H.P. Lovecraft was the inventor of cosmic horror, of weird fiction and the Cthulhu mythology. His stories, incubated by a lonely and febrile childhood, found purchase in the fertile earth of pulp fiction where he inspired many other writers, from Robert E. Howard, to Robert Bloch and Clark Ashton Smith, many of whom also collaborated on the several short stories, some of which are also included here, in this special collectable edition.

Little treasures, the FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning, gift edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader.

H.P. Lovecraft is a modern master of horror and gothic fiction, influencing a generation of writers and creating dark worlds that still haunt the speculative fiction of today. Lovecraft's father died in a mental institution when Lovecraft was only two years of age and he spent very little time at school, due to illnesses. In his early years though he corresponded with amateur writers and editors, wrote essays, poetry and reviews for amateur magazines. In the 1920s he began to sell to the popular pulp magazines of the day, particularly Weird Tales and Astonishing Tales.

S.T. Joshi (Introduction) is a leading authority on H.P. Lovecraft, as well as other writers mostly in the realms of supernatural and fantasy fiction. He is the author of The Weird Tale (1990), The Modern Weird Tale (2001), and Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2012). His award-winning biography H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996) was later expanded as I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft (2010).