For the time being ‘The Shadow out of Time’ remained in manuscript; Lovecraft was so unsure of its quality that he didn't know whether to type it up or tear it up. Finally, in a kind of despair, he sent the notebook containing the handwritten draft to August Derleth at the end of February 1935—as if he no longer wished to look at it. Meanwhile the fifth proposal by a publisher to issue a collection of Lovecraft's stories emerged in mid-February—this time through the intercession of Derleth—but ended in a rejection, as Loring & Mussey declined on a collection of tales in July.

Lovecraft went to see Edward H. Cole in Boston on 3–5 May, and in spite of the unusually cold weather managed at least to get to beloved Marblehead. On 25 May Charles D. Hornig, the erstwhile editor of the Fantasy Fan, visited Lovecraft in Providence. By this time, however, he was already in the midst of planning for another grand southern tour—the last, as it happened, he would ever take. For in early May Barlow had invited him down to Florida for another stay of indefinite length. Lovecraft was naturally inclined to accept, and only money stood in the way; but by 29 May Lovecraft concluded optimistically, ‘Counting sestertii, & I think I can make it!’

Once again we do not know much of Lovecraft's activities during his unprecedently long stay with Barlow (9 June to 18 August). Correspondence to others is our sole guide, and this time we do not even have the supplements of any memoirs by Barlow himself. In a postcard to Donald and Howard Wandrei written in July, Lovecraft gives some idea of his activities: