Lovecraft, Howard Phillips

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 - March 15, 1937) was an American writer who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction and fantasy. 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.
== Biography ==
Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the only child of Winfield Scott Lovecraft and Sarah Susan Lovecraft. In April 1893, after a psychotic episode, Winfield was committed to Butler Hospital in Providence. He spent five years there before dying in 1898. Howard resided in the family home with his mother, aunts and grandfather Whipple Phillips. He noted that his grandfather became the centre of his entire universe. Whipple, who traveled often on business, maintained correspondence by letter with the young Lovecraft who, by the age of three, was already proficient at reading and writing. Whipple encouraged the young Lovecraft to have an appreciation of literature, especially classical literature and English poetry.
Lovecraft's earliest known literary works began at age seven with poems restyling the Odyssey and other mythological stories. Lovecraft has said that as a child he was enamored of the Roman pantheon of gods, accepting them as genuine expressions of divinity and foregoing his Christian upbringing.
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