An American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction.
Comment by Russell Hoban from The Guardian:
The main thing about HP Lovecraft is his too-muchness; he never uses three adjectives when five will do, but he writes words that haunt the memory: "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." My recall of the multiplication table is shaky but those words disquiet me today as freshly as when I first read them.
Where did dead Cthulhu come from? Why did he rise up from the murky depths of Lovecraft's mental ocean? I say it's because there is a need for him and the rest of the maestro's monsters. Why is there such an appetite, such a hunger for scary stories and films? I think there is a primal horror in us. From where? From the Big Bang when Something came out of Nothing? From the nothingness we must become at life's end? I don't know, but I know it's there and we like to dress it up with a bolt through its neck or a black rubber alien suit; or as Cthulhu. Get a load of this: "A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings", with elements of "an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature", "but it was the general outline of the whole that made it most shockingly frightful". Close your eyes and try to imagine this creature of non-Darwinian evolution. Just the look of this bozo is already a major horror, and we're not even into the story yet. While he's dead and dreaming in his house at R'lyeh ("Dun Foamin"?) his Cthulhuvibes are spreading worldwide and causing strange rites and observances here and there. Lovecraft is not everybody's mug of Ovaltine but I have always found him horribly cosy.
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Subjects
Fiction, horror, American Horror tales, Fiction, Fiction, science fiction, general, Horror tales, American literature, Fiction, short stories (single author), Paranormal fiction, Supernatural, English Horror tales, Cthulhu (Fictitious character), Fantasy fiction, Horror, short stories, American Fantasy fiction, Children's fiction, Correspondence, Horror tales, American, Poetry (poetic works by one author), American Authors, American Science fiction, Cuentos de terror estadounidenses, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Horror stories, American Short storiesPlaces
Massachusetts, Carcosa, India, New England, United States, Antarctica, Calcutta, England, Italy, Jefferson, Louisiana, Mississippi, Padua, Providence (R.I.), Surrey, Toledo, University of Padua, Yoknapatawpha County, Alabama, Arkam, Arkham, Baker Street, Bellissime, Canada, Crouch EndPeople
H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), Cthulhu (Fictitious character), John H. Watson, Sherlock Holmes, Beatrice Rappaccini, Colonel Sartoris, Emily Grierson, Father Time, Fortunato, Giacomo Rappaccini, Giovanni Guasconti, Grimesby Roylott, Helen Stoner, Homer Barron, Lady Fortunato, Lovecraft, Luchresi, Montresor, Mr. Grierson, Randolph Carter, Stroke Moran, Tobe, Alsophocus, Archie, Armand AubignyTime
20th century, 19th century, Antebellum era, carnival, 1861-1865, 1861-65, 1890, 1897-1937, 1929-1931, 1932-1934, American Civil War, Civil WarID Numbers
- OLID: OL22161A
Links (outside Open Library)
Alternative names
- Howard Phillips Lovecraft
- Howard Philips Lovecraft
- H. P Lovecraft
- Howard P. Lovecraft
- H.P Lovecraft
- H.P. Lovecraft
- H. P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft
- H. P. LOVECRAFT
- H., P. Lovecraft
- Lovecraft
- H.-P. Lovecraft
- Howard Lovecraft
- H Lovecraft
- H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu Mythos)
- H.P. Lovecraft Cddemn 8035
January 16, 2024 | Edited by Bibula | Corrected spacing and added links |
April 27, 2023 | Edited by AgentSapphire | merge authors |
April 27, 2023 | Edited by AgentSapphire | merge authors |
April 27, 2023 | Edited by AgentSapphire | merge authors |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | initial import |