Whateley, Wilbur

   (1913–1928)

   In “The Dunwich Horror,” the more human of the twin offspring of Lavinia Whateley and YogSothoth. Old Whateley indoctrinates the precocious but abnormally mature boy in esoteric study. He is slain by a watchdog when trying to steal a copy of the Necronomiconfrom the library of Miskatonic University. Lavinia Whateley (c. 1878–1926) is the deformed albino mother of Wilbur and his alien fraternal twin. Old Whateley is the aged wizard who is Lavinia’s father and Wilbur’s grandfather. The relationship of these three characters is somewhat of a parody of that of HPL, his mother (no albino, but noted for her queer behavior), and his maternal grandfather, Whipple V.Phillips, who was HPL’s surrogate father until he died. When their respective grandfathers died, Wilbur and HPL were both about fourteen years of age. Other members of the Whateley family include: Curtis Whateley, son of Zechariah Whateley, who looks through a telescope and sees Wilbur’s monstrous twin brother; Mrs. Whateley, Old Whateley’s wife, who died under mysterious circumstances when Lavinia was twelve; Squire Sawyer Whateley, chairman of the local draft board who in 1917 had difficulty finding enough young Dunwich men fit to send to a development camp; Zebulon Whateley, “of a branch that hovered about half way between soundness and decadence,” who receives a frantic telephone call from George Corey’s wife about the ravages of Wilbur’s twin brother; and Zechariah Whateley, who brings Old Whateley some cows that the latter had purchased from his son Curtis.