Lovecraft (timeline)

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A biographical timeline of known events in Lovecraft's life:

Timeline

Juvenalia

A period of Lovecraft's troubled youth, marked by somewhat naive macabre tales of mystery and horror in imitation of e.g. Edgar Allan Poe. His interests in weird fiction, mythology and folklore, and science are precociously developed in this period.

  • 1880s and before
  • 1890s
    • 1890 - (Aug 20) Lovecraft is born in his family home at 454 (then 194) Angell Street, Providence, RI
    • 1892? - Lovecraft's father, Winfield Scott Lovecraft, begins acting strangely and saying disturbing things.
    • 1893 - (Apr) Winfield Scott Lovecraft falls acutely insane in Chicago, Illinois during a business trip, and will spend the rest of his life institutionalized.
    • 1894? - Lovecraft is raised by his aunts and grandparents Robie and Whipple Van Buren Phillips in the family home until the grandfather's death. By all accounts, Lovecraft is a prodigy: reciting poetry and reading and writing by age 2.
    • 1896 - Lovecraft's maternal grandmother Robie Phillips dies, sending the family into "a gloom from which it never recovered". Lovecraft begins having nightmares about "Nightgaunts".
    • 1897 - Lovecraft writes "The Little Glass Bottle (fiction)"
    • 1897? - Lovecraft writes "The Noble Eavesdropper (fiction" (lost, believed nonextant)
    • 1898 - Winfield Scott Lovecraft dies, diagnosed with general paresis (late stage syphilis).
    • 1898 - Young Lovecraft has discovered the sciences, and is particularly fascinated by chemistry and astronomy; his exploration of anatomy, and human sexuality, leaves him revolted by the subject.
    • 1898 - Young Lovecraft writes "The Mystery of the Grave-Yard (fiction)" and "The Secret Cave or John Lees Adventure (fiction)"
    • 1898-1902 - Young Lovecraft writes "The Haunted House (fiction)" , "John, the Detective (fiction)" , and "The Secret of the Grave (fiction)" (all lost, believed nonextant)
    • 1899 - Sonia Haft Shafirkin marries Samuel Greene, reputedly a "brutish" character.
  • 1900s
    • 1890s-1900s? - Lovecraft's health is reputedly shaky, leaving him absent from school through much of his childhood. Lovecraft does seem to enjoy school, and does have close friends, with whom he is said to have played games of Arabian Nights (in which he would take the name "Abdul Alhazred"), and cops and robbers (in which Lovecraft apparently played with a real - unloaded - revolver). Acquaintances of the family describe Lovecraft's mother as overprotective and overindulgent.
    • 1900 - Whipple's businesses begin to suffer, perhaps due in part to Whipple's depression and declining health. Whipple is forced to begin dismissing servants.
    • 1902 - Young Lovecraft, fascinated by astronomy, makes his first exploration into the world of amateur journalism, publishing articles in his own self-published astronomy newsletter.
    • 1902 - Young Lovecraft writes "The Mysterious Ship (fiction)"
    • 1902 - Florence Carol Greene (later Carol Weld), Lovecraft's step-daughter, is borne.
    • 1904 - Whipple's businesses, already struggling, suffer catastrophic failures. Whipple Van Buren Phillips dies, and the family, discovering the extent of the estate's mismanagement, is forced to move to a cheaper house down the street to 598 Angell Street. Lovecraft would later describe this as one of the darkest times of his life, a point where he saw no use in living any more.
    • 1904-1908 - Lovecraft continues to report health problems that prevent him from attending high school regularly, though he claims to enjoy school, and reportedly has a group of close friends. Lovecraft would resume amateur journalism, self-publishing journals of astronomy and chemistry.
    • 1905 - Lovecraft writes "The Beast in the Cave (fiction)"
    • 1907 - Lovecraft writes "The Picture (fiction)" (lost, believed nonextant)
    • 1908 - Lovecraft writes "The Alchemist (fiction)"

Teenage Breakdown and Recovery

Lovecraft's doesn't write much fiction in this period, but instead appears to be struggling to maintain some grip on normality following a strange nervous breakdown and withdrawal from society; he seems to turn to amateur journalism and editorial writing as a long-distance substitute for social contact. The majority of Lovecraft's social contact during this period seems to be either within his family - especially with his mother and aunts - or through the distance of editorial correspondence. Lovecraft's writing during this period seems to have taken on a marked, self-conscious, aggressive, stridently xenophobic and "conservative" - or more accurately reactionary - character.

  • 1900s
    • 1908-1913 - Not much is known about this period of Lovecraft's life. Acquaintances of the family say that Lovecraft's mother Susie describes young Lovecraft as "so hideous that he hid from everyone and did not like to walk upon the streets where people could gaze on him." Lovecraft claims to the contrary that she is "a positive marvel of consideration", but would also later describe her as a "touch-me-not mother" who avoided physical contact with him through much of his childhood, while his wife Sonia seems to have gotten the impression that Lovecraft's mother simultaneously overbearing/suffocating and "touch-me-not"; one acquaintance of the Lovecrafts in this era claims that what might seem like loud nocturnal quarrels between mother and son were actually reenactments of scenes from Shakespeare, which the Lovecrafts apparently enjoyed together. Susie apparently would be frequently seen riding through Providence by streetcar, and seems to have attended women's suffrage meetings during this period.
    • 1908-1913? - Lovecraft meets C.M. Eddy through their mothers' mutual acquaintanceship at Women's Suffrage meetings?
    • 1908 - Lovecraft suffers a nervous breakdown and withdraws from school, his hopes of attending Brown University dashed. The exact nature of the breakdown is unknown, but a combination of depression and physical illness are believed likely.
  • 1910s
    • 1911 - Lovecraft takes an interest in pulp literature and criticism, an interest that appears to have pulled Lovecraft back into the public. His letters to editors begin appearing in pulp magazines such as Argosy.
    • 1912 - Lovecraft's first professionally published poem, "Providence in 2000 A.D.", is written and published. Lovecraft's writing in this period seems to have taken an Anglophilic and xenophobic turn.
    • 1913 - Lovecraft begins a protracted "flame war" in the Argosy editorial page in which Lovecraft appears to have enjoyed "trolling" then prominent writer Fred Jackson and his supporters, particularly enjoying exchanges with John Russell, who would write rebuttals to Lovecraft in verse.
    • 1914 - Lovecraft's editorials attract the attention of the United Amateur Press Association (UAPA), which invites Lovecraft to join; Lovecraft accepts the invitation. Lovecraft in this period develops a taste for "Amateur Publication" vs. "Commercial Publication", and Lovecraft's xenophobia heavily influences his criticism of "low-brow" literature, slang, and Americanisms in writing, in favor of classical forms of British English.
    • 1915 - Lovecraft is elected to first vice-president of the UAPA.
    • 1916 - Samuel Greene dies, apparently by suicide. Sonia Green joins the independent middle class as a successful milliner.
    • 1916 - "The Alchemist" is published in an amateur journal.
    • 1917 - Lovecraft writes "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson (fiction)"
    • 1917 - Lovecraft writes "Sweet Ermengarde (fiction)"
    • 1917 - Lovecraft writes "The Tomb (fiction)" and "Dagon (fiction)" and publishes them in amateur journals.
    • 1917 - Lovecraft's critical/editorial writing has taken a political turn with the beginning of World War I, and he begins criticizing American reluctance to join the war in support of England. Lovecraft attempts to join the Army, and passes the physical requirements, but his mother Susie intervenes.
    • 1918 - Lovecraft writes "The Mystery of Murdon Grange (fiction)" (lost, believed nonextant)
    • 1918 - (May?) Lovecraft writes "Polaris (fiction)"
    • 1918 - Lovecraft's term as vice-president at UAPA ends, and Lovecraft begins a position as Chairman of the Department of Public Criticism for the organization.
    • 1918+? - Lovecraft's future step-daughter Carol Weld eventually becomes a successful journalist, marries, and drifts out of Sonia Greene's life after a tense relationship; Sonia Greene would rarely mention her.


Mother's Breakdown and Death, Sonia

The impact of his mother's breakdown and death at first appears to be devastating, but Lovecraft almost immediately seems to recover from it, emerging from isolation to travel, and make new friends outside of the local, aristocratic, "white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant" social comfort zone one imagines his parents, maternal grandparents, and aunts to have encouraged and imposed. Lovecraft's new friends in this period following his mother's death would include many people his aunts would likely not have approved of: immigrants from places like Ukraine and Hungary, women, anarchists, Jews, homosexuals, eccentric intellectuals, etc. Lovecraft would meet and very quickly marry Sonia Greene Lovecraft, a Ukrainian Jew several years older then himself, who had already been married once, already had a daughter with whom she seems to have grown distant, and who also seems to have had a rather strong will and personality, suggesting perhaps a replacement for a domineering mother. Lovecraft would move immediately into Sonia's Brooklyn apartment, seeming at first to look forward to the new city, but within a few years clearly growing disenchanted with the city and with the marriage. This appears to be the first period of Lovecraft's Dreamlands tales, largely replacing the more macabre early horror stories in this era, developing more sophisticated hints of a "weird" and "cosmic" theme in one of the first of Lovecraft's bursts of creativity.



Troubled Marriage and New York

This was a time of notable trouble in Lovecraft's adult life: his marriage is disintegrating, Sonia has lost her middle-class security and is forced to move out to follow work, Lovecraft seems unwilling to move from New England to join her or to accept job offers outside of New York, the couple's financial situation is dire and their health is deteriorating, and Lovecraft loses everythign but the clothing he was wearing in a break-in at his Red Hook apartment. Lovecraft produces little fiction in this era, and what fiction he does produce takes on a bitter, xenophobic cast.

  • 1920s
    • 1924? - Sonia loses her financial assets in a bank failure, loses her shop, falls ill, and the Lovecrafts fall on financial difficulties.
    • 1925 - (Jan 1) Sonia moves to Cincinnati OH and then Cleveland OH for new employment, and would soon work on the road, rarely returning to New York. Lovecraft, unable to find work and barely able to afford food, moves into a tiny, cheap apartment at 169 Clinton Street, Brooklyn NY on the edge of Red Hook; shortly after his arrival, Lovecraft returns to his apartment to discover a robbery leaving him only the clothes he was wearing, fueling Lovecraft's resentment of New York. Lovecraft would spend the remainder of his time in New York supported by the remnants of a small inheritance and a small weekly allowance from Sonia, barely sufficient to avoid starvation; Sonia would spend a night or two every month with Lovecraft. The marriage has begun disintegrating by this time.
    • 1925 (Aug 1-2) Lovecraft writes "The Horror at Red Hook (fiction)"
    • 1925 (Aug 11) Lovecraft writes "He (fiction)"
    • 1925 (Sep 18) Lovecraft writes "In the Vault (fiction)"
    • 1926? - Lovecraft writes "The Descendant (fiction)"
    • 1926 - (Mar) Lovecraft writes "Cool Air (fiction)"
    • 1926 - Harry Houdini contacts Lovecraft with plans for Lovecraft to ghost-write a treatise on superstition, The Cancer of Superstition (essay), which would have provided some much-needed income for Lovecraft. Lovecraft begins work on the manuscript.


Return to Providence

By this time, Lovecraft seems to have abandoned his experiment with New York and with marriage, returning to Providence. Lovecraft again seems to have taken up travel, and visiting with correspondents he'd previously only written to. Lovecraft's writing takes on a far more cosmic character at this time (perhaps inspired by both Lovecraft's evolving perspective, and his discovery of a Theosophical book from which Lovecraft, who regarded it as balderdash, seems to have nevertheless found inspirational in its ludicrous but imaginative hyper-human scope in time and space, leading to one of Lovecraft's most creative and productive periods of writing.


Decline and Death

By this point of the 1930s, Lovecraft's separation from Sonia Lovecraft seems have been complete; perhaps just as important at this point is that his mother and one of his aunts have died as well, and, in spite of being forced to live with one or another of his aunts due to financial trouble, Lovecraft seems to have begun to test his independence from strong women at this point, with "The Thing on the Doorstep" reading suspiciously like a thinly-veiled and eye-raising autobiographical commentary on his own passive role in a marriage to a woman who seems to have felt obligated to take all of the initiative in every aspect of their marriage. Lovecraft's fiction continues its trend toward the cosmic during this time. This period would be short-lived and relatively unproductive, as Lovecraft's health had been failing by this point, and the author would be dead before the decade was over.



Notes

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