Lovecraft, H.P.

The American author Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His father, who was a travelling salesman, fell ill with syphilis and died at a mental hospital in 1898. H.P. Lovecraft instead grew up with his mentally unstable and overprotective mother and two aunts at the home of his grandfather, who was a well-to-do industrial man. Lovecraft's childhood was marked by various illnesses, and his schooling therefore became very sporadic. His grandfather's large library of 18th and 19th century literature instead became the backbone of Lovecraft's early education. He wrote poetry early on, acquired much knowledge of languages and took an interest both in ancient Greece and in science. After the death of his grandfather from a stroke in 1904, the family got into economic difficulties and had to leave the property.