The saga of Lovecraft's efforts to return to Providence can be said to commence around April 1925, when he writes to Lillian that ‘I couldn't bear to see Providence again till I can be there for ever’.Lillian had clearly suggested that Lovecraft pay a visit, perhaps to relieve the tedium and even depression that his lack of work, his dismal Clinton Street room, and the rocky state of his marriage had engendered.

When Lovecraft stated in November 1925 that ‘My mental life is really at home’ in Providence, he was not exaggerating. For the entirety of his New York stay, he subscribed to the Providence Evening Bulletin, reading the Providence Sunday Journal (the Bulletinpublished no Sunday edition) along with the New York Times on Sunday. He mentally attempted to stay in touch with Providence in other ways, specifically by reading as many books on Providence history as he could.

But reading books was clearly not enough. One of the most remarkable passages in Lovecraft's letters to his aunts is on the subject of personal possessions, and it is an accurate gauge of his temper during the worst of his New York period. Lillian had made the comment (perhaps as a consequence of Lovecraft's long-winded account of purchasing his best suit) that ‘possessions are a burden’; Lovecraft, in August 1925, flung this remark back in her face: