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Arkham
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| Arkham | |
|---|---|
 H. P. Lovecraft's hand-drawn map of Arkham, Massachusetts | |
| Created by | H. P. Lovecraft |
| Genre | Horror fiction |
| In-universe information | |
| Type | City |
| Location | Massachusetts |
| Locations | Miskatonic University |
Arkham (/ˈɑːrkəm/) is a fictional city situated in Massachusetts, United States. An integral part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft, Arkham is featured in many of his stories and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers.[1]
Arkham House, a publishing company started by two of Lovecraft's correspondents, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, takes its name from this city as a tribute.[2] Arkham Asylum, a fictional mental hospital in DC Comics' Batman mythos, is also named after Lovecraft's Arkham.[3]
In Lovecraft's stories
[edit]Arkham is the home of Miskatonic University, which features prominently in many of Lovecraft's works. The institution finances the expeditions in the novellas, At the Mountains of Madness (1936) and The Shadow Out of Time (1936). Walter Gilman, of "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1933), attends classes at the university. Other notable institutions in Arkham are the Arkham Historical Society and the Arkham Sanitarium. It is said in "Herbert West—Reanimator" that the town was devastated by a typhoid outbreak in 1905.
Arkham's main newspaper is the Arkham Advertiser, which has a circulation that reaches as far as Dunwich. In the 1880s, its newspaper is called the Arkham Gazette.
Arkham's most notable characteristics are its gambrel roofs and the dark legends that have surrounded the city for centuries.
Location
[edit]The precise location of Arkham is unspecified, although it may be surmised from Lovecraft's stories to be some distance to the north of Boston, probably in Essex County, Massachusetts.
Will Murray places Arkham in central Massachusetts and suggests it is based on the village of Oakham.[4] Robert D. Marten rejects this and equates Arkham with Salem, with its name coming from Arkwright, Rhode Island (now part of Fiskville).[5]
August Derleth describes Arkham as "Lovecraft's own well-known, widely used place-name for legend-haunted Salem, Massachusetts",[6] and Lovecraft himself, in a letter to F. Lee Baldwin dated April 29, 1934, wrote that "[my] mental picture of Arkham is of a town something like Salem in atmosphere [and] style of houses, but more hilly [and] with a college (which Salem [lacks]) ... I place the town [and] the imaginary Miskatonic [River] somewhere north of Salem—perhaps near Manchester."[7]
Arkham Sanitarium appears in the short story "The Thing on the Doorstep" and may have been inspired by the Danvers State Insane Asylum, (Danvers State Hospital) in Danvers, Massachusetts.[8] Danvers State Hospital itself appears in Lovecraft's stories "Pickman's Model" and The Shadow over Innsmouth.
Miskatonic University
[edit]Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham, near the banks of the (fictional) Miskatonic River. Lovecraft concocted the word Miskatonic as a mixture of root words from the Algonquian languages,[9][10] the source of many place-names throughout New England. Anthony Pearsall believes the name is based on the Housatonic River,[11] which flows from the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and western Connecticut to Long Island Sound.
After first appearing in H. P. Lovecraft's 1922 story "Herbert West–Reanimator", the school was mentioned in numerous Cthulhu Mythos stories by Lovecraft and other writers. The story "The Dunwich Horror" implies that Miskatonic University is an elite university on par with Harvard, and that Harvard and Miskatonic are the two most popular schools for the Massachusetts "Old Gentry". It is modeled on the northeastern Ivy League universities of Lovecraft's day, perhaps Brown University in his hometown Providence, which Lovecraft himself wished to attend.[12] Miskatonic's student body is implied to be all-male like northeastern universities of Lovecraft's time. The only female student mentioned is Asenath Waite in "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1937).[13]
The university library is famous for its collection of occult books, including one of the handful of genuine copies of the Necronomicon.[14] Other tomes include Unaussprechlichen Kulten and the fragmentary Book of Eibon. Notable faculty members mentioned in Lovecraft's stories included doctors Henry Armitage and Francis Morgan in The Dunwich Horror, and Professor William Dyer in At the Mountains of Madness. Later authors would people the university with their own characters.
Appearances
[edit]Lovecraft's fiction
[edit]Dates are the year written.
Arkham first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Picture in the House"[15] (1920), which is also the first to mention "Miskatonic".[15]
It appears in other stories by Lovecraft, including:
- "Herbert West–Reanimator" (1921–1922); first story to mention "Miskatonic University"[16]
- "The Unnamable" (1923)[17]
- "The Silver Key" (1926)[18]
- "The Colour Out of Space" (1927)[19]
- "The Dunwich Horror" (1928)[20]
- "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1930); Albert N. Wilmarth is described as a folklorist and assistant professor of English at Miskatonic University.
- At the Mountains of Madness (1931); one of the ships is named Arkham and the expedition that is the story’s subject is commissioned and financed by Miskatonic University[21]
- The Shadow over Innsmouth (1931)[22]
- "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1932)[23]
- "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (1932–1933)[24]
- "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933); first to mention "Arkham Sanitarium"[25]
- "The Shadow Out of Time" (1934–1935)[26]
Other appearances
[edit] |
- Arkham Asylum is a high-security asylum in the DC Universe, run by the eponymous Amadeus Arkham, where many Gotham City supervillains, including the Joker, are kept under guard.[27] Editor Jack C. Harris and writer Dennis O'Neil picked the name as an homage to Lovecraft.[3]
- Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure board-game based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Players explore the town of Arkham while attempting to stop unmentionable horrors from spilling into the world.[28]
- Splatterhouse takes place in Arkham, Massachusetts.[29]
- The Haunted Palace, the 1963 film directed by Roger Corman and based on H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, is set in Arkham.
- Arkham appears in The Real Ghostbusters, season 2, episode 32, titled The Collect Call of Cthulhu (October 27, 1987), when members of the Ghostbusters go to Miskatonic University to get information on how to stop Cthulhu.[30]
- Suitable Flesh, a 2023 film starring Heather Graham, directed by Joe Lynch, and based on the H.P. Lovecraft story The Thing on the Doorstep, takes place in Arkham. Character Asa Waite is a student at Miskatonic University.
- Arkham is the primary setting of Steven Philip Jones' Lovecraftian: The Shipwright Circle, part of his Lovecraftian series which reimagines the weird tales of H. P. Lovecraft into one single universal modern epic.
- Arkham is the setting the 2006 anthology Arkham Tales published by Chaosium.[31]
- In the 2005 novel The Arcanum, Lovecraft himself is said to have been involved in solving a case involving a witch cult in Arkham.[32]
- Arkham is mentioned in two novels by Charles Stross. In The Atrocity Archives, a philosopher is attracted to Arkham due to the "unique library" there.[33] In The Jennifer Morgue, the occult branch of the American intelligence community, code-named "Black Chamber", is headquartered in Arkham.[34]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Manguel, Alberto; Guadalupi, Gianni (1987). The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-15-626054-9.
- ^ Cf. "About Arkham House" web site.
- ^ a b Voger, Mark; Voglesong, Kathy (2006). The Dark Age: Grim, Great & Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 5. ISBN 1-893905-53-5.
- ^ Murray, Will (October 1, 1986). "In Search of Arkham Country". Lovecraft Studies. Five (2): 54–67 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Marten, Robert D. (2011). "Arkham Country: In Rescue of the Lost Searchers". In Joshi, S. T. (ed.). Dissecting Cthulhu: Essays on the Cthulhu Mythos. Lakeland, FLA: Miskatonic River Press. pp. 174–176. ISBN 9780982181874.
- ^ "About Arkham House" web site.
- ^ Joshi & Schultz, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Joseph Morales notes in his "A Short Tour of Lovecraftian New England" (web site) that Danvers "is mentioned in passing in some of Lovecraft's stories, and may also be the inspiration for HPL's fictional Arkham Sanitarium".
- ^ Lovecraft, Selected Letters III, p. 432.
- ^ Harms, Daniel (2008). The Cthulhu mythos encyclopedia (3rd ed.). Lake Orion, MI: Elder Signs Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-934501-05-4.
- ^ Pearsall, "Miskatonic River (Valley)", The Lovecraft Lexicon, p. 281.
- ^ Ross Wells. 2002. EXploZion! iUniverse. p. 15
- ^ Pearsall, "Miskatonic University", The Lovecraft Lexicon, p. 281.
- ^ Lovecraft, Howard P (1980). A History of The Necronomicon. West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press. ISBN 978-0-318-04715-7. Archived from the original on June 3, 2008 – via Mythos Tomes.
- ^ a b Lovecraft, H. P. (1963). S. T. Joshi (ed.). The Dunwich horror and others. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (corrected 7. printing ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House. p. 117. ISBN 0870540378.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1987). Dagon and other macabre tales. selected by August Derleth, text edited by S. T. Joshi, introduction by T. E. D. Klein (Corr. 5th print. ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House Publishers. p. 133. ISBN 0870540394.
- ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1987). Dagon and other macabre tales. selected by August Derleth, text edited by S. T. Joshi, introduction by T. E. D. Klein (Corr. 5th print. ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House Publishers. p. 200. ISBN 0870540394.
- ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1985). S. T. Joshi (ed.). At the mountains of madness, and other novels. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (Corr. 7. print. ed.). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. p. 413. ISBN 0870540386.
- ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1963). S. T. Joshi (ed.). The Dunwich horror and others. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (corrected 7. printing ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House. p. 53. ISBN 0870540378.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1963). S. T. Joshi (ed.). The Dunwich horror and others. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (corrected 7. printing ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House. p. 165. ISBN 0870540378.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1985). S. T. Joshi (ed.). At the mountains of madness, and other novels. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (Corr. 7. print. ed.). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. p. 6. ISBN 0870540386.
- ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1963). S. T. Joshi (ed.). The Dunwich horror and others. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (corrected 7. printing ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House. p. 305. ISBN 0870540378.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1985). S. T. Joshi (ed.). At the mountains of madness, and other novels. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (Corr. 7. print. ed.). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. p. 262. ISBN 0870540386.
- ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1985). S. T. Joshi (ed.). At the mountains of madness, and other novels. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (Corr. 7. print. ed.). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. p. 422. ISBN 0870540386.
- ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1963). S. T. Joshi (ed.). The Dunwich horror and others. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (corrected 7. printing ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House. p. 276. ISBN 0870540378.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1963). S.T. Joshi (ed.). The Dunwich horror and others. selected by August Derleth, introduction by Robert Bloch (corrected 7. printing ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House. p. 370. ISBN 0870540378.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ "Arkham Horror". Board Game Geek. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
- ^ McAllister, Jeff (December 7, 2010). "Splatterhouse easter eggs and references guide". gamesradar.
- ^ "The Real Ghostbusters (a Titles & Air Dates Guide)". Episode Guides. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
- ^ "Arkham Tales". Chaosium. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
- ^ "The Arcanum". LibraryThing. Archived from the original on December 19, 2023. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
- ^ Stross, Charles (January 3, 2006). The Atrocity Archives. Penguin. ISBN 9781101208847. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
- ^ Stross, Charles (November 4, 2010). The Jennifer Morgue. Little, Brown Book. ISBN 9780748124145. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
References
[edit]Primary sources
[edit]- Lovecraft, Howard P.
- At the Mountains of Madness, and Other Novels (7th corrected printing), S. T. Joshi (ed.), Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1985. ISBN 0-87054-038-6. Definitive version.
- Dagon and Other Macabre Tales, S. T. Joshi (ed.), Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1987. ISBN 0-87054-039-4. Definitive version.
- The Dunwich Horror and Others (9th corrected printing), S. T. Joshi (ed.), Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1984. ISBN 0-87054-037-8. Definitive version.
Secondary sources
[edit]Books
[edit]- Harms, Daniel (1998). "Arkham". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. 10. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.
- Joshi, S. T.; Schultz, David E. (2001). "Arkham". An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 6–7. ISBN 0-313-31578-7.
Web sites
[edit]- "About Arkham House Publishers". Archived from the original on January 6, 2006. Retrieved January 19, 2006.
- Joseph Morales. "A Short Tour of Lovecraftian New England". Archived from the original on May 7, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2006.
External links
[edit]- "Lovecraft's Map of Arkham", from The Cthulhu Mythos: A Guide
Arkham
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Arkham is a fictional city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, created by American author H.P. Lovecraft as a central setting for his works of cosmic horror fiction.[1] First appearing in his 1921 short story "The Picture in the House," Arkham serves as the home of the esteemed Miskatonic University and the Miskatonic River, institutions and landmarks integral to many of Lovecraft's tales involving ancient mysteries, forbidden knowledge, and encounters with eldritch entities from the Cthulhu Mythos.[2] The city embodies a blend of colonial New England architecture and simmering supernatural dread, often depicted as a place where historical witch trials and lingering occult influences intersect with modern academia.[3]
Beyond Lovecraft's original canon, Arkham has influenced broader popular culture, particularly in comics, where the name was borrowed for Arkham Asylum, a notorious psychiatric facility for Gotham City's supervillains in the DC Comics Batman series, debuting in Batman #258 in 1974.[4] This adaptation, introduced by writer Dennis O'Neil with the name proposed by editor Jack C. Harris, pays homage to Lovecraft's eerie locale by evoking themes of madness and confinement amid lurking horrors.[5] Arkham's legacy extends to role-playing games like Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, where detailed sourcebooks expand the city into a richly mapped hub for investigative horror scenarios, featuring over 290 locations across nine neighborhoods and underscoring its role as a nexus for mythos threats.[6]
Origins and Inspiration
Creation by Lovecraft
Arkham was created by H. P. Lovecraft as a fictional town in Essex County, Massachusetts, to serve as a recurring setting in his weird fiction, blending elements of New England colonial history with supernatural horror. The town made its debut in Lovecraft's short story "The Picture in the House," composed in December 1920 and first published in the July 1921 issue of The National Amateur. In this narrative, Arkham is referenced as the isolated rural region encompassing a ramshackle farmhouse inhabited by a secretive, anthropophagous old man whose longevity hints at unnatural forces at play. This initial mention positioned Arkham as a locus of hidden degeneracy and forbidden knowledge, themes central to Lovecraft's mythos. Lovecraft deliberately invented Arkham—and other locales like Innsmouth and Dunwich—to afford narrative flexibility, avoiding the constraints of real geography while evoking the decayed grandeur of 17th- and 18th-century New England settlements.[7] He drew inspiration from his extensive travels through Massachusetts and Rhode Island, particularly visits to historic sites that fueled his fascination with antiquarian decay and Puritan legacies. By 1927, Arkham had evolved into a more detailed hub, featuring in stories like "The Colour Out of Space," where it represents scholarly refuge amid cosmic threats. The town's conceptual foundation rested heavily on Salem, Massachusetts, whose 1692 witch trials, steep streets, and preserved colonial homes provided an archetypal "witch-haunted" atmosphere.[7] Lovecraft augmented this with idealized elements, such as the Ivy League-style Miskatonic University, to heighten its eerie academia and occult undertones. In a letter to amateur journalist F. Lee Baldwin dated April 29, 1934, Lovecraft clarified his vision: "My mental picture of Arkham is of a town something like Salem in atmosphere & style of houses, but more hilly... & with a college (which Salem hasn't)." This composite approach allowed Arkham to embody Lovecraft's romanticized yet foreboding view of New England's past, free from direct real-world tethering.[7]Real-World Inspirations
Arkham, the fictional Massachusetts town central to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, draws its primary inspiration from Salem, Massachusetts, particularly its colonial architecture, historical atmosphere, and notoriety for the 1692 witch trials, which infused the setting with themes of superstition and the occult.[7] Lovecraft explicitly described his conception of Arkham in a 1934 letter, stating that his "mental picture of Arkham is of a town something like Salem in atmosphere [and] style of houses—perhaps near Manchester," thereby anchoring the fictional locale in the real New England's Essex County region.[8] Lovecraft visited Salem several times starting in 1923, drawing upon its legacy of Puritan hysteria to evoke a sense of lurking dread in his narratives.[9] Specific institutions within Arkham also mirror real-world counterparts. Miskatonic University, the town's prestigious academic hub, is modeled after Ivy League institutions like Harvard University for its scholarly prestige, though its occult library and esoteric studies are purely fictional embellishments.[7] More directly, the Arkham Sanitarium—appearing in stories like "The Thing on the Doorstep"—is modeled after Danvers State Hospital (also known as Danvers State Insane Asylum) in nearby Danvers, Massachusetts, a sprawling Gothic Revival complex built in 1878 that Lovecraft referenced explicitly as the "Danvers asylum" in his writings, capturing the era's institutional architecture and isolation.[10] This inspiration lent Arkham's medical facilities an air of foreboding confinement, aligning with Lovecraft's themes of madness and the unknown.[11] Overall, these real-world elements allowed Lovecraft to ground his cosmic horror in a recognizable yet subtly distorted New England landscape, blending historical authenticity with imaginative terror to heighten the uncanny effect for readers familiar with the region's lore.[9]Fictional Description
Geography and Atmosphere
Arkham is a fictional New England town situated in the Miskatonic Valley of northeastern Massachusetts, serving as a central hub in H.P. Lovecraft's mythos and often portrayed as a place of scholarly pursuit intertwined with ancient mysteries. The town lies along the Miskatonic River, with its geography encompassing a mix of colonial-era architecture and surrounding wild landscapes that evoke isolation and antiquity. To the west, the hills rise abruptly and untamed, featuring deep valleys cloaked in primeval woods untouched by modern axes, and narrow glens where streams wind through steep, shadowed slopes.[12] This rugged terrain contributes to Arkham's sense of seclusion, accessible via winding roads that connect it to nearby fictional locales like Dunwich and Innsmouth, while its position in the valley underscores a historical continuity with Puritan settlements.[13] The atmosphere of Arkham is one of lingering decay and whispered legends, marked by a brooding quality that amplifies the encroaching unknown. Described as a "changeless, legend-haunted city," it features clustering gambrel roofs—characteristic of 17th- and 18th-century colonial buildings—that sway and sag over attics reputed to harbor remnants of witchcraft and nocturnal horrors, evoking the persecutions of figures like Cotton Mather.[14] Crumbling structures and an old burying ground from the 17th century further instill a sense of temporal stagnation, where the town's scholarly veneer at Miskatonic University masks undercurrents of the occult and the cosmic.[15] Centuries of "dark brooding" have rendered Arkham particularly susceptible to eldritch influences, its whisper-haunted ambiance fostering vulnerability to shadows from beyond.[16] Overall, Arkham's geography blends the mundane familiarity of a river valley town with foreboding natural barriers, creating an atmospheric tension between human endeavor and incomprehensible forces. The hills behind the town are imbued with "strange magic," drawing on folklore of wizards and stellar invocations, which heightens the pervasive mood of unease and hidden peril.[17] This setting not only grounds Lovecraft's narratives in a pseudo-realistic New England but also amplifies the psychological dread inherent to his cosmic horror.Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University is a fictional institution of higher education located in the invented city of Arkham, Massachusetts, serving as a recurring element in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Introduced in the short story "Herbert West–Reanimator" (1922), it first appears as the Miskatonic University Medical School, where the protagonist and Herbert West conduct their controversial experiments in reanimation.[18] The university is named for the Miskatonic River that purportedly runs through Arkham, and it embodies Lovecraft's archetype of scholarly pursuit venturing into perilous, otherworldly domains.[18] The university's library stands out as its most prominent feature, renowned in Lovecraft's works for housing an unparalleled collection of ancient and forbidden texts, including the Necronomicon in its Latin translation. In "The Dunwich Horror" (1928), the library is portrayed as containing the "largest collection of rare material in the New World," with librarian Dr. Henry Armitage—a conservative archaeologist and natural history professor—guarding its secrets. Armitage, alongside classics professor Warren Rice and anthropology head Francis Morgan, draws upon the Necronomicon and other volumes to formulate a banishing incantation against a cosmic entity, highlighting the institution's role as both a repository of arcane lore and a frontline defense against eldritch threats. This depiction underscores Miskatonic's dual nature: a bastion of academic rigor intertwined with occult peril.[19] Miskatonic's academic departments frequently sponsor investigations into the anomalous, often with dire consequences for their personnel. The Department of Geology funds the ill-fated Antarctic expedition in "At the Mountains of Madness" (1931), led by Professor William Dyer, which unearths evidence of prehistoric alien civilizations.[20] Similarly, in "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1931), literature instructor Albert Wilmarth corresponds with rural folklorist George Akeley, leveraging university expertise to probe reports of extraterrestrial fungi from the Mi-Go. The Department of Political Economy employs Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee in "The Shadow Out of Time" (1935), whose five-year amnesia leads to revelations of body-swapping by the Great Race of Yith.[16] In "The Colour Out of Space" (1927), chemistry and mineralogy professors analyze a meteorite, only to confront an indescribable alien influence. Students and alumni also figure prominently, often drawn into supernatural entanglements due to the university's emphasis on unconventional studies. In "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933), prodigy Edward Pickman Derby graduates from Miskatonic, where he meets the enigmatic Asenath Waite, a female occult scholar whose pursuits foreshadow body possession and madness.[21] These narratives collectively position Miskatonic University as a symbol of humanity's fragile grasp on forbidden knowledge, where intellectual ambition invites confrontation with incomprehensible cosmic forces.[22]Role in Lovecraft's Works
Key Appearances in Stories
Arkham serves as a central setting in several of H.P. Lovecraft's stories, often embodying the tension between scholarly pursuit and encroaching cosmic horror, with Miskatonic University frequently acting as a hub for protagonists encountering the unknown. The city appears in tales spanning Lovecraft's career, from early serials to later novellas, where it represents a New England town haunted by ancient secrets and otherworldly influences. These appearances highlight Arkham's role as a gateway to the Cthulhu Mythos, blending everyday academia with supernatural dread. In the serialized "Herbert West—Reanimator" (1921–1922), Arkham is the primary locale for the titular character's gruesome experiments in reanimation, conducted amid the gothic spires of Miskatonic University and its surrounding medical facilities. The story unfolds through episodes of West's increasingly deranged pursuits, drawing the city into a web of undead horrors and moral decay.[18] "The Unnamable" (1923) takes place in Arkham's ancient burying-ground, where two friends debate a local legend of an indescribable entity tied to the town's colonial past. The narrative culminates in a confrontation that blurs reality and folklore, underscoring Arkham's atmosphere of repressed eldritch truths lurking in its historic sites.[15] Lovecraft's "The Festival" (1923) depicts Arkham during a winter solstice ritual, as an outsider arrives for his great-grandfather's funeral and stumbles into subterranean rites beneath the city's churches. This tale establishes Arkham as a nexus for inherited occult practices, with its steepled skyline masking depths of ancient worship. In "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1933), the boarding house at 707 Crane Street in Arkham becomes the stage for graduate student Walter Gilman's encounters with witchcraft, non-Euclidean geometry, and the witch Keziah Mason. The story explores how Arkham's academic environment amplifies vulnerability to interdimensional threats, as Miskatonic's libraries unwittingly harbor forbidden knowledge. "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933) centers on Innsmouth native Asenath Derby and her husband Edward Pickman Derby in Arkham, where body-swapping sorcery unfolds against the backdrop of Miskatonic University. Arkham here functions as a refuge turned prison, illustrating the city's entanglement with Deep One cults and human ambition's perils. While not always the exclusive setting, Arkham permeates other works like "The Dunwich Horror" (1928), where professors from Miskatonic University investigate blasphemous events in nearby Dunwich, positioning the city as a rational counterpoint to rural degeneracy. Similarly, "The Colour Out of Space" (1927) describes a meteor's impact in the "blasted heath" outside Arkham, whose effects ripple into the town's periphery, evoking contamination from beyond.Society and Inhabitants
Arkham's society revolves around the intellectual hub of Miskatonic University, whose faculty, students, and librarians form a scholarly elite deeply engaged with esoteric knowledge. Inhabitants include prominent academics like Dr. Henry Armitage, the university's chief librarian, who embodies the community's blend of rigorous scholarship and vigilance against occult dangers. This academic class often collaborates to safeguard the town, as seen in their organized response to supernatural incursions from nearby areas.[23] The broader population consists primarily of descendants from early Puritan settlers, fostering a conservative, insular culture steeped in New England traditions and a lingering awareness of witch legends and family secrets. Townspeople maintain quiet, unassuming lives amid unpaved streets and historic architecture, yet the society harbors a collective unease toward the anomalous, with whispers of strange events permeating social fabric. This paranoia manifests in communal actions against perceived threats, reflecting a paranoid style where external "decadence" from regions like Dunwich endangers Arkham's stability and humanity at large.[23][22] Within the medical community at Miskatonic, figures like Herbert West pursue radical scientific endeavors, such as reanimation experiments, highlighting a subset of inhabitants driven by ambition and disregard for ethical boundaries. The general populace, long accustomed to "strange tales," exhibits a resigned tolerance for the weird, allowing normalcy to persist alongside hidden horrors. This dynamic underscores Arkham's inhabitants as a microcosm of rational modernity clashing with cosmic irrationality.[24]Broader Appearances
In Derivative Literature
August Derleth, a close correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft and co-founder of Arkham House publishers, significantly expanded the Cthulhu Mythos through his own fiction, frequently incorporating Arkham as a central setting to evoke the eerie atmosphere of Lovecraft's New England. In his novelette "The Return of Hastur" (first published in Weird Tales, March 1939; collected in The Mask of Cthulhu, Arkham House, 1958), the story unfolds in the environs of Arkham and Innsmouth, where a lawyer narrator and Paul Tuttle uncover supernatural events following Amos Tuttle's death, involving a deal with Hastur and eldritch forces, blending cosmic horror with themes of elder gods opposing ancient ones.[25][26] Derleth's "The House in the Valley" (first published in Weird Tales, July 1953; also collected in The Mask of Cthulhu) similarly utilizes Arkham's shadowy legacy, centering on a protagonist who rents a secluded house in the Miskatonic Valley near the city, uncovering a family curse linked to mythos entities through forbidden artifacts and spectral visitations.[27] This tale exemplifies Derleth's approach to mythos continuation, emphasizing moral conflicts between benevolent elder gods and malevolent great old ones within familiar Lovecraftian locales.[28] Later derivative works have further explored Arkham through anthologies dedicated to the setting. Arkham Tales: Stories of the Legend Haunted City (edited by William Jones, Chaosium, 2006) collects 17 original short stories by various authors, all situated in Arkham and its surroundings, delving into university intrigue, occult investigations, and encounters with mythos horrors such as deep ones and elder things.[29] Contributors including Cody Goodfellow and James Ambuehl portray the city as a nexus of forbidden knowledge, with narratives often tied to Miskatonic University and the Miskatonic River, maintaining the blend of academic normalcy and supernatural dread central to Lovecraft's vision. Lin Carter, another prolific mythos contributor, incorporated Arkham into select tales within his Xothic Legend Cycle. In "The Doom of Enos Harker" (co-written with Laurence J. Cornford, published in Nightscapes #2, 1997), the action occurs in Arkham, where a Miskatonic graduate assists anthropologist Dr. Enos Harker, whose research into cults leads to a curse from elder gods.[30] Carter's works, often published by Arkham House, emphasize expansive mythos lore while grounding events in Arkham's mythic geography to heighten the sense of encroaching otherness.In Other Media
Arkham features prominently in various adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos across film, television, comics, and games, often serving as a central hub for eldritch horrors and academic pursuits tied to Miskatonic University. In film, Arkham provides the atmospheric backdrop for several key adaptations. Roger Corman's The Haunted Palace (1963), loosely based on Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, is explicitly set in the decrepit town of Arkham, where protagonist Joseph Curwen's descendant confronts ancestral necromantic secrets in a cursed mansion.[31] Dan O'Bannon's The Resurrected (1991), another adaptation of the same novella, relocates the narrative to modern-day Arkham, emphasizing themes of forbidden knowledge and body horror as John Raymond investigates his brother Charles Dexter Ward's involvement in resurrection experiments.[31] The Re-Animator series, beginning with Stuart Gordon's 1985 film adaptation of Lovecraft's serial, unfolds at Miskatonic University's medical school in Arkham, where medical student Herbert West develops a serum to revive the dead, leading to chaotic and gory consequences.[32] Television adaptations have incorporated Arkham more obliquely but evocatively. The HBO series Lovecraft Country (2020) reimagines Arkham as the fictional town of Ardham, Massachusetts, blending Lovecraftian mythology with 1950s American racism; protagonist Atticus Freeman's journey intersects with the town's occult undercurrents, including references to Miskatonic University and ancient cults.[33][34] A more direct nod appears in the 2022 British mini-series Call of Cthulhu: Bookshops of Arkham, where investigators traverse Lovecraft's Arkham to recover arcane tomes amid time-bending threats from the mythos.[35] Its sequel, Graveyards of Arkham (2024), continues the actual play format with investigators confronting a cult in 1920s Arkham.[36] In comics, Arkham anchors narrative explorations of cosmic dread. Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows' Providence (Avatar Press, 2015–2017), a 12-issue series expanding the Cthulhu Mythos, dedicates its fifth issue to Arkham, depicting journalist Robert Black's encounters with the town's witch-haunted history, Miskatonic University, and interdimensional entities drawn from stories like "The Dreams in the Witch House."[37] Dark Horse Comics' Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time (2024–present), the first ongoing series in the Arkham Horror franchise, follows investigators battling a reality-warping cult in 1920s Arkham, integrating mythos elements like elder gods and forbidden rituals.[38] Video games and tabletop titles have made Arkham a cornerstone of interactive mythos experiences. Fantasy Flight Games' Arkham Horror Third Edition (2018), a cooperative board game for 1–6 players, casts participants as investigators sealing ancient gates and confronting Great Old Ones invading 1920s Arkham.[39] Its companion, Arkham Horror: The Card Game (2016), a living card game, unfolds campaigns in Arkham where players build decks to survive encounters with mythos horrors like Nyarlathotep.[40] The video game Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace (2020), developed by Asmodee Digital, is a turn-based RPG set in 1926 Arkham, following a detective unraveling a family curse tied to Cthulhu's cult amid investigative puzzles and combat.[41]Cultural Legacy
Academic and Critical Analysis
Scholars have extensively analyzed Arkham as a pivotal setting in H.P. Lovecraft's fiction, viewing it as a composite symbol of New England's colonial legacy and the precariousness of human rationality against cosmic indifference. S.T. Joshi, a leading Lovecraft critic, notes in his H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia that Arkham draws primarily from Salem, Massachusetts, with additional influences from towns like Haverhill and Gloucester, creating a hyper-realistic backdrop that grounds the supernatural in geographic specificity. This construction enables Lovecraft to subvert the familiar landscape, transforming mundane locales into portals for otherworldly terror, as seen in tales where academic pursuits at Miskatonic University unravel into encounters with forbidden knowledge. In modernist literary criticism, Arkham exemplifies liminality, functioning as a threshold space where the ordered world of early 20th-century America frays into the primordial chaos of the Mythos. Benjamin A. Stubbins, in his thesis on Lovecraft's weird fiction, describes Arkham as a "geographic fiction" based on Salem, blending real and fictional elements in modernist style. For instance, in "Herbert West—Reanimator," Arkham's setting amplifies themes of scientific transgression, underscoring how local environments heighten the psychological strain on protagonists confronting the unknowable.[42] Critical examinations also emphasize Arkham's role in embodying the grotesque, merging Puritan restraint with visceral horror to critique societal decay. Michael Cisco argues that Lovecraft's fiction integrates modernist experimental techniques with grotesque imagery, where decaying edifices and insular societies mirror the fragmentation of human identity under cosmic pressures. Stories like "The Thing on the Doorstep" utilize domestic and academic spaces to grotesque effect, symbolizing the invasion of the self by alien forces and highlighting Lovecraft's broader commentary on the futility of Enlightenment ideals.[43] Furthermore, analyses of fear and madness in Lovecraft's oeuvre position Arkham as a catalyst for existential dread, its intellectual veneer contrasting sharply with rural horrors in nearby Dunwich or Innsmouth. A study by Phillip J. Snyder explores how such settings, including Arkham, foster a "dreadful reality" by embedding psychological unraveling within tangible environments, where characters' descent into insanity reflects the town's hidden undercurrents of degeneracy and forbidden lore. This interplay establishes Arkham not merely as backdrop but as an active thematic agent, reinforcing Lovecraft's cosmicism through the erosion of cultural and personal boundaries.[19]Influence on Popular Culture
Arkham, the fictional Massachusetts town central to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, has profoundly shaped popular culture, particularly in horror gaming, film, and comics, where it symbolizes forbidden knowledge and cosmic dread. The most prominent example is the Arkham Horror board game series, originally published by Chaosium in 1987 and revised by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005, which immerses players in 1920s Arkham as investigators battling eldritch entities awakening through dimensional gates.[44] This cooperative game, with its expansions and spin-offs like Eldritch Horror and Mansions of Madness, has popularized Lovecraftian themes among non-readers, fostering a subgenre of "Lovecraftian horror" games that emphasize sanity loss and inevitable doom. In 2024, Chaosium released the Arkham: 1926 Sourcebook for the Call of Cthulhu RPG, detailing over 290 locations in the city. Z-Man Games announced Arkham Horror: Lovecraft Letter for March 2025, a refreshed deduction card game.[45][46] Similarly, the Call of Cthulhu tabletop role-playing game by Chaosium, released in 1981, routinely features Arkham and its Miskatonic University as primary settings for campaigns involving ancient tomes and cultists, influencing countless scenarios and expanding the mythos's reach into organized play communities worldwide.[47] In film and television, Arkham serves as a atmospheric backdrop for adaptations that capture Lovecraft's blend of academia and the uncanny. Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985) is set at Miskatonic University's medical school in Arkham, where a reanimation serum unleashes grotesque horrors, directly adapting elements from Lovecraft's "Herbert West—Reanimator" while establishing the town as a hub for mad science.[48] Gordon's follow-up, From Beyond (1986), also unfolds in Arkham, with protagonists experimenting on pineal gland stimulation that summons interdimensional beings, reinforcing the locale's association with boundary-pushing research gone awry.[48] On television, HBO's Lovecraft Country (2020) references Arkham as part of its mythos-infused narrative, weaving the town into a story of racial terror and occult secrets during the 1950s, thus broadening Lovecraft's concepts to address contemporary social issues.[49] Arkham's name and eerie reputation have permeated superhero comics, most notably in DC Comics' Batman universe. The Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, introduced in Batman #258 (1974), draws direct inspiration from Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium in "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933), where characters descend into madness from supernatural encounters.[4] Co-creator Dennis O'Neil confirmed the homage, naming it after the fictional town to evoke psychological horror amid Gotham's grit, a choice that has endured through storylines, video games like the Batman: Arkham series (2009–2015), and films such as Batman (1989).[50] This crossover has introduced Lovecraftian undertones—insanity as a contagious force—to mainstream audiences, with Arkham Asylum becoming a cultural icon of confinement and the unknown.[51] Beyond these media, Arkham influences music and ambient soundscapes tied to gaming, such as orchestral tracks evoking the "Streets of Arkham" for Arkham Horror sessions, blending 1920s jazz with dissonant horror to enhance immersive play.[52] These elements collectively cement Arkham as a shorthand for existential terror in pop culture, inspiring creators to explore themes of insignificance against vast, indifferent forces.[53]References
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Herbert_West:_Reanimator