Heald had been introduced to Lovecraft by his Providence friend Muriel E. Eddy (see C. M. Eddy, Jr.). Starting in 1965 his letters to friends and other writers were published in which Lovecraft claimed that this story was mostly his own work. E.g. in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith he wrote on 14th of June 1933 (published in 'Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill', page 420): "Yes—the waxwork museum story is mostly my own; entirely so in wording, & also so far as concerns the background of Alaskan archaeology & antique horror.