H. P. Lovecraft

In 2015, organisers announced that the trophy would no longer be modelled on Lovecraft. In response, biographer S. T. Joshi returned his two awards and denounced a capitulation to “political correctness”.

State of the evidence

Documented

Writers, including Daniel José Older, campaigned for the World Fantasy Award to stop using a bust of Lovecraft, arguing that his racism made him an inappropriate symbol for honouring contemporary writers from all backgrounds.

State of the evidence

Well documented

After receiving the World Fantasy Award, Nnedi Okorafor described her discomfort at owning a trophy depicting the head of a racist writer. Her intervention helped turn a longstanding concern into a sustained public debate.

State of the evidence

Documented

The novella centres on interbreeding between humans and Deep Ones, described through the language of degeneration, ancestry and contamination. Many scholars see it as a transposition of Lovecraft's obsession with racial mixing and “purity”.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Lovecraft married Sonia Greene, from a Ukrainian Jewish family, in 1924, while also expressing antisemitic views. Biographers emphasise that he considered her “assimilated”, illustrating a personal exception rather than a general abandonment of his prejudices.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Under the impact of the Great Depression, Lovecraft moved towards technocratic socialism, and some of his ethnic views became less assimilationist and at times less virulent. Scholars nevertheless emphasise that his racial prejudices did not entirely disappear.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Academic research shows that The Call of Cthulhu frequently associates cosmic menace with groups described in racialised and dehumanising terms, portraying non-white populations as preferred agents of the cult and evil.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Written during his time in New York, The Horror at Red Hook portrays a multi-ethnic neighbourhood as a source of menace and uses disparaging language about immigrants and non-white populations. Biographer S. T. Joshi explicitly links the story to Lovecraft's racism.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

In numerous letters and essays, Lovecraft used racial slurs and defended racial hierarchy, segregation and Anglo-Saxon superiority. Brown's archives emphasise the profound influence of his conception of race on his political views and literary imagination.

Attribution

Personally implicated

In 1912, Lovecraft wrote an explicitly racist poem depicting Black people as inferior and barely human. Today, the text is frequently cited as direct evidence of his white supremacist views.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Biographies based on his correspondence report that Lovecraft said he had developed a strong aversion to Jews at school and became known as an antisemite at an early age.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated