Poor ol’ charmin’ Jarmyn Thanatos: his undying wish was simply to live forever.

As Professor Childermass notes, Thanatos:

...made quite a name for himself – as a medicine-show quack, a con artist, and miserable mountebank, that is. He claimed to have the secrets of the Hand of Glory, the philosopher’s stone to turn lean into gold, and the universal elixir that cured every disease and disorder from athlete’s foot to yaws. [22]

As it turns out Thanatos was all that – and had been all that – for centuries. From what Dr. Coote dredged up, Thanatos – his original name, Jarmyn Cudbright – practiced this proto-science with a virtual who’s-who of European alchemists and occultists during the later years of the Renaissance:

• Despite his early scientific training, Paracelsus (born Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim) (1493-1541) was drawn to the occult fields of astrology, divination, and to the science of Alchemy. By age sixteen, Paracelsus was studying surgery and medicine but soon left his studies to wander throughout Europe and Asia. Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine and denounced the beliefs long-held by his contemporaries, but because of these unorthodox beliefs and pursuits, he was oft labeled a charlatan or heretic; quick to anger, he was usually all too ready to verbally abuse anyone he felt criticized him. Somewhere along the way, says Coote, he took a young Englishman named Cudbright as an apprentice [99].
• Best known as the reputed seer of events as varied as the Great Fire of London and World War II and infamous names such as Napoleon and Adolph Hitler, Nostradamus (Michel de Nostredame, 1503-66) published Les Propheties in 1555 and quickly made a name by providing horoscopes and psychic advice. A doctor by trade, Nostradamus wrote his four-line verses (or quatrains) in groups of one hundred (or centuries) but purposely obscured meanings and left out dates. Cudbright appears to have studied with Nostradamus for a time [100].
• Dr. John Dee (1527–1608/09) was a noted English astronomer and occultist who, after studying abroad, became consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy and crystal gazing and, from his association with Edward Kelly, claimed to have discovered various secrets through visions with angelic spirits. While much of these communications were later thought to involved trickery perpetrated by Kelly, in recent centuries Dee has been looked at as a serious scholar: his personal library was one of the largest and finest in Europe and he was an early advocate of the colonization of North America. H.P. Lovecraft said the Necronomicon was translated into English by Dee. In addition to Kelly, Dee apparently crossed paths with Cudbright [100].

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Taking Root in Rhode Island

A Genealogist in Province, the next to the last book in the Duston Heights library, has been cataloged 999.99; according to the Dewey Decimal Classification schedule this numbering is reserved for extraterrestrial worlds. Since when is Providence or genealogy deemed extraterrestrial? Strickland reveals his joke: "Providence, Rhode Island is the home town of H.P. Lovecraft. I was thinking that a genealogist would happen across evidence of alien life forms intermarrying with humans."