Howard Philip Lovecraft

Although Lovecraft's readership remained small throughout his lifetime, his reputation grew after his death; today, Lovecraft is regarded as one of the most influential horror novelists of the 20th century. According to Joyce Carol Oates, Lovecraft and 19th-century Edgar Allan Poe exerted an immeasurable influence on later horror novelists. Stephen King called Lovecraft "the greatest classical horror writer of the 20th century."¡»

character life

Early life

Lovecraft was born at 9 a.m. on August 20, 1890, at his family home at 194 (now 454) Angell Street in Providence. He was the only son of jewelry salesman Winfield Scott Lovecraft and his wife Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft. Its earliest traceable maternal ancestors arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.

At the age of three, his father suffered a nervous breakdown in a Chicago hotel room and was taken back to Butler Hospital, where he stayed for five years before dying. But modern views believe that this story of mental breakdown was only a cover to avoid embarrassing situations for the family. Lovecraft's father was confirmed to have had syphilis affecting his mind and contributed to his death.

His maternal grandfather passed away in 1904, and the family fell into poverty due to poor financial management, and the family was forced to move out of their home on Angell Street to a much smaller and less comfortable accommodation. Lovecraft was so affected by the loss of his home and place of birth that he even planned to commit suicide at one point. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1908, so he did not receive his high school diploma. His failure to successfully complete his studies and enter Brown University, the one he expected, would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Lovecraft's first exquisite story appeared around 1917 ("Talks in the Tomb","Dagon"), during which time he also established a vast communication network, and his long and frequent letters made him possibly one of the greatest letter writers of the 20th century. Among his correspondence pals are young Forrest J. Ackerman, Robert A. Bullock and Robert E. Howard (author of the "Conan King of the Barbarian" series).

Marriage and life in New York

Lovecraft's mother died of surgical complications on May 21, 1921, and shortly after, Lovecraft traveled to Boston to attend a gathering of amateur journalists where he met Sonia Greene. She was a Ukraine Jew born in 1883, a few years older than Lovkraft. They later married, although Lovecraft's aunts were not satisfied with the arrangement. The couple moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he hated it. He and Greene divorced gently only a few years later, and then returned to Providence to live with his aunt for the rest of his life.

Return to Providence

After returning to Providence, Lovecraft lived in a "spacious brown wooden Victoria house" at 10 Barnes Street. This is also the address of Dr. Willett in his novel "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward." The ten years after returning to Providence (and the last ten years of his life) were the most productive period of Lovecraft's life. He also often revised articles or ghostwrote for other writers, including "The Mound","Winged Death", and "Under the Pyramid"(also known as "Prisoner with the Pharaoh")(co-written with Harry Houdini).

Despite his best efforts to write, his finances deteriorated, and he and his remaining aunt moved to a smaller and worse rental house. He was also deeply influenced by Robert E. Howard's suicide, and in 1936 he was diagnosed with bowel cancer, and he also suffered from malnutrition and suffered from constant pain until he died the following year.