It would be easy to describe the life of Howard Phillips (H. P.) Lovecraft as sad and tragic. He was born into a working class family, in the working class home at 194 Angell Street in Providence, Rhode Island. He grew up an only child, the son of a traveling salesman and a mother who traced her ancestry to the settlers of Massachusetts and he would see loss and madness close up before he grew to manhood.
Lovecraft created the genre of weird fiction along with its bleak premise that not only is humanity is insignificant in the cosmos, it cannot even grasp the truths that the universe holds. Though Lovecraft never achieved widespread recognition during his lifetime, his work has influenced a great deal of what we know as horror and science fiction to this day. During his career Lovecraft collaborated with Robert Bloch (author of Psycho), Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian), and August Derleth (who codified and added to the Cthulhu Mythos). Author Stephen King said of Lovecraft:
"Now that time has given us some perspective on his work, I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the Twentieth Century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."I wish I could say that I came across Lovecraft out of a deep interest in horror and weird fiction as well as a questing imagination, but to be honest role playing games were my first introduction to his Cthulhu mythos. I spent hours pouring over Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu rulebook only to fall out of love with the game when it became apparent that the story arc of any character could be summed up as curiosity - discovery - madness - death. When I read Lovecraft's work, I discovered that the same could be said of any of his major characters. You don't read Lovecraft for the happy endings, his world is dark and cold, devoid of human comfort and understanding.
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