TSOU - The Haunter of the Dark
vonj...@hotmail.com
The Shadow over Usenet
"The Haunter of the Dark"
Sources: The Dunwich Horror, Arkham; The Best of H. P. Lovecraft,
Ballantine; that Joyce Carol Oates book I can't remember.
Synopsis: Richard Blake, an artist of the weird, takes up residence
in a house on College Hill in Providence. On Federal Hill, he sees a
church, and becomes obsessed with exploring it. During his trip inside,
he discovers a strange shew-stone in the steeple, as well as the body
of a reporter, his notes, and a diary written by the leaders of the cult
who worshiped there. The cult worshiped Nyarlathotep in his form as the
Haunter of the Dark, using the shew-stone, or Shining Trapezohedron,
to summon him. Blake becomes increasingly drawn to the church, even
sleepwalking there, and becomes concerned that the city's lights will
go out and the Haunter that he has unwittingly summoned will be freed.
One night, his worst fears come true, and he is found electrocuted after
a huge bolt of lightning (or the Haunter?) strikes him at the end of the
storm.
Comments: This is my favorite HPL story. Its rich detail of Providence,
the terrifying exploration of the church, the imagery of the townspeople
huddled outside the Starry Wisdom church with candles and the final
transposition of dark and light, near and far - wonderful stuff.
Lovecraft doesn't mention much about the actual writing of "Haunter"
in his letters, perhaps due to lack of enthusiasm. He sent the carbon
of it around to his friends, judged it a failure, and then sent it to
WT - which bought it, of course.
The sources for this tale are many. Joshi cites Hanns Heinz Ewers'
"The Spider", in which a man observes a beautiful young woman in an
apartment across from his own. Mariconda notes the significance of
the shew-stone (of which the crystal ball is one variety), and its
possible antecedents in Spence's _Encyclopedia of Occultism_. I
hold that one of the main sources of inspiration was "The Stalls of
Barchester Cathedral" by M. R. James. This piece is, like "Haunter",
assembled from the diary of a dead man who becomes frightened of the
dark and obsessed with a carving in the church, and who ends by writing
repeatedly in his diary "I must be firm." However, James turns the
piece into more of a tale of supernatural revenge than anything else.
As many of you know, this is actually the middle story in a trilogy.
Bloch started it with "The Shambler from the Stars", in which a seeker
after horrors uncovers a copy of De Vermis Mysteriis. He then takes it
to a thinly-disguised Lovecraft, who reads an incantation aloud and is
devoured by a monster. Lovecraft returned the favor by killing off
"Richard Blake" in this piece. Years later, Bloch wrote a third piece,
"The Shadow from the Steeple", in which a friend of Blake's tracks down
the doctor who cast the Shining Trapezohedron into the bay and became
tainted thereby. Those who are interested in pursuing this further
can find all three of these stories in the _Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos_
compilation.
Well, that's all for now. I'd write up something about St. John's,
the church where the story was set, but I think Donovan should have
that covered. Watch for Steven's post to tell everyone when chat will
be this Sunday. And next week's story will be HPL's sci-fi space
opera piece, "In the Walls of Eryx".
Yrs.,
Daniel Harms
http://members.tripod.com/~danharms/
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DAYKARAK
>Years later, Bloch wrote a third piece,
>"The Shadow from the Steeple", in which a friend of Blake's tracks down
>the doctor who cast the Shining Trapezohedron into the bay and became
>tainted thereby. Those who are interested in pursuing this further
>can find all three of these stories in the _Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos_
>compilation.
I for one was ultimately disappointed by Bloch's follow up. It starts off
great...the notion that HPL's stories were actually thinly-veiled re-tellings
of actual events was, I assume, fairly fresh at the time "The Shadow from the
Steeple" was written. Also interesting was the dilemma element (the various
characters "in the know", including HPL, having died and obscuring Blake's
friend's research).
The atmosphere builds very well...almost but not quite as good as Lovecraft's
piece to which this is linked. Unfortunately, it comes to a rather disjointed
and abrupt conclusion. I was distressed by the fact that despite the fact that
the doctor wound up being directly conneced to the Haunter and also was
involved in some government projects -all in all, a potentially intruiging
thing to contemplate- the story ends quickly and comes off quite hackneyed.
As far as "The Haunter of the Dark" goes...it was the second Lovecraft tale I
read (right after "The Call of the Cthulhu) and is my third favorite
mythos-related tale (after "The Colour Out of Space" and "At the Mountains of
Madness"). It's a perfect example of the effectiveness of pure narrative: the
piece is by no means dull...there's a fantastic build in the over all sense of
dread over the course of the tale, and one can feel Blake's fear -quite a
testament to HPL's brilliant writing style if you ask me!
-Nick Ian K.
high school student, poet, guitarist, stage crew sound guy, obligate aerobe
D.E. Kesler
In many ways "The Haunter of the Dark" is the quintessential
Lovecraftian tale. It showcases so many of those elements that have
been reworked, often poorly, by too many writers in too many pastiches.
After all, this tale features a shelf full of moldy and horrific tomes,
a couple of ancient gods, a forgotten cult of evil that has survived
from the earliest of times, taciturn locals, and a protagonist of
questionable sanity who writes on when running away would seem far more
natural. This is where Lovecraft's power as a writer really shows. In
spite of the hackneyed and cliche motifs, the tale still evokes a
genuine frisson in the reader.
Of course, when Lovecraft originally wrote this piece none of these
elements where as cliche as they are now. They became cliche as a
result of those who emulated Lovecraft to the point of unintentional
parody. Consider how most of us have plowed through more than our fair
share of poorly written Mythos tales. One would naturally think that
these tales would spoil our enjoyment of the masters own, original
efforts. This is not at all the case. The tale still works.
Upon rereading this tale for The Shadow Over Usenet, I noted a couple of
interesting things that I had previously overlooked. First, there is a
suggestion made quite early in this tale that the Church is not actually
part of this world.
"On the far horizon were the open country's purple slopes.
Against these, some two miles away, rose the spectral hump of Federal
Hill, bristling with huddled roofs and steeples whose remote outlines
wavered mysteriously, taking fantastic forms as the smoke of the city
swirled up and enmeshed them. Blake had a curious sense that he was
looking upon some unknown, ethereal world which might or might not
vanish in dream if ever he tried to seek it out and enter it in person."
(DH, 94)
Later, as Blake tries to find the Church itself, he seems to slowly slip
into what may very well be an alternate or parallel reality. It is at
this point and beyond that Blake is actually delving toward the ethereal
world that he suspected existed. Blake is no longer wholly within the
realm of the norm. Please pay careful attention to all of the words and
phrases that Lovecraft uses to suggest that Blake is leaving one world
and entering another. I contend that this is no accident, but I'll let
you see this for yourself.
"Late in April, just before the aeon-shadowed Walpurgis time, Blake
made his first trip into the unknown. Plodding through the endless
downtown streets and the bleak, decayed squares beyond, he came finally
upon an ascending avenue of century-worn steps, sagging Doric porches,
and blear panned cupolas which he felt must lead up to the long-known,
unreachable world beyond the mists. There were dingy blue-and-white
street signs which meant nothing to him, and presently he noted the
strange, dark faces of the drifting crowds, and the foreign signs over
curious shops in brown, decade-weathered buildings. Nowhere could he
find any of the objects he had seen from afar; so that once more he half
fancied that the distant view was a dream-world never to be trod by
living human feet.
Now and then a battered church facade or crumbling spire came in
sight, but never the blackened pile that he sought. When he asked a
shopkeeper about the great stone church the man smiled and shook his
head, though he spoke English freely. As Blake climbed higher, the
region seemed stranger and stranger, with bewildering mazes of brooding
brown alleys leading eternally of to the south. He crossed two or three
broad avenues, and once thought he glimpsed a familiar tower. Again he
asked a merchant about the massive church of stone, and this time he
could have sworn that the plea of ignorance was feigned. The dark mans
face had a look of fear which he tried to hide, and Blake saw him make a
curious sign with his right hand.
Then suddenly a black spire stood out against the cloudy sky on his
left, above the tiers of brown roofs lining the tangled southern
alleys. Blake knew at once what is was, and plunged toward it through
the squalid, unpaved lanes that climbed from the avenue. Twice he lost
his way, but somehow dared not ask any of the patriarchs or housewives
who sat on their doorsteps, or any of the children who shouted and
played in the mud of the shadowy lanes.
At last he saw the tower plain against the southwest, and a huge stone
bulk rose darkly at the end of an alley. Presently he stood in a
windswept open square, quaintly cobblestoned, with a high bank wall on
the farther side. This was the end of his quest; for upon the wide,
iron-railed, weed-grown plateau which the wall supported - a separate,
lesser world raised fully six feet above the surrounding streets - there
stood a grim, titan bulk whose identity, despite Blake's new
perspective, was beyond dispute." (DH, 96-97)
I also noted on this reading that Blake was originally working on a
novel about the "supposed survival of the witch-cult in Maine." (DH,
95-96) Ironically, Blake learns about a cult that is much closer to
home.
Like the nameless protagonist in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" who sought
genealogical information, or Professor Peaslee who taught Political
Economics in the "Shadow Out of Time," Blake uncovers information that
is directly related to his current area of interest. The irony lies in
the fact all of these characters learn things about their chosen
subjects that show how insignificant human life really is when compare
to the gulfs of illimitable space. It is a mean and vicious irony
indeed!
Regards and Best Wishes,
Donald Eric Kesler
vonj...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> The Shadow over Usenet
> "The Haunter of the Dark"
>
> "Richard Blake" in this piece. Years later, Bloch wrote a third piece,
> "The Shadow from the Steeple", in which a friend of Blake's tracks down
> the doctor who cast the Shining Trapezohedron into the bay and became
> tainted thereby. Those who are interested in pursuing this further
> can find all three of these stories in the _Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos_
> compilation.
>
Donovan K. Loucks
This is my favorite HPL story. Its rich detail of Providence, the
terrifying exploration of the church, the imagery of the townspeople
huddled outside the Starry Wisdom church with candles and the final
transposition of dark and light, near and far - wonderful stuff.
This is also amongst my favourite Lovecraft stories, although I prefer the
Providence atmosphere of "The Shunned House" and _The Case of Charles
Dexter Ward_. (Even "The Call of Cthulhu" has a touch of Providence.)
The only real flaw here is the conclusion, where Blake continues writing
right up until the moment of his death. This is a pretty significant
flaw, but the rest of the tale's just too good for it to bother me.
Lovecraft doesn't mention much about the actual writing of "Haunter" in
his letters, perhaps due to lack of enthusiasm.
Lovecraft mentions the story numerous times in his letters, but Daniel's
correct that Lovecraft never really says much. Lovecraft wasn't at all
pleased with this tale, which is ironic considering how we're glowing
about it here. I did stumble across one interesting comment:
Commiserations on the intermittent light. I've met that trouble in the
past -- indeed, a case of it last year gave me the main idea for my
tale "The Haunter of the Dark". (Letter to Willis Conover dated 24
October 1936)
So, buried amongst dozens of uninteresting brief comments was one that
actually indicated at least one element in the genesis of this tale.
The sources for this tale are many. Joshi cites Hanns Heinz Ewers'
"The Spider", in which a man observes a beautiful young woman in an
apartment across from his own.
I read this in, of all places, _H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror_ and
enjoyed it greatly. Many are quick to point out how we should thank
Derleth for keeping Lovecraft's works in print, but let's not forget how
thankful we should be to Lovecraft for keeping such obscure gems as "The
Spider" in print as a result of that landmark work, "Supernatural Horror
in Literature".
I hold that one of the main sources of inspiration was "The Stalls of
Barchester Cathedral" by M. R. James. This piece is, like "Haunter",
assembled from the diary of a dead man who becomes frightened of the
dark and obsessed with a carving in the church, and who ends by writing
repeatedly in his diary "I must be firm." However, James turns the
piece into more of a tale of supernatural revenge than anything else.
I don't happen to have this particular James story, but considering that
Lovecraft saw fit to mention it in "Supernatural Horror in Literature," I
intend to track it down. See what I mean?
As many of you know, this is actually the middle story in a trilogy.
Bloch started it with "The Shambler from the Stars", in which a seeker
after horrors uncovers a copy of De Vermis Mysteriis. He then takes it
to a thinly-disguised Lovecraft, who reads an incantation aloud and is
devoured by a monster. Lovecraft returned the favor by killing off
"Richard Blake" in this piece. Years later, Bloch wrote a third piece,
"The Shadow from the Steeple", in which a friend of Blake's tracks down
the doctor who cast the Shining Trapezohedron into the bay and became
tainted thereby. Those who are interested in pursuing this further can
find all three of these stories in the _Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos_
compilation.
All three stories can also be found in comic book form in issues 3, 4, and
5 of _Journey Into Mystery_, all of which I am fortunate enough to own.
I scanned the first page of "The Haunter of the Dark" and put it on The
H.P. Lovecraft Archive at:
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/fiction/hd.htm
As Daniel has already mentioned, the characters in Bloch's "The Shambler
from the Stars" and Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark" were patterned
after those authors. However, while Bloch's version of Lovecraft was, as
Daniel put it, "thinly-disguised", Lovecraft made it perfectly clear on
who his protagonist was based by dedicating the story to Bloch and then
_giving Bloch's home address at the end of the piece_!
"My name is Blake--Robert Harrison Blake of 620 East Knapp Street,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. . . ." (115)
I'm surprised that Lovecraft incorporated such a specific and personal
piece of information in this story and even more surprised that Bloch
didn't object to it. By the way, even though Bloch wrote "The Shadow from
the Steeple" years later (it wasn't published until 1950) Bloch came up
with the title in 1936 and even discussed plot elements with Lovecraft.
Lovecraft commented that there was no one left to kill off in a new story!
I'd write up something about St. John's, the church where the story was
set, but I think Donovan should have that covered.
I guess that's my cue. The two primary points of geographic interest in
this story are the house that Blake takes residence in and the Free-Will/
Starry Wisdom Church on Federal Hill. Lovecraft points out repeatedly in
letters that the bases for these locations are Lovecraft's own home at 66
College Street and St. John's Roman Catholic Church on Federal Hill:
The home of "Blake" as depicted is nothing more or less than good old
66 -- the view being quite literally what I am looking at this instant.
The huge church, however, is idealised . . . the real one (St. John's
Catholic) being a red brick edifice of the 1870's. From my window the
distant church has a very spectral cast -- & up to last summer really
possessed a mystical spire. Last June, however, the steeple was
demolished by lightning; & the parish (Irish, though the Italian colony
now spreads nearly a mile on every side) decided not to restore it.
Instead, they put a conical cap -- surmounted by a gilded cross -- on
the brick tower, & let it go at that. I was greatly disappointed when
I got home & found it in this bobtailed form, but at last I'm getting
used to it. The sombre edifice still looms up mysteriously against the
west, & the squat tower has a quaintness all its own. (Letter to
Richard F. Searight dated 24 December 1935)
Possibly I mentioned writing a new story -- "The Haunter of the Dark"
-- last month. . . . The house & westward view described are genuine .
. . good old 66 & what I am now looking at out the west window above my
desk. The distant church, however, is a less ancient & less sinister
object in real life than in the story. It actually dates from the
1870's, & has no spectral associations -- being St. John's Catholic
(Irish, though the district has become Italian) church. Federal Hill
(the Italian quarter) as seen 2 miles away from my window is really
quite a mysterious & picturesque sight -- with the dark bulk & spire of
St. John's rising against the remote horizon above the huddled roofs.
(Letter to Mrs. Natalie H. Wooley dated 30 December 1935, SL V.220)
About my "Haunter of the Dark" -- all the Providence geographical
details are correct. The College Hill house described is this one, &
the westward view is precisely what I'm looking at now. The old
church is a reality -- though actually there are no sinister anecdotes
connected with it. The real church has been vacant for only a year & a
half. (Letter to Nils H. Frome dated 19 December 1936)
On 15 May 1933 Lovecraft moved into the Samuel B. Mumford house (1825) at
66 College Street. He was delighted at the age of the house, although he
believed it was about 25 years older than is now thought. Lovecraft's
description of the house, its westward view, and even the shed upon which
"huge, friendly cats sunned themselves" (94) was very accurate. However,
the view has since been obscured by buildings in the downtown area and the
house was moved to 65 Prospect Place in 1959. The fraternity houses that
were adjacent to the Mumford house were probably moved or demolished as
well, all to make way for that hideous concrete monstrosity, the List Art
Building (1969-71). Speaking of fraternities, I cannot find any real-
world mention of the two Lovecraft mentions in "The Haunter of the Dark",
Tau Omega and Psi Delta.
I was pleased to see that Lovecraft knew that St. John's dated to the
1870s (1871-1875) instead of the 1810s as he wrote in the tale. I only
wish that he had placed the final storm of the story in June rather than
August so his fictional storm would have coincided with the real one!
Despite the similarities that do exist between the real and fictional
churches, Lovecraft still fictionalized St. John's considerably, putting
it up on a raised plateau of earth ("raised fully six feet above the
surrounding streets", 97), adding a burying ground ("here and there the
worn stump of a headstone", 98), and increasing its size tremendously
("three great doors in the facade", 99). The description of the interior
of the Free-Will/Starry Wisdom church -- "box pews, altar, hourglass
pulpit, and sounding-board" (99) -- definitely sounds more like a
Protestant rather than Catholic church. However, I'm not familiar with
the term _hour_glass pulpit, having instead seen the _wine_glass pulpits
in such churches as Providence's First Baptist Church, Newport's Trinity
Church, and Boston's Old North Church. (Perhaps this is a still-remaining
typo since no manuscript or typescript of "The Haunter of the Dark" is
known to exist.) Even Lovecraft admitted the differences between the real
and fictional churches when he wrote:
However, there's no such church as the one I describe. The nearest
prototype is a Victorian brick edifice which lost its steeple in a
storm last summer while I was away. (Letter to Duane Rimel dated 12
November 1935)
Today, there's no such church as St. John's either. It was demolished on
4 February 1992, although the tower did remain for a while. I managed to
get a brick from the ruins and Necronomicon Press owner Marc Michaud is
rumored to have enough bricks to reconstruct the church in full. Some of
the church's ground-level elements have been incorporated into St. John's
Park which now occupies the site (352 Atwells Avenue, at the corner of
Sutton Street).
Other points of interest in the story include:
"the marble John Hay Library" (93-94) -- 20 Prospect Street. Lovecraft
claimed one of the windows in the Mumford house looked directly into
the stacks of the John Hay Library. Appropriately, the bulk of
Lovecraft's manuscripts are now kept in that library.
"the dark towers of Memorial Hall just below" (94) -- 226 Benefit Street.
Built from 1853 to 1856, this building was originally the Central
Congregational Church. It was acquired by the Rhode Island School of
Design in 1903 and lost its "dark towers" in the hurricane of 1938. It
now houses RISD's Fine Arts Drawing Studio, mail room, and a snack bar
known as "The Pit".
"the Georgian court-house belfry" (94) -- The Providence County Court
House, built from 1928 to 1933, replaced the old French Gothic court
house that was built on the same site in 1877. The land between the
courthouse and the Providence River was once the location of the Old
Brick Row -- a group of picturesque brick warehouses -- whose loss
Lovecraft lamented.
"the red Industrial Trust beacon" (95) -- 111 Westminster. This 26-story
skyscraper, the tallest building in Providence at that time, was
erected from 1926-28. It is still a dominant element of the downtown
Providence skyline.
"Dr. Drowne of 4th Baptist warns against Starry Wisdom in sermon Dec. 29,
1844." (103) -- The Fourth Baptist Church was built in 1822 at 20
Howell Street, which is about 1/4-mile northeast of the Halsey mansion
featured in _The Case of Charles Dexter Ward_. In 1911 a new church
was built at Hope Street and Rochambeau Avenue, a little over a 1/2-
mile north of the previous location.
"Father Merluzzo of Spirito Santo Church" (111) -- This might be a
reference to the Holy Ghost Church, built in 1908 at 1 Knight Street
(the corner of Knight Street and Atwells Avenue) just 1/8-mile west of
St. John's former site.
Other references include:
_Providence Journal_ (103, 107) and _Providence Evening Bulletin_ (107) --
Started in 1820, _The Manufacturers' & Farmers' Journal, Providence &
Pawtucket Advisor_ was a semi-weekly paper. It became a daily, _The
Providence Journal_, on 21 July 1829. In 1863 the paper added an
evening edition called _The Evening Bulletin_.
Orrin B. Eddy (103) -- Perhaps this is a reference to one of Lovecraft's
revision clients, Clifford M. Eddy, Jr., who Lovecraft first met in
August 1923. However, the surname Eddy is well-known in Providence.
Mayor Doyle (103) -- "Mayor Thomas A. Doyle died in office June 9, 1886,
two weeks before the municipal observance of the 250th anniversary of
the settlement of Providence, having served as chief executive since
the year 1864 except for the intervening terms of George L. Clark
(1869-70) and William A. Hayward (1881-84). A bronze statue of Mayor
Doyle, designed by Henry H. Kitson, was erected on Cathedral Square and
dedicated June 3, 1889." (_The Civic and Architectural Development of
Providence_, 175)
One final question: Does anyone have any ideas as to why the Haunter
removed the Shining Trapezohedron and Edwin M. Lillibridge's skeleton to
the tower's steeple? A simple attempt to conceal evidence?
-------------------
Donovan K. Loucks <webm...@hplovecraft.com>
The H.P. Lovecraft Archive: http://www.hplovecraft.com
The alt.horror.cthulhu FAQ: ftp://ftp.primenet.com/users/d/dloucks/ahc
Gregory Loren Hansen
>Hello All,
>
>In many ways "The Haunter of the Dark" is the quintessential
>Lovecraftian tale. It showcases so many of those elements that have
>been reworked, often poorly, by too many writers in too many pastiches.
>After all, this tale features a shelf full of moldy and horrific tomes,
>a couple of ancient gods, a forgotten cult of evil that has survived
>from the earliest of times, taciturn locals, and a protagonist of
>questionable sanity who writes on when running away would seem far more
>natural. This is where Lovecraft's power as a writer really shows. In
>spite of the hackneyed and cliche motifs, the tale still evokes a
>genuine frisson in the reader.
Has anyone written an anti-pastiche? Centering around a cult that had
just been formed, shelves full of books from B Daltons and loose-leaf
volumes filled with blue lined paper, friendly locals...
--
"Besides, it doesn't take much creativity or courage to figure out that
something which reads 'Danger: Flammable' on the label might be fun to
fool about with." -- Joris van Dorp