hp lovecraft the call of cthulhu and other weird stories

Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction. His writings form the basis of the Cthulhu Mythos, which has inspired a large body of pastiches across several mediums drawing on Lovecraft's characters, setting and themes, constituting a wider subgenre known as Lovecraftian horror. Among his most celebrated tales are 'The Call of Cthulhu', 'The Rats in the Walls', At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time. He was virtually unknown during his lifetime and was almost exclusively published in pulp magazines before he died in poverty at the age of 46, but is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors of supernatural horror fiction. Throughout his adult life, Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as an author and editor.

In these letters, he discussed his worldview and his daily life, and tutored younger authors, such as August Derleth, Donald Wandrei, and Robert Bloch. According to some estimates, he wrote approximately 100,000 letters over the course of his life. He maintained a correspondence with several different authors and literary proteges. Lovecraft was at the center of a wider body of authors known as 'The Lovecraft Circle.' This group wrote stories that frequently shared details among them. These stories also included fantastic elements that represented the perceived fragility of anthropocentrism.

In his view, humanity was an unimportant part of an uncaring cosmos that could be swept away at any moment. During the interwar period, he wrote and published stories that focused on his interpretation of humanity's place in the universe. In 1913, he wrote a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fiction. He was born into affluence, but his family's wealth dissipated soon after the death of his grandfather. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (AugMarch 15, 1937) was an American writer of weird and horror fiction, who is known for his creation of what became the Cthulhu Mythos.īorn in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life in New England.

Hp lovecraft the call of cthulhu and other weird stories