In those days, Lovecraft and Long frequently browsed among the outside stalls of second-hand book shops. Sometimes Lovecraft thought of a friend in connection with some particular book which came to his hand, and if it cost no more than fifteen cents or a quarter, he would buy it for presentation purposes.
A Memoir of Lovecraft by Rheinhart Kleiner
Photo: Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Frank Belknap Long, Jr. in 1931.