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Overview

Year:: 1927
Contributor:: Lovecraft, H.P. (Howard Phillips), 1890-1937 (creator); Bacon, Victor E. (correspondent); Kirk, George Willard (correspondent); Kuntz, Eugene B. (correspondent); McNeil, Everett, 1862-1929 (correspondent); Moe, Maurice Winter (correspondent); Moidel, Jacob (correspondent); Morton, James F. (correspondent); Sandusky, Albert A. (correspondent); Macfadden Publications (correspondent)
Genre:: autographs (manuscripts)
Local ID:: A32500 [2] Box 20
Extent:: [1], 147 leaves [i.e. 296 p.]; 21 x 15.5-28 x 21.5 cm.

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Abstract:: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a short novel (51,500 words) set in Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. The novel tells the story of young Charles Dexter Ward, who in 1918 becomes embroiled in the past, due to his fascination with the history of his wizard ancestor, Joseph Curwen (who'd left Salem for Providence in 1692, and acquired notoriety for his haunting of graveyards, his apparent lack of aging, and his chemical experiments). Ward physically resembles Curwen, and attempts to duplicate his ancestor's cabbalistic and alchemical feats, eventually locating Curwen's remains and by means of his "essential Saltes", resurrecting him. Ward's doctor, Marius Bicknell Willett, becomes enmeshed in Ward's doings, investigating Curwen's old Pawtuxet bungalow which Ward has restored. The horrors of what Willett finds, and the crux of the identities of Ward and Curwen, from the hinge of horror on which the novel moves.
Notes:: Written on assorted scrap pages and the versos of correspondence to H.P. Lovecraft. Includes correspondence from Victor E. Bacon, George Willard Kirk, Eugene B. Kuntz, Macfadden Publications, Everett McNeil, Maurice Winter Moe, Jacob Moidel, James F. Morton, and Albert A. Sandusky. The orientation of the autograph manuscript to the correspondence is 180 degrees. The title page and first 33 leaves are on letter size paper, the remaining leaves are 21 x 15.5-25 x 16.5 cm. and appear to have been torn or cut from blank ledgers and notepads. Dated at the end: "March 1, 1927." An abridged version was first published in Weird Tales, 35, No. 9 (May 1941) and 35, No. 10 (Jun 1941). The first complete publication was in Arkham House's Beyond the Wall of Sleep collection (1943).

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Rights: No Copyright - United States
Restrictions on Use: Collection is open for research.

Citation

Lovecraft, H.P. (Howard Phillips), "The case of Charles Dexter Ward" (1927). Brown Archival & Manuscript Collections Online. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:310678/

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The case of Charles Dexter Ward

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Brown Archival & Manuscript Collections Online

A collection of digitized materials from Special Collections at the John Hay Library. Please visit the Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online (RIAMCO) for access to the finding aids collection. RIAMCO is the gateway to information about …
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The case of Charles Dexter Ward