Whipple became a father figure to Lovecraft in this time, Lovecraft noting that his grandfather became the 'centre of my entire universe'. Lovecraft later recollected that his mother was 'permanently stricken with grief' after his father's illness. According to family friends, his mother, known as Susie, doted on the young Lovecraft excessively, pampering him and never letting him out of her sight. Īfter his father's institutionalization, Lovecraft resided in the family home with his mother, his maternal aunts Lillian and Annie, and his maternal grandparents Whipple and Robie. It is not known whether Lovecraft was simply kept ignorant of his father's illness or whether his later statements were intentionally misleading. Throughout his life, Lovecraft maintained that his father fell into a paralytic state, due to insomnia and overwork, and remained that way until his death. His death certificate listed the cause of death as general paresis, a term synonymous with late-stage syphilis. Winfield spent five years in Butler before dying in 1898. The person who reported these symptoms is unknown. His medical records state that he had been 'doing and saying strange things at times' for a year before his commitment. In April 1893, after a psychotic episode in a Chicago hotel, Winfield was committed to Butler Hospital in Providence. Susie's family was of substantial means at the time of their marriage, as her father, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, was involved in business ventures. He was the only child of Winfield Scott Lovecraft and Sarah Susan (née Phillips) Lovecraft. Lovecraft was born in his family home on August 20, 1890, in Providence, Rhode Island. Sarah, Howard, and Winfield Lovecraft in 1892 Works inspired by Lovecraft, adaptations or original works, began to form the basis of the Cthulhu Mythos, which utilizes Lovecraft's characters, setting, and themes. Many direct adaptations and spiritual successors followed. A scholarly revival of Lovecraft's work began in the 1970s, and he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors of supernatural horror fiction. He was virtually unknown during his lifetime and was almost exclusively published in pulp magazines before his death. Throughout his adult life, Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as an author and editor. Following the Great Depression, Lovecraft became a socialist, no longer believing a just aristocracy would make the world more fair. Lovecraft's early political opinions were conservative and traditionalist additionally, he held a number of racist views for much of his adult life. Civilizational decline also plays a major role in his works, as he believed that the West was in decline during his lifetime. His works were largely set in a fictionalized version of New England. This was tied to his ambivalent views on knowledge. He incorporated fantasy and science fiction elements into his stories, representing the perceived fragility of anthropocentrism. Cosmicism posits that humanity is an insignificant part of the cosmos, and could be swept away at any moment. Lovecraft's literary corpus is based around the idea of cosmicism, which was simultaneously his personal philosophy and the main theme of his fiction. He would remain active as a writer for 11 years until his death from intestinal cancer at the age of 46. He returned to Providence in 1926 and produced some of his most popular works, including ' The Call of Cthulhu', At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time. Lovecraft's time in New York took a toll on his mental state and financial conditions. They introduced him to Weird Tales, which would become his most prominent publisher. Lovecraft moved to New York City, marrying Sonia Greene in 1924, and later became the center of a wider group of authors known as the 'Lovecraft Circle'. He became active in the speculative fiction community and was published in several pulp magazines. He began to write essays for the United Amateur Press Association, and in 1913 wrote a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fiction. Lovecraft then lived with his mother, in reduced financial security, until her institutionalization in 1919. After his father's institutionalization in 1893, he lived affluently until his family's wealth dissipated after the death of his grandfather. īorn in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life in New England.

He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( US: / ˈ l ʌ v k r æ f t/ Aug– March 15, 1937) was an American writer of weird, science, fantasy, and horror fiction.

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