The Colour Out of Space

“The Colour Out of Space,” published in the September 1927 edition of Amazing Stories, is widely regarded as H. P. Lovecraft’s best work. It’s the quintessential expression of cosmicism, Lovecraft’s theory that the universe lacks a higher power and that humans are insignificant. Cosmicism is his greatest contribution to the horror genre, along with the Cthulhu mythos, which takes its name from the cosmic entity in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu.”

“The Colour Out of Space” has been adapted into several films, and has had an enormous influence on science fiction and horror authors of the last century. The story is now in the public domain. This guide refers to the 2022 edition of H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection published by Big Cheese Books.

The unnamed narrator of the story is surveying the region west of the witch-haunted, New England town of Arkham in preparation for a proposed reservoir that will drown the valley. He has been warned in Arkham that the area is “evil.” His informants make references to the “blasted heath,” and the narrator is intrigued. In the course of his survey, he finds the blasted heath and is struck by both the aptness of the name and a sense of unidentifiable horror that relates to a strange sense of visual distortion and an old well that seems to exude a vapor, distorting the colours around it.

He inquires among the nearby residents, but the only person willing to talk to him about the site is old Ammi Pierce. Old Ammi relates the story of how the blasted heath came to be. It began in June 1882 with a meteorite striking the farm of Nahum Gardner near the well. Three professors from Miskatonic University came to examine the crashed aerolite. They took a sample back to the university for tests, but all they discovered was that under a spectroscope, the sample emitted colours outside the normal spectrum.

The next morning, the sample shrunk away and disappeared along with the glass beaker in which it had been stored. The professors returned to Nahum’s farm for a second sample. The meteorite had shrunk, and as they were digging out a second sample, they encountered a glassy bubble, which they broke just to see what might be in it. The bubble disappeared and appeared empty, although Ammi thought he might have felt something pass by him when the bubble broke. The scientists concluded that it was likely the meteor contained more of the bubbles, but they didn’t look for them. That night, the meteorite was struck by lightning and disappeared.

The Gardner farm seemed to thrive over the summer. The crops grew particularly fast and large, but at harvest, they were found to be inedible. Nahum concluded that the aerolite had poisoned the land. Over the winter, the Gardner family began acting strange—withdrawn and worried. Plants and animals around the farm were beginning to show queer signs of mutation. The snow seemed to melt faster on the Gardner farm, and the spring plant life looked strange. Their colour seemed to have changed, although no one could identify exactly how. The trees began to behave oddly, moving their limbs without wind, and all the vegetation became bioluminescent. Nahum tried to speak to the scientists at the University, but they were no longer interested. When he went to the newspapers, he was ridiculed.

As the summer went on, the plant life turned gray and brittle. Nahum’s wife went “mad” and exuded the same bioluminescence as the plant life. He was forced to confine her to the attic. Ammi warned Nahum that his well must have been poisoned by the aerolite and that Nahum should dig a new one further up the hill to use until the old one cleared. By this time, Nahum was too apathetic to take any action to save himself or his family. His oldest son, Thaddeus, went “mad” and had to be confined in another room of the attic. The livestock began to die off, turning gray and crumbling to dust while still alive. Thaddeus soon died the same way. Nahum’s second son, Merwin, disappeared when he went to draw water from the well.

Later, Ammi went to the Gardner farm and found that Nahum had gone “mad” and Zenas had disappeared. Nahum said that Zenas lived in the well. He told Ammi that the light from the well sucked your will to escape. Ammi found Nahum’s wife in the attic, still alive and moving but decaying into dust like everything else on the farm. He shot her out of pity, and when he returned downstairs, he found Nahum dead.

Ammi reported the deaths to the police. The authorities found the crumbled corpses of Nahum and his wife. Investigating the well, they found the bones of Merwin and Zenas and many animals. As it grew late, the investigators saw a ray of light emerging from the mouth of the well. It became a shapeless stream of the indefinable colour of the meteorite. Finally, the light erupted into the sky and disappeared into the depths of space. Only Ammi noticed that a part of the light was unable to escape and sank back into the well. Since then, the blasted heath has been growing perhaps an inch a year.

The narrator resigns his commission to survey the land. He’s glad the well and whatever lives there will be drowned under fathoms of water. All the same, he will never return to Arkham, and he will never, ever drink the water.