New Shades of Sonia – The NAPA Convention (1921)

The 1921 National Amateur Press Association Boston Convention is chiefly remembered as the place where Sonia Greene first met H.P. Lovecraft. Thankfully, the events of the convention were recorded nearly in full, as far as I know, by two amateur journalists: George Julian Houtain and Edith Miniter. Their accounts preserve several delightful moments involving Sonia and offer a rare glimpse into her personality before she became Mrs. H.P. Lovecraft.

According to Houtain, Sonia was among several amateur journalists who accompanied him to Boston from New York aboard the Calvin Austin on 1 July 1921:

This time Rheinhart and I had company—our party aboard the Calvin Austin, which left New York at 5 p.m. included Ernest and Iva Dench, Albertus and Hazel Adams, Pearl Merritt, Sonia Greene and Dottie. We made Stateroom No. 190 our headquarters presided over by its occupants, Dottie and Sonia. It was a happy care-free party.

George Julian Houtain, The National Tribute, p. 13, August 1921.

Things were about to become even more entertaining, for Houtain thereafter shares some very revealing details about Sonia. Certainly, the following excerpt would inevitably crown her the “vamp” of the weekend.

We are still guessing whether A. M. A. [Albertus M. Adams], because he permitted himself to be fed ginger-ale baby-fashion by Sonia, was a greater vamp than she. In any event, Albertus said that he had no option but to live up to his reputation, while Sonia insisted that the only way to measure up to Presidential standards was to get a ‘rep’— so she immediately started in to vamp all the boys by summoning the steward. This was neatly done, too. It only required the pressing of a little button set in the wall not more than a dozen feet from the floor. This she did with the point of her slipper, at the same time having it encase her dainty foot, the feat bringing forth resounding applause and putting to shame the best terpsichorean art of a Ziegfeld beauty.

George Julian Houtain, The National Tribute, pp. 13–14, August 1921.

After enduring a storm while at sea, the group finally arrived in Boston the following day, 2 July.

We breakfasted aboard. Then in a drizzling rain, accompanied by Sonia, Dorothy, four suit-cases, two bags, one grip, a brief case, two rain-coats; three umbrellas, a hat box, a card index and a look of keen expectancy, I taxied to the Hotel Brunswick.

George Julian Houtain, The National Tribute, p. 14, August 1921.

Houtain also recounts one particularly memorable moment involving Sonia and H.P. Lovecraft. His account describes the circumstances surrounding one of the earliest known photographs of the two together.

The time will never be when I will the less enjoy the splendidness of Howard Lovecraft. He is a big man in every way. Much to my delight he has proven himself to be the most human of documents. He possesses a sense of humor that is astounding, because one would doubt he possessed the gift. He is also a man with a deep sense of honor and can always be trust. He is a modest man and great was my joy when I arranged with our official vamp, Sonia Greene, to steal up on him suddenly, get a half-Nelson clutch on his august form so that I could Brownie No. 2A him—which I did. Then the fun that followed with Lovecraft burlesquing himself as a victim of a blackmailing gang and accusing Sonia and me of being in cohorts—which we were.

Finally a deal was patched up that the negative of the said picture is to be placed under a certain rock on the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, New York City, July 4, 1922. If Lovecraft is there at ten o’clock P.M. it is to be his—otherwise (and this is the dire threat) it is to be published immediately following the New York convention. Woe be unto him if he doesn’t appear.

George Julian Houtain, The National Tribute, p. 18, August 1921.

The interactions between the convention attendees did not stop there. On 4 July, Sonia, Lovecraft, and several others joined together to help raise funds for Mrs. Hayes’ lunch-room before later enjoying a hike along the Charles River.

Along about one o’clock, Sonia and Lovecraft, Bill and friend-wife Lucie, Rheinhart and Gladys, Iva and hubby Ernest, Van and Sandusky, Dottie and I, helped to create more dividends for Mrs. Hayes lunch-room on Huntington Avenue and later the rest of them took a ‘hike’ along the Charles River.

George Julian Houtain, The National Tribute, p. 23, August 1921.

These little moments preserved by Houtain provide a refreshing look of Sonia among her fellow amateur journalists. She appears cheerful, playful, and eager to participate in the activities surrounding the convention.

While Houtain portrayed Sonia as the convention’s “vamp,” Edith Miniter remembered her somewhat differently. As different as their accounts are, they complement one another rather well. Together they paint a fuller picture of Sonia’s personality. She could be both lively and quietly reserved, something Sonia herself later acknowledged in her autobiographical writings.

The Houtain-MacLaughlin engagement was announced, making a pleasing opening for congratulations, and Sonia Green [sic] had collected a few nickels as a blind and then presented the president-elect with a literal bucket of flowers, thus enabling Mr. Houtain to make a considerable hit later by saying to people, “Will you have a rose or a flower?”

Edith Miniter, Dead Houses and Other Works, 2008, p. 161.

Sometimes we missed the clever and interesting Mrs. Sonia Green [sic], but as she always explained that she was in her own room “absolutely absorbed in a book” we had to forgive her. At least I had to, the book being “Our Natupski Neighbors.” The same absorption explained (or I hope so) her getting lost whenever she went into the streets of Boston alone. Even when she departed from 20 Webster Street Saturday after the bean supper, with that book under her arm, she got lost. Said she was looking for a taxi—which was about as big a compliment to our part of Allston as asking change for $10 was to the coon.

Edith Miniter, Dead Houses and Other Works, 2008, pp. 166–167.

And one bewildered female may in Boston streets be seen A-seeking the convention halls—and that is Sonia Green [sic].

Edith Miniter, Dead Houses and Other Works, 2008, p. 170.

Taken together, the accounts of George Julian Houtain and Edith Miniter preserve some of the earliest and most personal recollections of Sonia Greene. Long before she became Mrs. H.P. Lovecraft, they reveal a woman who was playful, well-read, occasionally absent-minded, and warmly regarded by those around her. It is little moments like these that continue to add new shades to the portrait of Sonia H. Davis.

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Note: Updated July 2026.