Carl Setje's Lovecraft Article

Morgan Scorpion: Thanks for brining this to our attention.

{Below are links to M.S.'s exce;;ent Lovecraft recordings}

H.P. Lovecraft: Monstrous Horror, Monstrous Life
July 07, 2009 by Carl Setje

Excerpt

A Biographical Essay

On August 20th, 1890 Howard Phillips Lovecraft demurely entered this world in the town of Providence, Rhode Island. Lovecraft would never know his father, a syphilitic who was institutionalized in 1893 and would die five years later in 1898. The absence of his father turned Lovecraft to the influence of his grandfather, a wealthy industrialist. Unfortunately, Lovecraft would lose this role-model at the age of 14 when his grandfather passed away in 1904.

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Lovecraft would be heavily influenced by his mother's cocooning, and he often claimed she led him to believe he was not a normal boy. His youth is riddled with tales of infirmity and his education was almost solely home schooling. He was often "too ill" to attend school.

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In 1921 Lovecraft met Sonia H. Greene, whom he would marry 3 years later. While financial troubles and Lovecraft's prejudice towards ethnically diverse urban locales are frequently cited as the reason for his eventual split with Sonia, one can't help but wonder if she was used as some kind of substitute for Lovecraft's mother. Perhaps this is what led to Ms Greene's nervous breakdown, and doomed the relationship. Regardless, once more insanity seemed to follow wherever Mr. Lovecraft went.

Lovecraft was reclusive, and returned to Providence following his short lived marriage to Sonia. He spent the rest of his days traveling around New England and writing letters to his associates and friends. Far from being a social butterfly, Lovecraft's correspondence, which was voluminous, became the lasting voice of a troubled, though great, mind.

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Whether Lovecraft's modern cosmology was the source of personal genius, or if it was inspired by something more hideous may never be known.

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Lovecraft's life was both short, he died at age 46, and peculiar. The impact of his writings on our collective consciousness is difficult to measure. His work has inspired multiple movies, been collected time and again into different anthologies, and continues to have an impact on modern science fiction and horror writers. As time goes by, the Man Lovecraft is replaced by the Legend. A distorted perspective of a quiet, reclusive New England man turns into an oracle of horrific brilliance, living, and thinking, "way ahead of his time."


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