Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Providence, Rhode Island is a creepy city and has fathered some very creepy people but the creepiest of them all was H P Lovecraft. He was the 20th centuries Edgar Allen Poe who was oddly enough another creepy guy who once lived in Providence. Lovecraft wrote what is now called science fiction and in the horror genre. His writing is part of a sub-genre of fiction called "weird Fiction". The stories are weird and creepy and unearthly. As was the man himself.
Lovecraft's father died at an early age after being committed to Butler Hospital, a mental hospital. Butler Hospital is a Gothic pile of a building in the creepiest built in a 19th century mental hospital vernacular. The hospital's grounds on Swan Point abut a cemetery also named Swan Point. This is where Lovecraft's father died of syphilis in 1898 when little Howard was eight. Lovecraft was raised by his maternal grandfather, mother and two maiden aunts in his grandfather's home. His grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, was of an old New England family tracing themselves back to the Mayflower. When he was a child Lovecraft's grandfather would tell him Gothic horror tales. He died in the family home when Lovecraft was 14. Because of a mismanagement of his grandfather's estate the family was left rather poor. They were forced to sell the family home and move to smaller less grand quarters. Lovecraft had always been a sickly child and suffered from night terrors. He was a delicate young man when he attended public high school. He suffered what is now considered a nervous breakdown and never obtained his diploma.
Starting as a child Lovecraft wrote. His earliest works were poetry.One of his earliest poems was"Night Gaunts" a poem about his night terrors and filled with devil-like faceless creatures.  He was always interested in chemistry and astronomy and other early works had those themes as their subjects. Between 1908 and 1913 Lovecraft lived like a hermit. His only real contact was with his mother with whom he lived. At this time Lovecraft started writing for various pulp magazines. It was around then his mother suffered from hysteria and was also confined to Butler hospital for a time.
Lovecraft was a voracious letter writer and correspondent.
In 1921 Lovecraft's mother died. A short time after her death he travelled to Boston to attend a conference and he met a woman. Her name was Sonia Greene and she lived in New York. they married and moved to New York. Lovecraft initially loved New York. His aunts did not approve of the marriage and his wife as she was a "tradeswoman" and owned a hat shop. Lovecraft couldn't secure any work and tensions mounted in their marriage. Greene moved away to Ohio and Lovecraft eventually returned to providence to live with his two aunts in a large Victorian home. This is where he wrote most of his best known works.

In 1936 Lovecraft was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine. He lived his last days with his aunt and in tremendous pain and malnutrition. He kept a diary of his sickness until almost his last day. He died in March of 1937. Lovecraft is buried in the family plot in Swan Point Cemetery next to butler hospital.