H. P. Lovecraft

Lore & Background

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life in New England. Following the institutionalization of his father in 1893, he lived affluently until his family's wealth dissipated after the death of his grandfather. Lovecraft then lived with his mother with reduced financial security until she too was institutionalized in 1919. He began to write essays for the United Amateur Press Association and in 1913 wrote a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fiction. He became active in the speculative fiction community and was published in several pulp magazines. Marrying Sonia Greene in 1924, Lovecraft moved to New York City and later became a central figure in a wider group of authors known as the "Lovecraft Circle". Friends in New York encouraged him to submit to Weird Tales, which became his most prominent publisher. Lovecraft's time in New York took a toll on his mental state and financial conditions. He returned to Providence in 1926 and remained active as a writer for 11 years, until his death at the age of 46. It was during this final period that Lovecraft produced some of his most popular works, including The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time. Lovecraft's literary corpus is rooted in cosmicism, which was simultaneously his personal philosophy and the main theme of his fiction. Cosmicism posits that humanity is an insignificant part of the cosmos. He incorporated fantasy and science fiction elements into his stories, representing the fragility of anthropocentrism. This was tied to his ambivalent views on knowledge. His works were largely set in a fictionalized version of New England. Civilizational decline also plays a major role in his works, as he believed that the West was in decline during his lifetime. Lovecraft's early political views were conservative and traditionalist; additionally, he held a number of racist views for much of his adult life. Following the Great Depression, Lovecraft's political views became more socialist while still remaining elitist and aristocratic. Throughout his adult life, Lovecraft was never able to support himself from his earnings as an author and editor. He was virtually unknown during his lifetime, and was almost exclusively published in pulp magazines before his death. A scholarly revival of Lo

Reader's Guide

Lovecraft was born in his family home on August 20, 1890, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the only child of Winfield Scott Lovecraft and Sarah Susan Lovecraft. After his father's institutionalization in 1893, Lovecraft resided with his mother, his maternal aunts Lillian and Annie, and his maternal grandparents Whipple and Robie. Whipple became a father figure to Lovecraft. Lovecraft's earliest known literary works were written at the age of seven, and were poems restyling the Odyssey and other Greco-Roman mythological stories. He began publishing the periodical Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy, using the hectograph printing method. By 1900, Whipple's various business concerns were suffering a downturn. In the spring of 1904, Whipple's largest business venture suffered a catastrophic failure. Within months, he died at age 70 due to a stroke. After Whipple's death, Susie was unable to financially support the upkeep of the expansive family home. Later that year, she was forced to move to a small duplex with her son. Lovecraft called this time one of the darkest of his life.

Did You Know?

• Lovecraft's earliest known literary works were poems restyling the Odyssey and other Greco-Roman mythological stories.
• He began publishing the periodical Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy using the hectograph printing method.
• Lovecraft's father Winfield was institutionalized in 1893 after a psychotic episode and died in 1898 of general paresis, a term synonymous with late-stage syphilis.
• Lovecraft's grandfather Whipple Van Buren Phillips died in 1904 after his largest business venture failed.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Disintegration is quite painless, I assure you." — H. P. Lovecraft "The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window! The window!" — H. P. Lovecraft "Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon." — H. P. Lovecraft "I screamed aloud that I was not afraid; that I never could be afraid; and others screamed with me for solace. We swore to one another that the city was exactly the same, and still alive..." — H. P. Lovecraft