:Lovecraft was definitely a racist (though the less loaded term ethnocentrist would probably be more appropriate, even within the context of his time. It is natural, since racism is such a hot topic in modern times, to agonize over the evidence of his racism, which manifested itself in unpleasant literary, if not physical, ways, and use that knowledge to either vilify the man, or else claim it is untrue. 

 :However, it might be much more useful to understanding the author to examine the issue (maybe beyond our scope here) in context of his personality and his times. Just a few points are: 
 :*There was an accepted view of the inferiority of those who are different in America of the time and, indeed, in most of the world; 
 :*Lovecraft's brand of "benign" ("passive agressive"?) racism, wherein he would rail in writing or in discussion against other ethnicities, but would not stand to see any of the objects of his hatred/fear harmed, was not all that uncommon, but also not that benign in the broader social context; 
 :*You can't view Lovecraft's racism without considering Lovecraft's fragile self-image. He wrote of robust bloodthirsty nordic peoples (as he viewed his ancestry) but was himself beset by numerous real, emotional, and psychosomatic disorders. (One thinks also of Robert E. Howard, the robust Texan who created Conan then committed suicide at the age of 30 because he couldn't deal with the death of his mother). 
 :**He was coddled by women for much of his life, but could not maintain a relationship with his wife; yet he gained apparent vicarious gratitification by taking a young woman to a graveyard at night and scaring the hell out of her with macabre stories; 
 :**His self-confidence was so poor that if a story was rejected by a publication at first submission, he typically threw it aside instead of marketing it to others. His friends often rescued the stories and secretly resubmiited him, then surprised Lovecraft with the acceptance checks; 
 :**His racism was bound up in a parallel with the fact that his life his materially austere, not what a "nobleman" of his background should enjoy. Dark and mysterious "others" seemed to threaten his "noble" position more and it seemed perverse to him that he should be poor while many of them prospered through hard work; 
 :**His "nobility" was his bulwark and against his many odd ailments and phobias; inability to withstand significant cold; a fear of large confined spaces; a dread of fish, which may explain why so many of his "monsters" resemble refugees from an Italian pesce meal. 

 :So my point is that his genuine racism is but a symptom of the deficiencies of his personalityyet the man, when not writing horror tomes, was an amazingly lucid writer. I am frankly more disturbed by the writings of those of his era who engaged in high-minded political writings but were personally vile racists and/or anti-Semites.   |