The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft (Deluxe Library Edition)

This complete collection of strange and unusual stories from H. P. Lovecraft features an array of dark and supernatural themes. Forbidden, esoterically veiled knowledge is at the forefront of many of Lovecraft's works, as well as non-human influences on humanity, inherited guilt, fate, civilization under threat, race, risks of a scientific era, religion, and superstition.
Many of Lovecraft's stories were inspired by his nightmares. His interest in the supernatural started during his childhood days when his grandfather would tell him Gothic horror stories. In 1913, he wrote a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fiction. During the interwar period, he wrote and published stories that focused on his interpretation of humanity's place in the universe. In his view, humanity was an unimportant part of an uncaring cosmos that could be swept away at any moment. These stories also included fantastic elements that represented the perceived fragility of anthropocentrism.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 - 1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, but he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth", both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor. He saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in progressively straitened circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time that he died at age 46.