洛夫克拉夫特於1890年8月20日早上9點出生在美國普羅維登斯安格爾街（英語：Angell Street）194號（現454號）的家宅里。他是珠寶推銷員溫菲爾德·斯科特·洛夫克拉夫特（Winfield Scott Lovecraft）與其妻莎拉·蘇珊·菲利普斯·洛夫克拉夫特（Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft）的獨生子。可追溯到的母系祖先於1630年抵達馬薩諸塞灣殖民地。他的父母在30歲左右才成婚，且雙方都是初次結婚，這在當時並不常見。1893年，洛夫克拉夫特三歲時，他的父親在推銷旅行途中於芝加哥的一家旅館精神失常，其後被送往普羅維登斯的巴特勒醫院；老洛夫克拉夫特在那裡一直待到1898年過世。洛夫克拉夫特一生都堅稱父親發瘋的原因是工作過度引起的「神經衰弱」，但是現代觀點認為其父失常的真正原因是麻痹性痴呆[6]。洛夫克拉夫特到底是否了解父親的疾病及其真正成因（梅毒），今天已無從稽考，但他的母親很可能曾使用過含砷的酊劑（當時治療梅毒的常用藥物）作為「預防藥物」。
洛夫克拉夫特的外祖父惠普爾·范·布倫
在父親住院後，洛夫克拉夫特由母親、兩個姨母（莉莉安·德蘿拉·菲利普斯與安妮·埃米麗妮·菲利普斯，Lillian Delora Phillips & Annie Emeline Phillips）以及商人外祖父惠普爾·范·布倫·菲利普斯（Whipple Van Buren Phillips）照看，五人住在一間屋子裡。洛夫克拉夫特小時候就表現出與眾不同的文學天賦，他三歲時即能背誦詩歌，六歲時已能寫出完整的詩篇。他的外祖父經常給他一些文學經典鼓勵他閱讀（如《一千零一夜》，布爾芬奇的《神話時代》，還有兒童版本的《伊利亞特》與《奧德賽》）。他的外祖父也時常向洛夫克拉夫特講述一些自編的哥特式恐怖故事，這引起了他對怪奇小說的興趣。不過，洛夫克拉夫特的母親時常擔心這些故事會給他帶來不良影響。
大約9歲時的洛夫克拉夫特
洛夫克拉夫特童年時經常患病，雖然他總是將原因歸咎於自己身體孱弱，但其中有一些疾病可以肯定為心身疾病。早前的猜測認為他在胎兒時從父母處感染了梅毒，但這種看法現已被摒棄。由於身體狀況和好鬥的天性，洛夫克拉夫特在八歲前基本沒有接受過學校教育，八歲時入學一年後又旋即退學。這一時期他廣泛地閱讀各類書籍，對化學和天文學展現了濃厚的興趣。他於1899年起自己編輯出版了幾期膠版印刷刊物《科學公報》（The Scientific Gazette）。四年後，他進入當地的霍普街高中（英語：Hope High School (Rhode Island)））就讀。一般認為洛夫克拉夫特早年患有夜驚（一種睡眠疾病）；他相信自己曾被恐怖的「暗夜幽靈」襲擊過。他很多作品的靈感可能都來自於這一時期受到的驚嚇。
母親去世後數月，洛夫克拉夫特前往波士頓參加一次業餘記者集會，會上他遇見了索尼婭·格林。索尼婭出生於1883年，比洛夫克拉夫特年長7歲，她的祖先是烏克蘭裔猶太人。兩人於1924年結婚，婚後移居至紐約布魯克林。洛夫克拉夫特的姨母們對這場婚姻不甚滿意，因為她們不希望洛夫克拉夫特娶一個商人為妻（索尼婭開有一間帽店）。婚姻伊始，洛夫克拉夫特被紐約的生活徹底迷住，但很快夫婦兩人就遇到了財務危機。索尼婭變賣了帽店，其後又出現了健康問題。由於洛夫克拉夫特的薪水不足供兩人開銷，他的妻子不得不搬到克利夫蘭求職。此後洛夫克拉夫特獨自一人住在布魯克林的雷德胡克社區，逐漸對紐約生活起了厭惡之情[7]。而在移民大潮中無法找到任何工作這一嚴峻的現實，與他對自身盎格魯-撒克遜人血統的認同相牴觸，這激起了他的種族主義觀點，具體體現在了他的短篇故事《雷德胡克恐怖事件（英語：The Horror at Red Hook）》（The Horror at Red Hook）之中[8]。
洛夫克拉夫特和他父母一起葬於菲利普斯家族墓地。1977年，他的一個讀者團體出資為他在天鵝角（Swan Point）重修了一座墳墓，墓碑上刻了洛夫克拉夫特的姓名、出生與死亡日期，以及一句話：「I AM PROVIDENCE」（雙關語，可譯為「我是普羅維登斯人」或「吾乃天命之人」），這句話出自他的私人信件。
Wilson, Colin. The Strength to Dream: Literature and the Imagination. : 8. ISBN 1600250203. He hated modern civilization, particularly its confident belief in progress and science.
King quoted on front cover of 1982 paperback edition of The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre published by Del Rey Books with introduction by Robert Bloch. Other sources quote King as calling this judgement of Lovecraft "undeniable"[1] （頁面存檔備份，存於網際網路檔案館） or "beyond doubt."[2] （頁面存檔備份，存於網際網路檔案館）
This situation is closely paralleled in the semi-autobiographical "He", as noted by Michel Houellebecq in 'H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life
"The Woman Who Invented Dark Fantasy" by Gary C. Hoppenstand from Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy by Francis Stevens, University of Nebraska Press, 2004, page xiv. ISBN 978-0-8032-9298-7
The Strange Sound of Cthulhu: Music Inspired by the Writings of H. P. Lovecraft ( ISBN 978-1-84728-776-2), written by Gary Hill
Lovecraft: Disturbing the Universe (ISBN 978-0-8131-1728-7), by Donald R. Burleson, PhD, a longtime scholar on Lovecraft and acquaintance of S. T. Joshi, is probably the only book analyzing Lovecraft's literature from a deconstructionist standpoint. University Press of Kentucky, November 1990.
The Gentleman From Angell Street: Memories of H. P. Lovecraft ( ISBN 978-0-9701699-1-4), written by Muriel and C. M. Eddy, Jr. is a collection of personal remembrances and anecdotes from two of Lovecraft's closest friends in Providence. The Eddys were fellow writers, and Mr. Eddy was a frequent contributor to Weird Tales.
Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos (ISBN 978-0-586-04166-6), written by Lin Carter in 1972, is a survey of Lovecraft's work (along with that of other members of the Lovecraft Circle) with considerable information on his life.
The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos by S.T. Joshi (Mythos Books, 2008) is the first full-length critical study since Lin Carter's to examine the development of Lovecraft's Mythos and its outworking in the oeuvres of various modern writers.
The first full-length biography was Lovecraft: a Biography (ISBN 978-0-345-25115-2), written by L. Sprague de Camp; published in 1975, it is now out of print.
Frank Belknap Long's Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside (Arkham House, 1975, ISBN 978-0-87054-068-4) presents a more personal look at Lovecraft's life, combining reminiscence, biography, and literary criticism. Long was a friend and correspondent of Lovecraft, as well as a fellow fantasist who wrote a number of Lovecraft-influenced Cthulhu Mythos stories (including The Hounds of Tindalos).
A newer, more extensive biography is H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (ISBN 978-0-940884-88-5) written by Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi. An alternative is Joshi's abridged A Dreamer & A Visionary: H. P. Lovecraft in His Time (ISBN 978-0-85323-946-8). An unabridged reprint in two volumes of Joshi's biography is forthcoming in 2010 from Hippocampus Press.
An English translation of Michel Houellebecq's H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (ISBN 978-1-932416-18-3) was published by Believer Books in 2005.
Other significant Lovecraft-related works are An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia by Joshi and David S. Schulz; Lovecraft's Library: A Catalogue (a meticulous listing of many of the books in Lovecraft's now scattered library), by Joshi; Lovecraft at Last, an account by Willis Conover of his teenage correspondence with Lovecraft; Joshi's A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of H. P. Lovecraft.
Andrew Migliore and John Strysik's Lurker in the Lobby: The Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft and Charles P. Mitchell's The Complete H. P. Lovecraft Filmography both discuss films containing Lovecraftian elements.
Lovecraft's prose fiction has been published numerous times. The "corrected texts" were released by Arkham House in the 1980s, and many other collections of his stories have appeared, including Ballantine Books editions and three popular Del Rey editions. The three collections published by Penguin, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories, and The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories, incorporate the modifications made in the corrected texts as well as the annotations provided by Joshi.
Lovecraft's ghost-written works are compiled in The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions, edited again by Joshi.
Some of Lovecraft's writings, however, are annotated with footnotes or endnotes. In addition to the Penguin editions mentioned above and The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature, Joshi has produced The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft as well as More Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, both of which are footnoted extensively.
The Philosophy of H. P. Lovecraft by Timo Airaksinen is a study of Lovecraft's use of language to analyze the psychology of Lovecraft's writings.
An Epicure in the Terrible (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991), edited by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi is an anthology of 13 essays on Lovecraft (excluding Joshi's lengthy introduction)on the centennial of Lovecraft's birth. The essays are arranged into 3 sections; Biographical, Thematic Studies and Comparative and Genre Studies. The authors include S. T. Joshi, Kenneth W. Faig, Jr, Jason C. Eckhardt, Will Murray, Donald R. Burleson, Peter Cannon, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Steven J. Mariconda, David E. Schultz, Robert H. Waugh, Robert M. Price, R. Boerem, Norman R. Gatford and Barton Levi St. Armand.
Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown is a feature length documentary that looks at the life, work and mind behind the Cthulhu mythos. The film features interviews with Guillermo Del Toro, Neil Gaiman, John Carpenter, Peter Straub, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Ramsey Campbell, Stuart Gordon, S.T. Joshi, Robert M. Price and Andrew Migliore. Written & Directed by Frank H. Woodward. Produced by William Janczewski, James B. Myers, and Woodward. Lovecraft won Best Documentary at the 2008 Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival.
美國羅得島州普羅維登斯
美國羅得島州普羅維登斯
