The woman in the left-hand photo is Charlotte Perkins Gilman, pioneering feminist author most remembered for her haunting portrait of a woman driven mad in her novella “The Yellow Wall Paper.” The man on the right is, of course, the inimitable creator of Cthulhu, Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
The two celebrated authors share not only an interest in weird fiction, but an almost familial resemblance. The high cerebral forehead, the prominent patrician nose, the elongated jaw with its lightly cleft chin–they could almost be mistaken for mother and son. And both spent formative years in Providence, Rhode Island.
What if there were an even deeper connection between these two kindred spirits? Suppose, in fact, that Charlotte Gilman had exchanged identities with Howard Lovecraft, in the same fashion as Asenath Waite did with Edward Derby in Lovecraft’s tale “The Thing on the Doorstep.”
That is the premise of my contribution to the S.T. Joshi-edited anthology HIS OWN MOST FANTASTIC CREATION. This isn’t a spoiler, by the way–it’s how the story begins. What happens next? See for yourself in HPL’s ill-fated meeting with “The Gilman Woman.”
You’ll find many other fictional speculations about Lovecraft’s life and work in HIS OWN MOST FANTASTIC CREATION, now available in a handsome and affordable paperback edition, including contributions by such weird fiction luminaries as John Shirley, Darrell Schweitzer, W. H. Pugmire, and even S.T. Joshi himself. You may order the book by clicking the link below or from the bookseller of your choice:
And while you’re shopping for new reading material, don’t forget to check out my story collection A CARNIVAL OF CHIMERAS:
Happy reading!
Woodworth's World of Wonders 