Howard Phillips "H. P." Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. Virtually unknown and only published in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre.
Horror, fantasy, and science fiction author Stephen King called Lovecraft "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." King has made it clear in his semi-autobiographical non-fiction book Danse Macabre that Lovecraft was responsible for King's own fascination with horror and the macabre, and was the single largest figure to influence his fiction writing.
Lovecraft's fiction has been grouped into three categories by some critics.
Macabre stories (c. 1905-1920)
Dream Cycle stories (c. 1920-1927)
Cthulhu / Lovecraft Mythos stories (c. 1925-1935)
We have divided the H. P. Lovecraft large canon of novels and stories in three volumes;
Volume 1 - The Cthulhu Mythos
Volume 2 - The Dream Cycle
Volume 3 - Horror and Other Stories.
Ten of the 24 stories in Volume 1 and 2 are identical as we prefer to keep the categories intact.
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the works of Lovecraft.
Robert M. Price described, in his essay "H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos," two stages in the development of the Cthulhu Mythos. The first stage, termed the "Cthulhu Mythos proper" by Price, was formulated during Lovecraft's lifetime and was subject to his guidance. The second stage was guided by August Derleth who, in addition to publishing Lovecraft's stories after his death, attempted to categorize and expand the Mythos.
In this first collection of H. P. Lovecrafts works; Volume 1 - The Cthulhu Mythos, you will find the following stories connected to The Cthulhu Mythos, in chronological order by year written:
1. Dagon, 1917
2. The White Ship, 1919
3. The Statement of Randolph Carter, 1919
4. Nyarlathotep, 1920 (introduces Nyarlathotep)
5. The Picture in the House, 1920
6. From Beyond, 1920
7. The Nameless City, 1921
8. Herbert West: Reanimator, 1922
9. The Hound, 1922 (introduces the Necronomicon)
10. Azathoth, 1922 (introduces Azathoth), published posthumously 1938
11. The Festival, 1923
12. The Call of Cthulhu, 1926 (introduces Cthulhu)
13. The Descendant, 1926, published posthumously 1938
14. The Colour Out of Space, 1927
15. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, 1926-27 (introduces the Elder Sign), published posthumously 1943
16. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, 1927 (introduces Yog-Sothoth), published posthumously 1941
17. The Dunwich Horror, 1928
18. The Whisperer in Darkness, 1930 (first use of the Mi-go by name)
19. At the Mountains of Madness, 1931
20. The Shadow Over Innsmouth, 1931 (introduces Deep Ones)
21. The Dreams in the Witch-House, 1932 (introduces the Elder Things)
22. The Thing on the Doorstep, 1933
23. The Shadow Out of Time, 1934 (introduces the Great Race of Yith)
24. The Haunter of the Dark, 1935