Danforth is a fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft, who makes his first appearance in the 1936 novel At the Mountains of Madness. He is described as "a great reader of bizarre material", and makes allusions to Edgar Allan Poe and the Necronomicon.
History[]
Danforth is a graduate student at Miskatonic University. As part of the Pabodie Expedition, he accompanied Professor William Dyer on a survey flight over the "Plateau of Leng" and went insane escaping from the Shoggoth that was residing deep within the mountain. The thing that broke Danforth's mind was never fully explained, as he vowed to keep it a secret from everyone but according to Danforth, it was something he saw in the reflection of the sky, as they left the mountain range of the Plateau.
According to Fritz Leiber's To Arkham and the Stars (CIRCLE), he later recovered after being treated with experimental drugs developed by one Professor Morgan, though he never recalled the horror he saw on the plateau. Afterward, he became a professor of psychology at Miskatonic University. In Leiber's "The Terror from the Depths", the recovered Danforth takes care of Albert Wilmarth's cats while Wilmarth is traveling.