H. P. Lovecraft — Profile, Rankings & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He invented cosmic horror — the dread that comes from knowing humans mean nothing against the infinite. His Cthulhu Mythos seeded an entire genre, and "Lovecraftian" still describes a particular kind of creeping, incomprehensible terror.

Biography

About

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 20, 1890, and watched his family's wealth evaporate after his grandfather's death, following years when his father had been institutionalized in 1893. His mother was institutionalized in 1919, leaving him with reduced means. A critical letter he wrote in 1913 to a pulp magazine pulled him into speculative fiction, and he married Sonia Greene in 1924, moving to New York City. The city wore him down mentally and financially; he returned to Providence in 1926 and spent his final eleven years writing. That last stretch produc…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

saidSep 1925

It is only the inferior thinker who hastens to explain the singular and the complex by the primitive shortcut of supernaturalism.

— "The Temple" - Written 1920; first published in Weird Tales, 6 No. 3 (September 1925)

H. P. Lovecraft

saidMar 1921

Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous.

— "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" - written 1920; first published in The Wolverine, No. 9 (March 1921)

H. P. Lovecraft

saidDec 1920

There be those who say that things and places have souls, and there be those who say they have not; I dare not say, myself, but I will tell of The Street.

— "The Street" - first published in The Wolverine, No. 8 (December 1920)

H. P. Lovecraft

said16 Nov 1920

What do we know ... of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow.

— "From Beyond" Written November 16, 1920, published June 1934 in The Fantasy Fan, 1

H. P. Lovecraft

said1920