Edward Lucas White

Who was Edward Lucas White?

Edward Lucas White was an American author and poet. Born in Bergen, New Jersey, he attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in which city he did most of his work. From 1915 until his retirement in 1930, he was a teacher at the University School for Boys in Baltimore.

He wrote a number of historical novels, including The Unwilling Vestal, Andivius Hedulio and Helen; but he is best remembered as a fantasist, for stories such as "The House of Nightmare" and "Lukundoo" These short horror stories were based on his own nightmares. Two collections of his short fiction were published in his lifetime, The Song of the Sirens and Lukundoo and Other Stories. He died by his own hand. On March 30, 1934, seven years to the day after the death of his wife, Agnes Gerry, he was found dead in the gas-filled bathroom of his Baltimore home. The coroner pronounced it a suicide. His last book, Matrimony was a memoir of his happy marriage to her.

"Lukundoo", Lucas's most frequently anthologized story, is the tale of an American explorer in a remote section of Africa who incurs the wrath of the local witch doctor, who casts a spell on him.