Quoted By:
On the diagnosis of Lovecraft's illness
>"Cancer of the small intestine is relatively rare, colon cancer being much more common; as a result, this cancer frequently goes undetected for years, even when patients are examined. Lovecraft, of course, was never examined until a month before his death,at which time is was too late to do anything except relieve his pain - and even massive doses of morphine seemed to offer little alleviation."
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On Lovecraft being admitted to hospital
>"On March 13 Harry Brobst and his wife came to visit Lovecraft in the hospital. Brobsy asked Lovecraft how he felt; Lovecraft responded, "Sometimes the pain is unbearable." Brobst, in parting, told Lovecraft to remember the ancient philosophers. Lovecraft smiled - the only response Brobst received. [...] On March 14 Lovecraft's edema was so severe that a stomach tap drained six and three-forths quarts of fluid."
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On Lovecraft assessing the value of his life
>"Failure though I be, I shall reach a level with the greatest - and smallest - in the damp earth or on the final pyre. [...] Success is a relative thing [...] So I turned to observe other mediocre and handicapped persons about me, and found pleasure in increasing the happiness of those who could be helped by such encouraging words or critical services as I am capable of furnishing. That I have been able to cheer here and there an aged man, an infirm old lady, a dull youth, or a person deprived by circumstances of education, affords to me a sense of being not altogether useless, which almost forms a substitute for the real success I shall never know. [...] Surely it is well that the happiness of the unfortunate be made as great as possible; and he who is kind, helpful, and patient with his fellow-sufferers, adds as truly to the world's combined fund of tranquility as he who, with greater endowments, promotes the birth of empires, or advances the knowledge of civilisation and mankind."
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