A dedication to the master of supernatural horror:

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)

by Tavis Potts

The horror writer’s horror writer

And if I do not finish this task, take what is here and discover the rest, for time is short and mankind does not know nor understand the evil that awaits it, from every side, from every Gate, from every broken barrier, from every mindless acolyte at the alters of madness.
     For this is the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Black Earth, that I have writ down at the peril of my life, exactly as I received it, on the planes of the IGIGI, the cruel celestial spirits from beyond the Wanderers of the Wastes.

- Abdul Al Azif (the Mad Arab), Necronomicon.

Modern writers praise him and dedicate their own fetid works to his memory. His writings linger around the edges of modern horror fiction, a crumbling pillar that supports the entire rotting literary edifice. He is the undisputed master of the supernatural horror genre, crafting worlds and daemons out of his mind and setting them to plague humanity forever. His work is immortal, dark, and powerful.

When one reads Lovecraft, one takes a trip back through time. His writings prowl the dark streets of colonial America, often set in the New England and Providence regions, a dark period of history famous for its secular religious fanaticism, witch trials and occult paranoia. Lovecraft brings this history to life, you can smell the mud in the streets, see the tallow candles burning in the windows of the peaked wooden Salem houses, and follow the dark twisted streets through the towns into lost and forgotten lands of lore. The writing isn’t there to shock you or splatter you with gore. It doesn’t attempt to meekly frighten you with the standardized tales of ghosts, goblins and vampires. The power of Lovecraft is something that we have always had within ourselves: the corrupted mind, the horror of cold, dark space, and the unknown bubbling to the surface. It is what he doesn’t tell you that makes reading his work so compelling and frightening to the core. Lovecraft doesn’t say, "BOO!" but rather opens a door to the supernatural and a horror so powerful that the fail human mind cannot begin to comprehend or understand. It was in a gray area between horror and science fiction that Lovecraft excelled and made his contribution, a medium he called "cosmic horror." You won’t jump for a pillow after reading Lovecraft, but you will think about what exists in the frozen void that lies between the stars. And they’re coming to get you.

So who is this fellow? Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born August 20, 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. There he would live all of his life -- apart from two years in New York and various sojourns, within New England. His love of his native city and the region was profound and it provided the locale for most of his fiction.  He began reading at the age of four with such classics as the Brothers Grimm and Jules Verne. This was soon supplemented by Greek and Roman myth, and 18th-century Georgian verse, which provided a model for much of his own poetry. At the age of seven he discovered Poe, who inspired his first juvenile fiction; of the discovery he would later write, "it was my downfall," indicating that he would never again see the beauty of the world without an awareness of death.

In a couple more years Lovecraft discovered science. He fell in love with astronomy, which gave him, very early on, the cosmic perspective so important to his later works. Beginning in 1914, Lovecraft became involved in the amateur press, which would become the first outlet for his writings - mainly essays and poems. In 1917, Lovecraft returned to fiction for the first time since his youth. The following year he began the literary revision work that was to remain a major source of income during his life, though only a small part of it falls within the horror genre. In 1919, Lovecraft discovered the writings of Lord Dunsany. Reading A Dreamer's Tales, he said, induced "an electric shock" and provided "vast impetus" to his own writing. Most notable among these influenced writings are "The White Ship" (1919), the psychologically revealing "Celephaïs" (1920), "The Silver Key" (1926), and the novel, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926-27). The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1928)

 In 1923, Lovecraft first read Arthur Machen -- the last of his major literary influences. Shortly after, Lovecraft wrote one of his finest classical horror tales, "The Rats in the Walls," which became one of his first professionally published pieces, in the fledgling magazine Weird Tales. The following year, he was offered editorship of the magazine, but turned it down as it required relocating to Chicago. It time the magazine would publish nearly all of his major stories. Other notable stories include the "The Outsider" (1921); "The Shunned House" (1924), which infused a classic haunted house story with science fiction; the seminal "The Call of Cthulhu" (1926); the brilliant "The Colour out of Space" (1927), which Lovecraft considered to be his masterpiece. (Other personal favorites also include "The Dreams in the Witch-House" (1932) and "The Music of Erich Zann" (1921).) Two of his most famous novels included The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1928) and The Mountains of Madness (1931). Apart from his fiction, Lovecraft's groundbreaking essay Supernatural Horror in Literature remains the finest historical discussion of supernatural fiction.

 In the spring of 1937, Lovecraft was diagnosed with cancer. After five days in the hospital, Lovecraft died on March 19, 1937. He was buried in his family plot in Swan Point Cemetery, but it was not until forty years later that a stone was erected to mark the spot -- a labor of love on the part of his fans, organized by scholar Dirk Mosig. It reads, aptly, "I am Providence."

I have often thought why I have been drawn to the writings of this quiet, reclusive American writer. Lovecraft’s gift was that he could stimulate the imagination (in respect to cosmic horror) like no one else can. It is not a case of shock value, in your face, B grade tactics, but rather an elegant, distinguished and deeply disturbing account of the unknown. Unfortunately there is a limit to what he has produced - this fate reaches all classic writers. We want more as an audience, especially when the writer has a great influence upon the reader. But with Lovecraft, the spirit of the Cthulu mythos lives on, it adapts to modern society, it clings like a shroud. It has been adapted into movies, dedicated novels from the likes of Stephen King, card games, computer games and role playing sets. Lovecraft is as popular now as he ever was, I encourage you to find for yourself what these stories can offer you. I have great respect for this author - he has taken me down dark paths, into the minds of madmen, and turned me to stare into the cold reaches of space where the formless things stare back at you and whisper their vile secrets.

Do yourself a favor and read some Lovecraft. You wont be able to put it down.