An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

and Pictures(Haverhill, Mass.: “Cooperatively published by H.P.Loveracft [sic]and C.W.Smith,” 1932), probably revising the poems in the process. Later he wrote a plug for the volume, “Dr. Eugene B.Kunz [sic]” ( Hodge Podge,September 1935).

Kuranes.

In “Celephaïs,” the dream identity of an unidentified but once-wealthy person in the waking world. His “real” self, through dreams and drugs, escapes his mundane existence as a writer in London to find the city of Celephaïs, of which he had dreamt as a child. When he awakens, he cannot return to Celephaïs, although he dreams of other wondrous realms; but finally he is able to return forever as its king, although his body is later found washed up on the shore. In The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,Kuranes greets Randolph Carter, who has voyaged in dream to Celephaïs. It now appears that Kuranes, although a king in dreamland, longs to return to his real life in Cornwall. He warns Carter that his “sunset city” may not be as wondrous as he imagines it to be.

Kuttner, Henry (1915–1958).

Science fiction writer from Los Angeles and correspondent of HPL. Early in his career Kuttner wrote in various genres of pulp fiction, including horror; see “The Graveyard Rats” ( WT,March 1936), which some of HPL’s colleagues thought he had written or ghostwritten. Kuttner, however, came in touch with HPL only after the story had been accepted for publication. The correspondence lasted from February 1936 to February 1937 (see Letters to Henry Kuttner,ed. David E.Schultz and S.T.Joshi [Necronomicon Press, 1990]). HPL assisted on the topographical background for “The Salem Horror” ( WT,May 1937), a story clearly influenced by “The Dreams in the Witch House.” Other Lovecraftian tales by Kuttner have now been reprinted in The Book of lod,ed. Robert M.Price (Chaosium, 1995). Kuttner created numerous additions to HPL’s myth-cycle. In late 1936 Kuttner wrote an acrostic poem on Poe (“Where He Walked”) after he learned that HPL and his colleagues had done so earlier in the year. In May 1936 HPL asked Kuttner to pass on some photographs to C.L.Moore, thereby introducing the two authors to each other. They married in 1940 and collaboratively wrote some of the most imaginative work in the “Golden Age” of science fiction. See The Best of Henry Kuttner (1975).

See Shawn Ramsey, “Henry Kuttner’s Cthulhu Mythos Tales: An Overview,” Crypt No. 51 (Hallowmas 1987): 21–23, 14; Gordon R.Benson, Jr., and Virgil S.Utter, C.L.Moore and Henry Kuttner: A Marriage of Souls and Talent: A Working Bibliography(Albuquerque, N.M.: Galactic Central, 1989).

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L

Lake,———.

In At the Mountains of Madness,a professor of biology on the Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition who leads an exploration party that is destroyed by the Old Ones, whom his group unwittingly resuscitates from suspended animation.

“Last Test, The.”

Novelette (19,330 words); ghostwritten for Adolphe de Castro, in October–November 1927. First published in WT(November 1928); first collected in Cats;corrected text in HM

Dr. Alfred Clarendon, a renowned physician and medical researcher, is appointed to the post of medical director of the California State Penitentiary at San Quentin by his old friend, Governor James Dalton. (Dalton’s father had been ruined on Wall Street by Clarendon’s father, but the younger Dalton held no grudge.) Clarendon’s home in San Francisco is run by his sister Georgina, with whom Dalton has long been in love. Clarendon is working on an antitoxin for black fever. In the course of his work he has had to travel to exotic places, and he has brought back a band of Tibetan servants, over whom Clarendon has placed an enigmatic figure named Surama.

Shortly after Clarendon’s arrival at San Quentin, one of the inmates comes down with black fever; Clarendon places the man in a separate ward so that he can study the case himself, thereby enraging his assistant, Dr. Jones, who wishes to assist. The inmate dies, and later several other prisoners contract the disease. News of the epidemic spreads throughout San Francisco, causing a panic that drives many citizens from the city. Eventually the panic subsides, but Clarendon is criticized for his handling of the matter; he pays no attention, however, to the bad press he receives. Governor Dalton continues to defend Clarendon, in spite of the latter’s curt refusal to allow him to marry Georgina.

Dr. Jones then contrives to change the manner of institutional appointments, with the result that Clarendon is fired from his position and Jones installed in his