Henry St. Clair Whitehead (born March 5th, 1882 - died November 23rd 1932) was an Episcopal minister, and an author of fantasy and horror fiction.
He graduated from Harvard University in 1904, in the same class as Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was an active young man, playing football at Harvard, editing a reform Democratic newspaper in Port Chester, NY, and serving as Commissioner of Athletics for the Amateur Athletic Union.
Later he attended Berkeley Divinity School in Middleton CT, and in 1912 was ordained an Episcopal Deacon. He served as a pastor in New York City,
Then, in 1921, he became the Episcopal Archdeacon for the Virgin Islands, serving in this post until 1929 Living on St. Croix, he gathered information on the supernatural which he would later use in his speculative fiction.
From 1924 on, Whitehead published stories in various pulps, most notably Weird Tales. He became a friend of H. P. Lovecraft, and both influenced by and influencing his fellow weird fiction writers.
He died in 1932, in Dunedin FL, apparently of a stroke or fall.
Works by Henry S. Whitehead include:
- "The Chadbourne Episode" (1933, published posthumously, short story). A Gerald Canevin tale set in Chadbourne that concerns ghouls.
A man is saved from danger by a warning from his mother's ghost.
- Author Avatar: Dr. MacDonald's life and personality are quite similar to Whitehead's own.
- Dream Walker: His mother appears to Dr. MacDonald in his dreams.
- Friendly Ghost: Her intentions are wholly benign.
- Mama Bear: The mother comes back from beyond the grave to save her son.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Dream Walker Friendly Ghost with precognition.
- Poison Mushroom: Dr. MacDonald accidentally ingests these: thanks to the warning he is prompt to self-administer an emetic and thus survive.
- Precogniton: She warns him of a future menace.
Gerald Canevin, occult investigator, looks into the haunting of "The Coach and Horses Inn" on the Brighton Road in England.
- The Highwayman: In life, Simon Forrester was a perhaps realistically-thuggish variant on the classic romantic model
- I Call It "Vera": Forrester has jocularly named his twin horse pistols "Jem" and "Jack."
