H.P. Lovecraft

(1890 - 1937)

Called “a master of the macabre,” H.P. Lovecraft is credited with the invention of the “weird tale.” An only child whose syphilitic father died in an insane asylum, he suffered violent dreams from an early age, later noting, “I believe that—because of the foundation of most weird concepts in dream phenomena—the best weird tales are those in which the narrator or central figure remains (as in actual dreams) largely passive.” He described his writings as “based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos at large.”