An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

Pulp writer from Michigan and correspondent of HPL. With Norman E.Hammerstrom, Searight wrote “The Brain in the Jar” ( WT,November 1924), but it was not until the 1930s that he decided to resume the writing of weird and science fiction. At the suggestion of WT editor Farnsworth Wright, whom he visited in the summer of 1933, Searight wrote to HPL asking about the possibility of revising some of his tales. HPL declined, feeling that the “occasional shortcomings” of Searight’s tales “are matters of subject-matter rather than of technique” (letter to Searight, August 31, 1933), but he continued to advise Searight in literary matters. In early 1934 Searight wrote “The Sealed Casket” ( WT,March 1935), for which he created the Eltdown Shards, which HPL cited in “The Shadow out of Time” and “The Challenge from Beyond.” HPL had no hand in revising the tale, and he altered only one word of the epigraph (purporting to be from the Eltdown Shards) that was intended to preface the story but was not published in the WTversion. (HPL quoted the epigraph in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith [c. March 1935; SL5.112], leading some to believe that he wrote it.) Searight published a few pieces in Wonder Storiesand other pulps but never succeeded in making a full-time career of writing. His historical novel Wild Empire,written in the late 1930s and early 1940s, was published in 1994. Necronomicon Press has issued two collections of his tales: The Brain in the Jar and Others(1992) and The Sealed Casket and Others(1996). HPL’s Letters to Richard F.Searight also appeared in 1992 from Necronomicon Press. All three volumes have sensitive and informative introductions by Searight’s son, Franklyn Searight (b. 1935).

Sechrist, Edward Lloyd (1873–1953),

beekeeper, amateur journalist residing in Washington, D.C., and occasional correspondent of HPL. Sechrist, a member of the UAPA, visited HPL in Providence in early 1924 (see SL1.292) then visited HPL in New York on November 3, 1924. He accompanied HPL during much of the latter’s trip to Washington on April 11, 1925, and met HPL again in Washington on May 6, 1929. HPL noted (letter to Lillian D.Clark, [May 6, 1929]; ms., JHL) that his poem “The Outpost” (1929) made use of the tales about Zimbabwe told to him by Sechrist, who had actually been to the ruins of the African city. Two late letters published in SL(April 15, 1936, and February 14, 1937) mistakenly addressed to “Arthur F.Sechrist” (HPL’s salutation is to “Ar-Eph-Ess” or RFS) are in fact to Richard F.Searight.

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“Secret Cave, or John Lees Adventure, The.”

Juvenile story (525 words); written c. 1898–99. First published in SR;corrected text in Juvenilia: 1897–1905(1985) and MW

Mrs. Lee instructs her ten-year-old son John and two-year-old daughter Alice to be “good children” while both parents are “going off for the day”; but immediately upon their departure John and Alice go down to the cellar and begin “to rummage among the rubbish.” When Alice leans against a wall and it suddenly gives way behind her, a passage is discovered. John and Alice enter the passage, coming successively upon a large empty box; a small, very heavy box that is not opened; and a boat with oars. The passage comes to an abrupt end; John pulls away “the obstacle” and finds a torrent of water rushing in. John is a good swimmer, but little Alice is not, and she drowns. John manages to struggle into the boat, clinging to the body of his sister and the small box. Suddenly he realizes that “he could shut off the water”; he does so, although how he does it—and why he did not think of it earlier—is never explained. Finally he reaches the cellar. Later it is discovered that the box contains a solid gold chunk worth $10,000—“enough to pay for any thing but the death of his sister.” “Shadow out of Time, The.”

Novelette (25,600 words); written November 10, 1934 to February 22, 1935. First published in Astounding Stories(June 1936); first collected in O;reprinted in DH;corrected and annotated text (based on recently discovered AMS): Hippocampus Press, 2001.