Author's Life

Personal Life

Howard Phillips Lovecraft did not have an easy childhood .He was an only child and his father, Winfield Scott Lovecraft, died while he was a child from disease, some form of neurosyphilis. His mother also struggled with mental illness while he was a child. He was mainly raised by his aunts and his grandfather Whipple Van Buren Phillips. As a child he was also sickly and acted like a recluse. Staying at home and writing and reading. His grandparents really encouraged him by providing him with the books and supporting him reading them. He was always seen as a child prodigy since he was reading and writing by the age of six. He grew up in the city of Providence in Rhode island. He was born in the year 1890 and died in the year 1937. He tried to enlist into the military for World War one but his mother and the family physician used his nervous condition to convince the military to discharge him. The events of the war could have contributed to his sad writing style.His grandpa also died when he was fourteen. His death had a major effect on the young author's life. It was as if his father died for the second time. This threw his family into big financial problems and gave him deep psychological issues that contributed to his writing style. He was a High school drop out after he had a nervous breakdown and decided to quit. He originally wanted to be an Astronomer or scientist but due to his mental health and leaving high school he decided that writing was his better option. He was always interested in Mythology and Astronomy as a child which is why he wanted to be an astronomer. He eventually married his wife Sonia H Greene and moved with her to New York. She provided him with financial support which allowed him to write more. They didn’t have any kids together. They eventually separated and he moved back to providence. He experienced severe poverty and wrote a lot during this time. His health was never good throughout his life and he was eventually diagnosed with intestinal cancer and later died before ever getting wealthy from his books. Although he was often described as a recluse he actually traveled a lot during his adult life. He incorporated what he saw on his trips into his works a=making them seem more realistic.

Career

H.P. Lovecraft started his career with journalism later joining the group called United Amateur Press Association. His first printed appearance was when he wrote a letter for the Providence Sunday Journal. He had more entries in the local newspaper. When he was younger he owned and operated his own printing press which was the first time his works were printed. In his final days when he moved back to providence he got jobs to edit and ghost write for others to support himself financially. He was influenced by the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Lord Dunsay. He did not publish many books while he was alive. Most of his books were published after his death by his friends. His friends August Derleth and Donald Wandrei formed the publishing firm Arkham house to publish his books in real books after his death to honor his legacy. Lovecraft's writing style was described as weird fiction. He created in his books a Cthulhu mythos. It is the collected fictional universe throughout his works. He is considered one of the founding figures of the horror genre of books. He inspired many other horror authors like Stephen King, Peter Staub, Neil Gaiman and countless others. His books really left a lasting impact on the cosmic horror and just the horror genre in genre in literature.

Ideals and beliefs

H. P. Lovecraft was a racist. There is no going around this fact. It is very evident in his literature and letters. He believed that cultural streams were the same as race and tradition. He was afraid of the races mixing together. He also viewed immigration and foreign influence as a threat to him and others. He had many antiblack, antisemantic, and xenophobic beliefs. Xenophobic means the fear of outsiders or strangers or anything along those lines. He also saw racial mixing as civilisational decay. These beliefs often would seep into his writings. His stories often reflect these beliefs.

Other things

He often tried to avoid sunlight, often going out after sun set. When he did go out during the day he liked spending his time visiting sites related to authors he enjoyed like the poe museum. He also spent a lot of time writing to different authors which really expanded the Cthulhu mythos. Lovecraft also had a cat. He wrote an estimated amount of 100,000 letters in his lifetime.

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