May 10, 2026

Greetings Everyone!

My new book, Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird Tales, was recently published by Bloomsbury; I hope that all of you will pick up a copy!

Lovecraft makes extensive use of racist images and racist narratives in both his early and later works—I will identify the racist narratives in the next posting; here, I am discussing the racist images.  

These images are drawn from Lovecraft’s observations of members of the non-white race that he most despised and abhorred,  African Americans,  especially as he observed them in the slums of his hometown Providence, Rhode Island and at close quarters during his brief residence in the Red Hook district of New York. 

Lovecraft focuses on the simian and ape-like characteristics that he insisted on seeing in the faces and forms of  the locals and then simply projects these onto his monsters.  He does this in a very conscious and deliberate manner in order to enhance the horror and the repugnance that these creatures inspire in the minds of his readers (or at least, so Lovecraft presumed).

Check out my book for analysis of how Lovecraft uses these images creatively in some of his most popular tales: “Arthur Jermyn,” “Herbert West—Reanimator,” and “The Horror at Red Hook”!

 https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/

 JLS