By Jovan Stipić

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”
― H.P. Lovecraft

In his short 46 years of life, he managed to inspire generations of future writers, directors, and storytellers. His influence is so great today that you might be admiring his work through other artists without even knowing it. Yet, H.P. Lovecraft was virtually unknown in his lifetime. He lived as a hermit in Rhode Island, where he created horrific, imaginative worlds which he inhabited, finding them far more tolerable than the reality he lived in.

On August 20th, 1890, Howard Philips Lovecraft was born in an ancestral home to one of the oldest families in Providence. He grew up to rumors about his mother's side being inbred for generations while his father, unbeknownst to him, was already suffering from syphilis. Only a few years later, his father had a mental breakdown, which saw him confined to a lunatic asylum. Though he lived for another five years, Lovecraft never saw him again.

Following his mother, she sought to give him as much of a normal life as she could. They began living with his grandfather, Whipple van Buren Phillips, who gave him his first taste of the uncanny. Whipple was known for making up interesting ghost stories at his parties, which Lovecraft became fascinated by. On the other hand, his mother hated them and thought they had a terrible effect on her child. Lovecraft later told that he always found his mother to be "permanently grief-stricken" after his father's death, which is why he thought she coddled him so much.

Yet even that could not help Lovecraft's deteriorating mental state, which sharply declined after his father's breakdown. After age six, he started having night terrors that saw him walking and talking in his sleep. Not being able to remember, this filled him with fear. This might have been the most horrifying to the young Lovecraft, as he shook for days, not exactly knowing why.

Strange as his childhood was, he did spend most of his days reading through his grandfather's library, becoming versed in geology, folklore, and mysticism. In those books, he found stability that was missing after his father had died. Stability, which didn’t last.

After his grandfather and grandmother had died, he and his mother were evicted from their homes. Though not known at the time, according to Lovecraft, it was the day that both he and his mother went mad. He was unable to finish university and even high school. Instead, he locked himself in his room, cutting off all contact with the outside world. In the years to come, his relationship with his mother became toxic.

Instead of an overly protective mother, he now had a verbally abusive parent who called him all kinds of terrible names, such as grotesque and monstrous. At this time, he developed his infamous social anxiety, which crippled him for the rest of his life.

But his life was saved by a rather unlikely hero, which sounds almost cliché. A romance novelist.

Starting in 1911, his letters to pulp magazines saw a publishing string, culminating with a letter criticizing a well-known romance trash merchant named Fred Jackson. Lovecraft found most of Jackson's work in his favorite magazine, The Argosy, which he found to be terrible. Later he sent several letters to the magazine, all in rhyme, explaining why he detested the work of Fred Jackson as much as he did.

This somewhat childish behavior is what saw him finally get some notice. 

He was offered a job at UAPA (United Amateur Press Association), where he was famous for his comments regarding the language used in the writing of the time. Lovecraft thought the archaic use of the English language, which he saw as superior, was being stained by immigrants flooding the U.S. at the time. Despite the harsh criticism his stance was getting, he did finally see his first fiction short story become published. This was when the young, sickly, reclusive Lovecraft finally got some attention. It also served as a catalyst, for now, worldly acclaimed "Cthulu Mythos."

Yet even that could not help Lovecraft's deteriorating mental state, which sharply declined after his father's breakdown. After age six, he started having night terrors that saw him walking and talking in his sleep. Not being able to remember, this filled him with fear. This might have been the most horrifying to the young Lovecraft, as he shook for days, not exactly knowing why.

Strange as his childhood was, he did spend most of his days reading through his grandfather's library, becoming versed in geology, folklore, and mysticism. In those books, he found stability that was missing after his father had died. Stability, which didn’t last.

After his grandfather and grandmother had died, he and his mother were evicted from their homes. Though not known at the time, according to Lovecraft, it was the day that both he and his mother went mad. He was unable to finish university and even high school. Instead, he locked himself in his room, cutting off all contact with the outside world. In the years to come, his relationship with his mother became toxic.

Instead of an overly protective mother, he now had a verbally abusive parent who called him all kinds of terrible names, such as grotesque and monstrous. At this time, he developed his infamous social anxiety, which crippled him for the rest of his life.

But his life was saved by a rather unlikely hero, which sounds almost cliché. A romance novelist.

Starting in 1911, his letters to pulp magazines saw a publishing string, culminating with a letter criticizing a well-known romance trash merchant named Fred Jackson. Lovecraft found most of Jackson's work in his favorite magazine, The Argosy, which he found to be terrible. Later he sent several letters to the magazine, all in rhyme, explaining why he detested the work of Fred Jackson as much as he did.

This somewhat childish behavior is what saw him finally get some notice. 

He was offered a job at UAPA (United Amateur Press Association), where he was famous for his comments regarding the language used in the writing of the time. Lovecraft thought the archaic use of the English language, which he saw as superior, was being stained by immigrants flooding the U.S. at the time. Despite the harsh criticism his stance was getting, he did finally see his first fiction short story become published. This was when the young, sickly, reclusive Lovecraft finally got some attention. It also served as a catalyst, for now, worldly acclaimed "Cthulu Mythos."

His story would bear a simple name but would echo for decades. 

“Dagon.”