Was H.P. Lovecraft an aspie?

Post Reply New Topic

Since no one has mentioned it thus far, dear old HPL was a failure in marriage. He wasn't interested in women, and his wife may have been the only woman he ever had sex with. I've always found it odd that after they divorced, she disappeared from his life and (apparently) never contacted him to see if they could get back together.

The problem arose after Lovecraft had moved from Providence to New York. When the Lovecraft's felt the Great Depression personally, Sonja Lovecraft lost her business, and had to relocate to Chicago. Lovecraft himself was undergoing what could be described as one anxiety attack after another, seeing the dark skinned immigrants, who he despised, everywhere (yes, Virginia, our favorite author was a racist), and imagining that monsters were hiding in buildings, waiting to kill him. His friends got him home to Providence, where he began making a mental health recovery. When Sonja wanted him to join her in Chicago, he told her he could never live in the Midwest. His aunts convinced Sonja that a long distance marriage was unworkable. The fact that she found her husband's bigotry the least lovable of his traits (she herself was part Jewish), she made no apparent desire to contact him. She did later describe him as "an adequately excellent lover." At least he got a good review from his ex for his performance in the sack.

It's unfortunate that H.P. Lovecraft was a racist, but I mean, he came from a time when people were more open about those sorts of things. Nowadays, people are just as racist as they used to be, but they hide it more because it isn't considered as socially acceptable. Not saying racism is right, but it's not entirely shocking that H.P. Lovecraft had such tendencies.