Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) is generally regarded as the best American writer of weird and supernatural fiction since Edgar Allan Poe. Born and raised in New England, Lovecraft spent most of his years with his elderly aunts, in an old house in Providence, Rhode Island. Lovecraft was a precocious child, and soon was reading every book he could find. His natural bent towards the fantastic and grotesque found expression in his own stories and poems, which began appearing during the First World War. Lovecraft was an indifferent businessman, incapable of pushing his own work, and squandering much of his energies in voluminous correspondence and other amateur projects. His principal market was the magazine Weird Tales, which bought enough of his stories to give him a poverty-level income. It was not until after his death (of cancer) at the age of 47 {sic} that the success of Arkham House, founded by August Derleth to promote Lovecraft's work, gave the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos a permanent niche in the history of American literature, and made his name synonymous with supernatural fiction at its best. Darrell Schweitzer, a professional editor, writer, and critic, has a Master's Degree in English Literature from Villanova University. His publications include Lovecraft in the Cinema and Essays Lovecraftiana, an anthology of critical pieces by different hands. He is currently working on a study of Robert E. Howard for The Borgo Press.