Lovecraft RPF

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RPF Fandom
Name(s): Lovecraft RPF
Scope/Focus: H.P. Lovecraft
Date(s): 1890 to 1937
See also: Historical RPF
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A lot of fans are interested not just in Lovecraft's works, but in his life as well, to such extent that it's been theoreticized that his biography is very relatable for nerds and outcasts. It also helps that Lovecraft is arguably one of the most self-documented people in the history due to the enormous amount of letters he wrote during his life, so there is a lot of material for people who wish to learn about him. This fannish interest in Lovecraft's personality has led to many appearences of Lovecraft and characters based on him in professional and fan fiction.

Probably the most common trope in the fiction with Lovecraft as a character is putting him in a Mythos story. The premise of such stories is often that "Lovecraft wrote about real things" and either somehow channeled the reality of Great Old Ones or even turned them real with his creative powers. The smaller subgroup is the stories about Lovecraft's life that don't have supernatural/horror elements.

Fanfiction

Published Works

  • The Space-Eaters (1928) and The Black Druid (1930) by Frank Belknap Long and The Shambler from the Stars (1935) by Robert Bloch - perhaps the earliest examples of the stories with characters based on Lovecraft. The stories were written during his lifetime by his friends.
  • Marblehead and the earlier, shortened version Lovecraft's Book by Richard A. Lupoff (1985) - one of the earliest novel-length books with Lovecraft as a character
  • The Lovecraft Chronicles (an AU, or, rather, alternate history novel from 2004 in which Lovecraft lives till 1960) and Pulptime (a 1984 mystery novel where Lovecraft meets Sherlock Holmes) by Peter Cannon
  • Gilgamesh in the Outback (1986) by Robert Silverberg and Shadows Bend (2000) by David Barbour and Richard Raleigh - stories which have Lovecraft meet Robert Howard
  • Lovecraft (2003), graphic novel by Hans Rodionoff combining Lovecraft's biography with a Cthulhu Mythos story. A particularly gruesome example of "Lovecraftian horrors were real".
  • Pages Torn from a Travel Journal and Trolley No. 1852 by Edward Lee. Erotic horror novels in the style typical for Edward Lee but definitely not typical for anything featuring Lovecraft.
  • The Night Ocean (2017) by Paul La Farge, a novel about Lovecraft's relationship with Robert Barlow. Because some versions of this relationship presented in the novel are romantic, and because the general opinion is that there is no indication that it was romantic in real life,[1] the novel sometimes is jokingly or derisively referred to by fans as "slashfic".

See also: List of Works of Fiction with H.P. Lovecraft as a Character

Fanworks

Tags

Fanart

There are a lot of portraits of Lovecraft created by his fans. They often incorporate some elements of Mythos as well, for example, portray Lovecraft among his creations or against "cosmic" backgrounds.

See also: collection of fanart from DeviantArt depicting Lovecraft.

  • Portrait of Lovecraft by Eddy C. Bertin on the back cover of Nyctalops #4

  • Cover of Nyctalops #15, "The Tomb of HPL" by J. K. Potter

  • Lovecraft on the cover of Nyctalops #19, art by Helmut Wenske

  • Portrait of Lovecraft by Denis Tiani in HPL fanzine

  • David Billman's portrait of Lovecraft on the cover of Midnight Fantasies #3

Other

  • Ask Lovecraft - impersonation show on YouTube
  • Lovecraft is one of the characters in Midnight Pals, Twitter-based comedy fanfiction series about famous horror writers

References

  1. ^ or that Lovecraft was attracted to men, though Barlow was
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