H. P. Lovecraft

American writer and editor (1890-1937) · United States · Writers · Died at 46

H. P. Lovecraft is read about 5,923 times a day, in 90 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.

Something wrong?

Compare

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.

Writers Writer / Author Fiction Poetry Journalism Literature United States Americas

A life in dates

2020Retro Hugo Award for Best SeriesAward2016Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of FameAward1937Died15 March 19371925“It is only the inferior thinker who hastens to explain the singular and the complex by the primitive shortcut of supernaturalism.”In their wordsSeptember 1925"The Temple" - Written 1920; first published in Weird Tales, 6 No. 3 (September 1925)Read the whole statement

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.”In their words16 November 1920"From Beyond" Written November 16, 1920, published June 1934 in The Fantasy Fan, 1Read the whole statement

“I screamed aloud that I was not afraid; that I never could be afraid; and others screamed with me for solace.”In their words"Nyarlathotep" (1920)Read the whole statement

1919“Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon.”In their wordsOctober 1919"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" in Pine Cones, Vol. 1, No. 6 (October 1919)Read the whole statement

“My opinion of my whole experience varies from time to time.”In their words16 September 1919"The Transition of Juan Romero" - Written 16 Sep 1919; first published in Marginalia (1944)Read the whole statement

1917“I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more.”In their wordsJuly 1917"Dagon" - Written July 1917; First published in The Vagrant, No. 11 (November 1919)Read the whole statement

1890Born20 August 1890

Also in Deutsch

Photos 1

H. P. Lovecraft, June 1934

In their own words 10

H. P. Lovecraft

10 statements, newest first

It is only the inferior thinker who hastens to explain the singular and the complex by the primitive shortcut of supernaturalism.
Sep 1925, "The Temple" - Written 1920; first published in Weird Tales, 6 No. 3 (September 1925), Own words
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.
Mar 1921, "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" - written 1920; first published in The Wolverine, No. 9 (March 1921), Own words
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.
Dec 1920, "The Street" - first published in The Wolverine, No. 8 (December 1920), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Listen

Spotify

Loads from Spotify when you press play

Open artist page on Spotify

Awards

Retro Hugo Award for Best Series2020

Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame2016

Family

Parents

H. P. Lovecraft

Partners

Spouse Sonia Greene

Is this everyone?

Only relatives with a profile here are drawn, so a family can be larger than this. A line here can also be wrong.

Correct this family

About this person

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 produced The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time - stories built on cosmicism, his belief that humanity is insignificant against the cosmos. He held racist views for much of his life, and though his politics shifted toward socialism after the Great Depression, an elitism persisted. He died at 46 on March 15, 1937, virtually unknown, published only in pulp magazines. The scholarly revival came in the 1970s.

Country

United States