In the mountains of madness The life, death, and extraordinary afterlife of H.P. Lovecraft

Decades after passing into obscurity following his death in 1937, H. P. Lovecraft has become a revered icon for horror fans worldwide, inspiring devoted imitators and multiple volumes of literary analysis. Without recycling material from existing biographies, historian and pop-culture expert Poole here focuses primarily on Lovecraft's influence oncontemporary media, from film and television to comics and role-playing games. Poole wryly notes that, as a teetotaler who rarely listened to music, Lovecraft would have been surprised to learn that a New England bar sells craft beers using his image and heavy-metal bands have spun songs from his more gruesome tales. His otherworldly Cthulhu sea creatures were models for the slimy extraterrestrials in the Aliens movies, and even a recent Stephen King novel, Revival (2014), featured malevolent Lovecraftian beings. Poole also makes room, however, for revisiting some of the more controversial aspects of Lovecraft's life, including his racism in his early years and the 2015 decision by World Fantasy Award judges to remove Lovecraft's likeness from the trophy. Must reading for both loyal Lovecraft fans and biography lovers.--Hays, Carl Copyright 2016 Booklist

Historian Poole (Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror) turns his scholarly attention to H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) in this highly readable, informal biography, which also surveys the iconic horror writer's place in today's popular culture. Acknowledging the work done on Lovecraft by S.T. Joshi and other critics in recent decades, Poole takes pains to point out where his views differ from theirs. In particular, Poole stresses the importance of the women in Lovecraft's life, notably his mother, Sarah, and his wife, Sonia, to whom he was effectively married for only two years. Sarah may have had a detrimental psychological influence on her son, Poole concedes, but "at every opportunity, she let his imagination run in its wildest directions," encouraging his pursuit of such hobbies as chemistry and astronomy. In addition to putting in a good word for Sonia, Poole cites an anecdote that will be unfamiliar even to those steeped in Lovecraft lore: a document among Sonia's papers at the John Hay Library in Providence, R.I., suggests that Lovecraft enjoyed watching his wife dance to a recording of "Danse Macabre," the Camille Saint-Saëns tone poem. For Lovecraft neophytes wanting to learn more about the man and his work, this is a fine starting point. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.