Date

10-16-2025

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Chair

Michael A. Davis

Keywords

Horror, H.P. Lovecraft. Gothic, Cosmic, Weird, 19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, Intellectual History, Cultural History, Rhode Island, Providence, Folklore, Cthulhu, Pulp Magazines, Edgar Allan Poe

Disciplines

History

Abstract

Author Howard Phillips (H.P.) Lovecraft (1890-1937) of Rhode Island was a transformative figure in American fiction. Hailed by one modern writer as “the twentieth-century horror story’s dark and baroque prince,” Lovecraft wrote over sixty-five works of fiction representing—alongside Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, and David H. Keller—“the golden age of weird fiction.” Lovecraft, however, enjoyed only modest commercial success during his lifetime, writing for amateur journals and pulp magazines such as The Vagrant, Amazing Stories, and Weird Tales. Most of his stories, then, were not published in hardcover or paperback form until after his death, including what many literary critics and historians consider his “finest novel,” The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1941). Overall, Lovecraft’s macabre tales—characterized by their cosmic worldview, marked a stark break from late 19th century horror writings, making him the most original horror writer since Edgar Allan Poe, a writer Lovecraft considered the “God of Fiction.” Indeed, through the late 19th century, the horror genre was marked by vampire stories and other elements of folkloric tradition. By the early 20th century, however—with the emergence of the First World War (1914-1919), industrialization, and modernization—gothic fiction of this nature became less prevalent for a time. Instead, there were new horrors—loneliness, isolation, massive destruction, loss of religious beliefs and the new uncertainty of man’s place in an ever-expanding universe. Inspired by these new horrors, Lovecraft tackled both the gothic elements of the past and the creeping uncertainty of an ever more cosmic worldview in his literary works.

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