THE MOST IMPORTANT AMERICAN writer of supernatural and occult fiction during the first half of the twentieth century, H(oward) P(hillips) Lovecraft (1890–1937) was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he lived virtually all his life. Always frail, he was reclusive and had little formal education, but read extensively, with particular emphasis on the sciences. He wrote monthly articles on astronomy for the Providence Tribune at the age of sixteen, then attempted fiction; his first published story, “The Alchemist,” was written in 1908 but was not published until 1916. He wrote fiction for other small magazines, living in near poverty, earning his living by ghostwriting and editing the work of others until in 1923 he finally sold “Dagon” to Weird Tales, the top fantasy pulp magazine in America. He became a regular contributor to that magazine until his death, with only a handful of his modest sixty stories appearing in other pulps.
He was neglected as a serious writer throughout his life, with only one volume being published while he was alive: The Shadow over Innsmouth (1936). After his early death, two friends, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, attempted to sell his work to commercial publishers. When they were unsuccessful, they created their own firm, Arkham House, for the sole purpose of collecting and publishing Lovecraft’s stories, poems, and letters, beginning with the cornerstone work, The Outsider and Others (1939), and continuing with Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1943).
“The Terrible Old Man” was originally published in the July 1921 issue of The Tryout.