GHOSTS, CASTLES & VICTIMS

Anthology of Horror stories and excerpts from Gothic and horror novels- GHOSTS, CASTLES AND VICTIMS: TALES OF GOTHIC HORROR - from Fawcett/Crest books from 1974. Edited by JACK C. and BARBARA H. WOLF. Features storiesand novel excerpts by H.P. LOVECRAFT ("From Beyond"), M.R. JAMES, JOHN WYNDHAM, EDGAR ALLEN POE, ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, HORACE WALPOLE, ANN RADCLIFFE, MATTHEW G. LEWIS, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, BRAM STOKER, MARY SHELLY, HENRY JAMES, SAKI and others.

A Tillinghast document surfaces

No doubt, Lovecraft was fixated on the Tillinghast name. Here are some brieft excerpts, and a real life Tillinghast document. Looking at it, and others like it, one quickly sees the leap of weird imagination that Lovecraft employed. It's an innocent clerical document, but HPL would have churned some insidious plot of madness from it's faded ink.
_____
Ward's great-great-grandfather Welcome Potter had in 1785 married a certain 'Ann Tillinghast, daughter of Mrs. Eliza, daughter to Capt. James Tillinghast,' of whose paternity the family had preserved no trace. - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
_____

Horrible beyond conception was the change which had taken place in my best friend, Crawford Tillinghast. - From Beyond
____

... the swarthy Etienne Roulet, less apt at agriculture than at reading queer books and drawing queer diagrams, was given a clerical post in the warehouse at Pardon Tillinghast's wharf, far south in Town Street. - The Shunned House
_____

Description: An original large printed and manuscript completed document dated June 8, 1797 transfering property in Providence, Rhode Island, from Silas Covell and his wife Rebeckah of Troy, New York to Squire Thurber of Providence. The property in question located in area of Constitution and Benefit Streets, near what is today Brown University. Also attestation of Rebeckah that she agrees to surrender the Right of Dower and Power of Thirds to which she is entitled to allow this transfer to occur, witnessed by Justice Thomas Sickels. A fine example of a property transfer from a day when women and wives had few legal rights. Notice of recording by Providence Town Clerk George Tillinghast. Size 13 x 16

Tillinghast's signature is seen in bold script in the bootom right of one page above.

Fantasy Fan: June 1934

Seller States: Ultra Rare -- H.P. LOVECRAFT in THE FANTASY FAN -- June 1934 (issue #10)This is an original copy of the legendary THE FANTASY FAN.These rarely come up for sale because very few copies were ever printed, and fewer still remain -- I've heard some estimate that only a couple dozen copies of each issue remain. This particular 73 year-old copy is a bit chipped around the edges (see picture), but otherwise in nice shape.Published by Charles D. Hornig, this issue of The Fantasy Fan features H.P. Lovecraft's story FROM BEYOND, as well as a chapter of Lovecraft's epic essay SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE. In this chapter, Lovecraft writes about The Apex of Gothic Romance. This issue also contains PROSE PASTELS III, The Muse of Hyperborea by Clark Ashton Smith.

In case you can't read the text (try clicking on image) here is what Smith says ... {Glad my article on M. R. James was approved by so many readers. Later on, I hope to do some brief articles on other masters of the macabre and fantastic. Clark Ashton Smith.}

Tillinghast

Map shows "J Whipple" of Narangasett - an acestor of HPL?

Antiquarian tomb

From Beyond, The Shunned House and other stories featured the name of Tillinghast. Here is fragments of The Diary of Capt. Samuel Tillinghast of Warwick, Rhode Island, 1757-1766

Imagine Lovecraft reading these antiquarian notes:

Samuel Tillinghast, a retired sea captain, lived in the Apponaug neigh­borhood of Warwick, but he was intimately connected by genealogy and geography with all parts of Rhode Island. He noted the deaths of hundreds of people during the ten years of his diary, often mentioning relatives, burial places, and the text of the sermon preached at the funeral. Samuel Tillinghast carefully recorded the circumstances of their deaths: Mary (Greene) Clapp who died with her garters around her neck, the ferryman Nathaniel Hill who drowned off Long Point, old Granny Olney who fell off a lime cart and was run over, the Indian John Absalom, Jr., who was hanged for murder at Providence, and many, many more. The author (has attempted to identify as many of the individuals as possible, with suggestions for further paths of research and an evalua­tion of conflicts in existing sources. He kept faithful records of the weather and visits from family and friends. These friends included the teenage Nathanael Greene, who was the half-brother of his son-in-law Benjamin Greene. In addition, Tillinghast recorded each day’s chores, civic duties, travels, religious meetings, and news of the French and Indian War.

More antiquarian tombs