Here is an interesting item from the July 1, 1924 edition of The Daily Express (Page 5):
Newyorkophobia
All of our authors are not panting to go and lecture in the United States. Mr. Arthur Machen has just refused an alluring offer from Pond’s Agency for a lecture tour of America.
He privately gives us his reason that he cannot find his way about New York, and that American hotels are too big and bewildering.
. . .
During this period, the J. B. Pond Lyceum Bureau was a successful lecture booking company based in America. There were likely several reasons for Machen’s refusal. Outside of trips to Ireland and France, he was not a great traveler, and he expressed, on multiple occasions, an unveiled contempt for the United States. Yet, it seems a shame that he didn’t take the opportunity. During this period, the author had no steady employer, and therefore, he suffered from poverty. More importantly, Machen would have been well-received on these shores.
Six years earlier, Machen wrote briefly for The Daily Express.
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