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118-608: Lovecraft Country is a term coined for the New England setting used by H. P. Lovecraft in many of his weird fiction stories, which combines real and fictitious locations. This setting has been elaborated on by other writers working in the Cthulhu Mythos . The phrase was not in use during Lovecraft's own lifetime; it was coined by Keith Herber for the Lovecraftian role-playing game Call of Cthulhu . The phrase

236-493: A Deep One. He begins having dreams of his grandmother and Pth'thya-l'yi in Y'ha-nthlei, which was damaged but not destroyed by the submarine attack. They explain that the Deep Ones will remain underwater for the time being but will eventually return to invade the surface world "for the tribute Great Cthulhu craved." After briefly glimpsing a shoggoth in one of his dreams, the narrator awakens to find that he has fully acquired

354-479: A college (which Salem [lacks]) ... I place the town [and] the imaginary Miskatonic [River] somewhere north of Salem—perhaps near Manchester." Dunwich is a fictional village that appeared in the H. P. Lovecraft novella " The Dunwich Horror " ( 1929 ), and is also located in Miskatonic River Valley. The inhabitants are depicted as inbred, uneducated, and very superstitious, while the town itself

472-542: A fictional village in England . Lovecraft's more famous Innsmouth is in Massachusetts . This latter Innsmouth was first identified in two of his cycle of sonnets Fungi from Yuggoth . Lovecraft called Innsmouth "a considerably twisted version of Newburyport ." Lovecraft placed Innsmouth on the coast of Essex County, Massachusetts , south of Plum Island and north of Cape Ann . The town of Ipswich, Massachusetts

590-422: A fictionalized version of New England, serves as a central hub for his mythos . It represents the history, culture, and folklore of the region, as interpreted by Lovecraft, who associated himself with the region. These attributes are exaggerated and altered to provide a base upon which his stories could be constructed. The names of the locations in the region were directly influenced by the names of real locations in

708-544: A group south where they founded Providence Plantations , which grew into the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636. At this time, Vermont was uncolonized, and the territories of New Hampshire and Maine were claimed and governed by Massachusetts. As the region grew, it received many immigrants from Europe due to its religious tolerance and economy. Relationships alternated between peace and armed skirmishes between colonists and local Native American tribes,

826-765: A house on the Aylesbury Pike. While the phrase originated in the role-playing community, it now sees widespread usage. Lovecraft Country was the title of a 2016 novel by Matt Ruff . The novel was subsequently adapted by HBO for television. The resulting TV series, also called Lovecraft Country , premiered in August 2020. Return to Lovecraft Country was a collection of short stories set in "the New England of H.P. Lovecraft", published by Triad Entertainments in 1996. The editor, Scott David Aniolowski, has also done editorial work for Chaosium. Eternal Lovecraft ,

944-426: A hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated lake". Price notes that Fishhead, as the "son of a Negro father and a half-breed Indian mother," "embodies unambiguously the basic premise of The Shadow over Innsmouth .... This, of course, is really what Lovecraft found revolting in the idea of interracial marriage...the subtextual hook of different ethnic races mating and 'polluting' the gene pool." Price points out

1062-416: A manifesto for why the New England countryside is a fitting backdrop for his horror stories: the true epicure of the terrible, to whom a new thrill of unutterable ghastliness is the chief end and justification of existence, esteem most of all the ancient, lonely farmhouses of backwoods New England; for there the dark elements of strength, solitude, grotesqueness, and ignorance combine to form the perfection of

1180-540: A part of Massachusetts, but it was granted statehood on March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise . Today, New England is defined as the six states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. New England's economic growth relied heavily on trade with the British Empire , and the region's merchants and politicians strongly opposed trade restrictions. As

1298-460: A procession of Deep Ones passing in the road before him. Against his judgment, he opens his eyes to see the creatures. He finds that they have grey-green skin, fish-like heads with unblinking eyes , gills on their necks and webbed hands , and communicate in unintelligible croak-like voices. Horrified, the narrator faints but wakes up at noon the next day alone and unharmed. After reaching Arkham and alerting government authorities about Innsmouth,

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1416-536: A short-story collection published by Golden Gryphon Press in 1998, has a section called "Lovecraft Country". The phrase occurs in popular discussions of Lovecraft's connection to the region. The Harvard Law Record used the phrase in an October 20, 2005, article: Many Lovecraft stories take place in "Lovecraft Country"—the fictional North Shore towns of Arkham, Innsmouth, Kingsport, and Dunwich (perhaps fictional equivalents of Ipswich, Salem/Danvers, Marblehead, or Newburyport). The most important portion stretches along

1534-512: A steady pace from the 1840s until cut off by World War I . The largest numbers came from Ireland and Britain before 1890, and after that from Quebec, Italy, and Southern Europe. The immigrants filled the ranks of factory workers, craftsmen, and unskilled laborers. The Irish and Italians assumed a larger and larger role in the Democratic Party in the cities and statewide, while the rural areas remained Republican. The Great Depression in

1652-404: A student conducting an antiquarian tour of New England. He travels through the nearby decrepit seaport of Innsmouth which is suggested as a cheaper and potentially interesting next leg of his journey. There he interacts with strange people and observes disturbing events that ultimately lead to horrifying and personal revelations. The narrator explains how he instigated a secret investigation of

1770-465: A third of its industrial workforce. It was also the most literate and most educated region in the country. During the same period, New England and areas settled by New Englanders (upstate New York, Ohio's Western Reserve , and the upper midwestern states of Michigan and Wisconsin ) were the center of the strongest abolitionist and anti-slavery movements in the United States, coinciding with

1888-649: A variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages . Prominent tribes included the Abenakis , Mi'kmaq , Penobscot , Pequots , Mohegans , Narragansetts , Nipmucs , Pocumtucks , and Wampanoags . Prior to the arrival of European colonists, the Western Abenakis inhabited what is now New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their principal town was Norridgewock in today's Maine. The Penobscots lived along

2006-545: Is a better predictor than general forest age or biomass. Due to an increasing the amount of nitrogen in the soil from climate change , the red maple is becoming one of the most abundant trees in the region, and outcompeting other maples such as the sugar maple . The most populous cities as of the 2020 U.S. Census were (metropolitan areas in parentheses): During the 20th century, urban expansion in regions surrounding New York City has become an important economic influence on neighboring Connecticut, parts of which belong to

2124-558: Is a family tree of the story's protagonist and narrator, Robert Olmstead, as described in The Shadow over Innsmouth and in Lovecraft's notes. Both of Lovecraft's parents died in a mental hospital , and some critics believe that a concern with having inherited a propensity for physical and mental degeneration is reflected in the plot of The Shadow over Innsmouth . It also shares some themes with his earlier story, " Facts Concerning

2242-558: Is based on Marblehead, Massachusetts , a town bordering Salem . In his letters, Lovecraft described Kingsport as being an idealized version of Marblehead. Its rocky cliffs were based on those in Marblehead and Rockport. Kingsport is, according to Will Murray , adjacent to Innsmouth . The town's exact location moved around according to Lovecraft's literary needs. Lovecraft created Kingsport before he saw its real-life model. When Lovecraft visited Marblehead in 1922, he became enamored of

2360-477: Is described as being surrounded by "great rings of rough-hewn stone columns on the hilltops", which are presumed to have been built by the Pocumtucks . Innsmouth ( / ˈ ɪ n z m ə θ / ) is a setting of The Shadow over Innsmouth (written 1931, published 1936 ), and referenced in later works. Lovecraft first used the name "Innsmouth" in his 1920 short story " Celephaïs " ( 1920 ), where it refers to

2478-690: Is described as economically poor with many decrepit or abandoned buildings. Although Dunwich in Suffolk , England is pronounced "DUN-ich," Lovecraft never specified how he preferred his Dunwich be pronounced. Lovecraft is said to have based Dunwich on Athol, Massachusetts , and other towns in Western Massachusetts, with him specifically citing "the decadent Massachusetts countryside around Springfield – say Wilbraham , Monson , and Hampden ." S. T. Joshi has also seen Dunwich as being influenced by East Haddam , Connecticut , location of

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2596-693: Is dotted with lakes, hills, marshes and wetlands, and sandy beaches. Important valleys in the region include the Champlain Valley , the Connecticut River Valley and the Merrimack Valley . The longest river is the Connecticut River , which flows from northeastern New Hampshire for 407 mi (655 km), emptying into Long Island Sound , roughly bisecting the region. Lake Champlain , which forms part of

2714-805: Is geologically a part of the New England province , an exotic terrane region consisting of the Appalachian Mountains , the New England highlands and the seaboard lowlands. The Appalachian Mountains roughly follow the border between New England and New York. The Berkshires in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the Green Mountains in Vermont, as well as the Taconic Mountains , form a spine of Precambrian rock. The Appalachians extend northwards into New Hampshire as

2832-475: Is known to have created the name of the Miskatonic River from Algonquian root words. Murray believes Lovecraft used a similar method to come up with Manuxet : man means "island" and uxet translates to "at the large part of the river"; thus, when combined Manuxet means "Island at the large part of the river". Murray contends that this meaning is well suited to Innsmouth's placement at the mouth of

2950-501: Is less snowfall (especially in the coastal areas where it is often warmer). Southern and coastal Connecticut is the broad transition zone from the cold continental climates of the north to the milder subtropical climates to the south. The frost free season is greater than 180 days across far southern/coastal Connecticut, coastal Rhode Island, and the islands (Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard). Winters also tend to be much sunnier in southern Connecticut and southern Rhode Island compared to

3068-505: Is now out - but as a first cloth-bound book it doesn't awake any enthusiasm in me. Indeed, it is one of the lousiest jobs I've ever seen - 30 misprints, slovenly format, & loose, slipshod binding. The solitary redeeming feature is the set of Utpatel illustrations - one of which, on the dust wrapper, saves the appearance of the thing..." It had a bound run of 200 copies — the only book of Lovecraft's fiction distributed during his lifetime. Crawford had printed 400 copies but bound only 200;

3186-674: Is one of several attempts to label the setting of Lovecraft's works. Alternative phrases include Arkham County , Miskatonic County , and the Miskatonic region . The term was coined by Keith Herber and then popularized by Chaosium , the producers of the Lovecraftian role-playing game Call of Cthulhu . Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi refers to the area as the Miskatonic region, after its fictional river and university . Lovecraft biographer Lin Carter calls it Miskatonic County, and

3304-418: Is one of the U.S. Census Bureau's nine regional divisions and the only multi-state region with clear and consistent boundaries. It maintains a strong sense of cultural identity, although the terms of this identity are often contrasted, combining Puritanism with liberalism, agrarian life with industry, and isolation with immigration. The earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke

3422-435: Is only the 39th-largest state, slightly smaller than Indiana . The remaining states are among the smallest in the U.S., including the smallest state —Rhode Island. The areas of the states (including water area) are: New England's long rolling hills, mountains, and jagged coastline are glacial landforms resulting from the retreat of ice sheets approximately 18,000 years ago, during the last glacial period . New England

3540-404: Is said to be a near neighbor, where many Innsmouth residents do their shopping; Rowley, Massachusetts , another neighboring town, is said to be to the northwest. This would place Innsmouth in the vicinity of Essex Bay. The description of the fictional Massachusetts village is said to be based on the real fishing town of Fleetwood , Lancashire which bears a marked resemblance to the description of

3658-614: Is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." Lovecraft based the town of Innsmouth on his impressions of Newburyport, Massachusetts , which he had visited in 1923 and fall 1931. The real Newburyport features as a neighboring town in the narrative. A likely influence on the plot is Lovecraft's horror of miscegenation , which is documented by Lovecraft biographer L. Sprague de Camp and others. Robert M. Price cites two works as literary sources for The Shadow over Innsmouth : Robert W. Chambers ' "The Harbor-Master" and Irvin S. Cobb 's "Fishhead". Chambers' story concerns

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3776-581: Is the story of a "human monstrosity" with an uncanny resemblance to a fish: his skull sloped back so abruptly that he could hardly be said to have a forehead at all; his chin slanted off right into nothing. His eyes were small and round with shallow, glazed, pink-yellow pupils, and they were set wide apart on his head, and they were unwinking and staring, like a fish's eyes. Lovecraft, in " Supernatural Horror in Literature ," called Cobb's story "banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural affinities between

3894-420: Is very high technology manufacturing, such as jet engines, nuclear submarines, pharmaceuticals, robotics, scientific instruments, and medical devices. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology invented the format for university-industry relations in high tech fields and spawned many software and hardware firms, some of which grew rapidly. By the 21st century, the region had become famous for its leadership roles in

4012-464: The Dominion of New England , an administrative union including all of the New England colonies. In 1688, the former Dutch colonies of New York , East New Jersey , and West New Jersey were added to the dominion. The union was imposed from the outside and contrary to the rooted democratic tradition of the colonies, and it was highly unpopular among the colonists. The dominion significantly modified

4130-601: The Esoteric Order of Dagon , based on a religion he had learned from certain Polynesian islanders in his travels. The town's fishing industry soon experienced a great upsurge. Then in 1846, a mysterious plague struck the town, killing most of the population, but in reality, the deaths were caused by the Deep Ones in league with Obed Marsh. When Marsh and his followers were arrested, the sacrificial rites ceased and

4248-421: The Esoteric Order of Dagon , which became the town's primary religion. Outsiders and government officials, including Census Bureau agents and school inspectors, are treated with hostility. The narrator finds Innsmouth to be a mostly deserted fishing town , full of dilapidated buildings and people who walk with a distinctive shambling gait and have "queer narrow heads with flat noses and bulgy, stary eyes." Both

4366-558: The Mayflower Compact before leaving the ship, and it became their first governing document. The Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629 with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630. Massachusetts Puritans began to establish themselves in Connecticut as early as 1633. Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for theological reasons; he led

4484-551: The Merrimack River and probably invented the name from root words of an Algonquian language. To support his claim, Murray gives two reasons. First, even though Newburyport was an inspiration for Innsmouth, it is clearly a separate location since Lovecraft himself placed the real-life Newburyport to the north of Innsmouth in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Murray thinks Lovecraft actually based Innsmouth's location on Gloucester, Massachusetts on Cape Ann . Secondly, Lovecraft

4602-604: The New Deal coalition and making the once-Republican region into one that was closely divided. However, the enormous spending on munitions, ships, electronics, and uniforms during World War II caused a burst of prosperity in every sector. The region lost most of its factories starting with the loss of textiles in the 1930s and getting worse after 1960. The New England economy was radically transformed after World War II. The factory economy practically disappeared. Once-bustling New England communities fell into economic decay following

4720-534: The New York metropolitan area . The U.S. Census Bureau groups Fairfield , New Haven and Litchfield counties in western Connecticut together with New York City and other parts of New York and New Jersey as a combined statistical area . The following are metropolitan statistical areas as defined by the United States Census Bureau . The Shadow over Innsmouth The narrator is

4838-804: The Penobscot River in Maine. The Narragansetts and smaller tribes under their sovereignty lived in Rhode Island, west of Narragansett Bay, including Block Island . The Wampanoags occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket . The Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, and the Mohegan and Pequot tribes lived in Connecticut. The Connecticut River Valley linked numerous tribes culturally, linguistically, and politically. As early as 1600 CE, French, Dutch, and English traders began exploring

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4956-574: The Puritan work ethic , in contrast to the Southern colonies which focused on agricultural production while importing finished goods from England. By 1686, King James II had become concerned about the increasingly independent ways of the colonies, including their self-governing charters, their open flouting of the Navigation Acts , and their growing military power. He therefore established

5074-668: The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 with his war on "unlisted securities". Hull gave testimony to the US Senate (Sen. Duncan Upshaw Fletcher ) for work on the Pecora Commission , which revealed that neither Albert H. Wiggin (born in Medfield, MA) nor J. P. Morgan Jr. had paid any income taxes in 1931 and 1932; a public outcry ensued. Boston figured prominently on the subject of securities laws in

5192-634: The Siege of Boston by continental troops. In March 1776, British forces were compelled to retreat from Boston. After the dissolution of the Dominion of New England, the colonies of New England ceased to function as a unified political unit but remained a defined cultural region. There were often disputes over territorial jurisdiction, leading to land exchanges such as those regarding the Equivalent Lands and New Hampshire Grants . By 1784, all of

5310-619: The White Mountains , and then into Maine and Canada. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is the highest peak in the Northeast, although it is not among the ten highest peaks in the eastern United States. It is the site of the second highest recorded wind speed on Earth, and has the reputation of having the world's most severe weather. The coast of the region, extending from southwestern Connecticut to northeastern Maine,

5428-496: The " Devil's Hopyard ", the " Moodus Noises ", and a witch tradition. Lovecraft places Dunwich in "north central Massachusetts", found by travellers "tak[ing] the wrong fork at the junction of the Aylesbury pike just beyond Dean's Corners." Aylesbury and Dean's Corners are both Lovecraft creations, neither of which appears in any other of his stories, though Aylesbury is mentioned in his poem sequence Fungi From Yuggoth . Dunwich

5546-454: The "Innsmouth look." He wants to kill himself and purchases an "automatic" (an antiquated term for a semi-automatic pistol ) but cannot go through with it. As the narrator concludes his story, he suffers a mental breakdown and embraces his fate. He decides to break out his cousin, who is even further transformed than he, from a sanatorium in Canton and take him to live in Y'ha-nthlei. This

5664-513: The "blasted heath" is submerged by the creation of a fictionalized version of the reservoir. Lovecraft first mentioned Arkham's Miskatonic University in " Herbert West–Reanimator ", written in 1921–22. He added Dunwich to his imaginary landscape in 1928's " The Dunwich Horror ", and expanded it to include Innsmouth in 1931's The Shadow over Innsmouth . Other Lovecraft stories that make use of Lovecraft Country settings include " The Festival ", " The Colour out of Space ", " The Strange High House in

5782-647: The 1850s, and all of New England became strongly Republican, including areas that had previously been strongholds for both the Whig and the Democratic parties. New England remained solidly Republican until Catholics began to mobilize behind the Democrats, especially in 1928. This led to the end of "Yankee Republicanism" and began New England's relatively swift transition into a consistently Democratic stronghold in national elections. The flow of immigrants continued at

5900-452: The Abyss " (1896): Two large and protruding eyes projected from sockets in chameleon fashion, and it had a broad reptilian mouth with horny lips beneath its little nostrils. In the position of the ears were two huge gill-covers, and out of these floated a branching tree of coralline filaments, almost like the tree-like gills that very young rays and sharks possess. But the humanity of the face

6018-585: The Beverly Cotton Manufactory. The Connecticut River Valley became a crucible for industrial innovation, particularly the Springfield Armory , pioneering such advances as interchangeable parts and the assembly line which influenced manufacturing processes all around the world. From early in the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth, the region surrounding Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut served as

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6136-580: The British fleet. In the 19th century, sea trade dwindled and the town turned to fishing as the main industry. Kingsport's economy continued to dwindle into the 20th century and today relies primarily on tourism. The Manuxet River is a fictional river that runs through Massachusetts and empties into the sea at the town of Innsmouth. Although there is a Manuxet River in Worcester, Massachusetts , Will Murray believes that Lovecraft based his fictional Manuxet on

6254-585: The Dark ", this broader area is sometimes to also be considered part of Lovecraft Country. The fictional Massachusetts city of Arkham is featured in many of Lovecraft's stories, and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers. Arkham, in the Miskatonic River Valley, is the home of Miskatonic University , an institution which finances the expeditions in the novellas, At the Mountains of Madness (1936) and The Shadow Out of Time (1936). Arkham Sanitarium appears in

6372-607: The Deep Ones retaliated. The cult activity resumed, and interbreeding increased, spawning deformed fish-humans. Consequently, Innsmouth was shunned for many years, until 1927 when it came under investigation by federal authorities for alleged bootlegging . The next year, an incursion by the authorities detonated explosives in Devil Reef off the coast. The villagers were arrested and disappeared mysteriously in government custody. The town of Kingsport first appeared in Lovecraft's 1920 short story " The Terrible Old Man ". Kingsport

6490-483: The Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family ". Cthulhu , an entity from previous Lovecraft stories, is the overlord of the sea creatures. The mind of the narrator deteriorates when he is afforded a glimpse of what exists outside his perceived reality. This is a central tenet of Cosmicism , which Lovecraft emphasizes in the opening sentence of " The Call of Cthulhu ": "The most merciful thing in the world, I think,

6608-627: The Manuxet. And Cape Ann itself (the presumed site of Innsmouth) is connected to the mainland by only a thin strip of land and might be thought of as an island. Innsmouth was attacked by the U.S. Treasury Department. During the assault in February, the frozen Manuxet allowed the attackers across to the town. Game historian Stu Horvath defined four products published by Chaosium between 1990 and 1992 as "Lovecraft Country": Arkham Unveiled (1990), Return to Dunwich (1991), Kingsport: The City in

6726-832: The Miskatonic River valley, from Dunwich in its far western headwaters to its mouth entering the Atlantic Ocean between Arkham , Kingsport, and Martin's Beach ." These locations, along with Innsmouth , are the most significant locations in Lovecraft Country. However, as certain Lovecraft stories take place in other areas of New England, including southern hills of Vermont (the setting of The Whisperer in Darkness ) as well as Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island , where he set such works as The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and " The Haunter of

6844-520: The Mist " (1926, published 1931). A reprise of Lovecraft's epiphany appeared in fictional form at the end of Lovecraft's " The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath " (1926-7, published posthumously in 1943). "Dream-Quest" featured Lovecraft's recurring character of Randolph Carter , popularly thought of as an idealized representation of Lovecraft himself. Carter, by Lovecraft's account, grew up in Kingsport. In

6962-581: The Mist ", " The Dreams in the Witch House ", and " The Thing on the Doorstep ". August Derleth , Lovecraft's friend, discouraged other Cthulhu Mythos writers from setting their stories in Lovecraft's New England. But he himself attempted to fill in the blanks of the setting, particularly in his posthumous "collaborations" with Lovecraft—actually Derleth's stories based on fragments, notes or ideas that Lovecraft left behind after his death. The Lurker at

7080-621: The Mists (1991), and Escape from Innsmouth (1992), calling them collectively "a massive collection of secrets and horrors." New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States : Connecticut , Maine , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , Rhode Island , and Vermont . It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick to

7198-828: The New World, trading metal, glass, and cloth for local beaver pelts. On April 10, 1606, King James I of England issued a charter for the Virginia Company , which consisted of the London Company and the Plymouth Company . These two privately funded ventures were intended to claim land for England, to conduct trade, and to return a profit. In 1620, the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower and established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, beginning

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7316-489: The Protestant Great Awakening in the region. Abolitionists who demanded immediate emancipation had their base in the region, such as William Lloyd Garrison , John Greenleaf Whittier , and Wendell Phillips . So too did anti-slavery politicians who wanted to limit the growth of slavery, such as John Quincy Adams , Charles Sumner , and John P. Hale . The anti-slavery Republican Party was formed in

7434-652: The Threshold is set in Billington's Wood , a fictional forest north of Arkham, while "Witches' Hollow" takes place in the titular valley in the hills to the west of the town. The title of "The Fisherman of Falcon Point" refers to a promontory on the Atlantic coast south of Innsmouth. "Wentworth's Day" and "The Horror from the Middle Span" take place in the area north of Dunwich, while "The Gable Window" concerns

7552-413: The United States of the 1930s hit the region hard, with high unemployment in the industrial cities. The Boston Stock Exchange rivaled the New York Stock Exchange in 1930. In the beginning of 1930 John C. Hull , first Securities Director of Massachusetts (1930–1936), helped to mitigate the consequences of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. He was helpful in the passing of

7670-410: The United States and the United Kingdom fought the War of 1812 , New England Federalists organized the Hartford Convention in the winter of 1814 to discuss the region's grievances concerning the war, and to propose changes to the United States Constitution to protect the region's interests and maintain its political power. Radical delegates within the convention proposed the region's secession from

7788-418: The United States' epicenter for advanced manufacturing, drawing skilled workers from all over the world. The rapid growth of textile manufacturing in New England between 1815 and 1860 caused a shortage of workers. Recruiters were hired by mill agents to bring young women and children from the countryside to work in the factories. Between 1830 and 1860, thousands of farm girls moved from rural areas where there

7906-424: The United States, but they were outnumbered by moderates who opposed the idea. Politically, the region often disagreed with the rest of the country. Massachusetts and Connecticut were among the last refuges of the Federalist Party , and New England became the strongest bastion of the new Whig Party when the Second Party System began in the 1830s. The Whigs were usually dominant throughout New England, except in

8024-495: The appointment of the governors. After the Glorious Revolution , in 1689, Bostonians overthrew the royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros . During a popular and bloodless uprising , they seized dominion officials and adherents to the Church of England . These tensions eventually culminated in the American Revolution , boiling over with the outbreak of the War of American Independence in 1775. The first battles of which were fought in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts , leading to

8142-440: The bloodiest of which was the Pequot War in 1637 which resulted in the Mystic massacre . On May 19, 1643, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven , and Connecticut joined in a loose compact called the New England Confederation (officially "The United Colonies of New England"). The confederation was designed largely to coordinate mutual defense, and it gained some importance during King Philip's War which pitted

8260-437: The border between Vermont and New York, is the largest lake in the region, followed by Moosehead Lake in Maine and Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. The climate of New England varies greatly across its 500 miles (800 km) span from northern Maine to southern Connecticut: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts have a humid continental climate (Dfb in Köppen climate classification ). In this region

8378-451: The charters of the colonies, including the appointment of royal governors to nearly all of them. There was an uneasy tension among the royal governors, their officers, and the elected governing bodies of the colonies. The governors wanted unlimited authority, and the different layers of locally elected officials would often resist them. In most cases, the local town governments continued operating as self-governing bodies, just as they had before

8496-474: The coast, which enabled numerous cities to take advantage of water power along the many rivers, such as the Connecticut River , which bisects the region from north to south. Each state is generally subdivided into small municipalities known as towns , many of which are governed by town meetings . Unincorporated areas are practically nonexistent outside of Maine, and village-style governments common in other areas are limited to Vermont and Connecticut. New England

8614-518: The colonists and their Indian allies against a widespread Indian uprising from June 1675 through April 1678, resulting in killings and massacres on both sides. In the aftermath of settler-Native conflicts, hundreds of captive Indians were sold into slavery . Up until 1700, Native Americans comprised a majority of the non-white labor force in colonial New England. During the next 74 years, there were six colonial wars that took place primarily between New England and New France , during which New England

8732-405: The cult and continue Marsh's practices. Male and female inhabitants were forced to breed with the Deep Ones, producing hybrids who upon maturing permanently migrate underwater to live in the city of Y'ha-nthlei, located underneath Devil Reef. The town is now dominated by Marsh's grandson Barnabas, who is almost fully transformed into a Deep One. Zadok explains that these ocean-dwellers have designs on

8850-469: The decrepit town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts —a former seaport isolated from other nearby towns by vast salt marshes —by the U.S. government after fleeing it on July 16, 1927. The investigation ultimately concluded with the arrest and detention of many of the town's residents in concentration camps as well as a submarine torpedoing nearby Devil Reef, which the press falsely reported as Prohibition liquor raids. The narrator proceeds to describe in detail

8968-520: The discovery of "the remnants of the last race of amphibious human beings," living in a five-mile deep chasm just off the Atlantic coast. The creature of the title is described as "a man with round, fixed, fishy eyes, and soft, slaty skin. But the horror of the thing were the two gills that swelled and relaxed spasmodically." Lovecraft was evidently impressed by this tale, writing in a letter to Frank Belknap Long : "God! The Harbour-Master!!!" "Fishhead"

9086-641: The early 1930s in response to the Great Depression. Harvard University professors Felix Frankfurter , Benjamin V. Cohen , and James M. Landis drafted the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. was the first chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission , and he was from Boston. The Democrats appealed to factory workers and especially Catholics, pulling them into

9204-629: The early nineteenth century, and later a minor factory center." The loss of sailors in shipwrecks, and the War of 1812 , caused the town's profitable trade with the South Seas to falter; by 1828, the only fleet still running that route was that of Captain Obed Marsh , the head of one of the town's leading families. Prior to the events of the story, in 1840, Marsh starts a cult in Innsmouth known as

9322-470: The events surrounding his initial interest in the town, which lies along the route of his tour across New England , taken when he was a 21-year-old student at Oberlin College . While waiting for the bus that will take him to Innsmouth, the narrator busies himself in neighboring Newburyport by gathering information on the town's history from the locals; all of it having superstitious overtones. Innsmouth

9440-466: The fields of education, medicine, medical research, high-technology, finance, and tourism. Some industrial areas were slow in adjusting to the new service economy. In 2000, New England had two of the ten poorest cities in the U.S. (by percentage living below the poverty line): the state capitals of Providence, Rhode Island and Hartford, Connecticut . They were no longer in the bottom ten by 2010; Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire remain among

9558-436: The film Color Out of Space refers to it as Arkham County, although Lovecraft indicates that at least some of his fictional towns were located in the real-life Essex County of Massachusetts . Just as Arkham County is fictitious, Matt Ruff places some of the events of his book Lovecraft Country in the equally fictitious Devon County of Massachusetts. Setting plays a major role in Lovecraft's fiction. Lovecraft Country,

9676-500: The flight of the region's industrial base. The textile mills one by one went out of business from the 1920s to the 1970s. For example, the Crompton Company went bankrupt in 1984 after 178 years in business, costing the jobs of 2,450 workers in five states. The major reasons were cheap imports, the strong dollar, declining exports, and a failure to diversify. The shoe industry subsequently left the region as well. What remains

9794-615: The fully human Zadok, who after the narrator gives him a bottle of whiskey explains that while trading in the Caroline Islands Marsh discovered a Kanak tribe in Pohnpei who offered human sacrifices to a race of immortal fish-like humanoids known as the Deep Ones . The Kanak also bred with Deep Ones, producing hybrid offspring which have the appearance of normal humans in childhood and early adulthood but eventually slowly transform into Deep Ones themselves and leave

9912-501: The harbor. Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government which the colonists called the " Intolerable Acts ". These confrontations led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775 and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. The region played a prominent role in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States, and it

10030-490: The hideous. In a 1930 letter to Robert E. Howard , Lovecraft attempted to explain his fascination with New England as a setting for weird fiction : "It is the night-black Massachusetts legendary which packs the really macabre 'kick'. Here is material for a really profound study in group neuroticism; for certainly, none can deny the existence of a profoundly morbid streak in the Puritan imagination." Specifically, Lovecraft

10148-556: The history of permanent European colonization in New England. In 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region "New England". The name was officially sanctioned on November 3, 1620, when the charter of the Virginia Company of Plymouth was replaced by a royal charter for the Plymouth Council for New England , a joint-stock company established to colonize and govern the region. The Pilgrims wrote and signed

10266-610: The largest city in New Hampshire; and Providence, Rhode Island , the capital of and largest city in Rhode Island. In 1620, the Pilgrims established Plymouth Colony , the second successful settlement in British America after the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia , founded in 1607. Ten years later, Puritans established Massachusetts Bay Colony north of Plymouth Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in

10384-691: The more Democratic Maine and New Hampshire. New England was key to the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The Blackstone Valley running through Massachusetts and Rhode Island has been called the birthplace of America's industrial revolution. In 1787, the first cotton mill in America was founded in the North Shore seaport of Beverly, Massachusetts as the Beverly Cotton Manufactory . The Manufactory

10502-462: The narrator discovers that his grandmother was related to Obed Marsh's family, although the origins of her mother were unclear. The narrator's uncle had previously visited Arkham to research his ancestry before killing himself by gunshot. After returning home to Toledo, Ohio , the narrator begins researching his family tree and discovers that he is a descendant of Marsh through his second wife Pth’thya-l’yi, and by 1930 begins to gradually transform into

10620-456: The narrator has no choice but to spend the night in a musty hotel. While attempting to sleep, he hears noises at his door as if someone is trying to enter. Wasting no time, he escapes out a window and through the streets while a town-wide hunt for him occurs, forcing him at times to imitate the peculiar walk of the Innsmouth locals as he walks past search parties in the darkness. Eventually, the narrator makes his way towards railroad tracks and hears

10738-444: The northeast and Quebec to the north. The Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean are to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the southwest. Boston is New England's largest city and the capital of Massachusetts. Greater Boston is the largest metropolitan area, with nearly a third of New England's population; this area includes Worcester, Massachusetts , the second-largest city in New England; Manchester, New Hampshire ,

10856-410: The others were destroyed later. Of this edition Robert Weinberg has written: "Only a few hundred copies of the book were printed, and even less than that were sold, even though it was available at the bargain price of $ 1 per copy. It featured good paper, black linen binding and four illustrations by Frank Utpatel. The book was the only bound hardcover to appear during Lovecraft's lifetime and became one of

10974-504: The process of issuing The Shadow over Innsmouth as a book. The project came to fruition in November 1936 (although the copyright page declares the date of publication as April 1936), but the book had so many typographical errors that Lovecraft insisted on an errata sheet (which was also faulty). Lovecraft was displeased with the production; writing to his correspondent Lee McBride White on Nov 30, 1936, he wrote: "My Shadow over Innsmouth

11092-583: The region fought in four French and Indian Wars until the English colonists and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquian allies. In the late 18th century, political leaders from the New England colonies initiated resistance to Britain's taxes without the consent of the colonists . Residents of Rhode Island captured and burned a British ship which was enforcing unpopular trade restrictions, and residents of Boston threw British tea into

11210-555: The region, which was done to increase their realism. Lovecraft's stories use their connections with New England to imbue themselves with the ability to instill fear. Lovecraft first used a New England setting in his 1920 short story " The Terrible Old Man ", set in Kingsport. " The Picture in the House " (written later in 1920), is the first of his stories to mention both Arkham and the Miskatonic Valley. The story begins with

11328-553: The resemblance in names between the Deep One city of Y'ha-nthlei and Yoharneth-Lahai, a fictional deity in Lord Dunsany 's The Gods of Pegana , who "sendeth little dreams out of Pegana to please the people of Earth"—a precursor to Lovecraft's fictional deity Cthulhu , who sends less pleasant dreams from R'lyeh . The description of the Deep Ones has similarities to the sea creature described in H.G. Wells ' short story " In

11446-628: The rest of New England. New England contains forested ecosystems with a variety of terrestrial vertebrates. Land-use patterns and land disturbance, such as the dramatic increase in land clearing for agriculture in the mid eighteenth century to nineteenth century, greatly altered the ecosystem and resulted in extinctions, local extirpations , and recolonizations. According to an analysis of USDA Forest Service data, tree species diversity increases from north to south at about two to three species per degree in latitude. In addition, taller trees are associated with higher tree species diversity, and tree height

11564-484: The short story " The Thing on the Doorstep ". It is said in " Herbert West—Reanimator " that the town was devastated by a typhoid outbreak in 1905. The precise location of Arkham is unspecified in Lovecraft's work, although it is assumed to be close to both Innsmouth and Dunwich. In a letter to F. Lee Baldwin dated April 29, 1934, Lovecraft 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

11682-406: The states in the region had taken steps towards the abolition of slavery, with Vermont and Massachusetts introducing total abolition in 1777 and 1783, respectively. The nickname "Yankeeland" was sometimes used to denote the New England area, especially among Southerners and the British. Vermont was admitted to statehood in 1791 after settling a dispute with New York. The territory of Maine had been

11800-438: The story's tense and memorable siege scene within the titular town's hotel reveals a flair in execution on a par with some of the most compelling chapters of R L Stevenson's Kidnapped . August Derleth called The Shadow over Innsmouth "a dark, brooding story, typical of Lovecraft at his best." Robert Weinberg praised it as "a well-written story". According to de Camp, Lovecraft distrusted his ability to narrate action, and

11918-426: The surface to live in ancient undersea cities for eternity. When hard times fell on Innsmouth, Marsh's cult performed similar sacrifices to the Deep Ones in exchange for wealth in the form of large fish hauls and unique jewelry. When Marsh and his followers were arrested, the Deep Ones retaliated by attacking the town and killing more than half of its population. The survivors were left with no other choice than to join

12036-408: The surface world and have been planning the use of shoggoths to conquer or transform it. Zadok sees strange waves approaching the dock and tells the narrator that they have been seen, urging him to leave town immediately. The narrator is unnerved, but ultimately dismisses the story. Once he leaves, Zadok disappears and is never seen again. After being told that the bus is experiencing engine trouble,

12154-414: The ten wealthiest states in the United States in terms of median household income and per capita income. The states of New England have a combined area, including water surfaces, of 71,988 square miles (186,447 km ), making the region slightly larger than the state of Washington and slightly smaller than Great Britain . Maine alone constitutes nearly one-half of the total area of New England, yet

12272-415: The town and its residents are saturated with the odor of dead fish. The only resident who appears normal is a grocery store clerk from neighboring Arkham , who was transferred there by the chain. The narrator gathers much information from the clerk, including a map of the town and the name of Zadok Allen, a very elderly local drunkard who might give him information when plied with alcohol. The narrator meets

12390-546: The town. In 1929 he wrote with much feeling of seeing the snow-covered town at sunset and of experiencing his "first stupefying glance of MARBLEHEAD'S huddled and archaick roofs". Indeed, "that instant—about 4:05 to 4:10 pm., Dec. 17, 1922—[was] the most powerful single emotional climax during my nearly forty years of existence." Lovecraft used Kingsport as a setting for his short stories " The Terrible Old Man " (written 1920, published 1921), " The Festival " (written 1923, published 1925), and " The Strange High House in

12508-458: The true rarities in the collecting field. Its failure, and the poor sales of third non-fantasy book convinced William Crawford of the futility of his efforts." After Lovecraft's death (and Wright's), the story appeared in an unauthorized abridged version in the January 1942 issue of Weird Tales . As L Sprague de Camp noted, the action sections of Innsmouth are a departure for Lovecraft;

12626-545: The village. Neil Gaiman 's short story "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" explains that the American Innsmouth was named after an older English village. Lovecraft writes that Innsmouth is in a horrendous state of decay, with many of the buildings rotting and on the point of collapse. The town was "founded in 1643, noted for shipbuilding before the American Revolution , a seat of great marine prosperity in

12744-452: The winters are long and cold, and heavy snow is common (most locations receive 60–120 inches (150–300 cm) of snow annually in this region). The summer's months are moderately warm, though summer is rather short and rainfall is spread through the year. In central and eastern Massachusetts, northern Rhode Island, and northern Connecticut, the same humid continental prevails (Dfa), though summers are warm to hot, winters are shorter, and there

12862-564: The works of later writers, the town of Kingsport is described as having been founded in 1639 by colonists from southern England and the Channel Islands , where it soon became a seaport and center for shipbuilding. Influenced by the Salem witch trials , the town hanged four alleged witches in 1692. During the American Revolutionary War , the port was briefly blockaded by the British when the town's merchants turned to privateering against

12980-402: Was a phosphorescent grey. Lovecraft was quite critical of The Shadow over Innsmouth , writing to August Derleth that the story "has all the defects I deplore—especially in point of style, where hackneyed phrases & rhythms have crept in despite all precautions.... No—I don't intend to offer 'The Shadow over Innsmouth' for publication, for it would stand no chance of acceptance." The story

13098-851: Was allied with the Iroquois Confederacy and New France was allied with the Wabanaki Confederacy . Mainland Nova Scotia came under the control of New England after the Siege of Port Royal (1710) , but both New Brunswick and most of Maine remained contested territory between New England and New France. The British eventually defeated the French in 1763, opening the Connecticut River Valley for British settlement into western New Hampshire and Vermont. The New England Colonies were settled primarily by farmers who became relatively self-sufficient. Later, New England's economy began to focus on crafts and trade, aided by

13216-545: Was also considered the largest cotton mill of its time. Technological developments and achievements from the Manufactory led to the development of more advanced cotton mills, including Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island . Towns such as Lawrence, Massachusetts , Lowell, Massachusetts , Woonsocket, Rhode Island , and Lewiston, Maine became centers of the textile industry following the innovations at Slater Mill and

13334-467: Was inspired by the cities and towns in Massachusetts. However, the specific location of Lovecraft Country is variable, as it was moved according to Lovecraft's literary needs. The location of Arkham was moved, as Lovecraft decided that it would have been destroyed by the Quabbin Reservoir , which was created to supply Boston with fresh water. This is alluded to in " The Colour Out of Space ", as

13452-486: Was no paid employment to work in the nearby mills, such as the Lowell Mill Girls . As the textile industry grew, immigration also grew. By the 1850s, immigrants began working in the mills, especially French Canadians and Irish . New England as a whole was the most industrialized part of the United States. By 1850, the region accounted for well over a quarter of all manufacturing value in the country and over

13570-453: Was not the most extraordinary thing about the creature. It was a biped; its almost globular body was poised on a tripod of two frog-like legs and a long, thick tail, and its fore limbs, which grotesquely caricatured the human hand, much as a frog’s do, carried a long shaft of bone, tipped with copper. The colour of the creature was variegated; its head, hands, and legs were purple; but its skin, which hung loosely upon it, even as clothes might do,

13688-406: Was once a profitable port and shipbuilding center during the colonial and post- revolutionary periods but began to decline after the War of 1812 interrupted shipping. A local merchant named Obed Marsh built a profitable gold refinery, but the town only deteriorated further after riots and a mysterious epidemic eliminated half of its residents in 1845. Marsh also founded a pagan cult called

13806-451: Was rejected by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright when Derleth surreptitiously submitted it for publication in 1933. "I have read Lovecraft's story...and must confess that it fascinates me," he wrote to Derleth. "But I don't know just what I can do with it. It is hard to break a story of this kind into two parts, and it is too long to run complete in one part." In late 1935, William L. Crawford 's Visionary Publishing Company began

13924-506: Was the first region of the U.S. transformed by the Industrial Revolution , initially centered on the Blackstone and Merrimack river valleys. The physical geography of New England is diverse. Southeastern New England is covered by a narrow coastal plain , while the western and northern regions are dominated by the rolling hills and worn-down peaks of the northern end of the Appalachian Mountains . The Atlantic fall line lies close to

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