This collection of Henry Whitehead’s short stories expanded my interest in the subgenre of occult detective. I must say that I enjoyed these tales very much. Whether Simon Iff, Flaxman Low, Aylmer Vance, or any of the other works in this subgenre, occult detective fiction is very quickly becoming a favorite of mine.
‘Maker of Heaven and earth,’ quoted Carruth, musingly, ‘and of all things – visible and invisible.’ I started forward in my seat. He had given a peculiar emphasis to the last word, ‘invisible’.
‘A fact,’ I ejaculated, ‘constantly forgotten by the critics of religion! The Church has always recognized the existence of the invisible creation.’
‘Right, Mr. Canevin. And – this invisible creation; it doesn’t mean merely angels!’
‘No one who has lived in the West Indies can doubt that,’ I replied.
An excerpt from "The Shut Room"
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Voodoo Tales: The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead collects Henry Whitehead’s St. Croix-based voodoo tales, along with several of his other supernatural horror tales, into this one volume. This edition, published in 2012 by Wordsworth Editions, is part of the Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural series.[i] The General Editor of this series is David Stuart Davies, a noted expert on Sherlock Holmes. Davies also wrote the Introduction to this collection.
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Born on 5 March 1882 in New Jersey, Henry St. Clair Whitehead would attend Harvard University and by 1912 be ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church. From 1921-1929, residing in St. Croix, Whitehead served as Archdeacon of the Virgin Islands. And, beginning in 1924, while there, he began to publish his short tales in pulp magazines, especially Weird Tales. This is also the time that he began his friendship with H. P. Lovecraft.
Following his time in the Virgin Islands, Whitehead settled in Florida as rector of a church. By this time, he and Lovecraft had become close friends. So much so, that the reclusive Lovecraft actually visited Whitehead for several weeks in 1931. Their friendship led to Whitehead collaborating with HPL on the story “The Trap” (1932). There also exists a great deal of mystery and question surrounding the tale “Bothon” (1946) and its authorship. Some sources claim that “Bothon” was another collaboration between the two gentlemen. Others, however, take a different view. For the purposes of this blog post, we shall not delve into that.
Henry S. Whitehead died on 23 November 1932. Sadly, the majority of his works were published some time after his passing. Yet it was not until the March 1933 issue of Weird Tales, that Lovecraft wrote an announcement of it. Most of Whitehead’s readers were made aware of his death in that piece. I have provided a complete transcription of the piece below.
In Memoriam
HENRY ST. CLAIR WHITEHEAD
Readers of Weird Tales will be grieved to hear of the death of that distinguished author, the Reverend Henry S. Whitehead, Ph. D., who was a regular contributor to this magazine. His death was caused by a painful gastric illness of more than two years’ duration.
Doctor Whitehead, descended paternally from an old Virginian family and maternally from a noted line of Scottish West Indian planters, was born in 1882 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. As a boy he attended the Berkeley School in New York City, and in 1904 was graduated from Harvard University, a classmate of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Studying under men like Santayana and Münsterberg, he later took his degree as Doctor of Philosophy. His first literary work was published in 1905, and from that time forward he was an increasingly well-known writer in many fields.
In 1912, having graduated from the Berkeley Divinity School, Doctor Whitehead was ordained a deacon of the Episcopal Church; and was advanced to the priesthood in 1913. From 1913 to 1917 he was rector of Christ Church in Middletown, Connecticut, and was later children’s pastor at St. Mary the Virgin’s in New York City. During 1919-23 he was senior assistant at the Church of the Advent in Boston, and in 1923-5 was rector of Trinity Church at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Subsequently Doctor Whitehead served as acting archdeacon in the Virgin Islands, where he had previously served several winters in a similar capacity.
As an author Doctor Whitehead specialized in fiction, though writing much on ecclesiastical and other subjects. Beginning in 1923, when his story, The Intarsia Box (in Adventure), received a first-class rating as a story of distinction from the O. Henry Memorial Committee, many similar honors were accorded his work. In 1927 he contributed to the Free Lance Writers’ Handbook an article on the technique of weird fiction which is still a standard text on the subject.
It is for weird fiction of a subtle, realistic and quietly potent sort that he will be best remembered by readers of this magazine, in which twenty-five of his greatest tales have been published. Deeply versed in the somber folklore of the West Indies, and of the Virgin Islands in particular, he caught the inmost spirit of the native superstitions and wrote them into tales whose accurate local background created an astonishing illusion of genuineness. His “jumbee” stories—popularly so-called because of their frequent inclusion of a typical Virgin Island belief—form a permanent contribution to spectral literature, while his recurrent central character and narrator, “Gerald Canevin” (embodying much of his own personality), will always be recalled as a life-like and lovable figure.
Prominent among Doctor Whitehead’s tales are Sea Change, Jumbee, The Tree Man, Black Tancrede, Hill Drums, and Passing of a God—the latter perhaps representing the peak of his creative genius.
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While still residing on St. Croix, Whitehead published many of his St. Croix–based voodoo tales featuring Canevin and the several townships thereon. Since they played significant roles in many of Whitehead’s voodoo– and Canevin–based stories, I believe a brief bit of geography aided with maps could only improve our appreciation for Whitehead’s writing.
This map of the Virgin Islands dates from 1920. While living in St. Croix, Whitehead might have gazed upon something similar. To provide some perspective, on the 1903 map below, the Virgin Islands are located off the southeast corner of the island of Puerto Rico.
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Below is the list of tales as they appear in the table of contents of this volume. In addition, whether the tale is part of the Canevin corpus is indicated. Lastly, brief and pertinent comments are provided as well.
Note: this collection is not the totality of Whitehead’s literary corpus. Rather, it contains just those tales that are voodoo-based. Though, to be honest, no list is ever really complete.
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The subgenre of occult detective fiction combines the detective story with supernatural horror. With the spread of evolutionary science and the rapid growth of technological advances in the nineteenth century, the central, stabilizing place of God in society was threatened. The development of the occult detective subgenre is a direct result of this societal tension arising in particular in the late Victorian era.
Occult detective tales melded this new science, supernatural horror, and the popular genre of detective fiction. These tales’ strength lay in the fact that it shows individuals facing scary supernatural forces using science, occult knowledge and their own wits.
Someone whom I consider an expert on the history and development of the occult detective subgenre today is Tim Prasil whose writings appear on his website Brom Bones Books. Prasil penned a superb article, “A Key to the Chronological Bibliography of Early Occult Detectives,” in which he detailed four types of occult detective—the doctor, the diviner, the specialist and the novice or some combination thereof. Aylmer Vance (whom I discussed in a previous blog post) would most likely fit into the specialist category. Vance used his special knowledge of the occult and his associate’s skill with clairvoyance to aid in his investigations. In addition, there is certainly no doubt that Vance, as a detective, was a novice.
Now with regards to Whitehead’s Canevin, based on my reading and interpretation, I place Canevin most squarely in the novice detective category. Aside from being a writer with a friendly disposition, Canevin possesses no special skills or knowledge. To be clear, Canevin, as a character, is not in anyway filling the role of law enforcement. As in most occult detective or paranormal investigator stories, a mystery is presented in which the police cannot solve or be involved in. Hence, the need arises for a more informal approach. The degree of informality is variable. Canevin is the most basic—the novice category.
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While researching Whitehead and his tales, I stumbled over a short piece from 1928, “Dark Magic of the Caribbean Peoples.” Initially, I thought this was a voodoo tale that this book’s editors had missed considering its source.
Then I realized this was something much more. This was Whitehead’s statement concerning his understanding of the mechanics of voodoo and Caribbean magic. This article described the folk beliefs of the local peoples—both the protective and the horrific. I believe this piece also revealed a “better–than–passing” knowledge of the occult sciences by Whitehead
Of all the subjects touched upon, I found the most curious account to concern itself with lycanthropy. According to Whitehead’s telling of local belief, a werewolf was always and only ever a white man—never a person of another race. I think this is very telling.
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I find the occult detective subgenre growing on me, having encountered several examples previously. However, not having read any of Whitehead’s works before, I was apprehensive about taking on such a large collection of tales in one volume. I am so happy that I did so! I loved these tales, especially the Canevin ones! I cannot recommend them enough!
References
Print Resources
Whitehead, Henry S. Voodoo Tales: The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural). Wordsworth Editions Ltd. Wordsworth Editions: Hertfordshire, 2012.
Digital Resources
Whitehead, Henry. “Dark Magic of the Caribbean Peoples” (Mystery Stories, October 1928, Vol. XVI, no. 1, pp. 77-84
Online Resources
Charles, KJ. “Victorian Occult Detectives: A Warning to the Curious.” KJ Charles. 19 June 2015. Web. 07 December 2018. http://kjcharleswriter.com/2015/06/19/victorian-occult-detectives-a-warning-to-the-curious/
Eaton, Sean. “Gerald Canevin and the Lorriquer Case.” The R’lyeh Tribune. 22 October 2014. Web. Blogger.com. 10 December 2018 http://blog-sototh.blogspot.com/2014/10/gerald-canevin-and-lorriquer-case.html
Grant, John Linwood. “Vodun Child.” Greydogtales: Weird fiction, weird art and even weirder lurchers. 09 August 2015. Web. Wordpress.com. 10 December 2018. http://greydogtales.com/blog/vodun-child/
Hade, David. “Henry S. Whitehead.” TENTACLII: H.P. Lovecraft blog ~ News and scholarship on H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) and his works. 27 August 2013. Web. 12 December 2018. https://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/henry-s-whitehead/
Hade, David. “Henry S. Whitehead obituary.” TENTACLII: H.P. Lovecraft blog ~ News and scholarship on H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) and his works. 04 September 2013. Web. 12 December 2018. https://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/henry-s-whitehead-obituary/
Prasil, Tim. “A Key to the Chronological Bibliography of Early Occult Detectives.” Brom Bones Books: The Publishing Cottage of Tim Prasil. Wordpress.com Web. 07 December 2018. https://brombonesbooks.com/occult-detectives-ghost-hunters-in-fact-and-fiction/the-chronological-bibliography-of-early-occult-detectives/a-key-to-the-chronological-bibliography-of-early-occult-detectives/
Prasil, Tim. “Enough to Unnerve the Most Hardened Investigator of the Unearthly: Henry S. Whitehead’s Gerald Canevin (and Lord Carruth).” Brom Bones Books: The Publishing Cottage of Tim Prasil. Wordpress.com Web. 07 December 2018. https://brombonesbooks.com/occult-detectives-ghost-hunters-in-fact-and-fiction/the-chronological-bibliography-of-early-occult-detectives/a-chronological-bibliography-of-early-occult-detectives-early-1900s/enough-to-unnerve-the-most-hardened-investigator-of-the-unearthly-henry-s-whiteheads-gerald-canevin-and-lord-carruth/?frame-nonce=2f7446913f
[i] A fine series of reprints and collections which, as I have stated in previous posts, I wholeheartedly endorse.
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