'Picture in the House, The'

"Picture in the House, The" (The National Amateur, July 1919): This H.P. Lovecraft short story is the first of several to mention the fictitious city of Arkham, Massachusetts. See full publication history and electronic text.

Pan

Pan: This classical Greek god of the woodlands is generally depicted as a wild man with goat legs who was carrying a set of pipes. According to Lovecraft, he was "dreaded" and attended by many "queer companions" and is mentioned in a number of the author's works, including the short story "The Tree."

A

Arkham, ARTISTS

Arkham

Arkham: Arkham is a fictitious city in Massachusetts created H.P. Lovecraft and featured in many of his stories (as well as subsequent ones by his fans). It was first mentioned in the short story "The Picture in the House": "Now I found myself upon an apparently abandoned road which I had chosen as the shortest cut to Arkham ..." Not coincidentally, Arkham has many similarities to Lovecraft's home town of Providence, Rhode Island.

+ ARTISTS +

Lovecraft frequently refers to artists and their works in his stories. As with other elements in his stories, some of these figures are real and some are not, and they are neatly interwoven with each other. This section is devoted to identifying some of them.

Ardois-Bonnot: "... a fantastic painter" who "hangs a blasphemous 'Dream Landscape' in the Paris spring salon of 1926" in the Lovecraft short story "The Call of Cthulhu." This would not seem to be a real person, although a number of latter-day fan artists have endeavored to replicate the painting mentioned in the story.

Nicholas Roerich (Oct. 9, 1874 – Dec. 13, 1947): An actual Russian painter, mystic, philosopher, scientist, writer, traveler, and public figure. A prolific artist, he created thousands of paintings -- many of them are exhibited in well-known museums of the world -- and about 30 literary works. Roerich was an author and initiator of an international pact for the protection of artistic and academic institutions and historical sites and a founder of an international movement for the defence of culture. He received several nominations for the Nobel Prize. Shown below is Roerich's 1943 painting "Song of Shambhala."

B

"Beast in the Cave, The" (June 1918, Vagrant): One of his earliest works, Lovecraft completed this story on April 21, 1905, at the age of just 14 (although he made revisions to it, particularly near the end, before it was ultimately published somewhat more than 13 years later). It is written in the first person and involves an encounter in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, between the narrator and a mole-like humanoid. See publication history and electronic text. (Illustration ©2012 by Sergio Monfort)

+ BOOKS +

H.P. Lovecraft often referred to various books and other texts in his works, many of which are real and others of which he created. This section of the Lexicon is devoted to these publications and to identifying which are factual and which are fictitious.

Book of Invaders: A book of this name is referred to in the short story
and would seem to be a reference to Lebor Gabála Érenn, "The Book of the Taking of Ireland," often translated into English as The Book of Invasions or The Book of Conquests. Compiled and edited by an anonymous scholar in the 11th century, this significant record of the folkloric history of Ireland is a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages and is a mélange of mythology, legend, history, folklore, and Christian historiography.

Golden Bough:

Necronomicon:

The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: An actual book by anthopologist Margaret Alice Murray that was published in 1921 and postulates the existence of widespread, organized, pre-Christian pagan worship in Europe up into modern times. It is based to a great extent on the transcripts of witch trials from the preceding centuries and has been disputed and to a great extent refuted in the decades since its publication. "Of the ancient religion of pre-Christian Britain there are few written records, but it is contrary to all experience that a cult should die out and leave no trace immediately on the introduction of a new religion," writes at the beginning of the first chapter of this book. Lovecraft refers to The Witch-Cult in Western Europe in a number of his works, including the short story "The Horror at Red Hook." Click here to read the full electronic text of this book.