Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer known for his significant influence on the horror fiction genre, particularly through his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft's life was marred by tragedy from an early age, with his father's institutionalization and the subsequent dissipation of his family's wealth. Despite these hardships, Lovecraft's passion for the written word drove him to become a pivotal figure in the world of weird, science, fantasy, and horror fiction.

Lovecraft's contributions to pulp fiction began with his involvement in the United Amateur Press Association and his critical letter to a pulp magazine in 1913, which marked the start of his professional writing career. His move to New York City and marriage to Sonia Greene in 1924 introduced him to the "Lovecraft Circle," a group of authors who would play a critical role in his career and introduce him to Weird Tales, his most prominent publisher. Despite struggling with mental health and financial issues, Lovecraft's return to Providence in 1926 sparked a prolific period in his career, yielding classics such as The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time.

Lovecraft's work is deeply imbued with themes of cosmicism, a philosophy positing humanity's insignificance within the cosmos, and the fragility of anthropocentrism. His stories, often set in a fictionalized New England, explore the limits of human understanding and the horror of the unknown, reflecting his ambivalent views on knowledge and the decline of civilization. Initially conservative, Lovecraft's political views shifted towards socialism following the Great Depression, though he remained elitist and aristocratic.

Despite his influence, Lovecraft was virtually unknown during his lifetime, earning little from his writings and published mostly in pulp magazines before his death from intestinal cancer at the age of 46. A scholarly revival in the 1970s has since elevated Lovecraft to one of the 20th century's most significant authors of supernatural horror fiction, inspiring a vast array of adaptations and works within the Cthulhu Mythos.