"Nothing," H. P. Lovecraft once wrote, "has ever seemed to fascinate me so much as the thought of some curious interruption in the prosaic laws of nature, or some monstrous intrusions on our familiar world by unknown things from the limitless outside." An apt sentiment, considering that Lovecraft was arguably the twentieth century's master of the genre of fiction known as supernatural horror. Through numerous stories, Lovecraft created worlds where men become powerless witnesses to unspeakable forces they can barely comprehend. Since his death in 1937, Lovecraft has become exceptionally popular, and the stories of his "Cthulhu Mythos" have served as inspiration for many modern writers of horror and science fiction.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island, in the home of his maternal grandfather, Wipple V. Phillips. The descendant of a once-prosperous New England family, Lovecraft was born and raised in the Victorian mansion that...