Memphis, Egypt
Lovecraft outlined the plot to his friend Rheinhart Kleiner in May 1920 and wrote "The Cats of Ulthar" on June 15, 1920, five months after completing his previous tale, "The Terrible Old Man". Conceived during the author's early period, Lovecraft was influenced by the writing of Anglo-Irish writer Lord Dunsany and attempted to mimic his style. Among the literary aspects that Lovecraft borrows are the "vengeance motif" and the "ponderous tone" of Dunsany. Dunsany's influence is evident on the surface of the text as well: wanderers, similar to the ones portrayed in "The Cats of Ulthar", appear in Dunsany's earlier tale "Idle Days on the Yann". Lovecraft's character of Menes shares his name with Menes, the semi-mythical founder of the ancient city of Memphis, Egypt. The ancient Egyptians were admirers of cats who made it a crime to kill or export felines.