Kraichgauer wrote:
The more I learn about Asperger's syndrome, the more I'm convinced Lovecraft had it. Regarding Lovecraft's racism - yes, he had his prejudices - but so did our grandparents and great grandparents who also lived in that era. The fact is though, he was willing to learn and grow. He married a Jewish lady, Sonia Greene; and even though their marriage ended in divorce, it was due to the financial stress of the great Depression, rather than to his bigotry. Many of his friends, such a Robert Bloch, were Jewish. He was even friends with the openly homosexual poet, Hart Crane. Later, as Lovecraft came out of his shell, his racial views became much more tolerant, embracing something of what today may be termed a multiculturalism. Especially after he learned about Hitler's ugly racial policies in action, from a friend who had traveled to Germany.
Lovecraft is a perfect example of where his art should be separated from the man. He came from money and his father was an anglophile so his world view was coloured by everything British was best.
He clearly was a tremendously engaging writer and that's what people remember.
An interesting counterpart (but from a different era and writing science fiction rather than horror) is George Lucas. Lucas has been married to an African-American woman for many years, yet he created a star wars universe where there was every type of alien being his imagination could come up with yet in this vast universe when he released the original Star wars every humanoid was caucasian? Apparently even the most broad minded imaginations like Lucas couldn't imagine a mythical universe where every human didn't look like they were in a Tommy Hilfiger commercial .