American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

In this part of Parkman's THE PIONEERS OF NEW FRANCE we witness the massacre of the Floridan Huguenots and begin to survey the French explorations of North America in the St. Lawrence River.

In my review of "The White Ship" by H. P. Lovecraft I make a bold claim about what type of writer Lovecraft is. Beyond that, this is just a great "Dreamlands" story about the pitfalls of various utopias.

We start our look at FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA with the first part of THE PIONEERS OF NEW FRANCE. This episodes focuses on his deception of the Huguenots in Florida.  

Lovecraft wrote a great story called "The Transition of Juan Romero". It may be his best early depiction of ancient religions in a vast network. A must read for Lovecraft fans if you missed it. 

The conclusion to my review of Francis Parkman Jr.'s THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. In the final section of this book we explore the consequences of Pontiac's revolt for the people of the American West.

Lovecraft had some particular views on alcohol and drugs, which are reflective in this early (science fiction?) story of his, a morality tale about inheritance and social decline.

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.