An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

In “The Strange High House in the Mist,” a philosopher who “taught ponderous things in a college by Narragansett Bay” (Brown University?), who comes with his family to Kingsport, ascends to meet an unnamed bearded man at his house perched atop a lofty cliff, and comes down curiously changed. “Omnipresent Philistine, The.”

Essay (890 words); probably written in the spring of 1924. First published in the Oracle(May 1924); rpt. MW

Largely a response to fellow amateur Paul Livingston Keil, the essay maintains that art should be judged only by aesthetic, not moral, standards, and that the censorship of art is more dangerous than the potential moral or social problems caused by radical art. HPL declares, rather surprisingly, that James Branch Cabell’s Jurgenand James Joyce’s Ulyssesare “significant contributions to contemporary art” (although he later confessed that he never actually attempted to read Ulysses). Orabona.

In “The Horror in the Museum,” the mysterious assistant of George Rogers in Rogers’s Museum in London who helps Rogers capture a god or monster in Alaska and bring it back to the museum. Later it appears that Orabona has allowed the god to feed upon Rogers, with the result that Rogers has been turned into a wax statue.

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Orne, Benjamin.

In “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” the husband of Alice Marsh and the father of Eliza Orne, the maternal grandmother of the narrator, Robert Olmstead.

Orne, Capt James P.

In “The Horror at Martin’s Beach,” the captain of the fishing smack Alma,whose crew captures and kills an enormous sea creature, but is in turn overwhelmed by the creature’s much larger parent. Orne, Simon/Jedediah.

In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,one of Joseph Curwen’s colleagues in the pursuit of the “essential Saltes” by which human beings can be resuscitated after death. Living in Salem, he leaves the town in 1720 after attracting suspicion by failing to grow visibly old. Thirty years later a person named Jedediah Orne, claiming to be his son, returns to Salem and claims his property. Dr. Willett later discovers that Simon and Jedediah are the same person and that Charles Dexter Ward very likely visited him (now living in Prague) as late as 1924. Willett takes measures to destroy Orne. Orton, [Kenneth] Vrest [Teachout] (1897–1986).

Man of letters and friend of HPL. W.Paul Cook introduced HPL to Orton in late 1925. At this time he worked in the advertising department of the American Mercury;later he became an editor of the Saturday Review. He first met HPL on December 22, 1925, and became a member of the Kalem Club, although his attendance was very sporadic. In June 1928 Orton, living outside Brattleboro, Vt, invited HPL to visit for an extended period; HPL stayed from June 10 to June 24. Numerous individuals whom he met during this time were later adapted for use in “The Whisperer in Darkness” (1930), including Orton’s neighbors, the Lees (whose name was used for “Lee’s Swamp” in the story); Charles Crane, who ran “The Pendrifter,” a column in the Brattleboro Daily Reformer;and Bert G.Akley, a self-taught painter and photographer whose name (and, in part, personality) was used for the character Henry Wentworth Akeley. Orton contributed an article on HPL to “The Pendrifter,” entitled “A Weird Writer Is in Our Midst” (June 16, 1928; rpt. LR). HPL visited Orton and his family (then residing in Yonkers) for a short time in April 1929. In late 1931 Orton, now operating the Stephen Daye Press in Brattleboro, arranged for HPL to copyedit and proofread Leon Burr Richardson’s History of Dartmouth College(1932). HPL hoped to do more work for the Stephen Daye Press, but apparently no more assignments were offered to him. Orton published the first bibliography of Theodore Dreiser, Dreiseriana: A Book about His Books(New York: Stratford Press, 1929); among his other works are And So Goes Vermont: A Picture Book of Vermont as It Is(editor) (Weston, Vt.: Countryman Press; New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1937) and Goudy, Master of Letters (Chicago: Black Cat Press, 1939). He became celebrated as the founder of the Vermont Country Store. Late in life he wrote a brief memoir, “Recollections of H.P.Lovecraft” ( Whispers,March 1982; in LR).

Osborn, Joe.

In “The Dunwich Horror,” one of the party that exterminates Wilbur Whateley’s twin brother. It is likely that he runs Osborn’s General Store, although HPL does not state this explicitly in the story.