When this story first appeared, the editors described it as one which "for sheer imaginative daring goes beyond anything ever printed before." For Weird Tales that was saying a lot! The story behind its writing is interesting. You may have read Lovecraft's haunting tale The Silver Key, which was in Avon Fantasy Reader No. 3. E. Hoffmann Price, a weird author in his own right, had long been intrigued with the tale and had urged his friend Lovecraft to write a further episode. But Lovecraft put off so doing, until Price, inspired, sat down and wrote his own version of the adventure that the silver key opened upon. He sent this to Lovecraft, thereby forcing that author into action. Lovecraft proceeded to revise, "correct," and enlarge the Price manuscript, and so after a bit more work by both powerful imaginations the present striking novelette made its appearance.