Lovecraftian adj.
of, relating to, or characteristic of the writing of H. P. Lovecraft, esp. in featuring elements of supernatural and often existential horror
SF Criticism
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1927
H. P. Lovecraft
I’ll enclose, purely for your personal perusal…two characteristic neo-Lovecraftian outbursts—The Silver Key and The Strange High House in the Mist.
Letter 5 July in A. Derleth & D. Wandrei Selected Letters II (1968) 151 -
1936
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Robert Bloch
Got the March issue today, and Kuttner’s story appealed to me strongly. I deem it a fine little tale in the Lovecraftian manner.
in Weird Tales May 637 -
1946
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Francis T. Laney
If he was other than a slight influence, why is it that, outside of stories written by his own most intimate friends, there exist scarcely any stories which can possibly be called Lovecraftian?
Comments on the Spring Mailing in Fan-Dango (#12) Summer 6 -
1953 Fantasy Fiction Nov. 4
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All good students of their grimoires…recognize the need for a full understanding of Latin strung between the names of Lovecraftian gods which can’t be pronounced.
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1976
Dean R. Koontz
bibliography
The atmosphere was Lovecraftian, a dank seed bed of paranoia.
Night Chills (1983) ix. 342 -
1995
Robert K. J. Killheffer
It’s hard to say exactly how a novel about a man’s mid-life despair can be funny; the juxtaposition of workplace ennui and Lovecraftian horrors certainly produces a pervasive sardonic tone, but even the scenes that aren't played for satirical laughs have a kind of exaggerated emotional quality (like that of Lovecraft’s own fiction) that adds a note of grim humor to even the darker scenes.
Books in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction June 28/1 -
2007
Charles Stross
About a quarter of a million lines of source code, squirreled away among the skeletons and treasures guarded by a fearsomely large shoggoth; if you want to keep some data secure, there’s nothing quite like sticking it in a record in a holographic distributed database that’s guarded by Lovecraftian horrors.
Halting State (2008) 298 -
2015 in A. Grossman Crooked (front flap)
Combining Lovecraftian suspense, international intrigue, Russian honey traps, and a presidential marriage whose secrets and battles of attrition were their own heroic saga, Grossman’s novel is a masterwork of alternate history.
Research requirements
antedating 1927
Earliest cite
H. P. Lovecraft himself, in a letter
Research History
Jeff Prucher has a cite from Asimov's 12/03, 136/2.Fred Galvin submitted a 1982 cite from Baird Searles' (et al.) "A Reader's Guide to Fantasy".
Irene Grumman submitted a 1995 cite from Robert K. J. Killheffer in F&SF.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1955 cite from an editorial blurb in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Fred Galvin submitted a 2006 cite from an article by Thomas Hull in Math Horizons.
Last modified 2022-05-08 18:25:47
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