John 'Ben' Pickard: Whittier and His Elizabeths (2007)

The title of this booklet — being a paper Pickard read at the Newburyport Literary Festival in April 2007 — appears to have been inspired by Whittier's poem 'The Two Elizabeths', which the poet read when Elizabeth Fry's statue was unveiled in Providence, Rhode Island. (The other Elizabeth was St Elizabeth of Hungary.)

The purpose of Pickard's paper is to discuss four Elizabeths in Whittier's life. I already mentioned his sister Elizabeth Hussey Whittier and his niece Lizzie (Pickard's grandmother, on whom he concentrates in particular) in my last post, but not his romantic attachments to the Quakers Elizabeth Lloyd Howell and Elizabeth Neall.

The only woman Whittier ever discussed marriage with was Elizabeth Howell, whom he thought the most beautiful woman he'd ever met. Whittier had met Howell when he was staying in Philadelphia. She had an interest in art and poetry and like Whittier was an abolitionist. Their friendship blossomed, but Whittier blew cold, quite possibly because he wasn't in a financially secure position for marriage, as it was only with Snow-Bound in the 1860s that he became so, by which time he was in his fifties. So Howell married someone else in 1853, although she became a widow a few years later, which was a cue for their relationship to florish again, although Howell's criticism of what she saw as the limited culture of Quakerism and her espousal of Episcopalianism led to the end of the romance.

Elizabeth Neall too was from Philadelphia, and her father Daniel had been tarred and feathered for his anti-slavery stance. She strongly embraced women's independence, and visited Europe as an anti-slavery delegate. Whittier wrote the poem 'To a Friend on Her Return from Europe' for her, but never spoke of love to her, and she too married someone else. There's an odd thing about writers and virginity in Massachusetts, and one thinks of Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, etc.

Unfortunately a few typos missed the editing process: for example, the front page title conflicts with the title-page's rather odd 'Whittier as a Local Poet', Whittier is called 'reknown New England poet', and Pickard is described as Whittier's 'great-grand-newphew'.

H. P. Lovecraft and Other Writers in College HIll, Providence, Rhode Island: Literary New England #14

'SAMUEL MUMFORD

HOUSE

1823-28

Moved from College St. 1959'

This house, now at 65 Prospect Street, was Lovecraft's last home, and was moved to make room for the Art List Building. He described this as Robert Blake's home in 'The Haunter of the Dark'.

 The Lovecraft monument, Prospect Street.

'Howard Phillips Lovecraft

(1890 – 1937)

U.S. Author

I never can be tied to raw new things,

For I first saw the light in an old town.

Where form my window huddled roofs sloped down

To a quaint harbour rich with visionings.

Streets with carved doorways where the sunset beams

Flooded old fanlights and small window-panes,

And Georgian steeples topped with gilded vanes –

These are the sights that shaped my childhood dreams.

Dedicated on the centennial of his birth

August 20, 1990

by

The City of Providence

Brown University

and

Friends of H.P. Lovecraft'

'Built for
HENRY SPRAGUE
                         1902'

100 Prospect Street is the address Lovecraft uses as 'Ward House' in 'The Case of Charles Ward Dexter'.

88 Benefit Street is the former home of the poet Sarah Helen Whitman.

The Stephen Harris House on 135 Benefit Street is the model for Lovecraft’s 'The Shunned House', which he called the Babbitt House.

144 Benefit Street has been mentioned as a possible model for Dr. Elihu Whipple's house in 'The Shunned House'.

But it's now called The Old Court, which offers bed and breakfast.

161 Benefit Street is to the left of the photo, and was the home of Lillian D. and Franklin C. Clark, Lovecraft's aunt and uncle.

Lovecraft greatly disliked the Colonial Apartments at 175–185 Benefit Street, which had replaced the countryside.

The funerals of both Lovecraft and his aunt Lillian took place here, at the former Knowles Funeral Home on 187 Benefit Street.

The Providence Athenæum at 251 Benefit Street was a favorite of Lovecraft's, and where Poe courted Sarah Helen Whitman.

Both Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe were fascinated by the graveyard of the Cathedral of St John on North Main Street.

Lovecraft often went to the small park in Congdon Street, where a huge statue of Roger Williams (1603–83), the founder of Providence and the author of A Key to the Language of America (1943), overlooks the city.

Williams was originally from Cowley, Middlesex, England, with a great interest in Native American languages.