The Thing in the Moonlight

The Thing in the Moonlight is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft and J. Chapman Miske and first published in the January 1941 issue (Volume 4, Number 1) of Bizarre magazine, a publication for which Miske was co-editor. It was solely credited to Lovecraft at the time of printing.
==Plot Summary==
The narrator recounts the story of Morgan, an illiterate man alone in his home, who suddenly began to write a letter under the name Howard Phillips of 66 College Street, Providence, Rhode Island, detailing a dream from November 24 1927.
In the text, the dreamer finds themself in a reedy marsh and feels compelled to climb a cliff to the north. Reaching a moonlit plateau they they look around and discover a rusting tramway. Some way down the track they find a yellow 1900-10 tram car numbered 1852. He climbs aboard and though the car stands empty the conductor and motorman approach from the left before the latter begins to howl and the former charges on all fours. Seeing that the motorman's face is in fact a white cone with a single white tentacle the dreamer flees. Though he knows he's sleeping, he is trapped in the dreamland, involuntarily returning to the ancient tram car and the howling creature each night. He signs off by asking "God! When will I awaken?".
==Behind the Mythos==
"The Thing in the Moonlight" was based on a 1927 letter from H. P. Lovecraft to Donald Wandrei, in which Lovecraft recounted one of his dreams. Later, Miske came into possession of the contents, and turned Lovecraft's description into the meat of a story, doing little more than adding three paragraphs to the beginning and five to the end to create a wraparound section.
==Publication==
*Bizarre magazine, January 1941
*Dreams and Fancies, Arkham House 1962
*The Tomb and Other Tales, Ballantine Books 1970
*Dreams of Terror and Death: The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft, Ballantine Books 1995
*Shadows of Death, Del Rey Books 2005
*The Horror in the Museum, Wordsworth Editions 2010
*Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre, Victor Gollancz Ltd. 2011
Category:H. P. Lovecraft works
Category:J. Chapman Miske works
Category:Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works