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Biography

Early life

Lovecraft was born in his family home on August 20, 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the only child of Winfield Scott Lovecraft (1853–1898) and Sarah Susan (Susie) Phillips Lovecraft (1857–1921). In the first two years of Lovecraft's life the family resided in various towns in Massachusetts. A dearth of records and Lovecraft's own, sometimes contradictory, recollections make it difficult to discern exactly where the family lived and why they moved from the family home. Neither is it clear how Winfield and Sarah met. Winfield listed his residence as New York City on their marriage certificate. Lovecraft's future wife, Sonia Greene, stated that Winfield was employed at that time by Gorham Manufacturing Company as a traveling salesman. Susie's family was of substantial means at the time of their marriage; her father, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, being involved in many significant business ventures.

In April of 1893, after a psychotic episode in a Chicago hotel, Winfield was committed to Butler Hospital in Providence. Though it's not clear who reported Winfield's prior behavior to Butler, medical records indicate that he had been "doing and saying strange things at times" for a year before his commitment. Winfield spent five years in Butler before dying in 1895. His death certificate listed the cause of death as general paresis, a term synonymous with late-stage syphilis. Susie never exhibited symptoms of the disease, leading to questions regarding the intimacy of their relationship. In 1969 Sonia Greene, Lovecraft's future wife, ventured that Susie was a "touch-me-not" wife and that Winfield, being a traveling salesmen, "took his sexual pleasures wherever he could find them". How Greene came to this opionin is unknown, as she never met Lovecraft's parents. Throughout his life Lovecraft maintained that his father fell into a paralytic state, due to insomnia and being overworked, and remained that way until his death. It's unknown if Lovecraft was simply kept ignorant of his father's illness or if his later remarks were an intentional invention.

After his father's hospitalization, Lovecraft was raised by his mother, his maternal aunts Lillian and Annie, and his maternal grandparents Whipple and Robie. All five resided together in the family home. Lovecraft later noted that after his father's illness his mother was "permanently stricken with grief." Whipple became a father figure to Lovecraft in this time; Lovecraft later noting that his grandfather became the "centre of my entire universe" in his childhood. Whipple, who traveled often on business, maintained correspondence with the young Lovecraft by letter, who, by the age of three, was already proficient at reading and writing. When home Whipple would share weird tales of his own invention and show Lovecraft objects of art he'd acquired in his European travels. Lovecraft also credits Whipple with being instrumental in overcoming his fear of the dark when Whipple forced Lovecraft, at five years old, to walk through several darkened rooms in the family home. It was in this period that Lovecraft was introduced to some of his earliest literary influences such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner illustraded by Dore, One Thousand and One Nights, a gift from his mother, 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. By his own account it sent his family into "a gloom from which it never fully recovered." His mother and aunts' wearing of black mourning dresses "terrified" him and it is at this time that Lovecraft, approximately five and half years old, started having recurring nightmares that would inform his later writing. Specifically he began to have recurring nightmares of of beings he termed "night-gaunts", their appearance he credited to the illustrations of Dore, 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 would appear in Lovecraft's writing.

Lovecraft's earliest known literary works began at age seven with classical style poems distilling such works as the Odyssey and other mythological stories into long-form poems. Lovecraft has said, as a child, he had already been enamored with the Roman pantheon of gods, accepting them as genuine expressions of divinity and foregone his Christian upbringing claiming, when he was five and told Santa Claus didn't exist, he retorted by asking why "God is not equally a myth?" At the age of eight he took a keen interest in the sciences, particularly chemistry. He also, at that time, examined anatomy books available to him in the family library, learning the specifics of human reproduction that had yet to be fully explained to him by any adult, and found it "virtually killed my interest in the subject." In 1902, according to Lovecraft's own correspondence, astronomy became a guiding influence on his world view. He produced the periodical "Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy", of which 69 issues survive, using the hectograph method, which due to its cost, had to be subsidized by his family.

Lovecraft went in and out of elementary school repeatedly, often times with home tutors making up for those lost school years. The written recollections of his peers described him as both withdrawn yet openly welcoming to any who shared his current fascination with astronomy, inviting anyone to look through the telescope he prized. It was though, at the age of eight, when Lovecraft was first introduced to Edgar Allen Poe, an enduring influence.

Starting in 1900, Whipple's largest business ventures were suffering and slowly reducing his family's wealth. At the time the Phillips home employed four servants, three horses and a coachmen to transport them, but Whipple was forced to let them go. This left Lovecraft, Whipple and Susie, being the only unmarried sister, alone in the family home. In the spring of 1904 Whipple's largest business venture suffered a catastrophic failure. Within months he died due to a stroke at age 70. After Whipple's death, Susie, unable to support the upkeep for the expansive family home on the what remained of the Phillips' estate, was forced to move herself and her son to a small duplex. Lovecraft has called this time one of the darkest in his life; remarking in a 1934 letter that he so no point in living anymore. Later in 1904 he started high school. Much like his earlier school years Lovecraft was at times removed from school for long periods for what he termed "near breakdowns". He did say though, that while having some conflicts with teachers, he enjoyed high school, becoming close with a small circle of friends. Aside from a pause in 1904 he also resumed publishing the "Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy" as well as the "Scientific Gazette" which dealt mostly with chemistry. It was also during this period that Lovecraft produced the first of the types of fiction he would later be know for, namely " The Beast in the Cave" and "The Alchemist".

In was in 1908, prior to his high school graduation, that Lovecraft suffered another health crises of some sort, though this instance was seemingly more severe than any prior. The exact circumstances and causes remain unknown. The only direct records are Lovecraft's own later correspondence where he described it variously as a "nervous collapse" and "a sort of breakdown", in one letter blaming it on the stress of high school, despite his enjoying it. In another letter concerning the events of 1908 he notes, "I was and am prey to intense headaches, insomnia, and general nervous weakness which prevents my continuous application to any thing." Though Lovecraft maintained that he was to attend Brown University after high school, he never graduated and never attended school again. Whether Lovecraft suffered from a physical ailment, a mental one, or some combination thereof has never been determined due to a lack of evidence. An account from a high school classmate described Lovecraft as exhibiting "terrible tics" and that at times "he'd be sitting in his seat and he'd suddenly up and jump." Harry Brobst, who recorded the account and had a Ph.D. in psychology, ventured that the chorea minor Lovecraft had as a child never resolved itself. A family acquaintance also shared an anecdotal story claiming that Lovecraft suffered a significant head injury as a child, sustained from a fall while climbing the frame of a house that was mid-construction.

Early life (1890 - 1908)

Lovecraft c. nine years old

Lovecraft was born in his family home on August 20, 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the only child of Winfield Scott Lovecraft (1853–1898) and Sarah Susan (Susie) Phillips Lovecraft (1857–1921). It's not clear how Winfield and Susie met. Winfield listed his residence as New York City on their marriage certificate. Lovecraft's future wife, Sonia Greene, stated that Winfield was employed at that time by Gorham Manufacturing Company as a traveling salesman. Susie's family was of substantial means at the time of their marriage; her father, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, being involved in many significant business ventures. In April of 1893, after a psychotic episode in a Chicago hotel, Winfield was committed to Butler Hospital in Providence. Though it's not clear who reported Winfield's prior behavior to Butler, medical records indicate that he had been "doing and saying strange things at times" for a year before his commitment. Winfield spent five years in Butler before dying in 1895. His death certificate listed the cause of death as general paresis, a term synonymous with late-stage syphilis. Susie never exhibited symptoms of the disease, leading to questions regarding the intimacy of their relationship. In 1969 Sonia Greene ventured that Susie was, what she called, a "touch-me-not" wife and that Winfield, being a traveling salesmen, "took his sexual pleasures wherever he could find them". How Greene came to this opinion is unknown, as she never met Lovecraft's parents. Throughout his life Lovecraft maintained that his father fell into a paralytic state, due to insomnia and being overworked, and remained that way until his death. It's unknown if Lovecraft was simply kept ignorant of his father's illness or if his later remarks were an intentional invention.

After his father's hospitalization, Lovecraft was raised by his mother, his maternal aunts Lillian and Annie, and his maternal grandparents Whipple and Robie. All five resided together in the family home. Lovecraft later noted that after his father's illness his mother was "permanently stricken with grief." Whipple became a father figure to Lovecraft in this time noting that his grandfather became the "centre of my entire universe." Whipple, who traveled often on business, maintained correspondence with the young Lovecraft by letter, who, by the age of three, was already proficient at reading and writing. When home Whipple would share weird tales of his own invention and show Lovecraft objects of art he'd acquired in his European travels. Lovecraft also credits Whipple with being instrumental in overcoming his fear of the dark when Whipple forced Lovecraft, at five years old, to walk through several darkened rooms in the family home. It was in this period that Lovecraft was introduced to some of his earliest literary influences such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner illustrated by Doré, One Thousand and One Nights, a gift from his mother, 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. By his own account, it sent his family into "a gloom from which it never fully recovered." His mother and aunts' wearing of black mourning dresses "terrified" him and it is at this time that Lovecraft, approximately five and half years old, started having nightmares that would inform his later writing. Specifically, he began to have recurring nightmares of beings he termed "night-gaunts", their appearance he credited to the influence 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 would appear in Lovecraft's writing.

Lovecraft's earliest known literary works began at age seven with poems restyling the Odyssey and other mythological stories. Lovecraft has said that, as a child he, was enamored with the Roman pantheon of gods, accepting them as genuine expressions of divinity and foregoing his Christian upbringing. He recalls, at five years old, being told Santa Claus didn't exist and retorting by asking why "God is not equally a myth?" At the age of eight he took a keen interest in the sciences, particularly astronomy and chemistry. He also examined the anatomy books available to him in the family library, learning the specifics of human reproduction that had yet to be explained to him, and found that it "virtually killed my interest in the subject." In 1902, according to Lovecraft's own correspondence, astronomy became a guiding influence on his world view. He began producing the periodical "Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy", of which 69 issues survive, using the hectograph printing method. Lovecraft went in and out of elementary school repeatedly, often times with home tutors making up for those lost school years, missing time due to health concerns that aren't entirely clear. The written recollections of his peers described him as both withdrawn yet openly welcoming to anyone who shared his current fascination with astronomy, inviting anyone to look through the telescope he prized.

By 1900 Whipple's various business concerns were suffering a downturn and slowly reducing his family's wealth. Before this the Phillips' home employed four servants, three horses and a coachmen to transport them, but Whipple was forced to let them go. This left Lovecraft, Whipple and Susie, being the only unmarried sister, alone in the family home. In the spring of 1904 Whipple's largest business venture suffered a catastrophic failure. Within months he died due to a stroke at age 70. After Whipple's death, Susie was unable to support the upkeep for the expansive family home on the what remained of the Phillips' estate. Later that year she was forced to move herself and her son to a small duplex. Lovecraft has called this time one of the darkest times in his life; remarking in a 1934 letter that he saw no point in living anymore. In fall of the same year he started high school. Much like his earlier school years Lovecraft was at times removed from school for long periods for what he termed "near breakdowns". He did say though, that while having some conflicts with teachers, he enjoyed high school, becoming close with a small circle of friends. Aside from a pause in 1904 he also resumed publishing the "Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy" as well as starting the "Scientific Gazette", which dealt mostly with chemistry. It was also during this period that Lovecraft produced the first of the types of fiction he would later be know for, namely " The Beast in the Cave" and "The Alchemist".

In was in 1908, prior to his high school graduation, when Lovecraft suffered another health crises of some sort, though this instance was seemingly more severe than any prior. The exact circumstances and causes remain unknown. The only direct records are Lovecraft's own later correspondence wherein he described it variously as a "nervous collapse" and "a sort of breakdown", in one letter blaming it on the stress of high school despite his enjoying it. In another letter concerning the events of 1908 he notes, "I was and am prey to intense headaches, insomnia, and general nervous weakness which prevents my continuous application to any thing." Though Lovecraft maintained that he was to attend Brown University after high school, he never graduated and never attended school again. Whether Lovecraft suffered from a physical ailment, a mental one, or some combination thereof has never been determined due to a lack of evidence. An account from a high school classmate described Lovecraft as exhibiting "terrible tics" and that at times "he'd be sitting in his seat and he'd suddenly up and jump." Harry Brobst, who recorded the account and had a Ph.D. in psychology, ventured that the chorea minor Lovecraft had as a child never resolved itself. A family acquaintance also shared an anecdotal story claiming that Lovecraft suffered a significant head injury as a child, sustained from a fall while climbing the frame of a house that was mid-construction.

Earliest Recognition (1908 - 1914)

Not much of Lovecraft and Susie's activities from late 1908 to 1913 is recorded. Lovecraft mentions a steady continuation of their financial decline highlighted most distinctly by a failed business venture of his uncle that cost Susie a large portion of their dwindling wealth. Accounts differ on the extent of Susie's and Lovecraft's reclusion. A friend of Susie, Clara Hess, recalled a visit during which Susie spoke continuously about Lovecraft being "so hideous that he hid from everyone and did not like to walk upon the streets where people could gaze on him." Despite Hess' protest that this wasn't the case Susie maintained this stance. In the same account though, Hess said she regularly saw Susie riding streetcars. Winfield Townley Scott, one of the earliest Lovecraft researchers, and the only to see Susie's medical records before they were destroyed, noted that Susie was both adoring of her son and seemingly resentful. He conjectures that a portion of this resentment was due to Lovecraft's inability, or unwillingness, to acquire any gainful employment while his mother was approaching bankruptcy.

Contrary to Scott's claims, Lovecraft found his mother to be "a positive marvel of consideration." A neighbor, Marion Bonner, recalled that, despite the gossip of supposed loud quarrels between between mother and son at this time, she recognized that they were actually loudly reciting Shakespeare, much to the delight of Lovecraft. Susie had an adoration for French literature, having studied French in boarding school. Lovecraft, though he never matched his mother's admiration of French literature, admired her knowledge and devotion to it. Lovecraft recalls Susie also had a passion for painting landscapes of the surrounding countryside, though none of her work survives today. One of his Lovecraft's later friends, C. M. Eddy Jr. came to know Lovecraft because his wife's mother-in-law attended a women's suffrage meeting that Susie attended.

During this period Lovecraft revived his earlier scientific periodicals. He endeavored to commit himself to the study of organic chemistry; Susie buying the expensive glass chemistry assemblage he wanted. Lovecraft found his studies were hobbled by the mathematics involved, which he found boring and would cause headaches that would incapacitate him for a day. There are contrary accounts of Lovecraft's social interactions at this time. Lovecraft's letters imply a predominately reclusive existence, while an account from a neighbor maintained that he was regular at his sons' "club room" in his home's basement. He recalled "banquets" they would hold where Lovecraft was always the "speaker of evening" and was quite well received. Lovecraft's first poem that wasn't self published appeared in a local newspaper in 1912. Called "Providence in 2000 A.D." the poem envisioned a future where proper people of English heritage were displaced by immigrants. Surviving unpublished poems from this period, most notoriously "On the Creation of Niggers", were emblematic of the xenophobia and racism inherent in much of Lovecraft's later work.

In 1911 Lovecraft's letters to editors began appearing in pulp and weird fiction magazines, most notably Argosy. A 1913 letter critical of Fred J. Jackson, a prominent writer for Argosy, started Lovecraft down a path that would greatly affect his life. Lovecraft argued that the relationships between Jackson's male and female characters were too prominent. He described Jackson's stories as "trivial, effeminate, and, in places, coarse." Continuing, Lovecraft said that Jackson's characters exhibit the "delicate passions and emotions proper to negroes and anthropoid apes." This sparked a nearly year-long feud in the letters section of Argosy between Lovecraft, along with his occasional supporters, and the majority of readers critical of his view of Jackson. Lovecraft's biggest critic was John Russell, who often replied in verse, and to whom Lovecraft felt compelled to reply to because he respected Russell's writing skills. The most immediate effect of the feud was the recognition garnered from Edward F. Daas, then head editor of the United Amateur Press Association. Daas invited both Russell and Lovecraft to the organization and both did; Lovecraft in April of 1914.

Rejuvenation and tragedy (1914 - 1919)

"With the advent of United I obtained a renewed will to live; a renewed sense of existence as other than a superfluous weight; and found a sphere in which I could feel that my efforts were not wholly futile. For the first time I could imagine that my clumsy gropings after art were a little more than faint cries lost in the unlistening void."

—Lovecraft in 1921.

Lovecraft immersed himself in the world of amateur journalism for most of the following decade. During this period he was an advocate for amateurism versus commercialism. Lovecraft's definition of commercialism though was specific to writing for, what he considered, low-brow publications for pay. He contrasted this with his view of "professional publication", which he termed as writing for journals and publishers he considered respectable. He thought of amateur journalism as training and practice for a professional career. Lovecraft was appointed to chairman of the Department of Public Criticism of the UAPA in late 1914. He used this position to advocate for his, what many considered peculiar, insistence on the superiority of English language usage that most writers already considered archaic. Emblematic of the Anglophile opinions he maintained throughout his life, he openly criticized other UAPA contributors for their "Americanisms" and "slang". Often these criticisms were couched in xenophobic and racist arguments bemoaning the "bastardization" of the "national language" by immigrants.

In mid-1915 Lovecraft was elected to the position of First Vice-President of the UAPA. Two years later he was elected President and appointed other board members that mostly shared his view on the supremacy of classical English over modern American English. A long running public feud with Joachim Friedrich Hartmann, a contributor to a local newspaper who advocated for the reality of astrology, was indicative of Lovecraft's adherence to materialism. Lovecraft had contributed a regular astronomy column to the same newspaper for some time and was vocally critical that it would also publish views favorable to astrology. Another undeniably significant event of this time was the beginning of World War I. Lovecraft published multiple criticisms of the US government's, and the American public's, reluctance to join the war to protect England, which he viewed as the America's homeland.

Perhaps the most significant occurrence in Lovecraft's involvement with UAPA though, is his beginning to published his attempts at weird fiction. This started with The Alchemist, published in the main UAPA journal in 1916. Prior to this, Lovecraft focused on writing poetry in UAPA publications. It was due in no small part to the encouragement of W. Paul Cook, another UAPA member and future life-long friend, that Lovecraft turned his attention back to fiction. Soon to follow were Lovecraft's The Tomb and Dagon. The Tomb, by Lovecraft's own admission, follows closely the style and construction of the writings of one his largest influences, Edgar Allen Poe. Dagon though, is considered to be Lovecraft's first work that embraced the concepts and themes that his writing would later be known for. While both The Tomb and Dagon consist of a first person narrator losing their sanity due to their experiences, Dagon is explicit that the experience is genuine and not the result of stress or anxiety. The madness of narrator is brought on by the knowledge that there is, in fact, a monstrous race of undersea beings, much older than mankind, that build monuments to some unfathomable god-like being. Lovecraft's literary concept that horror comes not from some supernatural source but from scientific realities that human's are unequipped to mentally process become's common theme in his later work. In 1918 Lovecraft's term as President of the UAPA elapsed and he took his former post as chairman of the Department of Public Criticism. In 1919 Lovecraft published another story, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, that would further many of the themes that he became know for.

In 1917 as well come two first hand accounts suggesting that, despite his climb in the ranks of the UAPA, Lovecraft still lived a fairly hermetical life. One comes from Cook himself, the other Rheinhart Kleiner, a Brooklyn based UAPA writer. Both recalled that during their visits Lovecraft's mother regularly checked in on Lovecraft. Kleiner recalled, "at every hour or so his mother appeared in the doorway with a glass of milk, and Lovecraft forthwith drank it." In the same account Kleiner described Susie as "very cordial and even vivacious." Cook recounts an almost comical delay of his meeting with Lovecraft wherein Susie and Lillian wouldn't let Cook in because Lovecraft had been up all night writing and couldn't be disturbed. Eventually Lovecraft appeared at the door in his "dressing gown and slippers." Lovecraft later attributed his mother and aunt's reticence to allow Cook in being due to his unkempt appearance and their general dislike of Lovecraft's involvement with amateur journalism. Also in 1917, as Lovecraft related to Kleiner, was Lovecraft's aborted attempt to enlist in the army. Though it's highly unlikely Lovecraft would have been accepted into military service in any event, he told Kleiner that his mother "has threatened to go to any lengths, legal or otherwise, if I do not reveal all the ills which unfit me for the army."

The winter of 1918-1919 Susie, exhibiting symptoms of a "nervous breakdown" of some sort, went to live with her elder sister Lillian. It's unclear what Susie may have been suffering from but Lovecraft, as he did with his father, attributed her breakdown to mental stresses. Clara Hess, interviewed decades later, recalled instances of Susie describing "weird and fantastic creatures that rushed out from behind buildings and from corners at dark." In the same account Hess describes a time when they crossed paths in downtown Providence and Susie "was excited an apparently did not know where she was." Whatever the causes, they resulted in Susie being committed to Butler Hospital, like her husband before her, in March of 1919. Lovecraft's immediate reaction was to Susie's commitment was visceral, writing to Kleiner that, "existence seems of little value," and that he wished "it might terminate."

New section (1919 - ?)

Susie's situation sent Lovecraft into another spiral of, self described, "ill health". Future friend and correspondent George Houtain, after meeting Lovecraft in 1920, remarked, "Lovecraft honestly believes he is not strong - that he has an inherited nervousness and fatigue wished upon him. One would never suspect in his massive form and well constructed body that there could be any ailment." Lovecraft did not take kindly to Houtain's assessment and responded that he suffered from inherited physical ailments as opposed to imagined ones. Speaking to Susie's doctors, a month after she entered Butler, Lovecraft came to the realization that she was never going to be released. The nature of Susie's illness is impossible to ascertain. Her medical records were lost in a fire and the only Lovecraft researcher to have seen them prior was Winfield Townley Scott. His account describes Susie weeping often and speaking regularly about both her family's financial collapse and her son, whom she described as "a poet of the highest order." Her psychiatrist claimed she had Oedipus Complex. The psychiatric views of the day, still beholden to archaic Victorian assumptions, make any contemporary diagnosis of Susie questionable. No matter their symptoms or situations, women were predominately diagnosed (as Susie was) with hysteria; a concept that women are inherently mentally frail due to having "thinner blood" as result of menstruation and having a uterus. Lovecraft visited Susie often, walking the large grounds with her, and sent her letters on a regular basis.

Late 1919 saw Lovecraft become more outgoing. After a period of isolation, he began joining friends in trips to writer gatherings. The first being a talk in Boston presented by Lord Dunsany, whom Lovecraft recently discovered and idolized. In early 1920, at an amateur writer convention, he met Frank Belknap Long, who would end up being Lovecraft's most influential and closest confidant for the rest of his life. This period also proved to be the most prolific of Lovecraft's short story career. The influence of Dunsany is readily apparent in his 1919 output, later be to coined Lovecraft's Dream Cycle, with stories like "The White Ship", "The Doom that Came to Sarnath", and "The Statement of Randolph Carter". In early 1920 followed "Celephais" and "The Cats of Ulthar". It was later in 1920 that Lovecraft began publishing the earliest stories that fit into the Cthulhu Mythos. The Cthulhu Mythos, a term coined by August Derleth, encompasses Lovecraft's stories that share a commonality in fictional locations and Lovecraft's invented pantheon of god-like beings known as The Great Old Ones. The poem "Nyarlathotep" and short story "The Crawling Chaos", in collaboration with Winifred Virginia Jackson, were written in late 1920. Following in early 1921 came "The Nameless City", the first story that falls definitively within the Cthulhu Mythos. In it is found one of Lovecraft's most enduring bits of writing, a couplet recited by his creation Abdul Alhazred, "That is not dead which can eternal lie; And even with strange aeons even death may die."

On May 24th, 1921, Sarah Susan (Susie) Phillips Lovecraft died in Butler Hospital, due to complications from a gall bladder surgery five days earlier. Lovecraft's initial reaction, expressed in a letter nine days after Susie's death, was that of an "extreme nervous shock" that crippled him physically and emotionally, again remarking that he found no reason he should continue living. Despite Lovecraft's immediate reaction to his mother's death, he continued to attend amateur journalist conventions. At some point during this time, as shown by an extremely complementary biography he wrote of her in September, Lovecraft met fellow amateur journalist enthusiast and writer Sonia Greene.

New section (1921 - ?)

In 1883 Sonia Greene was born Sonia Haft Shafirkin (possibly Sonia Shafirkin Haft) to a Jewish family in the Ukraine. Her father died while she was very young. Her mother later traveled to the United States and left Sonia and her brother in Liverpool where they received schooling. Sonia and her brother eventually joined their mother, now remarried, in New York in 1892. Seven years later Sonia, now fifteen, married a Russian immigrant named Samuel Seckendorff, nearly eleven years her elder. A year later she gave birth to a boy, who died in three months, then in 1902 gave birth to her daughter Florence. At some point in the interim Seckendorff adopted the surname Greene as did Sonia. In 1916 Seckendorff died by an apparent suicide. Sonia went on to find lucrative employment in what was, in her own words, "a highly paid executive position" in a women's wear store. Her yearly salary, many times that which Lovecraft earned, allowed Sonia to rent a nice home in Flatbush where she and her daughter resided. Sonia became interested in amateur journalism and joined the National Amateur Press Association (NAPA). Sonia's first direct encounter with Lovecraft was at the 1921 national NAPA convention in Boston. There Lovecraft gave a prose speech in favor of the UAPA, though he was also a member of NAPA, as being the purer of the two associations. Soon after Sonia joined the UAPA, contributing an unheard of $50 donation, and became heavily involved in the amateur journalism scene.

In September Sonia paid Lovecraft an impromptu visit. She spent a long weekend in Providence with Lovecraft and his aunt Lillian, taking them out to dinner, and being given tours of historic areas by Lovecraft. After Sonia returned to New York Lovecraft praised her in a letter, describing her as "a person of the most admirable qualities" and noting that her "intelligence and devotion to art merit the sincerest appreciation." Aware that Sonia was a Jew, a fact that ran counter to his racial purist views, he offered: "The volatility incidental to a Continental and non-Aryan heritage should not blind the analytical observer to the solid work and genuine cultivation which underlie it." In October Lovecraft published, after years of being unable to maintain any form of employment, his first fiction for pay in a magazine started by his friend. The result was some of Lovecraft's more popular works such as "Herbert West-Reanimator" and "The Lurking Fear". It was in April of 1922 when, in a six day trip arranged by Sonia, Lovecraft first visited New York. There he met with friends Samuel Loveman and Frank Belknap Long, often over dinner at Sonia's house. Sonia and Lovecraft met privately as well. Her neighbor, who provided a room for Lovecraft, possessed a Persian cat that Lovecraft was enamored with. So much so that it the prompted an exchange Sonia recalled in her memoir:

Half in earnest, half in jest I remarked, "What a lot of perfectly good affection to waste on mere cat, when some woman might highly appreciate it!" His retort was, "How can any woman love a face like mine?" My counter-retort was, "A mother can and some who are not mothers would not have to try very hard." We all laughed while Felis was enjoying some more stroking.

— Sonia Greene, The Private Life of H. P. Lovecraft (1985)

Lovecraft's initial impression of New York was complimentary. That changed when Sonia took him for a walk through the East Side where, as expressed in a letter soon after returning home, his racist views found expression. So horrified by the "bastard mess of stewing mongrel flesh without intellect, repellent to the eye, nose and imagination," Lovecraft insisted on walking down the middle of streets to avoid residents on the sidewalks. Sonia visited Lovecraft again in her travels in New England and, in late June, convinced Lovecraft to meet her in Gloucester. One evening, looking out over the moonlit ocean filled with pile and lines, Sonia found the other-worldliness of it as inspiration for a weird tale Lovecraft should write. Lovecraft instead insisted she should write the story herself. So enthusiastic he was about this idea that, according to her memoirs, she took the initiative and kissed him. An act, she says, that lead first to extreme blushing on Lovecraft's part followed by all the color leaving his face. When Sonia teased him about his reaction Lovecraft claimed he had never been kissed since being a small child and expected to never be kissed again. Lovecraft spent the next months traveling regularly. He met his friends Loveman and Galpin in Cleveland, stopping when both leaving and returning to visit Sonia in New York, where he was introduced to the paintings and writing of Clark Ashton Smith. Right away Lovecraft sent a letter to Smith, praising his work, beginning a lifelong correspondence and friendship. Lovecraft's travels lead to the longest absence from his home that he'd ever experienced. After nearly a month in Cleveland he spent two more in New York visiting Sonia and friends. The travel seemed to have a profound effect on Lovecraft. In a letter to his aunt Lillian during this period Lovecraft related that he had no "headaches or depressed spells", that he doubted anyone in Providence would even recognize him, and that the "companionship of youth & artistic taste is what keeps one going!"

Sources

• Joshi, S. T. (2013). I am Providence. New York: Hippocampus Press. ISBN 978-1-61498-053-7.
• de Camp, L. Sprague (1975). H. P. Lovecraft: A Biography. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 1-56619-994-8.
• Montague, Charlotte (2015). H. P. Lovecraft. New York: Chartwell Books. ISBN 978-0-7858-3269-0.
• Poole, W. Scott (2016). In the Mountains of Madness. Berkeley, California: Soft Skull Press. ISBN 978-1-59376-647-4.
• Roland, Paul (2014). The Curious Case of H. P. Lovecraft. London: Plexus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85965-517-0.