The Call of Cthulhu

The Call of Cthulhu
H. P. Lovecraft / Hugh Doak Copp · Public domain · source
Title	The Call of Cthulhu
Author	H. P. Lovecraft
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Horror, Weird Fiction
Published	1928
Publisher	Weird Tales

The Call of Cthulhu is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft that synthesizes motifs from Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce, Bram Stoker, and Robert W. Chambers into a modern weird tale. Presented as a manuscript assembled by a scholarly narrator, it interweaves accounts from disparate figures—scholars, sailors, and policemen—to depict an ancient cosmic entity and a secret cult; the narrative connects to wider currents in Weird Tales (magazine), 1920s American literature, Weird fiction, and the emerging network of pulp-era writers around Farnsworth Wright, Clark Ashton Smith, and August Derleth.

Plot

The frame narrative follows a dispassionate narrator compiling notes, starting with the death of his grand-uncle, a professor associated with Brown University, whose papers reveal references to a bas-relief and an odd cult. The narrator traces a chain of sources including a police report from New Orleans Police Department investigators, a Norwegian sailor’s log associated with the wreck of the ship Emma, and an art critic linked to Columbia University who studies the bas-relief—each document leads to encounters with strange dreams reported by artists and intellectuals such as an impressionable sculptor influenced by Auguste Rodin, a student of comparative religion from Harvard University, and a captain connected to Royal Navy voyages in the Pacific. These fragments converge on an account of an island city, encountered by an ill-fated expedition and described in the log of a ship whose crew contend with immense cyclopean architecture, monstrous beings, and a colossal sleeping entity whose existence is tied to a global cult that includes cells in New Orleans, Paris, and ports linked to East India Company-era trade routes. The climax reveals the temporary awakening of the creature during a seismic event and its eventual return to a deathlike sleep, while the narrator reflects on the futility of knowledge in the face of inhuman realities, invoking parallels to archival projects at institutions like The British Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and private collections curated by antiquarians.

Themes and influences

Lovecraft’s story foregrounds cosmic indifference and epistemological dread, drawing intellectual lineage from Arthur Schopenhauer, literary precedent in Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker, and metaphysical anxieties prevalent after World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic. The text synthesizes themes from Mesoamerican and Polynesian legends mediated through antiquarian scholarship exemplified by collectors such as Sir John Evans and explorers akin to Captain Cook; it engages with occult currents popularized by figures like Éliphas Lévi and organizations comparable to Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and commentators such as Aleister Crowley. Stylistically, Lovecraft adapts techniques from Gothic fiction, pulp magazine storytelling, and the documentary framings used by Bram Stoker in Dracula, while his prose echoes the philosophical pessimism of Friedrich Nietzsche and the anthropological concerns of early Franz Boas-era scholarship. The constructed mythos later intersected with the literary activities of August Derleth, the editorial practices of Weird Tales (magazine), and the archival interests of Ray Bradbury and Stephen King.

Publication history

First published in Weird Tales (magazine) in 1928, the story circulated among correspondents in Lovecraft’s epistolary network, including exchanges with Frank Belknap Long, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. Early printings were reproduced in amateur journals tied to science fiction fandom and small presses indebted to editors like August Derleth and publishers such as Arkham House, which later standardized many of Lovecraft’s texts for mid-20th-century readers. Manuscript drafts reveal revisions influenced by critiques from contemporaries in clubs associated with Providence, and subsequent collected editions appeared in anthologies curated by editors linked to Fictioneers, D. H. Lawrence-era modernists, and later academic reprints promoted by university presses with interests in 20th-century American literature and the study of weird fiction. The story’s textual transmission shows layers of marginalia and correspondence preserved in archives similar to those held at John Hay Library and subject to scholarly editing practices exemplified by editors of the Modern Language Association.

Reception and legacy

Initial reactions in pulp communities were mixed, with contemporaneous commentary from critics at periodicals such as The New York Times and specialist magazines paralleling debates about literary value in Modernism; later critics in the mid-20th century, including proponents within New Criticism and voices associated with Postmodernism, reassessed Lovecraft’s innovations in cosmic horror. The narrative cemented Lovecraft’s reputation within genre circles and influenced subsequent writers across generations—from Ray Bradbury and Stephen King to Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker—while prompting scholarly inquiry by critics at institutions like University of Chicago and Yale University into race, ideology, and aesthetics. The tale informed the institutionalization of Lovecraft studies via societies such as the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society and journals modeled after university review series, shaping curricula in departments of English literature and programs examining 20th-century speculative traditions.

Adaptations and cultural impact

The story inspired a broad range of adaptations across media: radio dramatizations in the style of Mercury Theatre on the Air, film adaptations recalling practitioners like F. W. Murnau and Orson Welles, tabletop role-playing games emerging from design lineages of Dungeons & Dragons and Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), board games produced by companies akin to Fantasy Flight Games, and musical interpretations by artists affiliated with Progressive rock and black metal scenes. Visual artists from Francis Bacon-influenced painters to graphic novelists working with publishers such as DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics have reimagined its imagery, while filmmakers citing John Carpenter, Guillermo del Toro, and David Cronenberg draw on its motifs. The mythic entity entered popular culture through references in television series broadcast on networks like BBC and HBO, comic books serialized by Marvel Comics and Image Comics, and homages in literature by authors linked to New Weird and speculative fiction movements. The story’s symbols have been reappropriated across subcultures, academic conferences, museum exhibits, and digital communities that trace influences back to pulp-era networks and modern multimedia franchises.

Category:1928 short stories