Arkham

Arkham (/ˈɑːrkəm/) is a fictional city situated in Massachusetts. 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]

This article is about the city in fiction. For the hospital in DC Comics, see Arkham Asylum. For the video game series, see Batman: Arkham. For other uses, see Arkham (disambiguation).
A map of Arkham, Massachusetts
Detailed map of Lovecraft Country, showing one possible location of Arkham

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 institution in DC Comics' Batman stories, is also named for Lovecraft's Arkham.[3]

In Lovecraft's stories
The Thing on the Doorstep[4]


What lay behind our joint love of shadows and marvels was, no doubt, the ancient,
mouldering, and subtly fearsome town in which we live – witch-cursed, legend-haunted
Arkham, whose huddled, sagging gambrel roofs and crumbling Georgian balustrades
brood out the centuries beside the darkly muttering Miskatonic.

—HP Lovecraft

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.

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

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. 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.

Location

The precise location of Arkham is unspecified, 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.[5]

A more recent mapping of Lovecraft Country reinforces this suggestion, with Arkham being situated close to the location of Gordon College; in Lovecraft's work this would presumably be replaced by Miskatonic University itself. The real-life model for Arkham seems to be, in fact, Salem, its reputation for the occult appealing to one who dabbles in the weird tale.[6]

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.[7] (Danvers State Hospital itself appears in Lovecraft's stories "Pickman's Model" and The Shadow over Innsmouth.)

Appearances

Lovecraft's fiction

Note: dates are the year written.

Arkham first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Picture in the House"[8] (1920)—the story is also the first to mention "Miskatonic".[8]

It appears in other stories by Lovecraft, including:

Other appearances

  • Arkham appears in "The Collect Call of Cthulhu", episode 32 from season 2 of The Real Ghostbusters (October 27, 1987), when members of the Ghostbusters go to Miskatonic University to get information on how to stop Cthulhu.[20]
  • In the DC Universe, Arkham Asylum is a high-security asylum for dangerous psychopaths where many Gotham City supervillains, including the Joker, are kept under guard. The name was picked by editor Jack C. Harris and writer Dennis O'Neil in homage to Lovecraft.[3] In the fictional universe, it was run by the Arkham family, namely Amadeus Arkham, giving it its name.[21]
  • Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure board-game themed around H.P Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The game has players exploring the town of Arkham as they attempt to stop unmentionable horrors from spilling into the world.[22]
  • Splatterhouse takes place in the setting of Arkham, Massachusetts.[23]
  • Arkham is the setting for the 1963 film The Haunted Palace directed by Roger Corman, which is based on the H.P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
  • "An Arkham Halloween", short story appearing in Bewildering Stories, in which The Wandering Jew volunteers to aid Miskatonic University in preparing a modern translation of the Necronomicon, meets a descendant of Edgar Allan Poe's protagonist in The "Tell Tale Heart", and battles Dracula. Reprinted in author's collection, 'Weird Thoughts'.

Novels
  • Arkham is the primary setting of Lovecraftian: The Shipwright Circle by Steven Philip Jones. The Lovecraftian series reimagines the weird tales of H. P. Lovecraft into one single universal modern epic.
  • Arkham is the setting for all of the stories in the 2006 anthology Arkham Tales published by Chaosium.[24]
  • In the novel The Arcanum, Lovecraft himself is said to have been involved in solving a case involving a witch cult in Arkham.
  • Arkham is mentioned in two novels by author Charles Stross. In The Atrocity Archives, a philosopher is attracted to Arkham due to the "unique library" there.[25] In The Jennifer Morgue, the occult branch of the American intelligence community, code-named "Black Chamber", is headquartered in Arkham.[26]

Notes
  1. Manguel, Alberto; Guadalupi, Gianni (1987). The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-15-626054-9.
  2. Cf. "About Arkham House" web site.
  3. Voger, Mark; Voglesong, Kathy (2006). The Dark Age: Grim, Great & Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 5. ISBN 1-893905-53-5.
  4. Lovecraft, Howard P. (1999) [1933]. "The Thing on the Doorstep". In S. T. Joshi and Peter Cannon (eds.). More Annotated Lovecraft (1st ed.). New York City, NY: Dell. With explanatory footnotes. 1999 [1933]. ISBN 0-440-50875-4.
  5. 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.)
  6. 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.)
  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".
  8. 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.
  9. Derleth, H.P. Lovecraft ; selected by August; Joshi, with texts edited by S.T.; Klein, an introduction by T.E.D. (1987). Dagon and other macabre tales (Corr. 5th print. ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House Publishers. p. 133. ISBN 0870540394.
  10. Derleth, H.P. Lovecraft ; selected by August; Joshi, with texts edited by S.T.; Klein, an introduction by T.E.D. (1987). Dagon and other macabre tales (Corr. 5th print. ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House Publishers. p. 200. ISBN 0870540394.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. "The Real Ghostbusters (a Titles & Air Dates Guide)". Episode Guides. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  21. O'Neil, Dennis (2008). Batman Unauthorized: Vigilantes, Jokers, and Heroes in Gotham City. BenBella Books. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-933771-30-4.
  22. "Arkham Horror". Board Game Geek. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  23. McAllister, Jeff (December 7, 2010). "Splatterhouse easter eggs and references guide". gamesradar.
  24. "Arkham Tales". Chaosium. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  25. Stross, Charles (January 3, 2006). The Atrocity Archives. ISBN 9781101208847. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  26. Stross, Charles (November 4, 2010). The Jennifer Morgue. ISBN 9780748124145. Retrieved December 20, 2015.

References

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.

Books
  • 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
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