On July 1, I had the honour to lead the singing of “O Canada” at the Lieutenant Governor’s Garden Party at Government House in celebration of Canada Day. And here’s a video! Here I am …
My young-YA/middle-grade fantasy Fireboy, already a finalist for Best Young Adult Novel in this year’s Aurora Awards and finalist for a 2027 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award in the Northern Lights Division, has just been …
Had a great time being part of the cast of Regina Lyric Musical Theatre‘s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I played Fogg (the insane asylum keeper) and also sang in …
My young-YA/middle-grade fantasy Fireboy, a nominee for Best Young Adult Novel in this year’s Aurora Awards, is also a finalist for the 2027 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award in the Northern Lights Division. This is …
I’m thrilled to announce that I’m up for two Aurora Awards this year! Fireboy is on the ballot for Best Young Adult Novel, and The Worldshapers is once again on the ballot for Best Fan …
I spent a good chunk of today at Wordbridge, the annual writers’ conference in Lethbridge, Alberta. My main reason for coming was to launch a Shadowpaw Press title (Broken Realm by Jenna Greene, a Lethbridge …
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Willett of the Day: Dr. Willett, H.P. Lovecraft character
Some Willetts–though not myself–are entirely fictitious.
Such is the case of Dr. Marinus Bicknell Willett, the family physician of Charles Dexter Ward, and ultimately the hero of H.P. Lovecraft’s novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. (The image at right is of the late actor Frank Maxwell, who portrayed Dr. Willett in Roger Corman’s 1963 movie version of the story, The Haunted Palace (he took the title from an Edgar Allan Poe story, but the main inspiration for the film was definitely Lovecraft).
Wikipedia has more about the novella here, including this note on the good Dr. Willett:
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia compares Willett’s character to other “valiant counterweight[s]” in Lovecraft such as Thomas Malone in “The Horror at Red Hook” (1925)[8] and Henry Armitage in “The Dunwich Horror“; like Willett, Armitage “defeats the ‘villains’ by incantations, and he is susceptible to the same flaws–pomposity, arrogance, self-importance–that can be seen in Willett.”[9]
Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/2008/07/willett-of-the-day-dr-willett-hp-lovecraft-character/
