Death Diary

   Written January 1–March 11, 1937.

   HPL’s so-called death diary is mentioned in his obituary in the New York Times:“As he neared the end of his life, he turned his scholarly interest to a study of his own physical condition and daily wrote minutely of his case for his physician’s assistance. His clinical notes ended only when he could no longer hold a pencil.” The diary does not survive—R.H.Barlow probably kept it after he had gone through HPL’s papers—but Barlow transcribed numerous entries from it in his letter to August Derleth of March 31, 1937 (ms., SHSW). These entries have been published as an appendix to R.Alain Everts, The Death of a Gentleman: The Last Days of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (Strange Co., 1987).