The Book Shelf: Horror Master H.P. Lovecraft on This Day in History

Monday, March 15, 2021

Horror Master H.P. Lovecraft on This Day in History

Supernatural Horror in Literature by Lovecraft

This Day in History: H.P. Lovecraft died on this day in 1937. He is one of the most significant and influential authors of all time, and certainly one of my favorites. However, like Edgar Allan Poe, he was under-appreciated in his time and died in poverty. He had an amazing way with words: "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

As an atheist, he had good words for the Bible: "An excellent habit to cultivate is the analytical study of the King James Bible. For simple yet rich and forceful English, this masterly production is hard to equal; and even though its Saxon vocabulary and poetic rhythm be unsuited to general composition, it is an invaluable model for writers on quaint or imaginative themes."

See also: Is there a connection between H.P. Lovecraft & Aleister Crowley? Dr. Robert M. Price

Quotes by Howard Phillips Lovecraft: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”

“I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.”

“To be bitter is to attribute intent and personality to the formless, infinite, unchanging and unchangeable void. We drift on a chartless, resistless sea. Let us sing when we can, and forget the rest..”

“If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!”

“I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams.”

“Contrary to what you may assume, I am not a pessimist but an indifferentist- that is, I don't make the mistake of thinking that the... cosmos... gives a damn one way or the other about the especial wants and ultimate welfare of mosquitoes, rats, lice, dogs, men, horses, pterodactyls, trees, fungi, dodos, or other forms of biological energy.”

“Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.”

“I felt myself on the edge of the world; peering over the rim into a fathomless chaos of eternal night.”

If you like audiobooks like I do, make sure you listen to the Lovecraft library with Wayne June as the narrator.