Strange Fish in the Marsh Family Tree

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone can confirm something. I have An H P Lovecraft Encyclopedia (Joshi, Schultz) and checking some details as I re-read The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

The Encyclopedia identifies the father of Eliza Orne as Joshua Orne, but according to the Variorum III version, her father is Benjamin Orne. There isn't any footnote of a name change of Orne daddy. So I am assuming here that there was some careless editing someplace, likely the Encyclopedia. But said Encyclopedia identifies Obed Marsh's daughter (Eliza's mother) as Alice Marsh, but like Robert Olmstead's name, this isn't identified in the story.

So my question - where did this name Alice Marsh come from? Given how there's a screw up with the Orne name I would like to know where this reference of Alice Marsh came from. Anyone know?

 

Yes, "Joshua" must be an error in the Encyclopedia -- it is "Benjamin" even in the corrected Arkham House text.
I need to check my books when I get home, ut the most likely source of "Alice" is Olmstead's family tree which appears among HPL's notes for the story.

 

Thanks for checking!

My edition of "An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia" is first edition from Hippocampus Press, ie 2001. I see that a new edition came out in 2004, however Amazon lists it as first edition. But this was originally published by a company called Greenwood Publishing Group. Can someone check to see if this was corrected in the 2004 edition (which I assume is 2nd edition)?

 

I have checked now and both Alice Marsh and Joshua Orne are in HPL's notes for the story (published in Collected Essays 5).

 

Thanks for checking - well, he didn't always keep to his notes then, did he?

Is this also where the name Robert Olmstead mentioned?

 

Yes, and also in the text published as "Discarded Draft of The Shadow over Innsmouth", IIRC.

 

I have contacted Hippocampus Press about the problematic entry and had some feedback from them so far. Ill share the details once I get them.