The Dunwich Horror
Encyclopedia
"The Dunwich Horror" is a short story
by H. P. Lovecraft
. Written in 1928
, it was first published in the April 1929
issue of Weird Tales
(pp. 481–508). It takes place in Dunwich
, a fictional town in Massachusetts
. It is considered one of the core stories of the Cthulhu Mythos
.
, Lovecraft wrote that "The Dunwich Horror" "takes place amongst the wild domed hills of the upper Miskatonic Valley
, far northwest of Arkham
, and is based on several old New England legends--one of which I heard only last month during my sojourn in Wilbraham
," a town east of Springfield
. (One such legend is the notion that whippoorwills can capture the departing soul.)
In another letter, Lovecraft wrote that Dunwich is "a vague echo of the decadent Massachusetts countryside around Springfield
--say Wilbraham, Monson
and Hampden
." Robert M. Price notes that "much of the physical description of the Dunwich countryside is a faithful sketch of Wilbraham," citing a passage from a letter from Lovecraft to Zealia Bishop that "sounds like a passage from 'The Dunwich Horror' itself":
The physical model for Dunwich's Sentinel Hill is thought to be Wilbraham Mountain near Wilbraham.
But researchers have pointed out the story's apparent connections to another Massachusetts region: the area around Athol
and points south, in the north-central part of the state (which is where Lovecraft indicates that Dunwich is located). It has been suggested that the name "Dunwich," was inspired by the town of Greenwich, which was deliberately flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir
, although Greenwich and the nearby towns of Dana, Enfield and Prescott actually weren't submerged until 1938. Donald R. Burleson points out that several names included in the story—including Bishop, Frye, Sawyer, Rice and Morgan—are either prominent Athol names or have a connection to the town's history.
Athol's Sentinel Elm Farm seems to be the source for the name Sentinel Hill. The Bear's Den mentioned in the story resembles an actual cave of the same name visited by Lovecraft in North New Salem, southwest of Athol. (New Salem, like Dunwich, was founded by settlers from Salem—though in 1737, not 1692.)
The book Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, by Charles M. Skinner, mentions a "Devil's Hop Yard
" near Haddam, Connecticut
as a gathering place for witches. The book, which Lovecraft seems to have read, also describes noises emanating from the earth near Moodus, Connecticut
, which are similar to the Dunwich sounds decried by Rev. Abijah Hoadley.
, particularly The Great God Pan
(which is mentioned in the text of "The Dunwich Horror") and "The Novel of the Black Seal". Both Machen stories concern individuals whose death throes reveal them to be only half-human in their parentage. According to Robert M. Price
, "'The Dunwich Horror' is in every sense an homage to Machen and even a pastiche
. There is little in Lovecraft's story that does not come directly out of Machen's fiction."
Another source that has been suggested is The Thing in the Woods, by Harper Williams, which is also about two brothers living in the woods, neither of them quite human, and with one of them less human than the other.
The name Dunwich itself may come from Machen's The Terror, where the name refers to an English town where the titular entity is seen hovering as "a black cloud with sparks of fire in it". Lovecraft also takes Wilbur Whateley's occult terms "Aklo" and "Voorish" from Machen's "The White People".
Lovecraft also seems to have found inspiration in Anthony M. Rud's story "Ooze" (published in Weird Tales, March 1923), which also involved a monster being secretly kept and fed in a house that it subsequently bursts out of and destroys.
The tracks of Wilbur's brother recall those seen in Algernon Blackwood
's "The Wendigo", one of Lovecraft's favorite horror stories, Also, Ambrose Bierce
's story The Damned Thing
involves a monster invisible to human eyes, much like the Horror.
may not dare to print it." Wright, however, snapped it up, sending Lovecraft a cheque for $240, equal to $2800 in modern dollars, the largest single payment for his fiction he had received up to that point.
Lovecraft biographer Lin Carter
calls the story "an excellent tale.... A mood of tension and gathering horror permeates the story, which culminates in a shattering climax". Robert M. Price
declares that "among the tales of H. P. Lovecraft, 'The Dunwich Horror' remains my favorite."
S. T. Joshi
, on the other hand, regards "Dunwich" as "simply an aesthetic mistake on Lovecraft's part", citing its "stock good-versus-evil scenario".
The plot revolves around the desire of Wilbur to acquire an unabridged Latin version of the Necronomicon — his imperfect English copy is ill-suited for his dark purpose — so that he may open the way for the return of the mysterious "Old Ones", whose forerunner is the Outer God Yog-Sothoth
. Thus, Wilbur and his grandfather have sequestered an unseen presence at their farmhouse; this being is connected somehow to Yog-Sothoth. Year by year, this unseen entity grows to monstrous proportions, requiring Wilbur and his patriarch to make frequent modifications to their residence. People begin to notice a trend of cattle mysteriously disappearing. Eventually, Wilbur's mother also disappears. By the time Wilbur's grandfather dies, the colossal entity occupies the whole interior of the farmhouse.
Wilbur ventures to Miskatonic University
in Arkham to procure a copy of the dreaded Necronomicon
– Miskatonic's library is one of only a handful in the world to stock an original print of the frightful tome. The Necronomicon has certain spells that Wilbur can use to summon the Old Ones for dark purposes unfathomable to men. When the librarian, Dr. Henry Armitage, refuses to release the university's copy to him, Wilbur
breaks into the library at night to steal the loathsome book. A guard dog attacks Wilbur with unusual ferocity, killing him. When Dr. Armitage and two other professors arrive on the scene and see Wilbur Whateley's partly non-human corpse, before it melts completely to leave no evidence, they realize that the youth was not wholly of this earth.
The story culminates with the actual Dunwich horror: With Wilbur Whateley now dead, no one can attend to the mysterious presence growing in the Whateley farmhouse. Early one morning, the Whateley farmhouse explodes as the thing, an invisible monster, rampages across Dunwich, cutting a path through fields, trees, and ravines, leaving huge "prints" the size of tree trunks. The monster eventually makes forays into inhabited areas. Part of the cattle of at least two farms, and two entire families (the Fryes and the Bishops), are attacked and devoured. The frightened town is terrorized by the invisible creature for several days, until Dr. Armitage, Professor Warren Rice, and Dr. Francis Morgan, all of Miskatonic University, arrive with the knowledge and weapons needed to kill it. In the end, its nature is revealed: it is the twin brother of Wilbur Whateley, though it "looked more like the father than Wilbur did."
"The Dunwich Horror" is one of the few tales Lovecraft wrote wherein the heroes successfully defeat the antagonistic entity or monster of the story, although the Horror itself is only the remainder of a far more fiendish plan thwarted by Wilbur's premature death.
He is given no certain first name by Lovecraft, although Fungi from Yuggoth
mentions a John Whateley; he is referred to as "Noah Whateley" in the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
According to S. T. Joshi, "It is not certain where Lovecraft got the name Whateley," though there is a small town called Whately
in northwestern Massachusetts near the Mohawk Trail
, which Lovecraft hiked several times, including in the summer of 1928. Robert M. Price's short story "Wilbur Whateley Waiting" emphasizes the obvious pun in the name.
Elsewhere, she is called "slatternly [and] crinkly-haired".
In 1913, she gave birth to Wilbur Whately by an unknown father. On Halloween
night in 1926, she disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
"Though he shared his mother's and grandfather's chinlessness, his firm and precociously shaped nose united with the expression of his large, dark, almost Latin eyes to give him an air of..well-nigh preternatural intelligence," Lovecraft writes, though at the same time he is "exceedingly ugly...there being something almost goatish or animalistic about his thick lips, large-pored, yellowish skin, coarse crinkly hair, and oddly elongated ears."
He dies at the age of fifteen after being mauled by a guard dog while breaking in to the Miskatonic library on August 3, 1928. His death scene allows Lovecraft to provide a detailed description of Wilbur's partly nonhuman anatomy:
This death scene bears a marked resemblance to that of Jervase Cradock, a similarly half-human character in Arthur Machen's "The Novel of the Black Seal": "Something pushed out from the body there on the floor, and stretched forth, a slimy, wavering tentacle," Machen writes. Will Murray notes that the goatish, partly reptilian Wilbur Whateley resembles a chimera
, a mythological creature referred to in Charles Lamb's epigraph to "The Dunwich Horror".
Robert M. Price points out that Wilbur Whateley is in some respects an autobiographical figure for Lovecraft: "Wilbur's being raised by a grandfather instead of a father, his home education from his grandfather's library, his insane mother, his stigma of ugliness (in Lovecraft's case untrue, but a self-image imposed on him by his mother), and his sense of being an outsider all echo Lovecraft himself."
The head librarian at Miskatonic University
. As a young man, he graduated from Miskatonic in 1881 and went on to obtain his doctorate
from Princeton University
and his Doctor of Letters degree at Johns Hopkins University
.
Lovecraft noted that while writing "The Dunwich Horror", "[I] found myself identifying with one of the characters (an aged scholar who finally combats the menace) toward the end". S. T. Joshi
writes that Armitage "would make a very good parody of the pompous and valiant 'hero' of hackneyed adventure fiction were it not so obvious that Lovecraft intends us to take him seriously."
and Comparative Anatomy
(or Archaeology
) at Miskatonic University
. The story refers to him as "lean" and "youngish".
In Fritz Leiber
's "To Arkham and the Stars"--written in 1966 and apparently set at about that time—Morgan is described as "the sole living survivor of the brave trio who had slain the Dunwich Horror". According to Leiber, Morgan's "research in mescaline
and LSD
" produced "clever anti-hallucinogens" that were instrumental in curing Danforth's mental illness.
at Miskatonic University
. He is called "stocky" and "iron-grey".
, it was in "The Dunwich Horror" that he introduced the entity as one of his extra-dimensional Old Ones. It is also the tale in which the Necronomicon
makes the most significant appearance, and the longest direct quote from it appears in the text. Many of the other standards of the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Miskatonic University, Arkham
and Dunwich
also form integral parts of the tale.
A librarian named Armitage appears in Don Webb's short story "To Mars and Providence
", an alternate history where a juvenile Lovecraft is influenced by the events of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds.
, containing what August Derleth
considered to be the best of Lovecraft's shorter fiction. Originally published in 1963, the 6th printing in 1985 included extensive corrections by S. T. Joshi
in order to produce the definitive edition of Lovecraft's works. The collection has an introduction by Robert Bloch
, titled "Heritage of Horror", reprinted from the 1982 Ballantine collection, Blood Curdling Tales of Supernatural Horror: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft.
The stories included in The Dunwich Horror and Others are:
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. Written in 1928
1928 in literature
The year 1928 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Ford Madox Ford publishes Last Post. It is the final book of a four-volume work titled Parade's End published between 1924 and 1928....
, it was first published in the April 1929
1929 in literature
The year 1929 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Candide by Voltaire is declared obscene by the United States Customs and seized in 1930....
issue of Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
(pp. 481–508). It takes place in Dunwich
Dunwich (Lovecraft)
Dunwich is a fictional town that appeared in the H. P. Lovecraft short story "The Dunwich Horror" . Dunwich is found in the fictional Miskatonic River Valley of Massachusetts, part of the imaginary region sometimes called Lovecraft Country...
, a fictional town in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. It is considered one of the core stories of the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
.
Geographical
In a letter to August DerlethAugust Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
, Lovecraft wrote that "The Dunwich Horror" "takes place amongst the wild domed hills of the upper Miskatonic Valley
Miskatonic River
The Miskatonic River is a fictional New England river in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. It is also the name of a river system, the Miskatonic Valley. The equally fictitious Miskatonic University in Arkham is named after this river...
, far northwest of Arkham
Arkham
Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers....
, and is based on several old New England legends--one of which I heard only last month during my sojourn in Wilbraham
Wilbraham, Massachusetts
Wilbraham is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is also a suburb of the City of Springfield, Massachusetts and part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,868 at the 2010 census...
," a town east of Springfield
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
. (One such legend is the notion that whippoorwills can capture the departing soul.)
In another letter, Lovecraft wrote that Dunwich is "a vague echo of the decadent Massachusetts countryside around Springfield
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
--say Wilbraham, Monson
Monson, Massachusetts
Monson is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,560 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.The village of Monson Center lies at the center of the town....
and Hampden
Hampden, Massachusetts
-Transportation:Hampden is one of sixteen towns in Massachusetts that has no numbered highways or state routes. Of these, half are on the islands, and one is the North Shore town of Nahant. Of the rest, Hampden is the easternmost town to have this distinction. In fact, the town does not even have...
." Robert M. Price notes that "much of the physical description of the Dunwich countryside is a faithful sketch of Wilbraham," citing a passage from a letter from Lovecraft to Zealia Bishop that "sounds like a passage from 'The Dunwich Horror' itself":
- When the road dips again there are stretches of marshland that one instinctively dislikes, and indeed almost fears at evening when unseen whippoorwills chatter and the fireflies come out in abnormal profusion to dance to the raucous, creepily insistent rhythms of stridently piping bullfrogs.
The physical model for Dunwich's Sentinel Hill is thought to be Wilbraham Mountain near Wilbraham.
But researchers have pointed out the story's apparent connections to another Massachusetts region: the area around Athol
Athol, Massachusetts
Athol is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,584 at the 2010 census.-History:Originally called Pequoiag, the area was first settled by five families in September 1735. When the township was incorporated in 1762, the name was changed to Athol...
and points south, in the north-central part of the state (which is where Lovecraft indicates that Dunwich is located). It has been suggested that the name "Dunwich," was inspired by the town of Greenwich, which was deliberately flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir
Quabbin Reservoir
The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was built between 1930 and 1939. Today along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, some to the east, as well as 40 other communities in Greater Boston...
, although Greenwich and the nearby towns of Dana, Enfield and Prescott actually weren't submerged until 1938. Donald R. Burleson points out that several names included in the story—including Bishop, Frye, Sawyer, Rice and Morgan—are either prominent Athol names or have a connection to the town's history.
Athol's Sentinel Elm Farm seems to be the source for the name Sentinel Hill. The Bear's Den mentioned in the story resembles an actual cave of the same name visited by Lovecraft in North New Salem, southwest of Athol. (New Salem, like Dunwich, was founded by settlers from Salem—though in 1737, not 1692.)
The book Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, by Charles M. Skinner, mentions a "Devil's Hop Yard
Devil's Hopyard State Park
Devil's Hopyard State Park is located in East Haddam, Connecticut at a scenic waterfall on the Eightmile River.-History:In 1919, the former State Park and Forest Commission obtained an parcel located in the Millington section of East Haddam. The principal feature of the park, Chapman Falls, drops...
" near Haddam, Connecticut
Haddam, Connecticut
Haddam is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 7,157 at the 2000 census. The town was also home to the now decommissioned Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Reactor.-Geography:...
as a gathering place for witches. The book, which Lovecraft seems to have read, also describes noises emanating from the earth near Moodus, Connecticut
Moodus, Connecticut
Moodus is a census-designated place in East Haddam, a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,263 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
, which are similar to the Dunwich sounds decried by Rev. Abijah Hoadley.
Literary
Lovecraft's main literary sources for "The Dunwich Horror" are the stories of British horror writer Arthur MachenArthur Machen
Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
, particularly The Great God Pan
The Great God Pan
"The Great God Pan" is a novella written by Arthur Machen. A version of the story was published in the magazine The Whirlwind in 1890, and Machen revised and extended it for its book publication in 1894...
(which is mentioned in the text of "The Dunwich Horror") and "The Novel of the Black Seal". Both Machen stories concern individuals whose death throes reveal them to be only half-human in their parentage. According to Robert M. Price
Robert M. Price
Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including...
, "'The Dunwich Horror' is in every sense an homage to Machen and even a pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
. There is little in Lovecraft's story that does not come directly out of Machen's fiction."
Another source that has been suggested is The Thing in the Woods, by Harper Williams, which is also about two brothers living in the woods, neither of them quite human, and with one of them less human than the other.
The name Dunwich itself may come from Machen's The Terror, where the name refers to an English town where the titular entity is seen hovering as "a black cloud with sparks of fire in it". Lovecraft also takes Wilbur Whateley's occult terms "Aklo" and "Voorish" from Machen's "The White People".
Lovecraft also seems to have found inspiration in Anthony M. Rud's story "Ooze" (published in Weird Tales, March 1923), which also involved a monster being secretly kept and fed in a house that it subsequently bursts out of and destroys.
The tracks of Wilbur's brother recall those seen in Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE was an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. S. T...
's "The Wendigo", one of Lovecraft's favorite horror stories, Also, Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
's story The Damned Thing
The Damned Thing (Short Story)
"The Damned Thing" is a short story written by Ambrose Bierce. It first appeared in Tales from New York Town Topics on December 7, 1893. This story focuses on how the human race takes their views of nature for granted and how there are things in the natural world the human eye cannot see or the...
involves a monster invisible to human eyes, much like the Horror.
Reaction
Lovecraft took pride in "The Dunwich Horror", calling it "so fiendish that [Weird Tales] editor Farnsworth WrightFarnsworth Wright
Farnsworth Wright was the editor of the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the magazine's heyday.He was born in California, and educated in the University of Nevada and the University of Washington....
may not dare to print it." Wright, however, snapped it up, sending Lovecraft a cheque for $240, equal to $2800 in modern dollars, the largest single payment for his fiction he had received up to that point.
Lovecraft biographer Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
calls the story "an excellent tale.... A mood of tension and gathering horror permeates the story, which culminates in a shattering climax". Robert M. Price
Robert M. Price
Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including...
declares that "among the tales of H. P. Lovecraft, 'The Dunwich Horror' remains my favorite."
S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi
Sunand Tryambak Joshi — known as S. T. Joshi — is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction...
, on the other hand, regards "Dunwich" as "simply an aesthetic mistake on Lovecraft's part", citing its "stock good-versus-evil scenario".
Plot summary
Wilbur Whateley is the son of a deformed albino mother and an unknown father (alluded to in passing by the mad Old Whateley as "Yog-Sothoth"), and strange events surround his birth and precocious development. Wilbur matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade. All the while, his sorcerer grandfather indoctrinates him into certain dark rituals and the study of witchcraft.The plot revolves around the desire of Wilbur to acquire an unabridged Latin version of the Necronomicon — his imperfect English copy is ill-suited for his dark purpose — so that he may open the way for the return of the mysterious "Old Ones", whose forerunner is the Outer God Yog-Sothoth
Yog-Sothoth
Yog-Sothoth is a cosmic entity of the fictional Cthulhu Mythos and the Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft. Yog-Sothoth's name was first mentioned in his novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward...
. Thus, Wilbur and his grandfather have sequestered an unseen presence at their farmhouse; this being is connected somehow to Yog-Sothoth. Year by year, this unseen entity grows to monstrous proportions, requiring Wilbur and his patriarch to make frequent modifications to their residence. People begin to notice a trend of cattle mysteriously disappearing. Eventually, Wilbur's mother also disappears. By the time Wilbur's grandfather dies, the colossal entity occupies the whole interior of the farmhouse.
Wilbur ventures to Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham; a fictitious town which is said to exist in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River . After first appearing in the H. P...
in Arkham to procure a copy of the dreaded Necronomicon
Necronomicon
The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in...
– Miskatonic's library is one of only a handful in the world to stock an original print of the frightful tome. The Necronomicon has certain spells that Wilbur can use to summon the Old Ones for dark purposes unfathomable to men. When the librarian, Dr. Henry Armitage, refuses to release the university's copy to him, Wilbur
breaks into the library at night to steal the loathsome book. A guard dog attacks Wilbur with unusual ferocity, killing him. When Dr. Armitage and two other professors arrive on the scene and see Wilbur Whateley's partly non-human corpse, before it melts completely to leave no evidence, they realize that the youth was not wholly of this earth.
The story culminates with the actual Dunwich horror: With Wilbur Whateley now dead, no one can attend to the mysterious presence growing in the Whateley farmhouse. Early one morning, the Whateley farmhouse explodes as the thing, an invisible monster, rampages across Dunwich, cutting a path through fields, trees, and ravines, leaving huge "prints" the size of tree trunks. The monster eventually makes forays into inhabited areas. Part of the cattle of at least two farms, and two entire families (the Fryes and the Bishops), are attacked and devoured. The frightened town is terrorized by the invisible creature for several days, until Dr. Armitage, Professor Warren Rice, and Dr. Francis Morgan, all of Miskatonic University, arrive with the knowledge and weapons needed to kill it. In the end, its nature is revealed: it is the twin brother of Wilbur Whateley, though it "looked more like the father than Wilbur did."
"The Dunwich Horror" is one of the few tales Lovecraft wrote wherein the heroes successfully defeat the antagonistic entity or monster of the story, although the Horror itself is only the remainder of a far more fiendish plan thwarted by Wilbur's premature death.
Old Whateley
Lavinia Whateley's "aged and half-insane father, about whom the most frightful tales of magic had been whispered in his youth". Dunwich gossips recall that "the hills once shook when he shrieked the dreadful name of Yog-Sothoth in the midst of a circle of stones with a great book open in his arms before him." He has a large collection of "rotting ancient books and parts of books" which he uses to "instruct[s] and catechise" his grandson Wilbur. He dies of natural causes on August 2, 1924.He is given no certain first name by Lovecraft, although Fungi from Yuggoth
Fungi from Yuggoth
Fungi from Yuggoth is a sequence of 36 sonnets by cosmic horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Most of the sonnets were written between 27 December 1929 – 4 January 1930; thereafter individual sonnets appeared in Weird Tales and other genre magazines...
mentions a John Whateley; he is referred to as "Noah Whateley" in the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
According to S. T. Joshi, "It is not certain where Lovecraft got the name Whateley," though there is a small town called Whately
Whately, Massachusetts
Whately is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,573 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
in northwestern Massachusetts near the Mohawk Trail
Mohawk Trail
- External links :* *...
, which Lovecraft hiked several times, including in the summer of 1928. Robert M. Price's short story "Wilbur Whateley Waiting" emphasizes the obvious pun in the name.
Lavinia Whateley
Born circa 1878, Lavinia Whateley is the daughter of Old Whateley and a mother who met an "unexplained death by violence" when Wilbur was 12. She is described as a- somewhat deformed, unattractive albino woman...a lone creature given to wandering amidst thunderstorms in the hills and trying to read the great odorous books which her father had inherited through two centuries of Whateleys.... She had never been to school, but was filled with disjointed scraps of ancient lore that Old Whateley had taught her.... Isolated among strange influences, Lavinia was fond of wild and grandiose day-dreams and singular occupations.
Elsewhere, she is called "slatternly [and] crinkly-haired".
In 1913, she gave birth to Wilbur Whately by an unknown father. On Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
night in 1926, she disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Wilbur Whateley
Born February 2, 1913 at 5 a.m. to Lavinia Whateley and an unknown father. Described as a "dark, goatish-looking infant"--neighbors refer to him as "Lavinny's black brat"--he shows extreme precocity: "Within three months of his birth, he had attained a size and muscular power not usually found in infants under a full year of age.... At seven months, he began to walk unassisted," and he "commenced to talk...at the age of only eleven months." At three years of age, "he looked like a boy of ten," while at four and a half, he "looked like a lad of fifteen. His lips and cheeks were fuzzy with a coarse dark down, and his voice had begun to break.""Though he shared his mother's and grandfather's chinlessness, his firm and precociously shaped nose united with the expression of his large, dark, almost Latin eyes to give him an air of..well-nigh preternatural intelligence," Lovecraft writes, though at the same time he is "exceedingly ugly...there being something almost goatish or animalistic about his thick lips, large-pored, yellowish skin, coarse crinkly hair, and oddly elongated ears."
He dies at the age of fifteen after being mauled by a guard dog while breaking in to the Miskatonic library on August 3, 1928. His death scene allows Lovecraft to provide a detailed description of Wilbur's partly nonhuman anatomy:
- The thing that lay half-bent on its side in a foetid pool of greenish-yellow ichorIchorIn Greek mythology, Ichor is the ethereal golden fluid that is the blood of the gods and/or immortals.-In classical myth:Ichor originates in Greek mythology, where it is the ethereal fluid that is the Greek gods' blood, sometimes said to retain the qualities of the immortal's food and drink,...
and tarry stickiness was almost nine feet tall, and the dog had torn off all the clothing and some of the skin.... It was partly human, beyond a doubt, with very manlike hands and head, and the goatish, chinless face had the stamp of the Whateleys upon it. But the torso and lower parts of the body were teratologically fabulous, so that only generous clothing could ever have enabled it to walk on earth unchallenged or uneradicated.
- Above the waist it was semi-anthropomorphic; though its chest...had the leathery, reticulated hide of a crocodile or alligator. The back was piebald with yellow and black, and dimly suggested the squamous covering of certain snakes. Below the waist, though, it was the worst; for here all human resemblance left off and sheer phantasy began. The skin was thickly covered with coarse black fur, and from the abdomen a score of long greenish-grey tentacles with red sucking mouths protruded limply.
- Their arrangement was odd, and seemed to follow the symmetries of some cosmic geometry unknown to earth or the solar system. On each of the hips, deep set in a kind of pinkish, ciliated orbit, was what seemed to be a rudimentary eye; whilst in lieu of a tail there depended a kind of trunk or feeler with purple annular markings, and with many evidences of being an undeveloped mouth or throat. The limbs, save for their black fur, roughly resembled the hind legs of prehistoric earth's giant sauriansDinosaurDinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
, and terminated in ridgy-veined pads that were neither hooves nor claws.
This death scene bears a marked resemblance to that of Jervase Cradock, a similarly half-human character in Arthur Machen's "The Novel of the Black Seal": "Something pushed out from the body there on the floor, and stretched forth, a slimy, wavering tentacle," Machen writes. Will Murray notes that the goatish, partly reptilian Wilbur Whateley resembles a chimera
Chimera (mythology)
The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...
, a mythological creature referred to in Charles Lamb's epigraph to "The Dunwich Horror".
Robert M. Price points out that Wilbur Whateley is in some respects an autobiographical figure for Lovecraft: "Wilbur's being raised by a grandfather instead of a father, his home education from his grandfather's library, his insane mother, his stigma of ugliness (in Lovecraft's case untrue, but a self-image imposed on him by his mother), and his sense of being an outsider all echo Lovecraft himself."
Henry Armitage
(1855–1939/1946?)The head librarian at Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham; a fictitious town which is said to exist in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River . After first appearing in the H. P...
. As a young man, he graduated from Miskatonic in 1881 and went on to obtain his doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and his Doctor of Letters degree at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
.
Lovecraft noted that while writing "The Dunwich Horror", "[I] found myself identifying with one of the characters (an aged scholar who finally combats the menace) toward the end". S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi
Sunand Tryambak Joshi — known as S. T. Joshi — is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction...
writes that Armitage "would make a very good parody of the pompous and valiant 'hero' of hackneyed adventure fiction were it not so obvious that Lovecraft intends us to take him seriously."
Francis Morgan
Professor of MedicineMedicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and Comparative Anatomy
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
(or Archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
) at Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham; a fictitious town which is said to exist in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River . After first appearing in the H. P...
. The story refers to him as "lean" and "youngish".
In Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
's "To Arkham and the Stars"--written in 1966 and apparently set at about that time—Morgan is described as "the sole living survivor of the brave trio who had slain the Dunwich Horror". According to Leiber, Morgan's "research in mescaline
Mescaline
Mescaline or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine is a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class used mainly as an entheogen....
and LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
" produced "clever anti-hallucinogens" that were instrumental in curing Danforth's mental illness.
Warren Rice
Professor of Classical LanguagesClassical language
A classical language is a language with a literature that is classical. According to UC Berkeley linguist George L. Hart, it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own, not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich...
at Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham; a fictitious town which is said to exist in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River . After first appearing in the H. P...
. He is called "stocky" and "iron-grey".
Cthulhu Mythos
Although Lovecraft first mentioned "Yog-Sothoth" in the novel The Case of Charles Dexter WardThe Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a short novel by H. P. Lovecraft, written in early 1927, but not published during the author's liftetime...
, it was in "The Dunwich Horror" that he introduced the entity as one of his extra-dimensional Old Ones. It is also the tale in which the Necronomicon
Necronomicon
The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in...
makes the most significant appearance, and the longest direct quote from it appears in the text. Many of the other standards of the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Miskatonic University, Arkham
Arkham
Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers....
and Dunwich
Dunwich
Dunwich is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1500 years ago but the harbour and most of the town have since disappeared due to coastal erosion. Its decline began in 1286 when a sea surge hit the East Anglian coast, and...
also form integral parts of the tale.
A librarian named Armitage appears in Don Webb's short story "To Mars and Providence
To Mars and Providence
"To Mars and Providence" is a short story by Don Webb, published in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches. It is a conflation of The War of the Worlds, the Cthulhu Mythos, and the biography of H. P. Lovecraft.-Plot summary:...
", an alternate history where a juvenile Lovecraft is influenced by the events of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds.
Adaptations
- A film version, The Dunwich HorrorThe Dunwich Horror (film)The Dunwich Horror is a 1970 B-movie from American International Pictures directed by Daniel Haller and produced by Roger Corman. The film was based on the short story of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft with a script co-written by future Academy Award winning director Curtis Hanson. This was the...
, appeared in 1970. It starred Dean StockwellDean StockwellDean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
as Wilbur Whateley, and also starred Ed BegleyEd BegleyEdward James Begley, Sr. was an Academy Award-winning American actor.-Biography:Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Begley began his career as a Broadway and radio actor while in his teens. He appeared in the hit musical Going Up on Broadway in 1917 and in London the next year. He later acted in...
and Sandra DeeSandra DeeSandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular...
with a soundtrack by Les BaxterLes BaxterLes Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...
. While the script borrowed some elements from Lovecraft, the final film bears little resemblance to the short story. It was also the final film for Begley, who passed away in April of that year. - Another film version of the tale starring Jeffrey CombsJeffrey CombsJeffrey Alan Combs is an American actor known for his horror film roles and his appearances playing a number of characters in the Star Trek franchise.-Early life:...
as Wilbur Whately and directed by Leigh ScottLeigh ScottLeigh Scott is an American film director, writer, producer, actor and cinematographer.- Early life and career :...
was first broadcast in October 2009 on SyFySyfySyfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
. Dean StockwellDean StockwellDean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
stars in this version as well, this time as Dr. Henry Armitage. Early on in production it was titled The Darkest Evil. - The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has adapted the story into an audio drama titled Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich HorrorDark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich HorrorDark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich Horror is a 2008 radio drama performed by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and based on the short story "The Dunwich Horror" by H. P. Lovecraft...
; similar to their earlier adaptationDark Adventure Radio Theatre: At the Mountains of MadnessDark Adventure Radio Theatre: At the Mountains of Madness is a 2006 radio drama performed by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and based on the novella At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft...
of At the Mountains of MadnessAt the Mountains of MadnessAt the Mountains of Madness is a novella by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and rejected that year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was originally serialized in the February, March and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories...
. - The radio dramaRadio dramaRadio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
SuspenseSuspense (radio program)-Production background:One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era...
adapted "The Dunwich Horror". It stars Academy Award winner Ronald ColmanRonald ColmanRonald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
as Henry Armitage, and aired originally on November 1, 1945. - Director Richard Griffin made a modern update of the The Dunwich Horror. Called Beyond the Dunwich Horror, it premiered May 23, 2008 at the Columbus Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island.
- The Dunwich Horror, along with The Picture in the HouseThe Picture in the House"The Picture in the House" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft. It was written on December 12, 1920, and first published in the July 1919 issue of The National Amateur-- which actually was published in the summer of 1921.-Lovecraft Country:...
and The FestivalThe Festival (short story)"The Festival" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft written in October 1923 and published in the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales. It is considered to be one of the first of his Cthulhu Mythos stories.-Inspiration:...
, were adapted into short claymation films, and released by Toei AnimationToei AnimationToei Animation Co., Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio owned by Toei Co., Ltd. The studio was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films . In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name...
as a DVD compilation called in August 2007. - Though not strictly an adaptation, The Dunwich Horror is used as the basis for a quest in the computer role playing game Fallout 3Fallout 3Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
. The player can stumble upon a ruined building that was once the head offices of a drill manufacturing company named Dunwich Borers. Audio logs found inside tell the story of a person looking for his father,who was in possession of a thick book that was warm to the touch. While this is seemingly just a story about a man who becomes an insane radiation-infected "ghoul", the player experiences odd hallucinations while in the building, and full exploration reveals that underneath the building is a unique skull-lined obelisk-shaped shrine, completely different than the aesthetic found in the rest of the game. In one part of the building, looking up reveals that a hole above a desk that may be an altar continues through several floors, and out the roof. - The story was adapted into an "audio horror movie" in 2010 by Colin Edwards and sound company Savalas. The recording is essentially an audio drama recorded in 5.1 surround sound to create a movie without pictures. It premiered at the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh on 23 June 2010 as part of the 64th Edinburgh International Film festival. The "film's" director/writer Colin Edwards was in attendance along with cast members Greg Hemphill, Innes Smith and Vivien Taylor and sound Designer Kahl Henderson.
- In 2011, IDW PublishingIDW PublishingIDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
began publishing a four-issue limited adaptation of The Dunwich Horror by Bram Stoker AwardBram Stoker AwardThe Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association for "superior achievement" in horror writing. The awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA...
-winning author Joe R. LansdaleJoe R. LansdaleJoe R. Lansdale is an American author and martial-arts expert. He has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense...
and artist Peter Bergting.
Short story collection
The Dunwich Horror and Others is the name of a collection of H. P. Lovecraft short stories published by Arkham HouseArkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
, containing what August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
considered to be the best of Lovecraft's shorter fiction. Originally published in 1963, the 6th printing in 1985 included extensive corrections by S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi
Sunand Tryambak Joshi — known as S. T. Joshi — is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction...
in order to produce the definitive edition of Lovecraft's works. The collection has an introduction by Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
, titled "Heritage of Horror", reprinted from the 1982 Ballantine collection, Blood Curdling Tales of Supernatural Horror: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft.
The stories included in The Dunwich Horror and Others are:
- "In the VaultIn the Vault"In the Vault" is a short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written on September 18, 1925 and first published in the November 1925 issue of the amateur press journal Tryout.-Inspiration:...
" - "Pickman's ModelPickman's Model"Pickman's Model" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in September 1926 and first published in the October 1927 issue of Weird Tales...
" - "The Rats in the WallsThe Rats in the Walls"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.-Plot summary:...
" - "The OutsiderThe Outsider (short story)"The Outsider" is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between March and August 1921, it was first published in Weird Tales, April 1926. In this work, a mysterious man who has been living alone in a castle for as long as he can remember decides to break free in search...
" - "The Colour Out of SpaceThe Colour Out of Space"The Colour Out of Space" is a short story written by American fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft in March 1927. In the tale, an unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the wild hills west of Arkham, Massachusetts...
" - "The Music of Erich ZannThe Music of Erich Zann"The Music of Erich Zann" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in December 1921, it was first published in National Amateur, March 1922.-Synopsis:...
" - "The Haunter of the DarkThe Haunter of the Dark"The Haunter of the Dark" is a horror story in the Cthulhu Mythos genre. It was written by H. P. Lovecraft in November 1935, and published in the December 1936 edition of Weird Tales...
" - "The Picture in the HouseThe Picture in the House"The Picture in the House" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft. It was written on December 12, 1920, and first published in the July 1919 issue of The National Amateur-- which actually was published in the summer of 1921.-Lovecraft Country:...
" - "The Call of CthulhuThe Call of CthulhuThe Call of Cthulhu is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, in February 1928.-Inspiration:...
" - "The Dunwich Horror"
- "Cool AirCool Air"Cool Air" is a short story by the American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in March 1926 and published in the March 1928 issue of Tales of Magic and Mystery.-Inspiration:...
" - "The Whisperer in DarknessThe Whisperer in Darkness"The Whisperer in Darkness" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written February–September 1930, it was first published in Weird Tales, August 1931. Similar to "The Colour Out of Space" , it is a blend of horror and science fiction...
" - "The Terrible Old ManThe Terrible Old Man"The Terrible Old Man" is a very short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written on January 28, 1920, and first published in the Tryout, an amateur press publication, in July 1921...
" - "The Thing on the DoorstepThe Thing on the Doorstep"The Thing on the Doorstep" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft, part of the so-called Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror fiction. It was written in August 1933, and first published in the January 1937 issue of Weird Tales.-Inspiration:...
" - "The Shadow Over InnsmouthThe Shadow Over InnsmouthThe Shadow Over Innsmouth is a novella by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in November-December 1931, the story was first published in April 1936; this was the only fiction of Lovecraft's published during his lifetime that did not appear in a periodical....
" - "The Shadow Out of TimeThe Shadow Out of TimeThe Shadow Out of Time is a novella by Americanhorror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between November 1934 and February 1935, it was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories.-Plot summary:...
"
Influence
- Neil GaimanNeil GaimanNeil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
's short story "I, CthulhuI, Cthulhu"I, Cthulhu" is a short humorous story by fantasy author Neil Gaiman featuring H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu who is dictating an autobiography to a human slave, Whateley. The story reveals much about Cthulhu's 'birth' and early life. "I, Cthulhu" is currently featured on Gaiman's website.-External links:*...
" features a human slave/biographer referred to only as Whateley, possibly in reference to one of the characters in "The Dunwich Horror". - Stoner/doom metal band Electric WizardElectric WizardElectric Wizard are a stoner metal band from Dorset, England that formed in 1993. The band have since recorded seven albums, at least three of which are now considered to be landmarks of their genre: their self-title debut, Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics..., and Dopethrone...
released a song on their 2007 album, Witchcult TodayWitchcult TodayWitchcult Today is the sixth album by the doom metal band Electric Wizard. It was recorded entirely on vintage 1970s equipment at Toe Rag Studios and was released in November 2007. The sound of Witchcult Today was less harsh than preceding albums and Jus Oborn's vocals are much more prominent...
, entitled "Dunwich", based around the short story. Also, "We Hate You", from their 2000 album, DopethroneDopethroneDopethrone is the third full-length album by the doom metal band Electric Wizard. It was released in 2000 through Rise Above Records and re-released by the same label in 2004 and 2007 with an extra song....
, contains sound clips from the film. - Lucio FulciLucio FulciLucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
's 1980 movie City of the Living DeadCity of the Living DeadCity of the Living Dead is an Italian horror film from director Lucio Fulci. It has numerous alternate titles, such as Gates of Hell. It is the first installment of the unofficial Gates of Hell trilogy which also includes The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. Fulci makes an uncredited cameo...
is set in a town named Dunwich. - Joseph Bruchac's children's horror novel, Whisper in the Dark has an albino homicidal serial killer named Wilbur Whatley that decapitated his own parents and was afraid of dogs.
- Under the title of "Dunwich Confidential," on his third album, Medallion Animal Carpet, Bob DrakeBob Drake (musician)Bob Drake is an American multi-instrumentalist musician and recording engineer. He was a founding member of the avant-rock band Thinking Plague in the early 1980s, and a member of the 5uu's, Hail and The Science Group . He formed his own band, Bob Drake's Cabinet of Curiosities in 2007...
and a collaborator retell the story of "The Dunwich Horror." - A location in the 2008 Xbox 360/PS3/PC video game Fallout 3Fallout 3Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
is called "The Dunwich Building." It features a mini-story of a man searching for his father, who is in possession of an "old, bloodstained book made of weird leather", which may be the Necronomicon. Furthermore, a later downloadable add-on "Point Lookout" featured a quest involving a book with a similar purpose and equally strange name as the Necronomicon, which can be destroyed in the basement of The Dunwich Building. - An Alliance town in World of WarcraftWorld of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
is called "Sentinel Hill." - A Sculpture by Fierce Furious based on the last description in the Dunwich Horror.
- Clock Tower: The First Fear features a similar premise where a wealthy recluse adopts orphans on the pretext of being unable to bear her own children.
- "Boojum" - a short story by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette - features a living, sentient space ship (a Boojum) named "Lavinia Whateley" by her pirate crew.