An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

Carter passed through a succession of “Gates” into some realm “outside time and the dimensions we know,” led by a “Guide,” ’Umr at-Tawil, the Prolonged of Life. This guide eventually led Carter to the thrones of the Ancient Ones, from whom he learned that there are “archetypes” for every entity in the universe and that each person’s entire ancestry is nothing more than a facet of the single archetype; Carter learned that he himself is a facet of the “SUPREME ARCHETYPE.” Then, somehow, Carter found himself in the body of a fantastically alien being, Zkauba the Wizard, on the planet Yaddith. He managed to return to earth but must go about in concealment because of his alien form. When the hard-nosed lawyer Aspinwall scoffs at the Swami’s story, a final revelation is made: the Swami is Randolph Carter, still in the monstrous shape of Zkauba. Aspinwall, having removed Carter’s mask, dies immediately of apoplexy. Carter then disappears through a large clock in the room. The story is based on a draft, entitled “The Lord of Illusion,” written by Price. Price had become so enamored of “The Silver Key” that, during HPL’s visit with him in New Orleans in June 1932, he “suggested a sequel to account for Randolph Carter’s doings after his disappearance” (Price, “The Man Who Was Lovecraft,” in Cats,p. 281). Sending “The Lord of Illusion” to HPL in late August, he expressed hope that HPL might revise it and allow it to be published as an acknowledged collaboration.

“The Lord of Illusion” (first printed in CryptNo. 10 [1982]: 46–56) tells the story of how Randolph Carter, after finding the silver key, enters a strange cavern in the hills behind his family home in Massachusetts and encounters a strange man who announces himself as “’Umr at-Tawil, your guide,” who leads Carter to some other-dimensional realm where he meets the Ancient Ones. These entities explain the nature of the universe to Carter: just as a circle is pro

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duced from the intersection of a cone with a plane, so our three-dimensional world is produced from the intersection of a plane with a figure of a higher dimension; analogously, time is an illusion, being merely the result of this sort of “cutting” of infinity. It transpires that all Carters who have ever lived are part of a single archetype, so that if Carter could manipulate his “section-plane” (the plane that determines his situation in time), he could be any Carter he wished to be, from antiquity to the distant future. In a purported surprise ending, Carter reveals himself as an old man among a group of individuals who had assembled to divide up Carter’s estate.

HPL, upon reading the draft, stated that extensive changes would need to be made in the story to bring it in line with the original tale. In the letter in which he evaluates Price’s work, he specifies several faults that must be rectified: (1) the style must be made more similar to that of “The Silver Key” (Price’s version, devoid of his usual action and swordplay, is generally flat, stilted, and pompous); (2) various points of the plot must be reconciled with that of “The Silver Key”; (3) the transition from the mundane world to the hyperspace realm must be vastly subtilized; and (4) the atmosphere of lecture-room didacticism in the Ancient Ones’ discussions with Carter must be eliminated.