Blackmoor Vituperative

Library Of America has published the works of H.P. Lovecraft, whose birthday (were he still alive) is March 15. There’s a saying that most geniuses aren’t recognized as such until they are gone. Lovecraft is a profound example of that phenomenon. When he died at 1937, he was practically unknown. John Miller has a pretty good article in OpinionJournal that sums up (very briefly) Lovecraft’s life and influence. I particularly like this passage:

“Now all my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large,” he wrote upon successfully resubmitting the original Cthulhu story. “One must forget that such things as organic life, good and evil, love and hate, and all such local attributes of a negligible and temporary race called mankind, have any existence at all.”