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Kingsport (lovecraft)





LOCATION


The town is located on the coast of Massachusetts to the south of (the fictious) Arkham , and is based on Marblehead, Massachusetts , a real town that lies south of Salem . Lovecraft actually created Kingsport before he saw its real-life namesake. When Lovecraft visited Marblehead in 1922 , he became enamored with the town and penned a glowing review in 1929 of his experiences there. Lovecraft wrote of seeing the snow-covered town at sunset and of experiencing his "first stupefying glance of huddled and [archaic roofs". He also remarked that "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." 1


HISTORY


Kingsport was founded in 1639 by colonists from southern England and the Channel Islands . It soon became a seaport and center for shipbuilding. Influenced by the Salem Witch Trials , the town hung four alleged witches in 1692 . During the Revolutionary War , the port was briefly blockaded by the British when the town's merchants turned to Privateering against 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 for income.2


APPEARANCES


Kingsport is featured in the following stories by Lovecraft:

  • '' The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward '' ( 1941 ), John Merritt mentions Kingsport and of strange rites that he had heard were performed there

  • '' The Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath '' ( 1926 ), Nyarlathotep expresses admiration for Kingsport's "antediluvian" architecture and marvelous seacoast

  • " The Festival " ( 1925 ), the unnamed narrator is summoned to Kingsport to participate in a bizarre ceremony held by his distant relatives

  • "The Silver Key" ( 1929 ), Randolph Carter has travelled back in time to the 1880 s when he glimpses Kingsport's "old Congregational steeple on Central Hill" and realizes that the old church had been torn down to build Congregational Hospital

  • "The Strange High House in the Mist" ( 1931 ), professor Thomas Olney meets the lone occupant of the eponymous dwelling, which lies atop a high cliff on Kingsport's coast

  • "The Terrible Old Man" (1921), the eponymous resident of Kingsport lives on Water Street near the sea

  • "The Thing on the Doorstep" ( 1937 ), a teenage Asenath Waite attended an all-girls school, the "Hall School", in Kingsport



SEE ALSO




REFERENCES