Howard Phillips Lovecraft (20 August 1890 - 15 March 1937): The only child of Winfield Scott Lovecraft and Sarah Susan Phillips, Howard was born, raised in, and died in Providence, Rhode Island. “I Am Providence” is carved on his tombstone. He was a science fiction Author.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American writer who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, but he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre.

Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are "The Rats in the Walls", "The Call of Cthulhu", At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time, all canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor. He saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in progressively strained circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time he died, at age 46.

Links

• Wikipedia
• http://www.hplovecraft.com/

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HP Lovecraft (aka: Howard Phillips Lovecraft)

• Birth: Aug. 20, 1890 Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA
• Death: Mar. 15, 1937 Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA
• Author.
  • He is widely noted for his contributions to the genre of science fiction writing when the genre was in its infancy.
  • He learned to read at age three and his favorite book was “the Arabian Nights.”
  • A true prodigy, it’s said that his earliest known work “ The Noble Eavesdropper” was written in 1896.
• His most beloved subject was astronomy and
  • as a youngster he would “publish” his own newspaper regarding his ideas and stories regarding astronomy and other unusual subjects by painstaking making copies of his writings to distribute to his friends.
• He endured personal tragedy at a young age first with the loss of his father and grandfather early in his life brought him from a life of affluence to a very modest environment in Providence’s upper crust East Side neighborhood.
• When he wasn’t reading Howard was writing.
• His life was a journey of continued hardship and loss that wrenched him into a nervous breakdown in his youth.
  • Mental illness haunted him and his family with most immediate family dying in the local mental institution during the course of his life.
• In 1913 Lovecraft became noticed in the emerging popularity of “pulp fiction”.
  • Reading a story he thought was horrible he began barraging the publisher of the piece with letters.
  • This not only started a lifetime of correspondence but an entry into the publishing arena.
• He married Sonia Haft Greene in 1924 who owned a millinery shop in Brooklyn, NY.
  • At that point in time Lovecraft was doing work for a new magazine called “ Weird Tales.”
  • After her shop and health failed Lovecraft and Greene divorced in 1929 and
  • he retuned to Providence.
• He never reached full critical acclaim for his writing.
• Forming Arkham House Publishing with two friends he knew strictly through correspondence,
  • “The Outsider and Others” was the first hardcover publication of his works and it was published in 1939.
  • “The Call of C’thulu” and volumes of his short stories are still widely popular.
  • His work is included in the curriculum of many courses outlining the infancy of Science Fiction in American literature.
• His works have influence many other writers and artists and his grave is one of the more popular attraction at Swan Point Cemetery. (bio by: R. Digati)

Family links:

• Parents:
  • Winfield Scott Lovecraft (1853 - 1898)
  • Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft (1857 - 1921)
• Burial: Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA,
  • Plot: Group 281 Lot 5, GPS (lat/lon): 41.85404, -71.38105