Her Letters To Lovecraft: Bertha Rausch

Bertha was born c. 1863 in the Kingdom of Hungary, and her native tongue was Magyar. In 1882 she emigrated to the United States, and in 1883 she married Anthony Rausch, another Hungarian immigrant who was about 11-12 years her senior and had immigrated in 1875. The 1900 census data lists Anthony Rausch as a confectioner, living in Providence, Rhode Island with his wife and two daughters, Flora Marie (b. 1888) and Isabella (b. 1900). The decades of census data and the occasional newspaper article trace the broad strokes of their lives: in 1910 they were in New York; in 1920, Fort Meyers, Florida, now sans children. Then in 1926:

In 1930, the widowed Bertha M. Rausch was living a retired life in Providence, Rhode Island, alone in a rooming house; her daughters were grown, her husband was dead. No doubt she took some comfort with her friends and neighbors, such as Annie E. P. Gamwell—and when in early 1936 Annie fell ill and had to be hospitalized, Bertha came a-calling:

Awakened 9 a.m. by bell—Mrs. Rausch calling. She was tremendously sorry to hear you are ill. Is moving back to #67.

H. P. Lovecraft, diary for Monday, March 30, 1936, Letters to Family & Family Friends 2.992

Presumably, Lovecraft had at least heard of Mrs. Rausch of old from his aunt, if they had not met before. #67 refers to a house on Slater Avenue, where she and Annie had once been neighbors. It isn’t clear how Bertha learned of Annie’s illness—perhaps they still met on occasion, or kept in touch, or had friends in common that passed on the news—but after her visit, it would only be polite of Lovecraft to write her a letter. So he did.

Then wrote Rausch & Sisson notes & mailed them. Then dinner.

H. P. Lovecraft, diary for Monday, March 30, 1936, Letters to Family & Family Friends 2.992

Charles Peck Sisson and his wife Margaret A. Sisson were members of the Providence Art Club, as was Annie; Lovecraft’s letter to (presumably) Margaret Sisson is not known to survive, but the full letter to Bertha M. Rausch is preserved at the John Hay Library in Providence:

As might be expected, the letter is principally concerned with Lovecraft’s aunt and an invitation for Mrs. Rausch to visit her friend at the hospital, whenever it is convenient. Whether or not she did, we do not know—but we know that Bertha kept in touch with Annie, and scarcely a year later when Howard himself was dead, she returned the letter to her friend. On the envelope, Annie wrote:

The letter my dear Howard wrote to Mrs. Rausch when I was ill—She was so pleased with it & savied it & brought it to me after my beloved Howard’s death.

If this correspondence seems unusually brief, well, so it was: Bertha was Annie’s friend, and Lovecraft as the conscientious nephew was serving as his aunt’s secretary and factotum during the period of her hospitalization and convalescence, all while managing his own correspondence and writing. We are fortunate at least that Bertha and Annie both thought so well of Howard’s letter that it was preserved, and was finally kept along with his other papers as an eloquent testament to the care he devoted to his aunt during Annie’s presumed battle with breast cancer and recovery.

An abridged version of this letter was first published in Arkham House’s Selected Letters V; the full text of the letter was published by Hippocampus Press in Letters to Family and Family Friends.

---

Bobby Derie is the author of Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard and Others and Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos.

Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein uses Amazon Associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.