High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a short novel (51,500 words) by H. P. Lovecraft, written in early 1927, but not published during the author`s lifetime. Set in Lovecraft`s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, it was first published (in abridged form) in the May and July issues of Weird Tales in 1941; the first complete publication was in Arkham House`s Beyond the Wall of Sleep collection (1943).