Miskatonic adj.

= Lovecraftian adj.; of or relating to the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his school, or (broadly) to horror in general

[< Miskatonic, a place-name invented by Lovecraft from purported Algonquian languages, and frequently used in his works, esp. in Miskatonic University, which first appeared in the 1922 story ‘Herbert West—Reanimator’]

SF Criticism

  • [1920 H. P. Lovecraft The Picture in the House (manuscript) 2 page image H. P. Lovecraft

    I had been travelling for some time amongst the people of the Miskatonic Valley in quest of certain genealogical data; and from the remote, devious and problematical nature of my course, had deemed in convenient to employ a bicycle despite the lateness of the season.]

  • 1941 C. R. Tanner Out of the Jar in Stirring Science Stories 19 Feb. 103/1 page image Charles R. Tanner bibliography

    Halpin, at this time, was still under thirty, yet he had become already a recognized authority in this country of that queer borderland of mystic occult study that Churchward, Fort, Lovecraft and the Miskatonic school represent.

  • 1963 Nottingham Evening Post & News 19 Sept. 12/4 page image

    This contains stories mainly by authors under the patronage of his own publishing firm, Arkham House, started primarily to issue the works of Lovecraft and other writers of the so-called ‘Miskatonic’ school.

  • 1969 Famous Monsters of Filmland (#55) May 11/2 page image

    ‘It’s a wise Thing that knows its own mother’ — Old Miskatonic Adage.

  • 1973 D. W. Mosig (title of fanzine)

    The Miskatonic.

  • 1991 Comic Buyer’s Guide 18 Oct. 26/3 page image

    The characters belong to a group known as the Miskatonic Project, named after Lovecraft’s fictional New England school, Miskatonic University.

  • 1992 I. Blake H. P. Lovecraft—An Avenue in S. Dwyer Rapid Eye 2 74 page image Ian Blake

    If Cthulhu and the Old Ones were Lovecraft’s ACTIVE agents of terror, then the passive agent was surely the Arkham/Dunwich/Miskatonic landscape in which they operated.

  • 2014 K. Hite et al. Mythos Expeditions: Trail of Cthulhu (game manual) 28/1 page image

    It also adds other significant dates in Miskatonic history and the Mythos during this period.

  • 2018 Dan’s Papers 25 May 142/3 page image

    Congrats to former Dan’s Papers editor Valerie San Filippo upon her receipt of the inaugural Miskatonic Scholarship for horror writers, founded to help a horror writer to attend the Odyssey Writing Workshop, the acclaimed, six-week residential writers training program in Manchester, New Hampshire.

  • 2021 Rue Morgue Sept.–Oct. 55/1 page image

    The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies offers horror history, theory and production classes with regular branches in London, New York, Los Angeles, and online.

Research History
Suggested, and most cites submitted, by Bill Mullins.

Last modified 2026-05-14 13:00:39
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.