Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 by H. P. Lovecraft (electric book reader .TXT) đź“•
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Last night I swallowed the drug and floated dreamily into the golden valley and the shadowy groves; and when I came this time to the antique wall, I saw that the small gate of bronze was ajar. From beyond came a glow that weirdly lit the giant twisted trees and tops of the buried temples, and I drifted on songfully, expectant of the glories of the land from whence I should never return.
But as the gate swung wider and the sorcery of drug and dream pushed me through, I knew that all sights and glories were at an end; for in that new realm was neither land nor sea, but only the white void of unpeopled and illimitable space. So, happier than I had ever dared hope to be, I dissolved again into that native infinity of crystal oblivion from which the daemon Life had called me for one brief and desolate hour.
OFFICIAL ORGAN FUNDCustodian. THE UNITED AMATEUR SEPTEMBER 1921 THE UNITED AMATEUR
Official Organ
of the
United Amateur Press Association
E. Edward Ericson
Official Publisher
Issued bi-monthly by the United Amateur Press Association.
Subscription Price, 50 cents per year.
Published at Elroy, Wisconsin.
Entered as second-class mail matter at the post office at Elroy, Wis.
SEPTEMBER 1921 OFFICIAL BOARDPresident—Mrs. Ida C. Haughton, 1372 E. Long St., Columbus, Ohio.
First Vice-President—Frank Belknap Long, Jr., 823 West End Ave., New York City.
Second Vice-President—Eleanor Beryl North, 316 Beaver Ave., State College, Pa.
Secretary-Treasurer—Alma B. Sanger, 667 Lilley Ave., Columbus, Ohio.
Official Editor—H. P. Lovecraft, 598 Angell St., Providence, R. I.
Official Publisher—E. Edward Ericson, Elroy, Wis.
Laureate Recorder—Howard R. Conover, Route 1, Cozaddale, Ohio.
Manuscript Manager—Grace M. Bromley, 1432 R St., N. W., Washington, D. C.
Historian—Myrta Alice Little, Westville, N. H.
Supervisor of Amendments—(To be appointed.)
Directors—Paul J. Campbell, Route 2, Ridgefarm, Ill.; Anne T. Renshaw, 2109 F St., N. W., Washington, D. C.; Jay Fuller Spoerri, 304 House Office Bldg., Washington, D. C.
Department of Public Criticism—Alfred Galpin, Jr., Chairman, 830 W. Johnson St., Madison, Wis.
Department of Private Criticism—Maurice W. Moe, Chairman, 2812 Chestnut St., Milwaukee, Wis.
Recruiting Committee—Frank Belknap Long, Jr., Chairman, Paul J. Campbell, Leo Fritter, Alfred L. Hutchinson, Gavin T. McColl, Maurice W. Moe.
Ladies' Auxiliary Committee—Eleanor Beryl North, Chairman, Mary Faye Durr, Jennie Eva Harris, Winifred Virginia Jackson, Margaret Mahon, Anne T. Renshaw.
LAUREATE TITLESPoetry—S. Lilian McMullen; Honourable Mention, Mary Carver Williams.
Story—H. P. Lovecraft; Honourable Mention, Alfred Galpin, Jr.
Essay—Anna Helen Crofts and H. P. Lovecraft; Honourable Mention, Alfred Galpin, Jr.
Editorial—(To be awarded.)
LITERATIPoetry—Arthur Goodenough, Olive G. Owen (deceased).
Story—Eleanor Barnhart Campbell.
Editorial—H. P. Lovecraft.
INFORMATION"Amateur Journalism is for those who cultivate literature from taste or attachment, for those who write for the love of writing, for those who pursue the art of letters for its own sake. They may or may not be engaged (or aspire to be engaged) in authorship as a business, but those who are members of that profession will undoubtedly find in Amateur Journalism the air of freedom which develops personality in writing. They will find every encouragement to self-development, amid an environment of art. Amateur Journalism is for all those who do literary work for the love of it."
"The privileges of the United Amateur Press Association are: The use of the Manuscript Bureau and the columns of the papers connected with the Association; the Official Organ; attendance at Conventions; proxy representation at elections; laureate competitions, etc."
"Any person who edits or contributes prose or poetry to any amateur paper is eligible to membership."
"Application for membership must be accompanied by one dollar dues and a printed or written credential.... If rejected, dues will be returned."
"Renewal or reinstatement fee is two dollars."
"Applicants for membership should address their applications, with credential and dues, to the Secretary, Miss Alma B. Sanger, 667 Lilley Ave., Columbus, Ohio."
"Any person wishing to become connected with the Association without furnishing a credential or becoming active, may upon payment of two dollars be enrolled as a sustaining member for one year. A sustaining member shall be entitled to all the privileges of active membership except the right to vote or hold office."
"Laureate entries shall be poem, story, essay and editorial."
"Entries must be printed in an amateur paper, and a marked copy sent to the Laureate Recorder by June 1."
Anyone desiring application blanks for recruiting may receive them by applying to the Secretary.
IMPORTANTMembers are urged to remember the recent doubling of dues, whereby all renewals became Two Dollars each.
The fullest of apologies is due the membership for the lateness of this issue of The United Amateur. A prostrating and overwhelming flood of professional duties, coupled with a state of health permitting only the shortest of working hours, has forced the editor to delay transmission of this copy to the publisher until November 4: a date which should be remembered in justice to the latter official, who is equally handicapped in the matter of conflicting duties.
In the excellent October Woodbee, Mr. Leo Fritter criticises with much force the attempt of the present editor to conduct The United Amateur on a tolerably civilised plane. He points out that the appearance of a journal representing a fairly uniform maturity of thought and artistic development may perhaps tend to discourage those newer aspirants who have not yet attained their full literary stature, and thus defeat the educational ends of the Association.
Mr. Fritter gathers his material for complaint from the opinions of certain amateurs with whom he has held communication, and on this basis alleges a "wide-spreading dissatisfaction" with the present editorial policy. We have ourselves received numerous and enthusiastic assurances of an opposite nature, especially since the Fritter attack, so that we must rebut at least his charge that we are ignoring the membership's wishes and "trying to conform them to a mould we have arbitrarily cast according to ideas of our own." To adopt a lower standard would, indeed, be affronting a more influential element than that which may at present be dissatisfied; an element which has possibly gained higher claims to consideration through the continuous nature of its services to the Association during trying times when others were silent and inactive.
But in determining the question of editorial policy, the abstract merits of the case are more important than the act of pleasing this or that person or group. Were we convinced that the existing order hampered the sincere novice, we would abandon it without pride or ceremony. That we do not, is because we are certain that retrogression and decadence would constitute a fatal mistake. The public we serve is assumed to be a genuinely progressive one, a group bent upon attaining some measure of proficiency in that sincere self-expression which is art. If it were not, it would have joined some other association of different purposes—the defiantly crude Erford pseudo-United or the complacently social and stationary National. What justifies the separate existence and support of the United is its higher aesthetic and intellectual cast; its demand for the unqualified best as a goal—which demand, by the way, must not be construed as discriminating against even the crudest beginner who honestly cherishes that goal. With these objects in mind, it will be seen that the self-satisfied exultation of the superficial, the obvious, the commonplace, and the conventional, would form the greatest possible tactical error. The goal would be unjustifiably obscured, and the aspiration of the membership stunted, through the enshrining of a false and inferior goal—a literary Golden Calf. We must envisage a genuine scale of values, and possess a model of genuine excellence toward which to strive. It would pay better to work toward a high standard oneself, than to seek to drag the standard down to fit whatever particular grade of ignorance one may happen to have at a given moment. With proper effort any member may eventually produce work of the United Amateur grade, and such work will be certain of a cordial welcome in this office. The official organ is not so narrow as it seems; if more of our capable members would favour it with their literary contributions, the range of authors represented would not be so restricted. It is not the editor but the body of our literati who must bear responsibility for the constant reappearance of certain names. This issue is headed by the same poet who headed the last two—but only because another eminent amateur, so far unrepresented during the present regime, utterly ignored our repeated requests for a contribution.
Mr. Fritter—who, I fear, wrongs etymology in his acceptance of the word amateur as meaning a tyro rather than a genuine and disinterested artist—forgets that a relapse to cruder standards would totally unfit the United for serving that staunch element which has contributed most to its present welfare. Many would find a society of the lower grade intolerable; certainly it could not hope to hold the very ones who have given this organization its existing distinctiveness and pre-eminence.
Yet in the arguments of Mr. Fritter there is an underlying soundness which misapplication should not obscure to the analytical reader. He is right in lamenting, as we believe he does, the absence of a suitable publishing medium for the work of our younger writers. It is not in a spirit of affront to him that we give preference to the plan of President Haughton, as outlined in her opening message, for the re-establishment of a special magazine for credentials. We should be glad to curtail the official organ in the interest of such a magazine, as indeed we offered to do at the beginning of the term.
Frustra laborat, says the old proverb, qui omnibus placere studet. We regret that any one policy must of necessity displease a few members, yet do not see how any improvement could be effected by making a change which would merely shift the displeasure to another and even more continuously industrious group. It is significant that the Gothic party have no editorial candidate of their own to offer, so that the thankless and toilsome office has been forced upon one whose indifferent health makes it an almost unbearable burden to him. The question is one which should ultimately be decided at the polls, each party putting forward a nominee who can be depended upon to fulfil its mandates. Meanwhile the present editor, whose sincere beliefs and policies were fully known long before his unopposed election, stands ready to resign most cheerfully whenever a suitable successor can be found. Bitterness, division and personalities must be avoided at any cost, and we may be reckoned as a supporter of The United Amateur under any editor and policy.
THE UNITED AMATEUR NOVEMBER 1921 THE UNITED AMATEUROfficial Organ
of the
United Amateur Press Association
E. Edward Ericson
Official Publisher
Issued bi-monthly by the United Amateur Press Association.
Subscription Price, 50 cents per year.
Published at Elroy, Wisconsin.
Entered as second-class mail matter at the post office at Elroy, Wis.
Members who criticised the present editor for severity during the chairmanship of the critical department are invited to take a vicarious revenge this month, observing the uncensored remarks of the present juvenile chairman concerning our pathetic ignorance. Of us Master Galpin says: "when the author approaches involved or technical subjects, he shows clearly
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