故事講述者是米斯卡塔尼克大學教師阿爾伯特·N·威尔马斯(Albert N. Wilmarth)。開頭,阿卡姆的新聞報紙報道了佛蒙特州洪水後河流中出現的不明物體,一些人懷疑這是一種傳說中的怪物。威尔马斯不久收到來自亨利·溫特沃斯·埃克利(Henry Wentworth Akeley)的信,後者說他有證據證明這些怪物的存在。
^Arthur Machen, "The Novel of the Black Seal", The Hastur Cycle, p. 138.
^H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Clark Ashton Smith, June 24, 1927; cited in Price, p. viii.
Lovecraft, Howard P. The Whisperer in Darkness. S. T. Joshi (编). The Dunwich Horror and Others 9th corrected printing. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. 1984 [1931]. ISBN 0-87054-037-8. Definitive version.
Pearsall, Anthony B. The Lovecraft Lexicon 1st. Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. 2005. ISBN 1-56184-129-3.
Price, Robert M. Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction of Robert E. Howard 1st. Chaosium, Inc. 2001. ISBN 1-56882-130-1.