Weird and Horrific Stories

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American author of science fiction and horror stories. Born in Providence Rhode Island to a wealthy family he suffered the loss of his father at a young age. Raised with his mothers family he was doted upon throughout his youth and found a paternal figure in his grandfather Whipple who encouraged his literary interests. He began writing stories and poems inspired by the classics and by Whipples spirited retellings of Gothic tales of terror. In 1902 he began publishing a periodical on astronomy a source of intellectual fascination for the young Lovecraft. Over the next several years he would suffer from a series of illnesses that made it nearly impossible to attend school. Exacerbated by the decline of his familys financial stability this decade would prove formative to Lovecrafts worldview and writing style both of which depict humanity as cosmologically insignificant. Supported by his mother Susie in his attempts to study organic chemistry Lovecraft eventually devoted himself to writing poems and stories for such pulp and weird-fiction magazines as Argosy where he gained a cult following of readers. Early stories of note include The Alchemist (1916) The Tomb (1917) and Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1919). The Call of Cthulu originally published in pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928 is considered by many scholars and fellow writers to be his finest most complex work of fiction. Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe Arthur Machen Algernon Blackwood and Lord Dunsany Lovecraft became one of the centurys leading horror writers whose influence remains essential to the genre.