I think there can be little doubt anymore that Lovecraft’s reputation as the greatest horror writer of the 20th century is set. The academics have finally caught up with the readers of Weird Tales. HPL’s cosmic vision sets him apart from all those who “in the day” were more popular. I am thinking of writers like Seabury Quinn who have fallen to mere footnotes in Pulp history.
Despite this well-deserved fame, Lovecraft was never a stylist who inspired a 20th century following. HPL wrote in the manner of the century before him, taking his word choices from Poe. While writers like Hemingway in the mainstream, and Hammett and Chandler in the Pulps, were driving fiction towards terse, modern prose, Lovecraft was heading in the other direction.
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