Wilmarth is the main character in Fritz Leiber's " To Arkham and the Stars", written and presumably set in 1966, when the now-septuagenarian professor is chair of Miskatonic's Literature Department. Wilmarth is also mentioned in Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, where the narrator remarks that he wishes he hadn't "talked so much with that unpleasantly erudite folklorist Wilmarth at the university." Elsewhere, the story refers to "the wild tales of cosmic hill things from outside told by a folklorist colleague in Miskatonic's English department." He investigates the strange events that followed in the wake of the historic Vermont floods of 1927. Wilmarth is described as a folklorist and assistant professor of English at Miskatonic University. He now believes with a dreadful certainty that the cylinder in that dark room with that whispering creature already contained the brain of Henry Wentworth Akeley.Ĭharacters Albert Wilmarth These were utilized by something inhuman to disguise itself as a man. As the story concludes, Wilmarth discloses the discovery from which he fled in terror: Akeley's discarded face and hands. Akeley has disappeared along with all the physical evidence of the extraterrestrial presence. When the authorities investigate the next day, they find nothing but a bullet-riddled house. Upon a closer look, he makes a horrifying discovery amid the folds of the robe which sends him fleeing the farmhouse by stealing Akeley's car. He finds that Akeley is no longer present, but the robe he was wearing is discarded in the chair.
Once all is silent, he creeps downstairs to investigate.
During these conversations, Wilmarth feels a vague sense of unease, especially from Akeley's odd manner of buzzing whispering.ĭuring the night, a sleepless Wilmarth overhears a disturbing conversation with several voices, some of which are distinctly bizarre. Wilmarth also listens to a brain in a cylinder as it speaks of the positive aspects of the journey and why Wilmarth should join it in the trip to Yuggoth, the beings' outpost in our solar system (later revealed to be Pluto). Akeley says he has agreed to undertake such a journey and points to a cylinder bearing his name. He also says that the beings can surgically extract a human brain and place it into a canister wherein it can live indefinitely and withstand the rigors of outer space travel and shows proof to Wilmarth. Akeley tells Wilmarth about the extraterrestrial race and the wonders they have revealed to him. Wilmarth arrives to find Akeley in a pitiful physical condition, immobilized in a chair in darkness. He urges Wilmarth to pay him a visit and to bring along the letters and photographic evidence that he had sent him. Furthermore, they have taught him of marvels beyond all imagination. He writes that he has met with the extraterrestrial beings and has learned that they are peaceful. Although Akeley expresses more in his letters, he abruptly has a change of heart. Later, Akeley reports having killed members of the extraterrestrial race, describing them as bleeding a sickly greenish fluid. They exchange gunfire and many of Akeley's guard dogs are killed, as are several of the agents. The agents intercept Akeley's messages and harass his farmhouse nightly.
The two exchange letters that include an account of the extraterrestrial race chanting with human agents in worship of several beings, including Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep, the latter of whom "shall put on the semblance of men, the waxen mask and the robe that hides". He receives a letter from Henry Wentworth Akeley, a man living in an isolated farmhouse near Townshend, Vermont, who claims to have proof that will convince Wilmarth he must stop questioning the creatures' existence. He sides with the skeptics, blaming old legends about monsters living in uninhabited hills that abduct people venturing too close to their territory. When local newspapers report strange things seen floating in rivers during a historic Vermont flood, Wilmarth becomes embroiled in a controversy regarding the reality and significance of the sightings. Wilmarth, an instructor of literature at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts.
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