Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 - March 15, 1937) was an American writer who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, but he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are The Rats in the Walls, The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time, all canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos.
Earliest recognition (1908-1914)
Not much of Lovecraft and Susie's activities from late 1908 to 1913 are recorded. Lovecraft mentions a steady continuation of their financial decline highlighted by a failed business venture of his uncle that cost Susie a large portion of their dwindling wealth. Accounts differ on how reclusive Susie and Lovecraft were during this time. 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 out and about riding streetcars.  For his part, Lovecraft said he found his mother to be "a positive marvel of consideration." A next-door neighbor later pointed out that what others in the neighborhood often supposed were loud, nocturnal quarrels between mother and son, she recognized as being recitations of Shakespeare; an activity that seemed to delight mother and son. 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 Lovecraft's later friends, C. M. Eddy Jr., became aware of Lovecraft due to his wife Muriel, whose mother-in-law attended a women's suffrage meeting where she met Susie.  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. 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 also 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 Jackson, a prominent writer for Argosy, started Lovecraft down a path that would greatly affect his life. Lovecraft 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 (also known as the UAPA). Daas invited Russell and Lovecraft to the organization and both accepted, Lovecraft in April 1914.
what happened in 1908?
Lovecraft mentions a steady continuation of their financial decline highlighted by a failed business venture of his uncle
Lovecraft mentions a steady continuation of their financial decline highlighted by a failed business venture of his uncle