The Lurker at the Threshold

Infobox Book
name = The Lurker at the Threshold
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Dust-jacket illustration by Ronald Clyne for "The Lurker at the Threshold"
author = H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth
illustrator =
cover_artist = Ronald Clyne
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Horror novel
publisher = Arkham House
release_date = 1945
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 196 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Lurker at the Threshold" is a short novel in the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror. It was written in 1945 by August Derleth, based on two short fragments written by H. P. Lovecraft, [April Derleth, "Foreword", "The Watchers Out of Time", p. ix.] who died in 1937, and published as a collaboration between the two authors. According to S. T. Joshi, of the novel's 50,000 words, 1,200 were written by Lovecraft. [ [http://www.hplovecraft.com/life/myths.asp#posthumous "Myth: August Derleth's 'Posthumous collaborations'"] , The H. P. Lovecraft Archive.] The book was originally published by Arkham House in an edition of 3,041 copies. The book is also referenced as the name of the four-part 'Lurker At The Threshold' song by Buckethead in his album The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock as a tribute to H. P. Lovecraft.

The Theme

One's curiosity at past, hidden lineage and greater status than that of our current lives weaves a complex tale of attempting to carry on forbidden tradition. A longing for fulfilling family destiny apart from conventional wisdom and acceptance leads the reader into a tale of tapping into forces beyond our ability to comprehend. The story unfolds methodically to present an eternal battle between temptation and control.

Characters

Richard Billington

The first Billington to lay claim to Billington's Wood. According to the fictional book "Of Evill Sorceries Done in New-England of Daemons in No Humane Shape", in the early years of the Plymouth Colony, during the governorship of William Bradford (1621-1657), Billington set up "a great Ring of Stones" where he said "Prayers to ye Devil" and "sung certain Rites of Magick abominable by Scripture". After a series of mysterious deaths were linked to him, he disappeared, and was said by the Wampanaug Indians to have been "eat up by what he had call'd out of ye Sky." [H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, "The Lurker at the Threshold", in "The Watchers Out of Time", pp. 14-15.]

Misquamacus

An "antient Wonder-Worker" of the Wampanaug tribe. According to the fictional book "Of Evill Sorceries Done in New-England of Daemons in No Humane Shape", Misquamacus teaches "Sorceries" to Richard Billington and imprisons Ossadagowah, a spawn of Tsathoggua, in a ring of stones. [Lovecraft and Derleth, p. 15.] The same character later reappears in the early 19th century as Quamis, a servant of Alijah Billington and the guardian of his son Laban. Quamis, described as a Narragansett Indian, is a worshipper of Nyarlathotep. [Lovecraft and Derleth, pp. 9-10.]

The character Misquamacus is also the villain of the 1979 novel "Return of the Manitou", by Graham Masterton.

Alijah Billington

Billington inherits Richard Billington's estate in the early 19th century. He enters into a rivalry with Reverend Ward Phillips, who accused Billington and his forebear of practicing sorcery. The feud culminated with the disappearance of John Druven, one of Phillips' supporters. Afterwards, Billington leaves for England with his son Laban and his servant Quamis, remaining there until his death.

Ward Phillips

Reverend of the Second Church (later First Baptist Church) of Arkham. In 1805, he became the librarian at Miskatonic University. He is chiefly known for his book "Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-England Canaan". When Alijah Billington found out that the book accused his ancestor of practicing sorcery, he started a feud with Phillips, which lasted several months. Shortly after one of his proponents, John Druven, disappeared, Phillips seemingly had a change of heart and began buying and burning every copy of his book that he could lay his hands on.

The name is an homage to Howard Phillips Lovecraft. A character of the same name appears in Lovecraft's "Through the Gates of the Silver Key".

John Druven

An occasional correspondent for the Arkham "Gazette" and a friend of Ward Phillips. He disappeared after accepting an invitation from Alijah Billington to investigate strange noises emanating from Billington's Wood.

Ambrose Dewart

(approximately 1870–1924)

A descendant of Laban Billington who comes to Arkham in 1921 to reclaim his family's property which had been abandoned for roughly a century. He is described as "a hawk-faced man of medium height, chiefly distinguished for a flare of red hair which gave him a tonsured appearance, keen of eye and tight of lip, exceedingly correct and possessed of a dry sort of humor... a man of some fifty years of age, brown-skinned, who had lost his only son in the great war." [Lovecraft and Derleth, pp 5-6.]

Locals blame him for a subsequent series of unexplainable disappearances in the area. He disappeared in 1924.

eneca Lapham

A professor of Anthropology at Miskatonic University and a graduate of the same institution (class of 1879). He investigated the events of Billington's Wood and procured several of the family's books for the University library. He also appears in Lin Carter's "The Horror in the Gallery".

Notes

References

*cite book | last=Jaffery | first=Sheldon | authorlink=Sheldon Jaffery | title=The Arkham House Companion | location=Mercer Island, WA | publisher=Starmont House, Inc.| pages=14-15| date=1989 | id=ISBN 1-55742-005-X
*cite book | last=Chalker | first=Jack L. | authorlink=Jack L. Chalker | coauthors=Mark Owings | title=The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998 | location=Westminster, MD and Baltimore | publisher=Mirage Press, Ltd.| pages=28 | date=1998
*cite book | last=Joshi | first=S.T. | title=Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography | location=Sauk City, WI | publisher=Arkham House| pages=32 | date=1999 | id=ISBN 0-87054-176-5
*cite book | last=Nielsen | first=Leon | title=Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide | location=Jefferson, NC and London | publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.| pages=56 | date=2004 | id=ISBN 0-7864-1785-4