Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937) was born in Providence, Rhode Island, a city which, apart from an unhappy sojourn in New York, would remain his home throughout his life.

He read preciously from a young age, though ill health meant long periods absent from school and an infelicity with mathematics meant he was unable to pursue a career in astronomy, which was a bitter disappointment. As a young man, living first with his mother and later with his aunts, he became heavily involved in the burgeoning amateur journalism movement, writing essays and fiction for small-press periodicals and maintaining an extensive correspondence with other participants.

Through amateur journalism and associated literary circles he met Sonia Greene, who became his wife, though the marriage eventually failed. The same network helped draw him towards the pulp market, especially Weird Tales, where he published many of his most enduring stories, including ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ in 1928.

Although Lovecraft did not live long enough to enjoy success as an author, his Cthulhu Mythos – not his own term – has found a permanent place in popular culture and shaped the course of horror in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Lovecraft’s life has often been mythologised to the point where he is caricatured as an eccentric recluse; in fact, he travelled frequently, particularly in the eastern United States, visiting friends and correspondents with whom he exchanged vast numbers of letters. In recent years, his legacy has been increasingly overshadowed by critical attention to his virulent racism, even as his monstrous creations continue to thrive.