Shea, J[oseph] Vernon

   (1912–1981)

   Correspondent of HPL (1931–37). Shea, residing in Pittsburgh, engaged HPL in numerous involved (and at times heated) discussions on politics (especially concerning Hitler and the Nazis) and society. Shea’s lifelong interest in films also seemed to rub off a bit on HPL, who discussed with Shea numerous films he saw in the 1930s, including Berkeley Square. Shea wrote some fiction at this time (HPL was much impressed with a short story called “The Tin Roof; see SL4.93–94), but it was not published. Shea published a few weird and science fiction stories in magazines in the 1940s and 1950s, and still later wrote some tales imitating HPL: “The Haunter of the Graveyard” (in Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos ,ed. August Derleth [1969]) and “Dead Giveaway” ( Outre,1976). Shea compiled two nonweird anthologies, Strange Desires (1954) and Strange Barriers (1955). He wrote a poignant memoir, “H.P.Lovecraft: The House and the Shadows” ( Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1966; rpt. Necronomicon Press, 1982). See his collection, In Search of Lovecraft (Necronomicon Press, 1991).