Lovecraft, H. P.

Lovecraft, H. P.

(Howard Phillips Lovecraft), 1890–1937, American writer, b. Providence, R.I. A master of Gothic horror, fantasy, and science fiction of a most rococo variety, he is particularly noted for his many nightmarish short stories. Most of these are set in his native New England and many originally appeared in Weird Tales and other pulp magazines. Some of his best-known tales are part of the Cthulhu Mythos series written c.1925–35, in which he invents an entire mythology of earthly origins, gods, and hideous otherworldly creatures. His stories have been included in a wide variety of collections; among his novels are The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1928) and At the Mountains of Madness (1931).

Bibliography

See P. Straub, ed., H. P. Lovecraft: Tales (2005); A. Derleth et al., ed., Selected Letters (5 vol., 1968–98); biographies by L. Sprague de Camp (1975), F. B. Long (1975), and S. T. Joshi (1982, repr. 2004).

Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Philips) (Lawrence Appleton, Houdini, John J. Jones, Ames Dorrance Rowely, Edgar Softly, among many pen names)

(1890–1937) writer; born in Providence, R.I. He was self-educated and lived in Providence all his life, working as a free-lance writer, journalist, and ghostwriter. From 1914 until 1918 he was an astrology columnist for the Evening News (Providence) and was the publisher of The Conservative magazine (1915–19; 1923). He was also president of the United Amateur Press Association (1917–18; 1923). Using many pen names, he contributed his supernatural/horror and science fiction/fantasy stories to various pulp magazines, but his reputation as a writer rests mainly on the 60 or so stories he published in Weird Tales starting in 1923. Although not much appreciated in his day, he came to attract a small, sometimes fanatical following both in America and abroad, particularly France.