H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American writer, poet, and journalist who wrote in the genres of horror, mystery, and fantasy, combining them in an original style. Along with Robert Howard, he is considered one of the founders of the fantasy genre. During Lovecraft’s lifetime, his works were not very popular; however, after his death, they had a noticeable influence on the formation of modern mass culture. His creativity is so unique that Lovecraft’s works are identified as a separate subgenre — so-called Lovecraftian horror.

Lovecraft was born in Providence and was the only child of traveling salesman Winfield Scott Lovecraft and Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft. It is known that his ancestors had lived in America since the time of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630). When Howard was three, Winfield was placed in a psychiatric hospital, where he remained for five years until his death on June 19, 1898.

Lovecraft was raised by his mother, two aunts, and his grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, who took in the family of the future writer. Howard was a prodigy — he could recite poetry by heart at the age of two, and by six he was already writing his own. Thanks to his grandfather, who had the largest library in the city, he became acquainted with classical literature. In addition to the classics, he became fascinated by Gothic prose and the Arabian tales of One Thousand and One Nights.

At the age of 6–8, Lovecraft wrote several stories, most of which have not survived to the present day. At the age of 14, Lovecraft wrote his first serious work, “The Beast in the Cave.”

As a child, Lovecraft was often ill and did not start school until the age of eight, but a year later he was taken out of it. He read a great deal, studied chemistry on the side, and wrote several works (duplicated in small print runs on a hectograph), beginning in 1899 (“The Scientific Gazette”). Four years later, he returned to school.

Whipple Van Buren Phillips died in 1904, after which the family became very poor and was forced to move to a smaller house on the same street. Howard was saddened by the move