Philip H Howard Popular Books

Philip H Howard Biography & Facts

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (US: , UK: ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of weird, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life in New England. After his father's institutionalization in 1893, he lived affluently until his family's wealth dissipated after the death of his grandfather. Lovecraft then lived with his mother, in reduced financial security, until her institutionalization in 1919. 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. He became active in the speculative fiction community and was published in several pulp magazines. 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". They introduced him to Weird Tales, which became his most prominent publisher. Lovecraft's time in New York took a toll on his mental state and financial conditions. 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. He remained active as a writer for 11 years until his death from intestinal cancer at the age of 46. Lovecraft's literary corpus is rooted in cosmicism, which was simultaneously his personal philosophy and the main theme of his fiction. Cosmicism posits that humanity is an insignificant part of the cosmos and could be swept away at any moment. He incorporated fantasy and science fiction elements into his stories, representing the perceived fragility of anthropocentrism. This was tied to his ambivalent views on knowledge. His works were largely set in a fictionalized version of New England. Civilizational decline also plays a major role in his works, as he believed that the West was in decline during his lifetime. Lovecraft's early political views were conservative and traditionalist; additionally, he held a number of racist views for much of his adult life. Following the Great Depression, Lovecraft's political views became more socialist while still remaining elitist and aristocratic. Throughout his adult life, Lovecraft was never able to support himself from his earnings as an author and editor. He was virtually unknown during his lifetime and was almost exclusively published in pulp magazines before his death. 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. Many direct adaptations and spiritual successors followed. 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. Biography Early life and family tragedies Lovecraft was born in his family home on August 20, 1890, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the only child of Winfield Scott Lovecraft and Sarah Susan (“Susie”; née Phillips) Lovecraft who were both of English descent. 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. In April 1893, after a psychotic episode in a Chicago hotel, Winfield was committed to Butler Hospital in Providence. His medical records state that he was "doing and saying strange things at times" for a year before his commitment. The person who reported these symptoms is unknown. Winfield spent five years in Butler before dying in 1898. His death certificate listed the cause of death as general paresis, a term synonymous with late-stage syphilis. 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. It is not known whether Lovecraft was simply kept ignorant of his father's illness or whether his later statements were intentionally misleading. After 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. According to family friends, Susie doted on the young Lovecraft excessively, pampering him and never letting him out of her sight. Lovecraft later recollected that his mother was "permanently stricken with grief" after his father's illness. Whipple became a father figure to Lovecraft in this time, Lovecraft later noted that his grandfather became the "centre of my entire universe". Whipple, who often traveled to manage his business, maintained correspondence by letter with the young Lovecraft who, by the age of three, was already proficient at reading and writing. Whipple encouraged the young Lovecraft to have an appreciation of literature, especially classical literature and English poetry. In his old age, he helped raise the young H. P. Lovecraft and educated him not only in the classics, but also in original weird tales of "winged horrors" and "deep, low, moaning sounds" which he created for his grandchild's entertainment. The original sources of Phillips' weird tales are unidentified. Lovecraft himself guessed that they originated from Gothic novelists like Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, and Charles Maturin. It was during this period that Lovecraft was introduced to some of his earliest literary influences, such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner illustrated by Gustave Doré, One Thousand and One Nights, Thomas Bulfinch's Age of Fable, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. While there is no indication that Lovecraft was particularly close to his grandmother, Robie, her death in 1896 had a profound effect on him. According to him, it sent his family into "a gloom from which it never fully recovered". His mother and aunts wore black mourning dresses that "terrified" him. This was also the time when Lovecraft, approximately five-and-a-half years old, started having nightmares that later informed his fictional writings. Specifically, he began to have recurring nightmares of beings he referred to as "night-gaunts". He credited their appearance to the influence of Doré's illustrations, which would "whirl me through space at a sickening rate of speed, the while fretting & impelling me with their detestable tridents". Thirty years later, night-gaunts appeared in Lovecraft's fiction. Lovecraft's earliest known literary works were written at the age of seven, and were poems restyling the Odyssey and other Greco-Roman mythological stories. Lovecraft later wrote that during his childhood he was fixated on the Greco-Roman pantheon, and briefly accepted them as genuine expressions of divinity, foregoing his Christian upbringing. He recalled, at five years old, being told Santa Claus did not exist and retorted by asking why "God is not equally a myth?" At the a.... Discover the Philip H Howard popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Philip H Howard books.

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  • Die Farbe aus dem All synopsis, comments

    Die Farbe aus dem All

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Westlich von Arkham liegt ein Gebiet, dass von den Einwohnern die »verfluchte Heide« genannt wird. Dort ist ein merkwürdiger Meteorit niedergegangen, und seither beginnt die Flora ...

  • Der Schatten aus der Zeit synopsis, comments

    Der Schatten aus der Zeit

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee glaubt sich dem Wahnsinn verfallen: Immer wieder stehen ihm fremde Landschaften und Städte vor Augen. Allmählich beginnt er zu begreifen, dass er von eine...

  • Das Grauen von Dunwich synopsis, comments

    Das Grauen von Dunwich

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Wilbur Whateley, Sohn einer missgestalteten und labilen Mutter und eines unbekannten Vaters (der nur einmal beiläufig als »YogSothoth« bezeichnet wird), wächst erschreckend schnell...

  • Der Schrecken der Finsternis synopsis, comments

    Der Schrecken der Finsternis

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Robert Blake wird tot und mit angstverzerrtem Gesicht an seinem Schreibtisch vorgefunden, zusammengesunken über einem letzten Tagebucheintrag: »Ich sehe es – es kommt hierher – Höl...

  • An den Bergen des Wahnsinns synopsis, comments

    An den Bergen des Wahnsinns

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Der Geologe William Dyer erzählt von einer abenteuerlichen Expedition in die Antarktis, die auf nicht klassifizierbare, halb tierische, halb pflanzliche Wesen stößt und schließlich...

  • Das Ding auf der Schwelle synopsis, comments

    Das Ding auf der Schwelle

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Daniel Upton, der Erzähler der Geschichte, hat seinen besten Freund Edward Derby erschossen – und behauptet trotzdem, dass er kein Mörder ist. Edward hatte die mysteriöse Asenath W...

  • Der Fall Charles Dexter Ward synopsis, comments

    Der Fall Charles Dexter Ward

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Charles Dexter Ward, ein junger Mann aus einer angesehenen Familie von Providence, ist aus der Nervenheilanstalt entflohen, in die er aufgrund merkwürdiger Persönlichkeitsveränderu...

  • Herbert West Wiedererwecker synopsis, comments

    Herbert West Wiedererwecker

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Der junge Arzt Herbert West glaubt, dass der menschliche Organismus nur eine komplexe organische Maschine ist, die aufs Neue »gestartet« werden kann, wenn sie einmal stehen geblieb...

  • Cthulhus Ruf synopsis, comments

    Cthulhus Ruf

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Der Sprachwissenschaftler George Gammell Angell hinterlässt nach seinem Tode die geheimnisvolle Skulptur eines geschuppten Wesens. Wie sein Großneffe Francis Wayland Thurston bald ...