By S.T. Joshi
![[Cover]](pics/hplalife.jpg)
Back Cover Text
H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) has, in the over sixty years since his death, become both a legend
and an enigma. He has come to be regarded as the leading American writer of horror fiction in this
century and continues to be a major influence upon the field today; but his life, work, and thought
remain poorly understood, and many myths about the man and his work persist. In this, the first
full-scale biography in more than twenty years, S.T. Joshi—the leading authority on
Lovecraft—has gone back to primary sources to set the record straight on the many-faceted
“gentleman from Providence”: his early interests in science, mythology, and literature;
his involvement in the “amateur journalism” movement; his towering presence in the pulp
magazines of the 1920s and the fantasy fandom of the 1930s; and the posthumous rescue of his work
by friends and devotees. Along the way, Joshi probes the literary, philosophical, cultural, and
historical forces that shaped Lovecraft’s work and thought, provides capsule portraits of his
close friends and colleagues, and studies the growth and development of all aspects of his creative
work. Written from a sympathetic but critical perspective, Joshi’s biography dispels many of
the myths about Lovecraft the man and win new converts to his distinctive literary work.
Winner of the 1997 Bram Stoker Award (HWA)
for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
“Even for a reader relatively familiar with Lovecraft’s work and with the gothic
legend of his life, H.P. Lovecraft: A Life will contain illuminating surprises.”
— Joyce Carol Oates
“S.T. Joshi’s admirable biographical study of Lovecraft provides the inevitable
foundation for all future study of that enigmatic author.” — Harold Bloom
“A magnificent book which supersedes every other study of Lovecraft’s life—the
definitive biography of Lovecraft, full of insights into his work. I found it compulsively
readable and endlessly fascinating. It deserves to be classed with the major literary
biographies.” — Ramsey Campbell
“S.T. Joshi’s impressive new biography can only add to his reputation as the most
formidable scholar in the Lovecraft field.” — Jack Sullivan
“Lovecraft has finally found his Boswell; erudite, insightful, comprehensive, and—for
a change—sympathetic. It’s probably the first biography that Lovecraft himself would
have approved of.” — T.E.D. Klein
Reviews
Bibliographic Information
H.P. Lovecraft: A Life. By S.T. Joshi. West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press; 2004; ISBN
0-940884-88-7 (trade paperback).
Purchasing This Book
This book may be purchased from Amazon.com in paperback or directly from the publisher, Necronomicon Press.
| 
