Rev. Henry St. Clair Whitehead (March 5, 1882 – November 23, 1932) was an American writer of horror fiction

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 and fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

.

Biography

Henry S. Whitehead was born in Elizabeth

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 on March 5, 1882. He graduated from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1904. He led an active and worldly life, playing football at Harvard (he graduated there in the same class as Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

). He also edited a Reform democratic newspaper in Pt. Chester, New York and served as commissioner of athletics for the AAU.

He later attended Berkeley Divinity School

Berkeley Divinity School

Berkeley Divinity School, founded in 1854, is an official seminary of the Episcopal Church, based in New Haven, Connecticut. The seminary was originally founded as a middle-way between the Anglo-Catholic leaning General Theological Seminary in New York, and the Evangelical-leaning Virginia...

 of Middletown

Middletown, Connecticut

Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...

, Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

 and was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1912. He served as acting archdeacon of the Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...

 from 1921 to 1929. While there, living on the island of St. Croix

Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Formerly the Danish West Indies, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of...

, Whitehead gathered the material he was to use in his later writings of the supernatural. A correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

, Whitehead's stories appeared from 1924 onwards in Weird Tales

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

, Strange Tales,
Adventure

Adventure (magazine)

Adventure magazine was first published in November 1910 as a monthly pulp magazine. Adventure went on become one of the most profitable and critically acclaimed of all the American pulp magazines...

and other pulp magazines.

In later life, Whitehead lived in Dunedin, Florida, as rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd. Robert H. Barlow collected many of his letters, planning to publish a volume of them, but this was never published; although Barlow did contribute the introduction to Whitehead's Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales

Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales

Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by author Henry S. Whitehead. It was released in 1944 and was his first book published by Arkham House. 1,559 copies were printed. The introduction is by Whitehead's fellow Floridian Robert H...

 (1944). H.P. Lovecraft was a particular friend of Whitehead's, visiting him at his Dunedin home for several weeks in 1931. Lovecraft said of him: "He has nothing of the musty cleric about him; but dresses in sports clothes, swears like a he-man on occasion, and is an utter stranger to bigotry or priggishness of any sort."

Short fiction

• "The Door" (1924)
• "Tea Leaves" (1924)
• "The Wonderful Thing" (1925)
• "The Thin Match" (1925)
• "Sea Change" (1925)
• "The Fireplace" (1925)
• "The Projection of Armand Dubois" (1926)
• "Jumbee" (1926)
• "Across the Gulf" (1926)
• "The Shadows" (1927)
• "West India Lights" (1927)
• "The Left Eye" (1927)
• "Obi in the Caribbean" (1927)
• "The Cult of the Skull" (1928)
• "The Lips" (1929)
• "Sweet Grass" (1929)
• "Black Tancrède" (1929)
• "The People of Pan" (1929)
• "The Tabernacle" (1930)
• "The Shut Room" (1930)
• "The Passing of a God" (1931)
• "The Trap" (1931) with H. P. Lovecraft
  H. P. Lovecraft
  Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
  
  
• "The Tree-Man" (1931)
• "Black Terror" (1931)
• "Hill Drums" (1931)
• "The Black Beast" (1931)
• "Cassius" (1931)
• "Mrs. Lorriquer" (1932)
• "No Eye-Witnesses" (1932)
• "Seven Turns in a Hangman's Rope" (1932)
• "The Moon-Dial" (1932)
• "The Napier Limousine" (1932)
• "The Great Circle" (1932)
• "Sea-Tiger" (1932)
• "The Chadbourne Episode" (1933)
• "Scar-Tissue" (1946)
• "Bothon" (1946)
• "The Ravel 'Pavane'" (1946)
• "Williamson" (1946)
• "--In Case of Disaster Only" (1946)
• "Bothon" (1946) (with H.P. Lovecraft)

External links