The Case of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, 85 Years After the Death of the Father of Cosmic Horror.

By Casandra Vicario. Illustration: Andrée Wallin.

This past March 15 marked 85 years since the death of one of the most important writers in horror literature: Howard Phillips Lovecraft, his influence on other genre writers, as well as on film, comics, video games, and music, is unmatched. Today we remember him by sharing 10 facts about the master of Providence with you.

1.- He was born on August 20, 1890, in Providence, Rhode Island. His father died in a psychiatric hospital, and his relationship with his mother was not the best, so the young Lovecraft formed a close relationship with his grandfather, whose death made him contemplate suicide.

2.- After his mother's death in 1921, he met Sonia Greene—the daughter of Jewish immigrants and a widow seven years his senior—at a writers' convention. They married in 1924 and moved to Brooklyn, New York, then divorced in 1926.

3.- He was a great lover of cats; as a child he lived surrounded by them, and he even wrote an essay titled “Cats and Dogs” in which he laid out the advantages and disadvantages of having a cat or a dog at home. Many cats appear throughout his work, for example in his story “The Cats of Ulthar”.

4.- At age 15, he wrote his first story, titled “The Beast in the Cave,” his work would go on to be published in various magazines, though the most important would be “Weird Tales” founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in March 1923 (abre en nueva pestaña).

5.- Although he is well known for the chilling tales that made him the master of “Cosmic Horror,” Lovecraft also wrote other kinds of texts about travel, philosophy, science, and literary criticism, as well as some journalistic articles; he also wrote poetry, letters, and many autobiographical texts, not to mention that he enjoyed drawing.

6.- He created a mythology of his own populated by primordial, archetypal, and outer gods and lesser races made up of monstrous beings such as Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, Azathoth, Hastur, Groth and others. He is also the creator of the “Necronomicon,” a cursed book written by Abdul Al-Hazred, which was rumored to have a copy hidden in the Harvard University Library.

7.- The Lovecraft Circle is a group of writers who were disciples of the master of Providence, corresponded with him by letter, and wrote many cosmic horror stories, which were compiled in the book “The Cthulhu Mythos”. This circle was made up of: August Derleth, Robert E Howard, Henry Kutner, Clark Ashton Smith, Donald Wandrei, Frank Belknap Long, Robert Boch, and Virgin Finlay.

8.- Some of the texts through which we can delve into his cosmic horror include: “The Call of Cthulhu” (1928), “At the Mountains of Madness” (1936), “The Colour Out of Space” (1927), “Pickman's Model” (1927), “The Dunwich Horror” (1929), “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (1927), and we highlight “Supernatural Horror in Literature”, an essay on the evolution of horror literature from the Gothic period to the modern masters of that era, such as M.R James, Lord Dunsany, and Arthur Mahen.

9.- Many bands have drawn inspiration from the Lovecraftian gods to title their works: Cradle of Filth has a song titled “Cthulhu Dawn”, Samael created “Rite of Cthulhu”, Black Sabath has “Behind the Wall of Sleep”, “Septic Flesh” contributes “Lovecraft Death” and Metallica with “The Call of Kthulhu” and “The Thing that should not be” are some examples.

10.- H.P Lovecraft died in 1937 at the age of 47 and was buried in Swan Point Cemetery in his hometown.

“Death is merciful, for there is no return from it, but for whoever returns from the deepest chambers of the night, lost and conscious, there is never peace again.”

H.P Lovecraft.