An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

Price has remarked that “I estimated that [HPL] had left unchanged fewer than fifty of my original words” (“The Man Who Was Lovecraft,” p. 282), a comment that has led many to believe that the finished version of “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” is radically different from Price’s original; but, as we have seen, HPL adhered to the basic framework of Price’s tale as best he could. The quotations from the Necronomiconare largely Price’s, although somewhat amended by HPL. Price submitted the story to WTon June 19, 1933, both praising the story and minimizing his own role in it. Wright’s response was not unexpected: “I have carefully read THROUGH THE GATES OF THE SILVER KEY and am almost overwhelmed by the colossal scope of the story. It is cyclopean in its daring and titanic in its execution…. But I am afraid to offer it to our readers. Many there would be…who would go into raptures of esthetic delight while reading the story; just as certainly there would be a great many—probably a clear majority—of our readers who would be unable to wade through it. These would find the descriptions and discussions of polydimensional space poison to their enjoyment of the tale…. I assure you that never have I turned down a story with more regret than in this case” (Farnsworth Wright to HPL, August 17, 1933; ms., JHL). But by mid-November 1933 Wright was asking to see the story again, and he accepted it a week later. It in fact elicited a hostile response from the young Henry Kuttner, published in the letter column of WT(September 1934).

See Norm Gayford, “Randolph Carter: An Anti-Hero’s Quest,” LSNo. 16 (Spring 1988): 3–11; No. 17 (Fall 1988): 5–13.

Thurber,———.

The narrator of “Pickman’s Model.” At first, he is one of Richard Upton Pickman’s staunchest supporters. Following Pickman’s disappearance, he refuses to venture into the subway system or the cellars of Boston after viewing a photograph of the subject of one of Pickman’s paintings.

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Thurston, Francis Weyland.

“The Call of Cthulhu” is Thurston’s written dissertation of his piecing together various accounts of the Cthulhu cult from the research of his uncle, George Gammell Angell (in “The Horror in Clay”); his uncle’s encounter with police inspector John Raymond Legrasse (“The Tale of Inspector Legrasse”); and the diary of Gustav Johansen, the Norwegian sailor who encounters Cthulhu firsthand (“The Madness from the Sea”). His name is cited in full in the subtitle of the story; in earlier editions, this subtitle was frequently omitted.

“‘Till A’ the Seas.’”

Short story (3,300 words); written in collaboration withR. H.Barlow, January 1935. First published in the Californian(Summer 1935); first collected in HM(1970 ed.); corrected text in HM Humanity finds himself in dire straits as the earth gradually approaches closer and closer to the sun. Drought ravages the planet “for unnumbered aeons,” and towns, cities, and entire countries are deserted as the few struggling remnants of mankind seek the final traces of water near the poles. At length all the oceans dry up. Finally humanity is reduced to hundreds, then tens. A young man named Ull is compelled to leave his dwelling when his companion, an old woman named Mladdna, finally dies. In search of both water and companionship, he seeks out a colony that he has heard dwells over the mountains; but when he reaches the huts of the colony, he realizes that everyone is dead. Then, in the middle of the town, he sees a well. Groping for the chain and bucket in the well, Ull slips and falls into it, dying. He is the last man on earth.

Barlow’s typescript, with HPL’s revisions in pen, survives, so that the exact degree of the latter’s authorship can be ascertained (see the article by Joshi, in which the text is reproduced with HPL’s words placed in brackets). HPL has made no significant structural changes, merely making cosmetic changes in style and diction; but he has written the bulk of the concluding section, especially the purportedly cosmic reflections when the last man on earth finally meets his ironic death. The title is from Robert Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose” (1796): “Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear….” See S.T.Joshi, “Lovecraft’s Contribution to ‘Till A’ the Seas,’” CryptNo. 17 (Hallowmas 1983): 33–39. Tillinghast, Crawford.

In “From Beyond,” the mad scientist who invents a machine that reveals creatures and worlds perceptible to the five senses. He dies, ostensibly of “apoplexy,” after demonstrating his machine to his unnamed colleague. (In HPL’s original draft of the story, the character was named Henry Annesley.)

Tillinghast, Dutee.