I’m still not sure at all about Robert W. Chambers as a writer of horror (and/or fantasy and/or science fiction). He didn’t do much of it, more inclined to writing bestselling romances that are all but forgotten nowadays. But his speculative stories have an ardent and enduring fan base, which includes Nic Pizzolatto, co-creator of the
True Detective franchise. The Chambers gold is found in the first half of his 1895 collection of stories,
The King in Yellow, specifically in the first handful or so of stories. The rest are romances, and cheesy. I’m even meh on the ones with all the reputation, such as
“The Repairer of Reputations,” and not at all interested in the romances, which I thought took up the rest of his career. And mostly they did, but it turns out he returned to the weird now and then, as with this one. It also exists as the first five chapters of his 1904 novel
In Search of the Unknown, the story of a cryptozoologist pursuing monsters and romance.
Gutenberg has the novel online and the story is also featured in a 2021 Hippocampus collection of Chambers stories edited by S.T. Joshi,
The Harbor-Master: Best Weird Stories of Robert W. Chambers. It makes sense to give this story the honors of the collection title because it’s the best story I’ve read by Chambers yet. It seems likely that H.P. Lovecraft was influenced by it for his so-called “Deep Ones” (off the coast, in the water) in the “Innsmouth” story. It seems likely the creators of the 1954 movie
The Creature From the Black Lagoon knew this story too. Lovecraft’s amphibians interbreed with humans, but this “harbor-master,” the nickname the villagers have for it, is more of a brute animal with perhaps a taste for human flesh. He’s certainly a danger. I must say it impressed me, nicely paced, always interesting. The harbor-master is intriguing and scary too—the image of him seen from a distance is powerful. The story is also somewhat oddly funny in places. The cryptozoologist narrator is visiting the remote area at the invitation of a man who claims to have a pair of extinct birds, great auks ... and something more, if there is any interest. Our guy works for the Bronx Zoo, a detail I love. It makes sense given Chambers’s origins in New York City. Halyard, with the auks, is an invalid in a wheelchair who has a “pretty nurse” working for him. Our guy and the pretty nurse take up with one another, described comically as on all fours on the floor looking for a thimble the pretty nurse has dropped. The romance(s?) begin (in the novel)! I count this story as a good one from Chambers. Maybe I’m ready to give him another chance. He is a tough nut!
Listen to story online.
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