A Brief Biographical Sketch of H.P. Lovecraft
His Life Provides a Fascinating Background to His Fiction
Sep 13, 2009
Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, August 20, 1890 to Susan Phillips Lovecraft and Winfield Scott Lovecraft. His father was a successful "commercial traveler" for silversmith company; his maternal grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, was a respected member of Providence's upper class. Howard started life in a world of servants and privilege.
Things began to go downhill almost immediately.
Winfield Lovecraft was first admitted to the Butler Hospital in 1893 after hallucinations and erratic behavior began to dominate his actions; he died there in 1898) , of general paresis, a term used for advanced syphilis.
Howard's mother may have been likewise infected as her behavior became increasingly odd over the years. Her treatment of her son was erratic, over-protective one minute, ignoring him the next, deriding him the next. As he grew, she reinforced the idea that he was in poor health by withdrawing him from school. He never graduated high school, and lack of contact with other children isolated him. Later on,a family friend confided in a letter that Susan Phillips had referred to her only child as being "so hideous that he hid from everyone and did not like to walk upon the streets where people could gaze at him." She would die in the same institution as her husband in 1921.
Both events brought on what Lovecraft later termed, "nervous breakdowns," even though his relationship with his father was minimal, and that with his mother uncomfortable at best.
Whipple Phillips had become a substitute father figure for the boy, telling him tales, encouraging his reading, even as Howard's mother fretted over him. The Phillips library was large, consisting of classics; the precocious Howard turned to reading for entertainment. Among his favorites, which all influenced his later predilection for the weird story, were Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Arabian Nights, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, illustrated by Gustave Doré, and, most importantly, the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The boy developed elaborate fantasy games, including creating the name which he would later make famous in his fiction, Abdul al-Hazrad.
Howard also developed interests in astronomy, science, classical myth and 18th century poetry. He became an Anglophile, and often assumed the demeanor of an 18th century gentleman.
The family fortunes had been declining for some years. In 1904, Phillips suffered a devastating loss and the strain of it all brought on a stroke from which he never recovered. He left a small estate that was divided between Susan and her two sisters.
Lovecraft Enters the World
1914 was a seminal year in Lovecraft's life. He came under the spell of the amateur journalism movement that was popular at the time. He found an outlet for his imagination first in writing articles and poetry, then later, the first of his weird stories. He served as president of the United Amateur Press Association for a time, emerging at last from his isolated existence. He developed friendships that would last a lifetime.
At this time, he discovered the works of Lord Dunsany, and began writing stories in imitation of the great fantasist. Lovecraft eventually lost interest and returned to Poe as his model until such time as his own style and ideas came to fruition.
Unprepared and ill-suited by class snobbery and pride for any normal occupation, Lovecraft would live in near poverty for the rest of his life. He sold his first stories to Weird Tales in 1922, but his low level of production, due in large part to his credo that artists and gentlemen did not write for money, kept him from making a living with his most valuable skill. Instead, he turned to revising other people's work.
After the death of his mother, Lovecraft lived in the same boarding house as his aunts. Despite their disapproval, he married Sonia Greene in 1924. The unlikely couple had met through their participation in amateur journalism, and Sonia was evidently the pursuer. Even more remarkable given Lovecraft's intense hatred of Jews, Blacks and 'mongrels,' Sonia was Jewish. Lovecraft moved to New York, to be with her, the first and only time he ever lived outside of his beloved Providence.
By 1926, Lovecraft was back in Providence, the marriage having dissolved. He continued his writing and revision work, though his finances became ever more precarious. He ate only one meal a day, often consisting of a can of chili, a cup of coffee and a cup of ice cream. He took perverse pride in being able to live on 30¢ a day. It is highly likely that this diet contributed to his final illness.
Lovecraft's Final Years
By the mid-1930s, Lovecraft had become a changed man. His outlook was broader and less snobbish. Though he never managed to interest a publisher in a collection of his stories, he was an icon to the nascent science-fiction and fantasy fandom.
But in 1935, Lovecraft began experiencing painful indigestion. He let it go, writing it off as "grippe'" an archaic term for flu. When he finally went to the doctor, he was diagnosed with terminal intestinal cancer.Despite the increasing pain , he kept a 'death diary,' detailing his deteriorating condition until he could no longer hold a pencil. He died on March 15, 1937.
Since that time, his fame has spread worldwide, and he is acknowledged as one of the key figures of modern weird fiction. In addition to many different editions of his work, there have been two full-length biographies, Lovecraft by L. Sprague De Camp (1975) and H. P. Lovecraft: a Life, by S. T. Joshi (1995). The latter has been recently issued in an expanded form.
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