Crawford Tillinghast is a character created by the late American author H. P. Lovecraft for his short story "From Beyond".
Description[]
The best friend of the story's narrator, Tillinghast is a researcher of the "physical and metaphysical". Characterized as a man of "feeling and action", the narrator describes his physical transformation after he succeeds in his experiments: "It is not pleasant to see a stout man suddenly grown thin, and it is even worse when the baggy skin becomes yellowed or grayed, the eyes sunken, circled, and uncannily glowing, the forehead veined and corrugated, and the hands tremulous and twitching."
History[]
- Main article: From Beyond
Tillinghast was the creator of a machine which could open gateways between worlds, allowing humans to interact with entirely alien entities. Unfortunately for him, his experiments ended in disaster when his friend destroyed the machine, an act which inadvertently resulted in Tillinghast's death.
Behind the Mythos[]
In the first draft of the story, Lovecraft called the character Henry Annesley; he replaced that name with one composed of two old Providence surnames. (EXP: An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia) In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Lovecraft mentions "the seasoned salts who manned...the great brigs of the Browns, Crawfords, and Tillinghasts"; James Tillinghast and Eliza Tillinghast are minor characters in that story.