American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Part 4 of my review of THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC by Francis Parkman. In this episode we look at the failure of the Indian cause, frontier violence, and the vigilantism of the Paxton Boys.

Lovecraft goes a little overboard on his descriptions of back-country folk in "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" but the story places him right in the middle of the eugenics conversation of his time.

In part three of my review of THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC, I talk about Pontiac's plans, the role of cunning and deception in the early Indian victories, and the siege of Detroit.

In "Polaris" we get the first of Lovecraft's "Dreamland" stories and an allegory for the racial conflicts he saw as the primary vehicle of history. By taking a look at some of his World War I era writing, we can put this story in a broader context.

Part two of my review of THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC by Francis Parkman Jr. Here I look at the causes of Pontiac's War as described by Parkman.

In episode 5 of the HP Lovecraft Book Club, we jump into Lovecraft's love for 18th century British culture by looking at his 1917 story "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson". Perhaps it is one most Lovecraft readers skip, but it is worth a few minutes of your time if you want to appreciate our author's worldview.

Part 1 of my review of THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC by Francis Parkman Jr. The opening chapters of the book describe the lives of Native Americans east of the Mississippi, the French empire in the Americas, and the interactions of the British and French with the Indians. All important background.

In this episode, I take a deep look at "Dagon" by H. P. Lovecraft. This story, set in the Pacific during World War I, explores the possibilities of ancient cultures and long-enduring mystical traditions. The narrator's discovery and exploration of a recently raised landmass from below the Pacific is not forgettable.

In this episode I conclude my thoughts on Francis Parkman Jr.'s THE OREGON TRAIL and I sum-up the themes of empire, ecology, and the capitalist expansion into the "Great West". Up next, Parkman's first work of history THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC.

Episode three of the H. P. Lovecraft Book Club takes a look at "The Tomb" and Lovecraft's fascination with deviant subcultures.