Henry St. Clair Whitehead (March 5, 1882 – November 23, 1932) was an AmericanEpiscopal minister and author ofhorror, some non fiction andfantasy fiction.[1][2]
Henry S. Whitehead was born inElizabeth, New Jersey, on March 5, 1882, and graduated fromHarvard University in 1904 (in the same class asFranklin D. Roosevelt).[3] As a young man he led an active and worldly life in the first decade of the 20th century, playing football at Harvard University, editing a Reform democratic newspaper inPort Chester, New York, and serving as commissioner of athletics for theAAU.
He served asArchdeacon of theVirgin Islands from 1921 to 1929.[1] While there, living on the island ofSt. Croix, Whitehead gathered the material he was to use in his tales of the supernatural.[2] A correspondent and friend ofH. P. Lovecraft, Whitehead published stories from 1924 onward inAdventure,Black Mask,Strange Tales,[3] and especiallyWeird Tales. In his introduction to the collectionJumbee,R. H. Barlow would later describe Whitehead as a member of "the seriousWeird Tales school".[3] Many of Whitehead's stories are set on the Virgin Islands and draw on the history and folklore of the region. Several of these stories are narrated by Gerald Canevin, a New Englander living on the islands and a fictional stand-in for Whitehead.[2] Whitehead's supernatural fiction was partially modelled on the work ofEdward Lucas White andWilliam Hope Hodgson.[3] Whitehead's "The Great Circle" (1932) is a lost-race tale withsword and sorcery elements.[3]
In later life, Whitehead lived in Dunedin, Florida, as rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd and a leader of a boys' group there. H. P. Lovecraft was a particular friend as well as a correspondent of Whitehead's, visiting him at his Dunedin home for several weeks in 1931. Lovecraft recorded in his letters that he entertained the boys with readings of his stories such as "The Cats of Ulthar". Lovecraft said of Whitehead: "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."
Whitehead suffered from a long-term gastric problem, but an account of his death by his assistant suggests he died from a fall or a stroke or both.[1] He died late in 1932, but few of his readers learned about this until an announcement and brief profile, by H. P. Lovecraft, appeared in the March 1933Weird Tales, issued in Feb 1933. Whitehead was greatly mourned and missed by lovers of weird fiction at his death.[4]
R. H. Barlow collected many of Whitehead's letters, planning to publish a volume of them; but this never appeared, although Barlow did contribute the introduction to Whitehead'sJumbee and Other Uncanny Tales (1944).
Whitehead is culturally important for his sustained introduction of voodoo into popular culture, via his stories.
Lovecraft expressed admiration for Whitehead's work, describing Whitehead's work as "weird fiction of a subtle, realistic and quietly potent sort" and praising Whitehead's storyThe Passing of a God as "perhaps representing the peak of his creative genius".[1]
In a letter to August Derleth,Algernon Blackwood included Whitehead on a list of writers that he admired.[5]
His work is still highly regarded today by writers and critics, and Stefan Dziemianowicz describes Whitehead's West Indian (mostly Virgin Islands) tales as "virtually unmatched for the vividness with which they convey the awe and mystery of their exotic locale".[3]
^abcd"In Memoriam: Henry St. Clair Whitehead". H. P. Lovecraft. Reprinted inRobert Weinberg,The Weird Tales Story. FAX Collector’s Editions.ISBN0913960160 (p. 127).
^abcdeRozier, Travis. "Whitehead, Henry S." in Cardin, Matt.Horror literature through history. Santa Barbara, California : Greenwood, 2017.ISBN9781440842016 (pp. 846-847)
Associated Press, Dunedin, November 23, 1932. "Roosevelt's Classmate at Harvard Dies in Dunedin."Tampa Tribune, November 24, 1932. Obituary for "Rev. Dr. Henry Sinclair [sic] Whitehead, 50, author, traveler and lecturer...died here today."
Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998).The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 27.
Nielsen, Leon (2004).Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 51–52.ISBN0-7864-1785-4.
Ruber, Peter (2000).Arkham's Masters of Horror. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. pp. 154–158.ISBN0-87054-177-3.
H. P. Lovecraft. "In Memoriam: Henry St. Clair Whitehead" (Weird Tales, March 1933) (abridged). Full version in a letter by Lovecraft to E. Hoffman Price, Dec 7, 1932 (ms, John Hay Library; printed in part in Lovecraft,Selected Letters 4, 116–117).
R. Alain Everts,Henry St. Clair Whitehead (Strange Co, 1975).
A. Langley Searles, "Fantasy and Outre Themes in the Short Fiction of Edward Lucas White and Henry S. Whitehead", inAmerican Supernatural Fiction, ed. Douglas Robillard (NY: Garland, 1996), 59-76.
