-PROVFLUX ARTIST-
Dark Trails with Ice Cream
by Sarah Zurier
“We ascended to the organ loft, and I endeavour’d
to play Yes, We Have no Bananas, but was balk’d by lack of power, since
the machine is not a self-starter.”
-H.P. Lovecraft, on the First Baptist Church
“My life lies not among people but among scenes—my local affectations
are not personal, but topographical and architectural. . . .I am always an
outsider—to all scenes and all people—but outsiders have their
sentimental preferences in visual environment. I will be dogmatic only to
the extent of saying that it is New England I must have—in some form
or other. Providence is part of me—I am Providence. . . .Providence
would always be at the back of my head as a goal to be worked toward—an
ultimate Paradise to be regain’d at last.”
Take a walk in the long, narrow, uncomfortable shoes of H.P. Lovecraft. Visit
his haunts, houses, settings for stories, views, visions, and vistas and hear
about them in his own words. Some know Lovecraft for his horror stories, science
fiction, and poetry; others know him as a sharp observer of place— a
critic, a historian, a preservationist, an urban geographer, a social observer
(and rarely a kind one). Ramble the streets as he did, from dusk to dark with
ice cream.
Sarah Zurier is a historian at the Rhode Island Historical Preservation &
Heritage Commission.
