Lovecraft Loved Ice Cream

One afternoon Lovecraft, Morton, and I ... took a bus for Warren, Rhode Island, ehere they promised a great treat. ... we wlaked into an establishmentcalled Maxfield's ... it's specialty was ice cream ... thirty-two varieties on the menu.

"Are they all available?" Lovecraft asked.

"No." the waiter replied, "only twenty-eight. today, sir."

"Ah, the decay of modern commercial institutions ... only twenty-eight."

We each ordered a double portion of a different flavor ... the trays camoe on and on - chocolate, vanilla, peach, black raspberry, pistachio, black walnut, coffee, huckleberry, strawberry, orange, plum, mint, burnt almond, and exotic types whose names I do not recall. ... on the twenty-first variety I was beyond capacity ... I watched in awe while the remaining flavors arrived in ... huge portions ... Lovecraft and Morton ate on ... with a wealth of literary allusions on the oirigins of ice cream, its preparation in Italy ... the distinctions between mirigues, ice-creams, and ices. ... I would estimate that Lovecraft and Morton consumed between two and three quarts ... the occassion was so memorable that we wrote a note of appreciation ... signed it, and left it on the table.

A year later when we revisited Warren, we were surprised to find our tribute decorating a wall.

"The Dweller in the Darkness", Donald Wandrei, Marginalia, collected by Derleth and Wandrei, 1944, pp. 368,369.