S.T. Joshi
Io Sono Providence: la biografia di H.P. Lovecraft

I could not remain silent about the release of Io sono Providence, the biography of H.P. Lovecraft curated by S.T. Joshi. I have always been fascinated, not only by his narratives but especially by his persona. I am more interested in the figure of Lovecraft than in his actual works. This first volume (1890-1920) tells us about his childhood, his youth, and his education. The book narrates, with a wealth of details that make reading delightful for enthusiasts, how Lovecraft grew up in a wealthy family, but unfortunately, some unfortunate events, such as his father's hospitalization and his mother's death, undermined his character. His mother dominated him in every way, making him believe he was so ugly that he terrified his peers. These events led him into a dark period: he molded his fears and traumas into the figure of the Night Gaunts, monsters that in his dreams grabbed and tormented him with their tridents while carrying him through the air. However, one must beware of the cliché of him being a recluse (the so-called "Solitary of Providence"), but undeniably we are dealing with a unique personality of superior level. When he was a child, he used to play with his peers (including notably the Munroe brothers). During his childhood, the figure of his grandfather Whipple V. Phillips was fundamental (who stood in for his hospitalized father due to syphilis) and, with his vast culture, set the child on the right path, who, also thanks to him, developed a passion for the classical world and the history of the ancient Romans. It was precisely the reading of Poe that gave Lovecraft a true nervous jolt. Between 1919 and 1921, he discovered the narratives of Lord Dunsany, which represented a very important influence in the first phase of his writing (today the so-called “Dunsanian stories” appear to us as the dullest of his production). He had the opportunity to read the works of his other great master Arthur Machen only in 1923 and those of William Hope Hodgson (very important in defining his cosmic horror) only in the final phase of his existence. He had a profound understanding of weird fiction, a genre of which he knew the mechanisms and which he profoundly renewed by shifting horror from the ancient and old gothic trappings to the cosmos. A sore point was his being racist (in a letter he proudly defines himself as anti-Semitic) Unfortunately today Lovecraft is daily burned at the stake by pitiful campaigns under the sign of political correctness that paint him as a misogynist racist. I claim art's characteristic of being also immoral. I am sincerely bitter and disgusted by all this unwarranted venom, but we live in dark times. Lovecraft, like everyone, was a child of his times, and this book returns him to us in all his humanity. “Io sono Providence” is a fundamental volume for anyone who wants to delve deeper into HPL

S.T. Joshi “Io sono Providence. La vita e i tempi di H.P. Lovecraft” volume 1: 1890-1920 – pages 619 - Providence Press – Euro 29 - 2019