7. This being the Providence County Courthouse, at 250 Benefit Street, built in 1932.
8. Built in 1927 at 111 Westminster Street, the Industrial Trust Tower, later the Bank of America Building, is now vacant and dark. It was rumored to have been the model for the home of the Daily Planet, the newspaper that employed Clark Kent (Superman).
The beacon atop the Bank of America Building (formerly Industrial Trust), in 1990. Photograph courtesy of Will Hart
9. Richard Upjohn (1802–1878) was an English-born architect who designed numerous Gothic Revival churches in America.
10. The church in question is certainly St. John’s Catholic Church, which was located on Atwells Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Federal Hill. Erected in 1871, it was demolished in 1992. The steeple was destroyed in a storm in 1935.
The St. John’s Roman Catholic Church (1871), in 1990. Photograph courtesy of Will Hart
An enlargement of the view from Prospect Terrace in 1990, showing the church tower in the center. Photograph courtesy of Will Hart
11. As noted above, the real St. John’s Church fronted on Atwells Avenue.
12. A temple or church; a place dedicated to a deity.
13. The “key of life,” as it is popularly known (the symbol is also a hieroglyph meaning “life”), is used by pagan cults as well as those that aspire to Egyptian origins. Its significance in Egyptian tomb art, where it is frequently found, is unclear, although an obvious possible point of reference is the afterlife. In 1869, Thomas Inman, in Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, made the suggestion that the symbol “represents the male triad and the female unit, under a decent form. . . . In some remarkable sculptures, where the sun’s rays are represented as terminating in hands, the offerings which these bring are many a crux ansata, emblematic of the truth that a fruitful union is a gift from the deity.” However, there are numerous other theories of the meaning of the “handed cross.” Ironically, the symbol adorns the favorite necklace of Death, elder sister of Dream of the Endless, the subject of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series.
14. The Book of Dzyan (comprising the Stanzas of Dzyan) is a reputedly ancient text of Tibetan origin, the basis for Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s 1875 mystical book The Secret Doctrine. Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical movement, claimed to have seen the work while studying in Tibet and to have extracted texts in the original language of Senzar, “the secret sacerdotal tongue” (Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine [New York: Tarcher, 2009], xliii), also working with existing Tibetan and Sanskrit translations. She described the work as “not in the possession of European Libraries” and “utterly unknown to our Philologists” (xxii).
15. See “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” note 32, above.
16. The Providence Evening Telegram was founded in 1880; the Sunday Telegram was its companion newspaper. In 1906, the Telegram became the Evening Tribune and Telegram, and eventually the Telegram portion of the name was dropped.
17. David Haden has suggested that “Bowen” is modeled on Charles Edwin Wilbour (1833–1896), a Rhode Island–born graduate of Brown University who became a leading Egyptologist (http://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/looking-into-the-shining-trapezohedron/). However, Wilbour did not travel to Egypt until after 1874. A more likely candidate to have discovered the Shining Trapezohedron is the Prussian archaeologist Carl Richard Lepsius (1810–1884), called the father of modern Egyptology. Lepsius traveled through Egypt in 1843. The report of his travels, Discoveries in Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai, in the Years 1842–45 (London: Richard Bentley, 1852), makes no mention of the find, however, and there is no known connection between Lepsius and Providence, Rhode Island. Lepsius is also remembered as the first to translate The Egyptian Book of the Dead, an ancient funerary text, in 1842; Lovecraft owned a 1923 edition of the first English translation, by E. A. Wallis Budge. According to S. T. Joshi’s I Am Providence, Lovecraft may have studied and written about Egyptian myths as early as age six.
18. The Republican mayor of Providence in 1876 was Thomas A. Doyle. He served for eighteen years and made many civic improvements to the town as its population doubled during his terms of office.
19. See At the Mountains of Madness (here, above).
20. See The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, note 185, above.
21. In 1863, the publishers of the Providence Journal began publication of the Providence Evening Bulletin. The newspaper continued in existence until June 2, 1995; the name, if not the paper, continued when, a week later, it was combined with the Journal into the Providence Journal-Bulletin. All traces of the Bulletin disappeared in 1998 when the name was shortened to the Providence Journal.
22. Foul-smelling, as of decomposition.
23. A fictional fraternity. There is an Alpha Tau Omega fraternity founded in 1865 that may be the intended reference; the chapter at the University of Rhode Island was not founded, however, until 1994. The fraternity had no chapter at Brown University.
24. Psi Delta Omega was formed in 1922 but had no chapter in Providence.
25. If Yuggoth is to be understood as Pluto (see “The Whisperer in Darkness,” note 28), then Shaggai is another trans-Neptunian object (TNO), past the orbit of Pluto. At the time of Blake’s notes, Percival Lowell had posited the existence of Planet X, a tenth large, planetlike object in the solar system. While the existence of a large unknown object was disproved definitively by the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune in 1989, other smaller objects, known as dwarf planets, have been discovered in that realm of space, the first in 1992. In fact, the TNO known as Eris, discovered in 2005, is larger than Pluto but farther out. This may well be Shaggai.
An image of Eris and its moon Dysnomia taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
26. This was the actual address of Robert Bloch. The Bloch-Blake identification is examined in detail in Robert H. Waugh’s “Bloch and Leiber: The Siblings at War with Lovecraft.”
27. Roderick Usher is the victim in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839)—killed by the apparition of his sister, a corpse. His death is witnessed by the narrator, who then escapes the House of Usher. As he does so, he sees a gleam of “wild light” from a blood-red moon as the house is rent in two. Here, Blake refers to Usher’s hypersensitivity to distant sounds.
28. Lovecraft explains Blake’s helplessness in a letter dated February 20, 1937, to Arthur Widner (Selected Letters, II, 413–414): “. . . the night-monster has secured a hold upon Blake’s brain, partly penetrating it, almost effecting an exchange of personalities. Blake could not think for himself or protect himself . . . With a clear head something might have been done—but the Thing had already seized his brain.”
Appendix 1
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
(Partial)1
Likely Date of Occurrence
Work by Lovecraft
1771
Death of Joseph Curwen (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)
1882, June
A meteor falls near Arkham (“The Colour Out of Space”)
1896, November
Events of “The Picture in the House”
1901, February 21
Events of “Beyond the Wall of Sleep”
1903, Autumn
Events of “Herbert West: Reanimator” (Pt. I, From the Dark)
1904
“Herbert West: Reanimator” begins
1905, Autumn
“Herbert West: Reanimator” (Pt. II, The Plague-Daemon)
1907, November 1
Inspector Legrasse leads a police raid of the swamps south of New Orleans (“The Call of Cthulhu”)
1908, May 14
Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee begins his five-year amnesia (“The Shadow Out of Time”)
1909
Peaselee spends a month in the Himalayas (“The Shadow Out of Time”)
1910, July
“Herbert West: Reanimator” (Pt. IV, The Scream of the Dead)
1911
Peaslee makes a trip by camel int
o the unknown deserts of Arabia (“The Shadow Out of Time”)
1912, May 1
Wilbur Whateley is conceived (“The Dunwich Horror”)
1912, Summer
Peaslee sails to the Arctic (“The Shadow Out of Time”)
1913, February 2
Wilbur Whateley is born (“The Dunwich Horror”)
1914, February
Peaslee’s memories have apparently returned (“The Shadow Out of Time”)
1914, Autumn
“Dagon”
1915
“Herbert West: Reanimator” (Pt. V, The Horror from the Shadows)
1915, May 1
Akeley makes a recording near Dark Mountain (“The Whisperer in Darkness”)
1915, May 1
Tremors in Aylesbury (“The Dunwich Horror”)
1915, May
Peaslee sees the Great Race in his dreams (“The Shadow Out of Time”)
1918 (?)
Statement of Randolph Carter
1918
Charles Dexter Ward learns he is descended from Joseph Curwen (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)
1919, early August
Charles Dexter Ward discovers the portrait and journal of Curwen (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)
1919, Autumn
Nyarlathotep
1920 (?)
“The Festival”
1921
Herbert West: Reanimator (Pt. VI, The Tomb-Legions)
1925, March 1
Professor Angell first learns of the disturbances caused by Cthulhu (“The Call of Cthulhu”)
1925, March 22
The Emma meets the Alert (“The Call of Cthulhu”), landing on a small island the following day
1925, Apri1 12
The Vigilant comes upon the derelict Alert
1926, May
Charles Dexter Ward returns to Providence from abroad (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)
1927, April 1
Probable resurrection of Joseph Curwen (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)
1927, July 15
Robert Olmstead arrives in Innsmouth, departing the next day (“The Shadow over Innsmouth”)
1927, November 3
Vermont floods (“The Whisperer in Darkness”)
1927
Walter Gilman consults Necronomicon at Miskatonic University (“The Dreams in the Witch House”)
1927
Wilbur Whateley consults the Necronomicon at Miskatonic University (“The Dunwich Horror”)
1927
Surveying is under way for new reservoir near Arkham (“The Colour Out of Space”)
1928, April 13
Charles Dexter Ward vanishes, never to be seen again (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)
1928, May 1
Walter Gilman dies (“The Dreams in the Witch House”)
1928, May 5
Akeley alerts Wilmarth of the presence of creatures in the woods (“The Whisperer in Darkness”)
1928, August 3
Wilbur Whately tries to steal the Necronomicon (“The Dunwich Horror”)
1928, September 9
Wilbur Whatley’s brother breaks loose (“The Dunwich Horror”)
1928, September 12
Wilmarth leaves for Vermont, departing from Vermont the following day (“The Whisperer in Darkness”); Dr. Armitage learns of Wilbur Whatley’s brother (“The Dunwich Horror”)
1928, September 15
Wilbur Whatley’s brother departs (“The Dunwich Horror”)
1928
Asenath takes course in medieval metaphysics at Miskatonic (“The Thing on the Doorstep”)
1930, September 2
Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition departs from Boston Harbor (At the Mountains of Madness)
1930, November 9
The Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition lands on Ross Island (At the Mountains of Madness)
1931, January 22
Professor Lake travels into the unknown (At the Mountains of Madness)
1931, January 25
Professor Dyer discovers the Lake expedition’s fate; the following day, Dyer flies into the unknown (At the Mountains of Madness)
1931, November
Gilman’s old rooms are opened and strange matters are discovered (“Dreams in the Witch House”)
1934, July 10
Peaslee learns of discoveries in Australia (“The Shadow Out of Time”)
1935, July 17
Peaslee makes a nocturnal discovery in Australia (“The Shadow Out of Time”)
1935, August 8
A great storm breaks over Providence; at 2:12 the following morning, Robert Blake dies (“The Haunter of the Dark”)
1. For a more detailed record, covering ca. 700 CE to 1935, see Peter Cannon’s The Chronology Out of Time: Dates in the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. Speculative dates have been omitted.
Appendix 2
FACULTY OF MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY
(Partial List)
Name
Position/Discipline
Mentioned In
Dr. Henry Armitage
Chief librarian
“The Dunwich Horror”
Professor Ferdinand C. Ashley
Ancient history
“The Shadow Out of Time”
Professor Atwood
Physics
At the Mountains of Madness
Professor Dexter
Zoology
“The Whisperer in Darkness”
Professor William Dyer
Geology
At the Mountains of Madness, “The Shadow Out of Time”
Professor Ellery
Chemistry
“The Dreams in the Witch House”
Professor Tyler M. Freeborn
Anthropology
“The Shadow Out of Time”
Dr. Allen Halsey
Dean of the Medical School
“Herbert West: Reanimator”
Professor Lake
Biology
At the Mountains of Madness
Dr. Francis Morgan
Archaeology
“The Dunwich Horror”
Professor Frank H. Pabodie
Engineering
At the Mountains of Madness
Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee
Political economy
“The Shadow Out of Time”
Professor Wingate Peaslee
Psychology
“The Shadow Out of Time”
Professor Warren Rice
Languages
“The Dunwich Horror”
Professor Upham
Mathematics
“The Dreams in the Witch House”
Dr. Waldron (“Old Waldron”)
College physician
“The Dreams in the Witch House”
Albert N. Wilmarth
English
At the Mountains of Madness, “The Whisperer in Darkness”
Appendix 3
HISTORY OF THE NECRONOMICON
(An Outline)
BY H. P. LOVECRAFT1
Original title Al Azif—azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos’d to be the howling of daemons.2
Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaá,3 in Yemen, who is said to have flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis4 and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia—the Roba el Khaliyeh5 or “Empty Space” of the ancients—and “Dahna” or “Crimson” desert of the modern Arabs,6 which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years Alhazred dwelt in Damascus, where the Necronomicon (Al Azif) was written, and of his final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th cent. biographer)7 to ha
ve been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses.8 Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen fabulous Irem, or City of Pillars,9 and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. He was only an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.
In A.D. 950 the Azif, which had gained a considerable tho’ surreptitious circulation amongst the philosophers of the age, was secretly translated into Greek by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople under the title Necronomicon. For a century it impelled certain experimenters to terrible attempts, when it was suppressed and burnt by the patriarch Michael.10 After this it is only heard of furtively, but (1228) Olaus Wormius made a Latin translation later in the Middle Ages, and the Latin text was printed twice—once in the fifteenth century in black-letter (evidently in Germany) and once in the seventeenth (prob. Spanish)—both editions being without identifying marks, and located as to time and place by internal typographical evidence only. The work both Latin and Greek was banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232, shortly after its Latin translation,11 which called attention to it. The Arabic original was lost as early as Wormius’ time, as indicated by his prefatory note; and no sight of the Greek copy—which was printed in Italy between 1500 and 1550—has been reported since the burning of a certain Salem man’s library in 1692.12 An English translation made by Dr. Dee13 was never printed, and exists only in fragments recovered from the original manuscript. Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th cent.) is known to be in the British Museum under lock and key,14 while another (17th cent.) is in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. A seventeenth-century edition is in the Widener Library at Harvard, and in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham. Also in the library of the University of Buenos Ayres. Numerous other copies probably exist in secret, and a fifteenth-century one is persistently rumoured to form part of the collection of a celebrated American millionaire. A still vaguer rumour credits the preservation of a sixteenth-century Greek text in the Salem family of Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it vanished with the artist R. U. Pickman, who disappeared early in 1926.15 The book is rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, and by all branches of organised ecclesiasticism. Reading leads to terrible consequences. It was from rumours of this book (of which relatively few of the general public know) that R. W. Chambers is said to have derived the idea of his early novel The King in Yellow.16
The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft Page 115