Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Largely ignored over the course of his life outside the world of the pulps; he has become one of the most influential authors of the early twentieth century…whether you know it or not. Lack of self-confidence, poor ability for self-promotion, and mixed support from fans continually kept wider appreciation from his fingertips. It wasn’t until the birth of the counterculture in the 1960’s that he began attaining some fame as a cult writer.
Lovecraft’s stories are usually grouped into one of three groups (for convenience)
- Macabre (Early Period)
- Dream Cycle (Mid-Period)
- Cthulhu Mythos (Late Period)
It is the Cthulhu Mythos stories which are particularly remembered. This period of Lovecraftian fantasy has influenced, if not outright created generations of horror, and supernatural fantasy authors.
- The Beast in the Cave (If only for the extremely young age of Lovecraft when written)
- The Dunwich Horror
- The Lurking Fear
- At the Mountains of Madness
- The Shadow Over Innsmouth
- The Call of Cthulhu
- Herbert West — Reanimator
- The Rats in the Walls
- The History of the Necronimicon