For decades, David Goudsward has been a leading authority on the obscurer historical and topographical corners of his native New England. In this lavish and detailed treatise, he has written the definitive treatment of Lovecraft's connections with the Merrimack Valley of coastal Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Goudsward traces Lovecraft's initial visits in the 1920s to such towns as Newburyport, Haverhill, and Hampstead, where he met such colleagues as Charles W. "Tryout" Smith, Myrta Alice Little, and Edgar J. Davis. Later visits clearly inspired many of the topographical features in such...