'Never before in the course of a long lifetime have I seen such a versatile child. [Barlow] is a writer; painter; sculptor; pianist; marionette designer, maker & exhibitor; landscape gardener; tennis champion; chess expert; bookbinder; crack rifleshot; bibliophile; manuscript collector; & heaven knows what else!" -- H.P. Lovecraft, 1934

Robert Hayward Barlow died on this date in 1951*. Born in 1918, he accomplished much in his short life, becoming Lovecraft's literary executor before he was twenty years old and regarded as one of the great scholars of Mesoamerican anthropology by the time of his death.

Born into a military family, Robert spent his childhood in or near U.S. Army bases all over the country, with the longest stint being at Fort Benning, Georgia. His formal education was sporadic. As in the case of Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, he was basically an autodidact. With his family moving from place to place, Robert formed few lasting friendships. He turned to books, the pulps and the nascent SFF fandom scene. As Barlow once put it, “I had no friends nor studies except in a sphere bound together by the U.S. mails."

RHB was just thirteen when he wrote a fan letter to Lovecraft via Weird Tales. HPL, as he seems to have done with just about every weird fiction fan who ever sent him a missive, replied. Barlow was careful to keep his young age unknown to Lovecraft for several years. Starting in 1931, their correspondence would last slightly less than six years, encompassing the rest of Lovecraft's life.

As others have noted, Lovecraft and Barlow shared many common interests and attitudes. Both considered weird fiction to be the highest form of literature. Both grew up as intelligent, bookish boys with distant--or absent--fathers. Both possessed a profoundly amateur--as opposed to mercantile--attitude toward literature.

Not long after Robert started corresponding with HPL, Robert's father retired from the military and the Barlows moved to a farm in Florida located between the towns of De Land and Cassia. Barlow began experimenting with typesetting and bookbinding. One of the materials he used for book covers was snakeskin. He hunted the snakes himself in the swamps near his home.

RHB soon arrived at the idea of binding Lovecraft's tales in hardcovers. The project expanded to other authors such as Clark Ashton Smith and C.L. Moore. Nothing much came of such schemes, but Barlow's interest in publishing Moore's work was the direct cause behind Lovecraft and Moore corresponding, since Lovecraft took it upon himself to contact her about the idea.

In the summer of 1934, RHB invited Lovecraft to come visit his family in De Land, Florida. HPL--nowhere near the "recluse" he's been accused of being--took up the offer. Lovecraft adored the warm weather of Florida, which he had visited once before, spending some time with Henry S. Whitehead and making it as far as Key West.

While he was visiting the Barlows, HPL and RHB cooked up the biggest prank in the history of the Lovecraft Circle: "The Battle That Ended the Century". Set in the year 2000, "Battle" is the tale of a titanic boxing bout between Two-Gun Bob, the Terror of the Plains (REH), and Knockout Bernie, the Wild Wolf of West Shokan (Bernard Dwyer). Fun was poked at all and sundry, including HPL himself, with in-jokes packed into every sentence. The story can be read here.

Barlow and Lovecraft arranged for Robert to mail out mimeographed copies anonymously while HPL was en route back to Providence, thus giving the Old Gent an alibi. I found it quite amusing reading Lovecraft's follow-up letters to Barlow. HPL instructed Robert to "keep mum" about the whole thing while various Lovecraft Circle members tried to figure out who had written it, some of whom got kind of angry about the whole spoof. Never let anyone tell you that Lovecraft didn't have a sense of humor.

At the same time, Barlow began getting his own serious fiction published in various amateur journals and fanzines. His early efforts--some in collaboration with Lovecraft--were a bit crude...unless one takes into account that they were written by a fifteen-year-old.

By 1936, Barlow's "A Dim-Remembered Tale" evoked this response from HPL:

"Magnificent stuff--it will bear comparison to the best of CAS [Clark Ashton Smith]! Splendid rhythm, poetic imagery, emotional modulations & atmospheric power."

As noted in the first Lovecraft quote above, RHB loved to collect autographed manuscripts from his favorite pulp writers. One of those writers was Robert E. Howard. Eight letters from REH to Barlow survive. As soon as Barlow heard of Howard's death, he sent a letter of condolence to REH's father, Dr. I.M. Howard. RHB's only appearance in Weird Tales was the publication of his poem in tribute to the Man from Cross Plains, which was entitled simply "R.E.H.".

All the while, Barlow was typing up Lovecraft's manuscripts--HPL being notorious for loathing typing. Robert's typescripts, by way of Julius Schwartz and Donald Wandrei, resulted in sales to Astounding of "At the Mountains of Madness" and "The Shadow Out of Time". The sales of those two stories were a profound boon to Lovecraft, who was barely scraping by in the depths of the Depression.

Upon the death of Lovecraft, Anne Gamwell--his one surviving aunt--contacted Barlow. HPL had designated Robert as his literary executor. In all likelihood, this was intended as an honor, but it had unintended consequences. The actual legality of Barlow's executorship was fairly murky, since it wasn't attached to Lovecraft's will. Donald Wandrei and August Derleth were forming Arkham House at the time. The two of them--especially Wandrei--believed that something shady was going on. Before all was said and done, Barlow had basically been forced out of SFF fandom, never to return.

*There is some dispute over the actual date of Barlow’s death. Many Lovecraft/Barlow scholars, such as S.T. Joshi, believe that RHB actually died on the night of January 1, 1951. However, we know for sure that Robert’s body was discovered on January 2.