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Howard Philips Lovecraft, better known as H.P. Lovecraft, was an American writer whose innovative, profound and eccentric creative genius in the literary field of horror, fantasy, science, weird and speculative fiction generated an entire literary genre of its own – now regarded as lovecraftian horror –, being posthumously considered one of the greatest writers on this genre of literature ever to exist, having exercised an everlasting influence in all subsequent generations of writers in the horror and fantasy genres.
A native of New England, Howard Philips Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on 20 August, 1890, and very early exhibited traces of unusual creativity, intellectual precociousness, restless curiosity and literary skills, that unfortunately, would hardly help him in his ordeals throughout life. In his childhood, his grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, a prominent New England businessman, was instrumental in encouraging the love for literature in the young Lovecraft.
Having started his writing at a very early age, Lovecraft appeared to have been shy and introverted as a child, and as a young man had little to no social life. As he was growing up, his writing skills developed brightly, but the literary market, throughout his entire journey, would prove to be a cruel, hostile, unstable and difficult place.
Having tried a great deal of jobs and employments, despite being a theoretical genius in the intellectual level, Lovecraft had no skills nor ambitions in real life, which would be to him a source of constant problems, difficulties and deprivations. Always making efforts to support himself by literary means, Lovecraft worked constantly as a ghost writer, freelance editor, text reviser and proof reader, but the income generated badly covered his personal costs of living, which, for almost all of his life, was always below the necessary to survive decently.
A native of New England, Howard Philips Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on 20 August, 1890, and very early exhibited traces of unusual creativity, intellectual precociousness, restless curiosity and literary skills, that unfortunately, would hardly help him in his ordeals throughout life. In his childhood, his grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, a prominent New England businessman, was instrumental in encouraging the love for literature in the young Lovecraft.
Having started his writing at a very early age, Lovecraft appeared to have been shy and introverted as a child, and as a young man had little to no social life. As he was growing up, his writing skills developed brightly, but the literary market, throughout his entire journey, would prove to be a cruel, hostile, unstable and difficult place.
Having tried a great deal of jobs and employments, despite being a theoretical genius in the intellectual level, Lovecraft had no skills nor ambitions in real life, which would be to him a source of constant problems, difficulties and deprivations. Always making efforts to support himself by literary means, Lovecraft worked constantly as a ghost writer, freelance editor, text reviser and proof reader, but the income generated badly covered his personal costs of living, which, for almost all of his life, was always below the necessary to survive decently.
Before the twenties begun, Lovecraft started writing letters to magazines, criticizing, in one of them, the lack of content and consistency of some of the stories, as well as the opacity of some writers featured. Lovecraft’s constant letters and criticisms soon caught the attention of editors and writers in the market, and subsequently Lovecraft was introduced to the world of pulp fiction magazines.
Being able to sell stories, Weird Tales became the magazine which would feature most of Lovecraft’s work, and very soon, the unknown writer had developed a cult following, with a lot of the public buying the magazine just to read his stories.
Unfortunately, this would not change his situation in life. The income generated with selling stories was mediocre, to say the least, and, although Lovecraft had developed a considerable fan-base with his work circulating in magazines, nobody expressed interest to publish him in book form.
Nevertheless, Lovecraft’s prestige as a writer grew, especially among other writers, and soon he was being recognized by his peers as one of the most talented and innovative writers of his generation. Several friendships grew out of this, and Lovecraft started a lifelong correspondence with writers like Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Howard (a pioneer of the sword and sorcery genre, creator of Conan the Barbarian) and August Derleth (which would become Lovecraft’s literary executor, after his death), among others. They frequently exchanged ideas, and borrowed characters from one another. Several monsters and creatures from the lore of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos were borrowed by these authors, with Lovecraft’s happiness and approval. From lack of a better name, posterity would call this literary group “The Lovecraft Circle”, which would prove itself to be a rather peculiar set of friends, since most of them never met in real life, but corresponded frequently. In fact, letter writing was a major part in Lovecraft’s life, to the extent of having him being regarded today as the second most prolific letter writer in human history, staying only behind Voltaire (it is estimated today that Lovecraft wrote no less than 100.000 letters in his life). Soon, Lovecraft would become a mentor to other writers as well, like Frank Belknap Long. At this moment in life, Lovecraft would be surrounded constantly by a lot of other writers, that acknowledged him as friend, adviser, erudite and literary genius.
Being able to sell stories, Weird Tales became the magazine which would feature most of Lovecraft’s work, and very soon, the unknown writer had developed a cult following, with a lot of the public buying the magazine just to read his stories.
Unfortunately, this would not change his situation in life. The income generated with selling stories was mediocre, to say the least, and, although Lovecraft had developed a considerable fan-base with his work circulating in magazines, nobody expressed interest to publish him in book form.
Nevertheless, Lovecraft’s prestige as a writer grew, especially among other writers, and soon he was being recognized by his peers as one of the most talented and innovative writers of his generation. Several friendships grew out of this, and Lovecraft started a lifelong correspondence with writers like Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Howard (a pioneer of the sword and sorcery genre, creator of Conan the Barbarian) and August Derleth (which would become Lovecraft’s literary executor, after his death), among others. They frequently exchanged ideas, and borrowed characters from one another. Several monsters and creatures from the lore of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos were borrowed by these authors, with Lovecraft’s happiness and approval. From lack of a better name, posterity would call this literary group “The Lovecraft Circle”, which would prove itself to be a rather peculiar set of friends, since most of them never met in real life, but corresponded frequently. In fact, letter writing was a major part in Lovecraft’s life, to the extent of having him being regarded today as the second most prolific letter writer in human history, staying only behind Voltaire (it is estimated today that Lovecraft wrote no less than 100.000 letters in his life). Soon, Lovecraft would become a mentor to other writers as well, like Frank Belknap Long. At this moment in life, Lovecraft would be surrounded constantly by a lot of other writers, that acknowledged him as friend, adviser, erudite and literary genius.
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Mid-twenties brought to him a change in life, that Lovecraft believed was for the better, but soon proved to be for the worst. He married a woman seven years older, named Sonia Greene, and both exchanged Providence for New York City, a move that would cost Lovecraft a great deal of turmoil and difficulties.
Although being a hard working woman, with attitude and energy, that treated Lovecraft well, the hardships of living in New York would be extenuating for both. A little less deprived than what he was used to (Lovecraft’s weight increased significantly because of Sonia’s meals), soon unemployment, lack of opportunities, robberies, burglaries and financial constraints would make life in New York exasperating for Lovecraft, that would divorce his wife, and return to Providence for good. His time in New York also hardened Lovecraft’s view on race and ethnicity. Being a proud anglophile and a pervasive WASP, which held in high regard British culture, having a fondness for everything 19th, 18th and 17th century related, a cosmopolitan city like New York, being a confluence of immigrants with no traits of its own, was seen by Lovecraft as a place of decay, degeneration and degradation, where all subhuman species mixed together. His racist points of view, as well as his partiality and favoritism towards everything Anglo-Saxon related, although a little subjective sometimes, is prominent in his fiction, and to this day remains controversial.
Returning to Providence, Lovecraft would start the most creative and ambitious literary moment of his life (which, spanning the years from 1926 to 1937, would be his last decade), and probably his most daring and fascinating works were written during this period.
Although being a hard working woman, with attitude and energy, that treated Lovecraft well, the hardships of living in New York would be extenuating for both. A little less deprived than what he was used to (Lovecraft’s weight increased significantly because of Sonia’s meals), soon unemployment, lack of opportunities, robberies, burglaries and financial constraints would make life in New York exasperating for Lovecraft, that would divorce his wife, and return to Providence for good. His time in New York also hardened Lovecraft’s view on race and ethnicity. Being a proud anglophile and a pervasive WASP, which held in high regard British culture, having a fondness for everything 19th, 18th and 17th century related, a cosmopolitan city like New York, being a confluence of immigrants with no traits of its own, was seen by Lovecraft as a place of decay, degeneration and degradation, where all subhuman species mixed together. His racist points of view, as well as his partiality and favoritism towards everything Anglo-Saxon related, although a little subjective sometimes, is prominent in his fiction, and to this day remains controversial.
Returning to Providence, Lovecraft would start the most creative and ambitious literary moment of his life (which, spanning the years from 1926 to 1937, would be his last decade), and probably his most daring and fascinating works were written during this period.
Towards the end of his life, Lovecraft endured a progressively hard situation. His last days were particularly difficult ones. Dying of cancer, having no money, no food, and little to no assistance, America’s soon-to-be greatest literary legend spent his last days in hunger, pain, solitude and suffering. Having lived a tough life with poor prospects, Lovecraft was dedicated and fully committed to literature for all his life, having had little – if any – in return. With no practical real skills to support himself in life, not being able to maintain any jobs – sometimes treating fine opportunities with apathy – and never capable to generate any substantial money through writing, creative literature seemed to be the only place where Howard Philips Lovecraft could find a little consolation from the grips of life, as well as a sense of purpose. Ironically, this poor, neglected and forgotten man would achieve great worldwide success after his death, being acclaimed as one of the most original, complex and complete horror and fantasy writers of his generation, acquiring a posthumous reputation that most authors would hardly achieve, being subsequently translated to all major languages spoken today. Nevertheless, his fame came through primarily as the working effort of Arkham House, a publishing company that started printing and publicizing Lovecraft’s work after his death, and whose co-owner, author August Derleth, had been a personal friend.
Having died being a nobody, 46 years old, on March 15, 1937, in his native Providence, Howard Philips Lovecraft became one of the greatest literary icons of 20th century world literature. With a vast and immense bibliography, Lovecraft was also one of the most prolific writers in history, having written hundreds of poems, and dozens of short stories, novelettes and essays, as well as ghost writings, collaborations and miscellanea, in addition to a hundred thousand letters, of which a small amount have been preserved and published. Today, his most read and famous works are At the Mountains of Madness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out of Space, The Doom that Came to Sarnath, The Statement of Randolph Carter and The Horror at Red Hook, amongst others.
Having died being a nobody, 46 years old, on March 15, 1937, in his native Providence, Howard Philips Lovecraft became one of the greatest literary icons of 20th century world literature. With a vast and immense bibliography, Lovecraft was also one of the most prolific writers in history, having written hundreds of poems, and dozens of short stories, novelettes and essays, as well as ghost writings, collaborations and miscellanea, in addition to a hundred thousand letters, of which a small amount have been preserved and published. Today, his most read and famous works are At the Mountains of Madness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out of Space, The Doom that Came to Sarnath, The Statement of Randolph Carter and The Horror at Red Hook, amongst others.
