H.P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, born August 20, 1890, died March 15, 1937, is most commonly known as simply H.P. Lovecraft. Besides having the greatest last name any writer could ask for, Lovecraft is one of the best-known American writers of horror and science fiction. In Lovecraft’s short time on Earth, he created many classic works of what became known as weird fiction, a genre that appeared well before genre fiction writing in America and England would lead to the horror and sci-fi genres.
Known as much for his influence on modern writers and artists as for his original works, HP Lovecraft is one of the grandfathers of American genre writing and a mythos unto himself. It is possible to read the work of HP Lovecraft as a grand philosophical statement about the meaninglessness of human existence and the dread inherent in our day-to-day lives.
HP Lovecraft Quotes
To understand more about Lovecraft’s life and work, let’s take a look at
some his own words on the subject. Here are three HP Lovecraft quotes that
shed some light on his life’s work:
“The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present...”
This HP Lovecraft quote comes from an essay he wrote in which he gives a working definition of the term “weird fiction.” Lovecraft is talking about his writing in a time before genre horror and science fiction writing was common. Here, Lovecraft is setting his brand of writing apart from mere scary stories. That “something more” in the quote is the difference between a ghost story told around a campfire and the psychological terror he found more appealing.
“Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal...”
This Lovecraft quote comes from his story “The Tomb.” It very precisely defines what Lovecraft himself was interested in, the very thin gap between what humans see as “real” and what thinkers like Lovecraft imagine as “the unreal.”
“I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.”
As a lover of words and collector of books, it is always comforting to find out that a favorite writer is also a big reader. Lovecraft’s love affair with language was not like that of the poets of his time or the popular songwriters, but a different love that took him down a different, and very weird, path.
HP Lovecraft Stories
Any attempt to count up and analyze the collected stories of HP Lovecraft would be a Herculean task. Browsing through lists of publication, there are 77 HP Lovecraft stories which were published during or after his lifetime. HP Lovecraft stories have great titles: how could you not want to read “The Rats in the Walls,” or “Under the Pyramids”? From his first story (“Dagon,” published in The Vagrant in 1919) to his middle career stories like “The Unnamable,” and all the way to his final publications like the posthumous novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Lovecraft maintained a single voice, a single obsession with the dark places of the human mind.
HP Lovecraft Short Stories
To this day, HP Lovecraft short stories are considered the greatest horror fiction writing of the 20th century by writers like Stephen King. In a famous section of King’s autobiographical Danse Macabre, King relates how a collection of HP Lovecraft short stories was the moment in his life which his "interior dowsing rod responded to.”
The book that King found that day in his attic, an old copy of HP Lovecraft short stories collected under the name The Lurking Fear and Other Stories, did not contain Lovecraft’s trademark short story, "The Call of Cthulhu." First published in the magazine Weird Tales in February of 1928, "The Call of Cthulhu" is celebrated as on of Lovecraft’s greatest texts, and certainly the short story he’s best known for today. Cthulhu is one of the most recognizable Lovecraft creations, a huge aquatic monster lying in wait for an eternity at the bottom of the ocean, waiting to wake up and destroy the planet. King may not have read Cthulhu in that first book, but there’s no doubt he was influenced by the Cthulhu mythos, like many other genre fiction writers of the last 75 years.
HP Lovecraft Books
Books of HP Lovecraft’s stories are popular because you get a lot of different Lovecraftian poetry, stories, and miscellanea. But there are some HP Lovecraft books that caused a greater stir than others. The fictional Necronomicon plays a major role in much of Lovecraft’s fiction and short stories. You can dig around in a pile of HP Lovecraft books for a year and not find this book, because he made it up. Allegedly a collection of stories about the old gods and how to summon them, the Necronomicon is one of those Lovecraft inventions that stuck with Western culture.
HP Lovecraft Poems
Not content to be an amazing short fiction writer, philosopher, and scientist, HP Lovecraft wrote poetry on the side as well.
No surprise, most of the poetry of HP Lovecraft is macabre, dark, even brooding. He channels Poe with his sounds, plays with rhyme, and always returns to a dark and hopeless image. Though his genre poetry never caught on with the ferocity of genre fiction, Lovecraft was crafting a world in his poems just like he did in his stories and novellas.
HP Lovecraft Films - HP Lovecraft Movies
Dozens of HP Lovecraft movies have been made based on various Lovecraft short stories. From the bastardized (and highly successful) film version of Herbert West-Reanimator that appeared in 1985 to lesser known efforts such as 1994’s Lurking Fear, a forgettable film that all but ignores the source Lovecraft material in favor of generic horror movie shlock, HP Lovecraft films are not exactly known for their quality. 1992’s The Resurrected is probably the Lovecraft movie that most faithfully represents the story it is based on, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
HP Lovecraft’s twisted worlds had a huge impact on literature in the 20th century and already into the 21st. Spawning the careers of thousands of genre and literary writers, some minor, some major, the short life and prodigious career of HP Lovecraft still resonates in today’s culture.