H.P. Lovecraft

Born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island, H. P. Lovecraft spent most of his life in the city that would become the atmospheric backdrop to many of his tales. Though he began his career writing essays and poetry, his true voice emerged with the rise of Weird Tales in 1923, where he published the majority of his groundbreaking fiction. In a body of work comprising just three short novels and around sixty stories, Lovecraft forged an entirely new kind of horror—one rooted not in ghosts, but in cosmic dread. Today, he is hailed as the preeminent American master of twentieth-century supernatural fiction. Lovecraft passed away in Providence in 1937, leaving behind a legacy that continues to shape the genre.