“Vivisector, The“

   Column appearing in five installments in the Wolverine(March, June, November 1921; March 1922; Spring 1923), all as by “Zoilus.”

   Much confusion has existed as to which of the columns—if any—were written by HPL; but examination of correspondence by Horace L.Lawson (editor of the Wolverine) to HPL (at JHL) clarifies the matter. These documents testify that HPL wrote the columns for March and June 1921, March 1922, and Spring 1923. Lawson in fact regarded HPL as the “editor” of the column. The column for November 1921 was written by Alfred Galpin and is a review of the previous issues of the Wolverine;included is a lengthy discussion of HPL’s “Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family.” The first column discusses a variety of amateur journals; the second focuses on Galpin’s Philosopher (December 1920), and HPL characteristically disparages his own contributions to that paper, “Polaris” and “The House”; the columns for March 1922 and Spring 1923 are friendly analyses of the poetry of Lillian Middleton and Rheinhart Kleiner, respectively. The pseudonym “Zoilus” used in all the columns refers to the fourth-century B.C.E. Greek critic who severely criticized the Homeric poems, so that his name came to refer to any unduly censorious critic; but the articles themselves are on the whole genial and complimentary.