“In the Editor’s Study“

   A regular column of commentary in issues of the Conservative(1916–23); rpt. The Conservative: Complete (Necronomicon Press, 1976, 1977).

   The column appeared in seven issues of the paper. In October 1916 there were three subsections: “The Proposed Author’s Union” (a satirical squib on unionization of authors); “Revolutionary Mythology” (on extravagant praise of the heroes of the American Revolution); and “The Symphonic Ideal” (on the need to remain “childlike and contented” in the modern age). In January 1917 there were two subsections: “The Vers Libre Epidemic” (an attack on free verse) and “Amateur Standards” (on a political feud in the UAPA). In July 1917 there was one subsection: “A Remarkable Document” (on a temperance article by Booth Tarkington). In July 1918 there were six subsections: “AngloSaxondom” (on the need for America and Great Britain to unite against immigrants); “Amateur Criticism” (on the criticism of amateur writing; specifically directed at Prof. Philip B.McDonald); “The United 1917–1918” (on the accomplishments of the UAPA during the past year); “The Amateur Press Club” (on a new international organization of amateur journalists); “Ward Phillips Replies” (a paragraph prefacing HPL’s poem “Grace,” responding to a poem written by Rheinhart Kleiner); and “Les Mouches Fantastiques”(on a literarily radical amateur journal edited by Elsa Gidlow and Roswell George Mills). In July 1919 there was one subsection: “The League” (a jaundiced look at the inability of the League of Nations to stop war). In March 1923 there were two subsections: “Rursus Adsumus” (on HPL’s revival of the Conservative) and “Rudis Indigestaque Moles” (a condemnation of the literary radicalism of T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land). In July 1923 the column appeared without any subsections, discussing the need to take cognizance of recent developments in art and philosophy.