Arkham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the fictional city in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. For other uses, see the "other appearances" section of this article.

Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers.

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.[1]

Contents

[edit] Arkham in Lovecraft's fiction

Lovecraft's Crowninshield House in The Thing on the Doorstep was modelled on the real Crowninshield-Bentley House in Salem, Massachusetts.
Lovecraft's Crowninshield House in The Thing on the Doorstep was modelled on the real Crowninshield-Bentley House in Salem, Massachusetts.

In the 1933 story The Thing on the Doorstep, Lovecraft described

the ancient, mouldering, and subtly fearsome town...witch-cursed, legend-haunted Arkham, whose huddled, sagging gambrel roofs and crumbling Georgian balustrades brood out over the centuries beside the darkly muttering Miskatonic.

Arkham is the home of Miskatonic University, which figures prominently in many of Lovecraft's works. The institution finances the expeditions in both 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 (sic).

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 surrounding the city for centuries. Occurrences such as the disappearance of children (presumably murdered in ritual sacrifices) at May Eve and other bad doings are accepted as a part of life for the poorer citizens of the city.

[edit] Location

The precise location of Arkham is unknown, although it is probably near both Innsmouth and Dunwich. However, it may be surmised from Lovecraft's stories that it is some distance to the north of Boston, probably in Essex County, Massachusetts.[2] The real-life model for Arkham seems to be, in fact, Salem, its reputation for the occult making it appealing to one who dabbles in the weird tale.[3]

Arkham Sanitarium appears in the short story The Thing on the Doorstep and may have been inspired by the Danvers State Insane Asylum, aka Danvers State Hospital, located in Danvers, Massachusetts.[4] (Danvers State Hospital also appears in Lovecraft's stories Pickman's Model and The Shadow over Innsmouth.) H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham and the Arkham Sanitarium were paid homage in the creation of Arkham Asylum in the Batman comic book series.

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Lovecraft's fiction

Note: dates are the year written.

Arkham first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Picture in the House" (1920)—the story is also the first to mention "Miskatonic". It also appears in other stories by Lovecraft, including:

[edit] Other authors

Arkham also appears in the Cthulhu Mythos tales of other writers since Lovecraft's death. Among them:

  • Brennen, Joseph Payne. "Forringer's Fortune" (1975)
  • Brunner, John. "Concerning the Forthcoming Inexpensive Paperback Translation of the Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazred" (1992)
  • Jens, Tina L. "In His Daughter's Darkling Womb" (1997), mentions "Arkham Industries"
  • Shea, Michael. The Color out of Time (1984)
  • Thompson, C. Hall. "The Will of Claude Ashur" (1947)

[edit] Other appearances

[edit] Film and television

  • Arkham also appeared in the movie Haunted Palace (1963) starring Vincent Price.
  • Arkham is the name of the mental hospital mentioned in The Rage: Carrie 2, which is about certain characters who survived the events in Carrie.
  • "Arkham" is the codename used for a plan to assassinate Mr. Parker in NBC's television show The Pretender.
  • Arkham also appears as the town in the movie Die, Monster, Die starring Boris Karloff and Nick Adams.
  • Arkham appears in "The Collect Call of Cathulhu", an episode from The Real Ghostbusters, when members of the Ghostbusters go to Miskatonic University to get information on how to stop Cthulhu.
  • Arkham is the name of the main prison/asylum located outside Gotham City in Batman: The Animated Series.

[edit] Comics

[edit] Games

[edit] Music

  • Arkham was a rock band that put out two full length albums on Volcom Entertainment. They performed for three years on the Vans Warped Tour and toured with bands such as Thrice and Rise Against.
  • Arkham was also the name of a short-lived band featuring several of the members of British Sea Power prior to the formation of BSP.
  • Arkham is also the name of a Brazilian rock/metal/experimental band formed in 2001 from Rio de Janeiro .
  • The Arkhams are a Psychobilly/Rockabilly band from New York that chose their name, in part, based on the writings of HP Lovecraft.
  • Scottish hip hop artist Loki has a song entitled Escape From Arkham from the Friendly World LP.
  • Avant-garde rock artist Bob Drake's song, "Kaziah's Pet," is set in Arkham.
  • Alt-country musician Ryan Adams wrote a song called "Arkham Asylum," which he and the Cardinals have performed live since September 18, 2006.'

[edit] See also

Other fictional settings from the stories of H. P. Lovecraft:

[edit] References

[edit] Primary sources

  • 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.

[edit] Secondary sources

[edit] Books

  • Harms, Daniel (1998). "Arkham", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium, p. 10. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. 

[edit] Web sites

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Cf. "About Arkham House" web site.
  2. ^ The actual location of Arkham is a subject of debate. Will Murray places Arkham in central Massachusetts and suggests that it is based on the small village of Oakham. Robert D. Marten rejects this claim and equates Arkham with Salem, and thinks that Arkham is named for Arkwright, Rhode Island (which is now part of Fiskville). 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." (Joshi & Schultz, pp. 6–7.)
  3. ^ August Derleth stated in his writings: "Arkham ... was Lovecraft’s own well-known, widely-used place-name for legend-haunted Salem, Massachusetts, in his remarkable fiction". (Cf. "About Arkham House" web site.)
  4. ^ 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 might also be the inspiration for HPL's fictional Arkham Sanitarium".

[edit] External links

v • d • e
H. P. Lovecraft and the Lovecraft Mythos
Main pages
Deities
Associated names
Media adaptations
Other