Family difficulties later forced Robert H. Barlow to move to Washington, D.C., where, in 1934, as the son of a retired army officer, he received treatment for over-strained eyes at an army facility before returning to DeLand in 1935. In 1936, he received training at the Kansas City Art Institute, where Thomas Hart Benton was one of his teachers, and subsequently at San Francisco Junior College. Barlow settled for a time with the Beck family in Lakeport, California, where he helped publish H. P. Lovecraft's "Commonplace Book" and several other items from Beck's Futile Press. From Lakeport was mailed the second and final issue of his legendary amateur magazine "Leaves", which he and Lovecraft had planned together before the latter's death.