Which Lovecraft story is set in the fictional village of Dunwich, Massachusetts?

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“Which Lovecraft story is set in the fictional village of Dunwich, Massachusetts?” — “The Dunwich Horror.” The story takes place in a remote, impoverished village in north-central Massachusetts, where the Whateley family’s occult activities unleash a terrifying presence.

Wilbur Whateley is born to Lavinia Whateley, and his family secretly raises an invisible, rapidly growing entity connected to Yog-Sothoth. Wilbur later seeks the Necronomicon at Miskatonic University, but a guard dog kills him before he can obtain it. His death leaves the hidden creature unchecked, and it escapes to terrorize the countryside.

Lovecraft wrote the story in 1928, and it was first published in 1929. Dunwich is fictional, though Lovecraft drew on real New England landscapes and towns, including Wilbraham and places around western Massachusetts. Readers sometimes confuse it with Arkham or Innsmouth, two other important fictional locations in Lovecraft’s New England, but Dunwich is the setting named directly in this title.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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