Which Lovecraft story first introduced Randolph Carter?

The Lovecraft story that first introduced Randolph Carter is “The Statement of Randolph Carter.”

Lovecraft wrote the short story in December 1919, basing it closely on one of his own dreams. It presents Carter’s testimony after he is found wandering in a state of shock following the disappearance of his companion, the occultist Harley Warren.

The story establishes several traits that recur in Carter’s later appearances: his interest in forbidden books, his willingness to investigate supernatural mysteries, and his vulnerability when knowledge reaches beyond ordinary human limits. Warren’s descent into an ancient crypt also introduces the story’s central horror through a chilling telephone exchange.

Readers sometimes mistake The Silver Key or The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath as Carter’s introduction because those works are more prominent in the Dreamlands sequence. Publication history also causes confusion: the story was written in 1919 but first published in The Vagrant in May 1920.