H.P Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890, in Providence, Rhode Island. At a young age Lovecraft lost his father and was brought up by his mother, two aunts and his grandfather. At an early age Lovecraft was already reading poetry and fascinated with Arabian Nights and Greek mythology. His interest in the weird was fostered by his grandfather who entertained him with Gothic tales.
As a boy Lovecraft was somewhat lonely and suffered from frequent illnesses, many of them apparently psychological. His attendance at the Slater Avenue School was sporadic, but Lovecraft was soaking up much information through independent reading. When he entered Hope Street High School, he found both his teachers and peers congenial and encouraging. Lovecraft’s first appearance in print occurred in 1906, when he wrote a letter on an astronomical matter to The Providence Sunday Journal. Shortly thereafter he began writing a monthly astronomy column for The Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner; he later wrote columns for The Providence Tribune (1906-08) and The Providence Evening News (1914-18), as well as The Asheville (N.C.) Gazette-News (1915).
In 1904 the death of Lovecraft’s grandfather, and the subsequent mismanagement of his property and affairs, plunged Lovecraft’s family into severe financial difficulties. In 1908,just prior to his graduation from high school, he suffered a nervous breakdown that compelled him to leave school without a diploma.
It was in the amateur world that Lovecraft recommenced the writing of fiction, which he had abandoned in 1908. W. Paul Cook and others, noting the promise shown in such early tales as “The Beast in the Cave” (1905) and “The Alchemist” (1908), urged Lovecraft to pick up his fictional pen again. This Lovecraft did, writing “The Tomb” and “Dagon” in quick succession in the summer of 1917. Thereafter Lovecraft kept up a steady if sparse flow of fiction, although until at least 1922 poetry and essays were still his dominant mode of literary expression.
Lovecraft’s mother died on May 24, 1921. Lovecraft was shattered by the loss of his mother, but in a few weeks had recovered and attended a journalism convention in Boston on July 4, 1921. It was on this occasion that he first met the woman who would become his wife. Sonia Haft Greene was a Russian Jew seven years older than himself.
The last two or three years of his life, were filled with hardship. In 1932 his beloved aunt, Mrs. Clark, died, and he moved into quarters at 66 College Street, with his other aunt Mrs. Gamwell in 1933. In 1936 the suicide of Robert E. Howard, one of his closest correspondents, left him confused and saddened.
Lovercraft suffered from
intestinal cancer and passed away on March 15, 1937. He was buried on March
18 at the Phillips family plot at Swan Point Cemetery.