HPL a copy of Clark Ashton Smith’s The Star-Treader and Other Poems(1912), prompting HPL to write to Smith. On August 18–20, 1925, when he was living in Brooklyn, HPL met Galpin’s wife, a Frenchwoman who had arrived from Paris and would then move on to Cleveland. Galpin later moved to Italy and became a professional pianist and composer. Upon HPL’s death he composed a “Lament for H.P.L.” for solo piano (the score is reproduced in full in Marginalia) and later wrote a poignant memoir, “Memories of a Friendship” (1959; in LR). After the 1920s HPL and Galpin had little contact, and Galpin lost or destroyed most of his letters from HPL; only twenty-seven now survive at JHL. Galpin, Alfred (Old Bugs).
In “Old Bugs,” a once-successful writer who took to drink and thereby alienated the woman he loved, Eleanor Wing. He dies in the attempt to prevent Wing’s son, Alfred Trever, from imbibing alcohol at a tavern.
Gamba.
In “Winged Death,” a factor’s messenger whom Dr. Thomas Slauenwite deliberately causes to be bitten by a strange insect. Slauenwite cures him, but allows another bitten African, Batta, to die. Gamwell, Annie E[meline] Phillips (1866–1941).
Fifth and last child of Whipple V.Phillips and Robie Alzada Place Phillips; youngest sister of Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft, HPL’s mother. Gamwell was educated in Providence and married Edward Francis Gamwell on June 3, 1897; they had two children, a son, Phillips Gamwell, and a daughter, Marion Roby Gamwell, who lived only five days in February 1900. She separated from her husband some time prior to the death of her son in Colorado at the end of 1916. During part of the period 1919–24, she assisted her sister Lillian Clark in keeping house for HPL at 598 Angell Street; however, in a letter to her dated August 27, 1921 ( SL1.148), HPL writes of her recently taking up residence in New Hampshire. She visited ancestral sites in western Rhode Island with HPL in 1926 and 1929. On May 15, 1933, she took up housekeeping with HPL in a second-story flat at 66 College Street, but broke her ankle soon after moving in; she also underwent an operation to remove a cancerous breast early in 1936 (in his letters HPL discreetly referred to the cause of her hospitalization as “grippe”). She was shocked to find her nephew’s “Instructions in Case of Decease” ( LSNo. 11 [Fall 1985]: 71–73) in the fall of 1936 and was unable to care for him effectively when he became gravely ill in the early months of 1937 because of her own illness. R.H.Barlow came to Providence shortly after HPL’s death and with her permission deposited most of HPL’s literary papers in the John Hay Library of Brown University during the period 1937–
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42. August Derleth and Donald Wandrei also visited her in Providence in 1938. They dedicated to her the first hardcover collection of HPL’s stories, O . She died of cancer in early 1941. Gamwell, Edward F[rancis] (1869–1936).