"Old Bugs" is a short story by American

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J ...

writer H. P. Lovecraft, probably written shortly before July 1919. It was first published in the Arkham House book ''The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces'' (

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

Plot

With the onset of Prohibition, the Sheehan Billiard Room in Chicago became a sordid haunt for hard drinkers. A certain Old Bugs, a mature man corroded by vices but capable of showing, at long intervals, the typical sensitivity of educated people works as a kitchen cleaner. When the young Alfred Trever, initiated by his friend Pete Schultz on the way of drinking, arrives at the Sheehan's tavern, Old Bugs will try to convince him not to make the same mistake as he did.

Creation

The piece was written after Lovecraft's friend

Alfred Galpin Alfred Galpin (1901–1983) was an American literary academic and musical composer of classical works. He is now best known as a close friend and correspondent of writer H. P. Lovecraft. Life Alfred Galpin was a young prodigy, the son of the banke ...

's suggestion that he wanted to try alcohol before

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

went into effect. In response, Lovecraft, a

teetotaler Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of total personal abstinence from the psychoactive drug alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler or teetotaller, or i ...

, wrote a tale of an old derelict known as Old Bugs, who turns out to be Galpin himself, brought low by "evil habits, dating from a first drink taken years before in woodland seclusion." At the bottom of the manuscript, Lovecraft had written, "''Now'' will you be good?" The woman whose engagement to Old Bugs is canceled due to his drinking, Eleanor Wing, was a fellow student in Galpin's high school press club.

Reception

'' An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia'' says of the piece, "It is not nearly as ponderous as it sounds, and is in fact a little masterpiece of comic deflation and self-parody."

References

External links

* * Short stories by H. P. Lovecraft Works about alcoholism 1959 short stories Fiction set in 1950 Horror short stories {{1950s-horror-story-stub