An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

See W.E.Beardson, “The Mound of Yig?” Etchings and OdysseysNo. 1 (1973): 10–13; S.T.Joshi, “Who Wrote ‘The Mound’?” NyctalopsNo. 14 (March 1978): 41–42 (revised in CryptNo. 11 [Candlemas 1983]: 27–29, 38); Peter H.Cannon, “The Mound’: An Appreciation,” CryptNo. 11 (Candlemas 1983): 30–32, 51; Michael DiGregorio, “‘Yig,’ ‘The Mound’ and American Indian Lore,” CryptNo. 11 (Candlemas 1983): 25–26, 38; S.T.Joshi, “Lovecraft’s Alien Civilisations: A Political Interpretation,” in Selected Papers on Lovecraft(Necronomicon Press, 1989).

“Mrs. Miniter—Estimates and Recollections.”

Essay (5,210 words); written on October 16, 1934. First published in the Californian(Spring 1938); rpt MW

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This poignant essay traces the amateur career of the recently deceased Edith Miniter, with a discussion of her household (including her cousin Evanore Beebe and numerous pets) at a rural home, Maplehurst, outside of Wilbraham, Mass., which HPL visited in 1928. The essay was intended for a booklet devoted to Miniter, to be published by W.Paul Cook, for which HPL had gathered numerous other articles, but the project came to naught. HPL also wrote an elegy, “Edith Miniter” ( Tryout,August 1934).

Müller,———.

In “The Temple,” the boatswain on the German submarine U-29 who apparently commits suicide to escape the horrors he thinks are besetting the vessel.

Munn, H[arold] Warner (1903–1981).

American writer of fantasy and horror tales, and friend of HPL. His first story, “The Werewolf of Ponkert” ( WT,July 1925), was based on a remark in HPL’s letter to WT(March 1924): “Take a werewolf story, for instance—who ever wrote a story from the point of view of the wolf, and sympathising strongly with the devil to whom he has sold himself?” But it appears that Munn misunderstood the import of HPL’s remark, for he has the werewolf regret his condition. Munn wrote several more werewolf stories under the generic title “Tales of the Werewolf Clan”; some were gathered as The Werewolf of Ponkert(1958). He was introduced to HPL by W.Paul Cook in the summer of 1927; HPL visited him in Athol, Mass., in the summer of 1928, at which time (on June 28) Munn took HPL to the Bear’s Den, a remarkable forest gorge later cited in “The Dunwich Horror” (1928). Cook and Munn visited HPL in Providence in June 1929; HPL returned the favor by visiting Cook and Munn in Athol the next June. HPL and Munn seemed to communicate only sporadically in the 1930s. Munn went on to write many stories for the pulps as well as fantasy and historical novels, including Merlin’s Ring(1974) and The Lost Legion(1980). Late in life he wrote a brief memoir, “H.P.L.: A Remembrance” ( Whispers,December 1976; in LR).

Muñoz, Dr.

In “Cool Air,” the doctor who treats the narrator when he has a heart attack. Since Muñoz had died eighteen years previously, he keeps his apartment refrigerated to increasingly cooler temperatures to maintain his artificially preserved body. He appears to have been based in part on a Dr. Love (see entry on “Cool Air”).

Munroe, Arthur.

In “The Lurking Fear,” he accompanies the narrator to the haunted Martense mansion, after two other searchers disappear, only to meet a loathsome fate.

Munroe, Chester Pierce (1889–1943).

Boyhood friend of HPL, residing at 66 Patterson Avenue in Providence, about four blocks away from HPL’s residence at 454 Angell Street. HPL and Munroe became acquainted around 1902, when they attended the Slater Avenue School. HPL remarks that “Chester Pierce Munroe & I claimed the proud joint distinction of being the worst boys in Slater Ave. School…. We were not so actively destructive as merely antinomian in an ar

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