Did Lovecraft Have Editors?

[Cacodaemoniacal]

I was wondering if he ever had anyone--he had so many writer-friends--who he would listen to in regards to his writing. I was thinking about his growth as a writer and how he kept incorporating new techniques into his writing. A lot of the writers I read about have partners, wives and friends that they can run their stories by.

[Genus Unknown]

I don't know of any, aside from the input and feedback of friends and family that all writers (with the possible exception of Emily Dickinson) get. And the editors of Weird Tales, of course, if they bothered to staff any. 

[Cacodaemoniacal]

Most of what I've heard of the alterations made by Weird tales and Derleth have been negative--in that the changes they made were better un-made.

I've read that Tolkein had friends that he met with to read his writing to--a literary club from college days. Although, C. S. Lewis complained he never listened to any constructive criticisms they made and just kept it all the way he'd written it. This made me wonder about Lovecraft's circle and how much if any influence they had.

[whpugmire]

Lovecraft was always sending his stories to his pen pals.  When young fans would get his address from Weird Tales, Lovecraft would offer to loan them the typed MSS of any of his stories that they may not have read.  When he gathered with his friends in New York, he would often read them his newest tale.  He had a huge circle of friends who were always reading his stories before publication.  The best example of this are the two volumes of HPL's correspondence with Augie.

HPL's reputation with his Weird Tales editor is problematic.  Wright would often reject a story and then, when it was submitted again, accept it.  But he often rejected Lovecraft's weird fiction for a number of reasons, to the point where Lovecraft stopped writing fiction and submitting tales to WT because of Wright's attitude toward the latter tales.  Wright's rejection of At the Mountains of Madness was a blow from which HPL never recovered.  It may be because of his experience with Wright as an editor that Lovecraft went to his grave feeling that he was a failure as an author.

[old book]

I think if you think about it, you'll realize that much or most of what HPL wrote was connected to friends and correspondents, and he used the mails to flesh out ideas, have his MSS critiqued and edited and corrected and did the same for others. Actual publication was secondary, it was almost the entire point to share ideas with friends near and far, to bounce ideas back and forth and to collaborate in creating wild new fictions.