The Complicated Friendship of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Barlow

Robert Barlow, 1931
H.P.L. was in the news in this recent New Yorker article, written by the author Paul La Farge, which has clearly come from the research for this book, looks at the relationship between Lovecraft and Robert Barlow. The article contains another attempt to guess at Lovecraft's sexuality through his associations with others, but I think the article pins it with this phrase, even if it continues afterwards to try to suggest otherwise.
"the salient feature of his sexuality really seems to be how indifferent he was to it"
Even the choice of image to accompany the article is provocative There are many more existing images that could have been used, even of Lovecraft and Barlow together
.
However, it is an interesting article in how it goes on to talk about Barlow himself. I have heard of him, but he isn't someone I looked into a great deal, and that seems a shame, as he looks to be an interesting character. It does strike me though, that Barlow's life as an academic would make a great Call of Cthulhu Investigator background.

It is slightly heartening to see that his influence as a writer may not have quite ended with the sad story of his exclusion from the weird tales community. After this article, I should track down what Barlow fiction I can. Not entirely sure that this has made me want to read La Farge's book however.

Barlow's collaborations with Lovecraft are all available on hplovecraft.com here, including The Night Ocean by Barlow and Lovecraft. Most of his work also seems to have been collected in Eyes of the God (2002).



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