Guiney, Louise Imogen

   (1861–1920)

   Massachusetts poet and critic. HPL states that he and his parents boarded with Guiney and her mother in Auburndale, Mass., in the winter of 1892–93 (see SL2.207), but independent confirmation of this stay has not been found. HPL, however, had clear recollections of the Guiney residence, including its numerous dogs. It was formerly thought that some unpublished Guiney letters (to F.H.Day) written in the summer of 1892 contain allusions to the Lovecrafts, but in fact they refer to some German houseguests. HPL claimed that his mother was acquainted with Guiney; the latter, a Catholic, had attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Providence (1872–79), but there is no record of Sarah Susan Phillips having gone there. HPL also stated that he was dandled on the knee of the aged Oliver Wendell Holmes at the Guiney residence; Holmes was indeed a friend of Guiney, so this memory is likely to be genuine. Guiney wrote many books of poetry (Songs at the Start [1884]; verse collected in Happy Ending [1909; rev. 1927]) and criticism (Goose-Quill Papers [1885]). HPL owned her cowritten book, Three Heroines of New England Romance (1895). Her selected letters (containing no mention of HPL’s family) were published in 1920 (2 vols.).