H.P Lovecraft maybe an aspie? with actual reasons why!

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I've just started reading my boyfriends copy of "The Best of H.P Lovecraft Blood curdling tales of Horror and the Macabre" So far it is okay. I find the writing style interesting, and the stories are good, but the endings are very predictable.

The aspie thing: In the beginning of the book, there is a forward written by Robert Bloch.

it says that Lovecraft wrote "As a child, I was very peculiar and sensitive, always preferring the society of grown persons to that of other children." It also says that Lovecraft's mother kept him away from other children, because she found him "peculiar." It also mentions that he was a "precocious" Child, who learned to read when he was four, and started experimenting with writing soon after. He was an introvert, and it says "he found himself ill at ease, and ill-equipped to compete socially or economically with his peer group." It also said that he "admittedly suffered from psychological handicaps." He had one marriage, but it lasted only two years, upon which he moved in with two elderly aunts, and spent the rest of his days with one aunt after the other died. When he died, he died with no friends who lived near him, only friends he had never met, who he wrote letters too about his favorite subjects, Horror, and writing.

also, he often said (privately) that he had a longing to to have lived as a "loyal subject" of king george III in pre-revolutionary times. Aspies often have such fantasies,
and he also wrote with a more English style of writing, even down to the spelling though he was American, something else an aspie *might* do. I myself went through that phase.

also, he has the "aspie eyes" and I cannot find any pictures where he is smiling. also a trait of being an aspie. see picture below.


If that's not an aspie, I don't know what is. He was precocious, smart, learned to read and write early, he was considered strange and different(even by his own mother!) didn't do well socially, he knew he had something different about him(Hence the "Psychological handicaps") and he had obsessions.

Maybe I've discovered another aspie?

I like to think he was an aspie. I'll always love his writing. There's something about his use of language that's like you're reading a translation from something written thousands of years ago. His pantheon of inhuman gods was bad-ass, and the way he just diabolically ran with gaps in human knowledge was exhilaratingly original. Here are what I think are his best stories:

The Rats in the Walls

The Call of Cthulhu (duh!!)

The Colour Out of Space

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

At the Mountains of Madness

Through the Gates of the Silver Key (very esoteric, may not be for everyone)

-there's also a few really good revisions he did in the collection "the Horror in the Museum." "The Mound" and "The Diary of Alonzo Typer" are two of my favourites.

”Slumber, watcher, till the spheres
Six and twenty thousand years
Have revolv’d, and I return
To the spot where now I burn.
Other stars anon shall rise
To the axis of the skies;
Stars that soothe and stars that bless
With a sweet forgetfulness:
Only when my round is o’er
Shall the past disturb thy door.”

I'm a big fan...

Also, The Outsider could very well be describing the feelings one has when trying to socialize with NT's.

I've always thought he was. There's the ancedote where he got married, and on the same day lost a manuscript he was about to submit to a publisher. He and his new wife spent their Honeymoon re-typing the story so he could submit it on time ....

Having difficulties relating to his age peers and prefering the society of adults is normal for kid precocious enough for reading at four! It's consistent with sensivitie too.

everyone is an aspie even though they are not...how many must we go through

What Bloch wouldn't have mentioned: Lovecraft was a racist, a virulent anti-semite and detested how people of Italian extraction had overrun "his" Providence. I personally get a kick out of his writing style and the overall theme of the Cthulu Mythos, but Lovecraft the man was probably a nasty piece of work, Aspie or not.

And, yeah, quite a few of his stories veer into the cliched, probably because he had to pound them out so quickly to earn a living and also because in his "Mythos" the "bad guys" are ultimately going to win.

LOL I'd never heard that!! That anal, tow-headed fiend.

I disagree your opinion. I think that mixing racist "normal" convictions of this era and Asperger's obsessions can have this kind of consequences.
I myself recognize a lot in Lovecraft's life. Excepting racist convictions.

I thought he was autistic, even that it's sure and confirmed. It's not? He was definitely NOT NORMAL.
Eggmann is right there are too many theories someone's Aspie I often think the same but this guy really had something with head.

What does Aspie-eyes mean?

I've read his books after Tolkien's and I remember how much disappointed I was. Those tales were so simple and predictable! But I liked them anyway. I had a friend who was radiooperator and we sent a message to Ktulu.
I heard a joke that Ktulu spoke Polish

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.
His political views, which had earlier been right wing conservative, with all the class prejudice that comes with it, gave way to a very liberal, if not even socialist viewpoint once he was personally hit by the depression. An incident which ended his worship of the upper classes came when one of his aunts had arranged a lunch with local well to do business leaders. Lovecraft went away feeling they were the dullest, most unintellectual people he had ever met. A good source to read up on this would be Lovecraft: A Biography, by the late L. Sprague De Camp. I believe it's out of print, but it can still be found.
Another probable Aspie was Lovecraft's friend and fellow pulp writer, Robert E. Howard, who gave the world Conan the Barbarian. De Camp and co-writers had produced a Howard biography entitled, Dark Valley Destiny, which I believe may be easier to find. Also an important read is One Who Walked Alone, by Novalyne Price Ellis, who had been Howard's girlfriend. This book had been the basis of the movie, The Whole Wide World, starring Vincent D'Noffrio as Howard.


-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Could be... He definately was quite a recluse. Either way I adore him. One of the few people that actually write PROPER horror, imo - stuff that actually makes you genuinely scared.
Also I'm sorry but what exactly are 'Aspie eyes'??

Try again.



(the guy at right is a Lovecraft's friend named Dodwell)

... did you know Lovecraft is still alive ?

He goes to the Wal-Mart round my block, likes to wear hawaiian t-shirts and matching flipflops

I don't meant to be rude or anything...

But what is the point of speculating whether or not some famous person, or even worse - fictional characters have/had asperger's?


"All four Beatles had asperger's!"

"Alfred E. Neuman had asperger's!"

"Saddam Hussein had asperger's!"

"Batman had asperger's!"

"Cleopatra had asperger's!"

"Mr. Natural had asperger's!"

"Everyone who signed the American declaration of independence had asperger's!"


There's no way to know for certain with some people, especially if they're long dead.


Like I said above, I'm not trying to be rude or offensive, so if I come off that way, I'm sorry.

For this particular guy, there's a lot of chances he actually had it, according to his writings and witnesses of his behaviour.

What the point about thinking ? What the point about living ?