Kingsport (Lovecraft)

Kingsport is a fictional town in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and used by subsequent writers in his tradition. The town first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Terrible Old Man" (1921).

Inspiration[edit]

Kingsport is based on Marblehead, Massachusetts, a town bordering Salem. Lovecraft created Kingsport before he saw its real-life model. When Lovecraft visited Marblehead in 1922, he became enamored of the town and wrote with much feeling in 1929 concerning his experiences there. Lovecraft wrote of seeing the snow-covered town at sunset and of experiencing his "first stupid glance of [Marblehead's] 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]

Fictional characteristics[edit]

In Lovecraft's fiction, Kingsport is located in the United States to the southeast of (the fictitious) Arkham and corresponds geographically with the town of Marblehead, MA. Lovecraft's alter ego Randolph Carter grew up and lived here.

According to later writers, the town 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 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 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[edit]

In Lovecraft[edit]

"The Terrible Old Man" (1921): The eponymous resident of Kingsport lives on Water Street near the sea.
"The Festival" (1923): The unnamed narrator is summoned to Kingsport to participate in a strange ceremony held by his distant relatives.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926): Nyarlathotep expresses admiration for Kingsport's "antediluvian" architecture and marvelous seacoast. A moving conclusion to the novella takes place here.
"The Silver Key" (1926): Randolph Carter has traveled back in time to the 1880s 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" (1926): College teacher Thomas Olney meets the lone occupant of the eponymous dwelling, which lies atop a high cliff on Kingsport's coast.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927): John Merritt mentions Kingsport and the strange rites he had heard were performed there.
"The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933): A teenaged Asenath Waite attended an all-girls school, the Hall School, in Kingsport.

In works by other writers[edit]

The town was mentioned in Robert Bloch's short story "Notebook Found in a Deserted House" and The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, and appeared in An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe. The original draft of Ramsey Campbell's "The Church in High Street" was set in Kingsport, before August Derleth persuaded Campbell to rewrite the story in a British setting; the town Temphill.

In games[edit]

Kingsport appears in the tabletop games Call of Cthulhu, Kingsport Festival, and in an expansion to Arkham Horror. The Call of Cthulhu sourcebook Kingsport: The City in the Mists provides maps, history and other information for roleplayers and game masters.
Kingsport is one of four towns on the board in the tabletop game Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (2016), a variant of Pandemic (2008).
The Kingsport Lighthouse is a location and possible settlement in the video game Fallout 4.

In other media[edit]

Kingsport is mentioned as the home of an American couple visiting Oxford in the British police procedural TV program "Endeavour."
- The episode name is "Nocturne." Broadcast on 6 July 2014.

References[edit]

↑ Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). "Kingsport". The Lovecraft Lexicon (1st ed.). Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. p. 247. ISBN 1-56184-129-3. Search this book on
↑ Harms, Daniel (1998). "Kingsport". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. 166–167. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. Search this book on

External links[edit]

"Antique Dreams: Marblehead and Lovecraft's Kingsport" by Donovan K. Loucks

This article "Kingsport (Lovecraft)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Kingsport (Lovecraft). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

[1] Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). "Kingsport". The Lovecraft Lexicon (1st ed.). Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. p. 247. ISBN 1-56184-129-3. Search this book on

[2] Harms, Daniel (1998). "Kingsport". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. 166–167. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. Search this book on

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v t e H. P. Lovecraft
Bibliography
Novels	The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Novellas	The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath The Whisperer in Darkness At the Mountains of Madness The Shadow over Innsmouth The Shadow Out of Time
Short stories	"The Beast in the Cave" "The Alchemist" "The Tomb" "Dagon" "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson" "Polaris" "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" "Memory" "Old Bugs" "The Transition of Juan Romero" "The White Ship" "The Street" "The Doom that Came to Sarnath" "The Statement of Randolph Carter" "The Terrible Old Man" "The Tree" "The Cats of Ulthar" "The Temple" "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" "Celephaïs" "From Beyond" "Nyarlathotep" "The Picture in the House" "Ex Oblivione" "Sweet Ermengarde" "The Nameless City" "The Quest of Iranon" "The Moon-Bog" "The Outsider" "The Other Gods" "The Music of Erich Zann" "Herbert West–Reanimator" "Hypnos" "What the Moon Brings" "Azathoth" "The Hound" "The Lurking Fear" "The Rats in the Walls" "The Unnamable" "The Festival" "The Shunned House" "The Horror at Red Hook" "He" "In the Vault" "Cool Air" "The Call of Cthulhu" "Pickman's Model" "The Silver Key" "The Strange High House in the Mist" "The Colour Out of Space" "The Descendant" "History of the Necronomicon" "The Very Old Folk" "Ibid" "The Dunwich Horror" "The Dreams in the Witch House" "The Thing on the Doorstep" "The Evil Clergyman" "The Book" "The Haunter of the Dark"
Collaborations	"The Green Meadow" "Poetry and the Gods" "The Crawling Chaos" "The Horror at Martin's Beach" "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" "The Curse of Yig" The Mound "Medusa's Coil" "The Horror in the Museum" "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" "Out of the Aeons" "The Tree on the Hill" "Till A’the Seas" "In the Walls of Eryx" "The Thing in the Moonlight"
Poetry	Fungi from Yuggoth
Essays	"Supernatural Horror in Literature" To Quebec and the Stars Autobiography: Some Notes on a Nonentity
Locations	Arkham Dunwich Innsmouth Kingsport Miskatonic University Miskatonic River Lovecraft Country R'lyeh Celephaïs Sarkomand The Nameless City Yuggoth
Characters	Abdul Alhazred Robert Harrison Blake Randolph Carter Kuranes Herbert West
Books about	H. P. Lovecraft: A Life H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside Lovecraft: A Biography Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos
Related	Cthulhu Mythos Dream Cycle Lovecraftian horror Cosmicism H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society Necronomicon Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (documentary) Kalem Club Sonia Greene (wife) Whipple Van Buren Phillips (grandfather)
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