From Slate: This is one of seven pages of plot notes that horror author H.P. Lovecraft produced while planning his 1936 novella “At the Mountains of Madness.” The writer, who had fallen on hard times, used a deconstructed envelope in an attempt to save paper… The sketch (below), with its annotations (“body dark grey”; “all appendages not in use customarily folded down to body”; “leathery or rubbery”) represents Lovecraft working out the specifics of an Elder Thing’s anatomy. As Lovecraft’s narrator was a scientist, the description of the Things in the novella is dense and layered; here we can see the beginnings of that detail.

View Lovecraft’s “Elder Thing” sketch below; click to enlarge.  Details here.

Lovecraft’s ELDER THING sketch – click to enlarge

From Slate: The exhibit “The Shadow over College Street: H.P. Lovecraft in Providence,” which includes this page along with other Lovecraftiana, will be on view at the Providence Athenaeum through September 22, with a satellite exhibit at Brown’s John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library through October 24.