May ne’er a noble of thy murd’rous line
Survive to reach a greater age than thine!
He thrusts a vial in the face of Henri, who dies instantly. From that time on no comte of the line lives beyond the age of thirty-two, Henri’s age when he died. This curse continues for hundreds of years, and Antoine is compelled to believe that he will suffer a similar fate. Wandering in his deserted castle, he finds a hidden cellar and encounters a hideous looking man “clad in a skull-cap and long mediaeval tunic of dark colour.” The man tells how Charles Le Sorcier killed Henri and also Godfrey when the latter reached Henri’s age; but Antoine wonders how the curse could have been continued thereafter, “when Charles Le Sorcier must in the course of Nature have died.” As the man attacks Antoine, the
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latter hurls a torch at him, setting him afire. Just before he expires, however, he reveals the truth: he himself is Charles Le Sorcier, having lived for 600 years to continue his revenge against the family that killed his father.
This is the first extant tale by HPL to be avowedly supernatural. It was first published at the urging of W.Paul Cook, who read it in manuscript and found it indicative of great promise; largely at Cook’s urging, HPL resumed the writing of fiction in 1917.
Alfredo; a Tragedy.
Verse drama (411 lines); dated September 14, 1918, as by “Beaumont and Fletcher” (i.e., John Fletcher [1579–1625] and Francis Beaumont [c. 1585–1616], the Jacobean dramatists). First published in DB.
The play is a send-up of Alfred Galpin’s high school romances, written in the form of an Elizabethan tragedy. Alfredo (Galpin), the Prince Regent, yearns for Margarita (Margaret Abraham), but she claims to find him too studious for her “airy will”; nevertheless, she becomes jealous when she sees him spending much time studying with Hypatia. She and Hecatissa (an unattractive woman previously scorned by Alfredo) plot together to gain revenge. During the presentation of a play in which Alfredo and Hypatia, now engaged, act in the presence of King Rinarto (Rheinhart Kleiner), Alfredo and Hypatia drink from a goblet that has been poisoned by Hecatissa; they lie dying. In a rage, Gonzago perceives the trickery and kills Hecatissa; her father, Olero, kills Gonzago; Teobaldo (HPL), Alfredo’s tutor, kills Olero; Margarita kills Teobaldo; Alfredo, in his death throes, manages to stab and kill Margarita; Rinarto, in grief, drinks from the goblet and dies, leaving Mauricio (Maurice W.Moe), a Cardinal, to lament the tragedy and count his beads.
Allen, Zadok (1831–1927).
In “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” the alcoholic nonagenarian of Innsmouth who, when plied with liquor by Robert Olmstead, babbles the town’s horrible secrets and then disappears mysteriously. It is from Allen that Olmstead first learns that he has the “Marsh eyes”—hinting at his kinship with Old Man Marsh. Allen shares the life dates of, and bears a strong resemblance to, the amateur poet Jonathan E.Hoag, with whom HPL had been acquainted since 1918. Allen may also have been suggested by the character Humphrey Lathrop, the elderly doctor in Herbert Gorman’s The Place Called Dagon(1927).
Alos.
In “Polaris,” the narrator’s friend, commander of the last forces of the Lomarians against the Inutos. Altberg-Ehrenstein, Karl Heinrich, Graf von.
The narrator of “The Temple.” The Lieutenant-Commander of the German submarine U-29, he is the last surviving crew member when his stricken vessel sinks to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where he apparently finds the ruins of Atlantis. He leaves behind his written account on August 20, 1917— HPL’s twenty-seventh birthday.
Amateur Journalism.
The amateur journalism movement consisted of various groups of writers belonging to the two leading amateur organizations of the pe
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riod, the National Amateur Press Association (NAPA), founded in 1876, and the United Amateur Press Association (UAPA), founded in 1895. HPL’s pamphlet United Amateur Press Association: Exponent of Amateur Journalism(1915; rpt. MW) explains the principles of amateurdom. Members could publish their own journals or contribute to those edited by others (HPL did both). Those who issued journals mailed them to members of their choice (addresses of members were supplied in the “official organs,” the United Amateurand the National Amateur). No minimum publishing requirement was imposed; so long as members paid yearly dues, they were members in good standing. The NAPA held its annual convention in early July; the UAPA held its annual convention in late July. At those times elections were held for the offices of President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Official Editor, and others; other positions (such as the Department of Public Criticism in the UAPA and the Bureau of Critics in the NAPA) were appointed by the President. The Official Editor was responsible for editing the official organ.
HPL joined the UAPA in April 1914 at the invitation of Edward F.Daas, who noticed HPL’s contributions to the letter column of the Argosy. During his first year HPL contributed a few pieces in prose and verse, but his activity blossomed in 1915 when he was chosen to replace Ada P.Campbell as Chairman of the Department of Public Criticism (HPL’s first article was published in the United Amateur,January 1915); in April he published the first of thirteen issues of his journal, The Conservative . From 1914 to 1921 he contributed voluminously to a wide variety of periodicals. Although a loyal “United man,” HPL joined the NAPA in 1917 in the hope that it might lead to harmony between the organizations.
HPL held several offices in the UAPA: Chairman of the Department of Public Criticism (1915–17, 1918–19), First Vice-President (1915–16), President (1917–18), Official Editor (July 1917, 1920–22, 1924–25). He was interim President of the NAPA (November 1922–July 1923), taking over for William J. Dowdell, who had resigned. HPL’s amateur activity lagged after the collapse of the UAPA in 1926 but resumed in 1931 when he became a member of the Bureau of Critics (corresponding to the UAPA’s Department of Public Criticism); he wrote numerous critical articles (mostly on poetry) for the National Amateurfrom 1931 to 1936. Aside from editing The Conservative,HPL was a coeditor, assistant editor, or associate editor of The Badger(June 1915), The Credential(April 1920), The Inspiration(Tribute Number, April 1917), and The United Cooperative(December 1918, June 1919, April 1921). He also assisted members of the Providence Amateur Press Club in editing two issues of The Providence Amateur(June 1915 and February 1916). In the first he is listed as “Literary Director” and in the second as “Official Editor.”
HPL also wrote voluminously about amateurdom. United Amateur Press Association: Exponent of Amateur Journalismis a recruiting pamphlet published in late 1915, when he was First Vice-President of the UAPA; it is his second separate publication (following The Crime of Crimes[1915]). Looking Backward(1920) is an examination of amateur journals of the 1885–95 period. Further Criticism of Poetry(1932), a criticism of amateur verse written on April 18, 1932, appeared separately because it was too lengthy to be published in the Na