An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

It cannot be said that the discovery of Pluto inspired the writing of the tale. C.W.Tombaugh had discovered the planet on February 18, 1930, after ten months of searching, but it was first announced on the front page of the New York Timesonly on March 14, to coincide with the 147th anniversary of the discovery of Uranus and the seventy-fifth anniversary of the birth of Percival Lowell, who had himself searched for a trans-Neptunian planet. HPL was tremendously captivated by the discovery: the day after its announcement he writes, “Whatcha thinka the NEW PLANET? HOT STUFF!!! It is probably Yuggoth” (HPL to James F.Morton, [March 15, 1930]; AHT). One point of controversy is the possibility that the false Akeley is not merely one of the fungi but is in fact Nyarlathotep himself. The evidence comes chiefly from the phonograph recording of the ritual in the woods made by Akeley, in which one of the fungi at one point declares, “To Nyarlathotep, Mighty Messenger, must all things be told. And He shall put on the semblance of men, the waxen mask and the robe that hides, and come down from the world of Seven Suns to mock….” This seems a clear allusion to Nyarlathotep disguised with Akeley’s face and hands; but if so, it means that at this time he actually is,in bodily form, one of the fungi—especially if, as seems likely, Nyarlathotep is one of the two buzzing voices Wilmarth overhears at the end (the one who “held an unmistakable note of authority”). There are, however, problems with this identification. Nyarlathotep has been regarded by some critics as a shapeshifter, but only because he appears in various stories in widely different forms—as an Egyptian pharaoh in the prose poem of 1920 and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,here as an extraterrestrial entity, as the “Black Man” in “The Dreams in the Witch House” (1932), and so on; his “avatar” appears as a winged entity in “The Haunter of the Dark” (1935). But if Nyarlathotep were a true shapeshifter, why would he don the face and hands of Akeley instead of merely reshaping himself as Akeley?

The story was readily accepted by Farnsworth Wright, who paid HPL $350 for it—the largest amount he ever received for a single work of fiction. Wright planned to run it as a two-part serial, but early in 1931 WTwas forced into bimonthly publication for about half a year, so that the story appeared complete in the August 1931 issue.

See Fritz Leiber, “The Whisperer Re-examined,” Haunted2, No. 2 (December 1964): 22–25 (rpt. The Book of Fritz Leiber[New York: DAW, 1974]); Alan S.Wheelock, “Dark Mountain: H.P.Lovecraft and the ‘Vermont Horror,’” Vermont History45 (1977): 221–28; Donald R.Burleson, “Humour Beneath Horror: Some Sources for ‘The Dunwich Horror’ and ‘The Whisperer in Darkness,’” LSNo. 2 (Spring 1980): 5–15; Darrell Schweitzer, “About ‘The Whisperer in Darkness,’” LSNo. 32 (Spring 1995): 8– 11; Steven J.Mariconda, “Tightening the Coil: The Revision of ‘The Whisperer in Darkness,’” LSNo. 32 (Spring 1995): 12–17; Robert M.Price, “The Pseudo-Akeley: A Tale of Two Brothers,” CryptNo. 97 (Hallowmas 1997): 3–5.

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Page 299

White, Ann.

In “The Shunned House,” a woman from North Kingstown, R.I., who is hired by Mercy Dexter to be a servant at the house around 1770. She begins spreading rumors about the sinister abode and is later dismissed.

White, Lee McBride, Jr. (1915–1989),

correspondent of HPL (1932–37). White spent most of his youth in Birmingham, Ala.; he appears to have contacted HPL through WT. His chief interest was not in the weird but in Metaphysical poetry, specifically John Donne. White attended Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham, graduating in 1937; he worked on school publications there, sending some of them to HPL. After HPL’s death White did graduate work at Harvard and Columbia, returned to Alabama and became a journalist, served in the air force during World War II, and later worked for the Communications Workers of America. He edited The American Revolution in Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes(1975) for the U.S. Bicentennial.

“White Ship, The.”

Short story (2,550 words); probably written in October 1919. First published in the United Amateur (November 1919); rpt. WT(March 1927); first collected in BWS;corrected text in D;annotated version in TD.