<!-- mobian-agent-page publisher="time" canonical="https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/" -->

---
title: H.P. Lovecraft&#x27;s Appeal Endures—Even TIME Tried to Immitate His Style
description: Attendees at this week&#x27;s NecronomiCon celebration will appreciate this 1973 attempt to channel the author
canonical: https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/
author: Lily Rothman
article:opinion: false
article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2015-08-20T11:00:16.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:34:19.251Z
article:section: History
og:title: This 1973 TIME Article Is Written in the Style of H.P. Lovecraft
og:description: Attendees at this week&#x27;s Necronomicon celebration will appreciate the attempt
og:url: https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/
og:site_name: TIME
og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4297586b5360910c/69885c60e20a8743c1a8c6e6/150724-hp-lovecraft.jpg?branch=production&amp;width=3840&amp;quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=16:9
og:image:width: 1200
og:image:height: 675
og:image:alt: H.P. Lovecraft
og:type: article
twitter:card: summary_large_image
twitter:title: This 1973 TIME Article Is Written in the Style of H.P. Lovecraft
twitter:description: Attendees at this week&#x27;s Necronomicon celebration will appreciate the attempt
twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4297586b5360910c/69885c60e20a8743c1a8c6e6/150724-hp-lovecraft.jpg?branch=production&amp;width=3840&amp;quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=16:9
---

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4297586b5360910c/69885c60e20a8743c1a8c6e6/150724-hp-lovecraft.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)


# Read a TIME Article Written in the Style of H.P. Lovecraft

<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xe99vdU4.m3u8" -->
## Video: The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces

[Watch (HLS stream): The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xe99vdU4.m3u8) (4:45)

![The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xe99vdU4/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2010-01-11. Steven James Snyder, Techland's resident movie geek, outlines the top 5 most under-rated sci-fi movies of all time_


![Lily Rothman](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8eb1311b7067f39/698a1248b21a9c0e12504068/Rothman-headshot.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)


![Lily Rothman](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8eb1311b7067f39/698a1248b21a9c0e12504068/Rothman-headshot.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Lily Rothman


Rothman is managing editor at TIME.

Aug 20, 2015 11:00 AM UTC

![H.P. Lovecraft, \(1890-1937\), American writer, circa 1934.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4297586b5360910c/69885c60e20a8743c1a8c6e6/150724-hp-lovecraft.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

H.P. Lovecraft, (1890-1937), American writer, circa 1934.

H.P. Lovecraft, (1890-1937), American writer, circa 1934.Everett Collection

![Lily Rothman](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8eb1311b7067f39/698a1248b21a9c0e12504068/Rothman-headshot.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)


![Lily Rothman](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8eb1311b7067f39/698a1248b21a9c0e12504068/Rothman-headshot.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Lily Rothman


Rothman is managing editor at TIME.

Aug 20, 2015 11:00 AM UTC

Starting on Thursday, fans of the writer H.P. Lovecraft will gather in his hometown of Providence, R.I., for the annual NecronomiCon festival, this year marking what would have been Lovecraft’s 125th birthday. For an author of rather niche specialty—supernatural horror—his staying power within the culture has been impressive.

In 1973, when new editions of several Lovecraft works were released, TIME’s Philip Herrera decided to get to the bottom of that appeal. Lovecraft’s talent, he decided, was a combination of “mesmeric” prose and the insight to know that inexplicable evil was scarier than any monster. Rather than rely on vampires or other stock demons, he turned to the “more intimate horror” of ancient and pervasive power that all our modernity could do nothing to stop.

But, in order to reach that conclusion, Herrera really got into the spirit of things. Instead of writing a straightforward review, he summoned the image of three nightmares set at the Providence cemetery, each of which reveals something new about Lovecraft. And, in describing those dreams, he channeled Lovecraft’s signature style, to amusing results:

---

> “”

---

**_Read the full story here, in the TIME Vault:_** [The Dream Lurker](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-06-11/page/119/)

```json
[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/"},"headline":"Read a TIME Article Written in the Style of H.P. Lovecraft","datePublished":"2015-08-20T11:00:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:34:19.251Z","description":"Attendees at this week's NecronomiCon celebration will appreciate this 1973 attempt to channel the author","url":"https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/","keywords":["Books","author"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4297586b5360910c/69885c60e20a8743c1a8c6e6/150724-hp-lovecraft.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4297586b5360910c/69885c60e20a8743c1a8c6e6/150724-hp-lovecraft.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"H.P. Lovecraft","caption":"H.P. Lovecraft, (1890-1937), American writer, circa 1934.","creditText":"Everett Collection","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/","name":"Read a TIME Article Written in the Style of H.P. Lovecraft"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces","description":"Steven James Snyder, Techland's resident movie geek, outlines the top 5 most under-rated sci-fi movies of all time","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xe99vdU4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-01-11T22:26:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xe99vdU4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/","duration":"PT4M45S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3971514/h-p-lovecraft/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}]
```

