I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft

Those who regarded Lovecraft scholar Joshi's monumental 1996 biography, H.P. Lovecraft: A Life, as too short will embrace its expanded and updated two-volume successor. In even greater detail, with close attention to Lovecraft's philosophical thought, Joshi charts the life of America's 20th-century master of supernatural horror, from his birth in Providence, R.I., to a genteel Yankee family in 1890, through his activity in the amateur press movement and less than remunerative career as a contributor to the pulp magazines, chiefly Weird Tales, to his premature death in obscurity and near poverty in 1937. A final chapter chronicles the rise in Lovecraft's reputation through 2010. Joshi fans may enjoy his frequent personal asides ("For my part, I think it is an entirely charming but relatively insubstantial work," Joshi says of the long fantasy The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath), but others might wish a firm editorial hand had kept the biographer more in the background. Still, this exhaustive double tome should stand as the definitive Lovecraft biography for a long time. Photos. (Dec.)