The Racism of H.P. Lovecraft
From time to time I’ve posted bits of poetry on this blog by H.P. Lovecraft, an author of fantasy, horror and science fiction stories that I discovered as a teenager and which made a big and lasting impression on me.
I never thought Lovecraft was a great writer, actually. At times his prose style is truly excruciating. But he was clearly a person with a remarkable imagination and he did write some genuinely frightening stories. He also had a big influence on many subsequent horror writers and film-makers.
It was only in later life that I started to read collections of his poetry, which is also uneven in quality but among which there are many gems. They’ve proved quite popular when I’ve posted them on here too, perhaps because quite a few of the followers of this blog also know Lovecraft’s stories.
But last night I came across this revolting poem, which reveals a side of H.P. Lovecraft’s character of which I was previously unaware. Its charming title is On the Creation of Niggers:
When, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove’s fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th’Olympian host conceiv’d a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a Nigger.
I don’t think any further comment is necessary.
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In the Dark 
August 17, 2012 at 2:29 pm
It’s always sad to discover things like this. Kipling is another of those well known authors who writing I admire…and then a horribly racist/imperialist phrase appears, and I wince and cringe and sigh. Writing of a different time is sadly written by men of that time.
February 25, 2013 at 3:52 am
I know the piece quite well, and Lovecraft’s racism in his poems extends to other, less striking examples. And yes, Lovecraft was a racist in a racist age.
This reminds me of how every human has flaws, flaws which may, in today’s climate may be unsupportable. Lovecraft’s racism is one example.
January 16, 2014 at 6:14 am
[…] Lovecraft (known to his friends as “H.P.”), I was dismayed to discover some time ago a poem which revealed his obnoxiously racist attitudes. I always find it difficult knowing what to do when someone whose artistic work you admire turns […]
November 20, 2015 at 10:31 am
I’d like to remind readers that I do not allow racist or abusive messages of any other kind to be published on this blog.
May 14, 2016 at 1:17 am
Well, H.P. Lovecraft didn’t need anyone to tell him what to think and what to do. As well he didn’t sell himeself to nobody who’d force him into a shape that’d never belong to him. So, as a faithful reader of Lovecraft masterpieces, I suggest you to ignore him and his literature at all, so you can do yourself and us all a favor.
December 6, 2016 at 1:39 am
Dude… he was 20 in Jim Crow America. Racism wasn’t exactly a choice back then. It was taught in schools as “proper order”.
And, more importantly, Lovecraft seems to have recanted this mentality later in his career. To this I cite “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (1926). In this story, much later in his life, having learned for himself those certain sociological truths that we all learn in adulthood… he writes about a black family living in the lead character’s familiar home, and has nothing but good things to say about said family. Obviously his views had changed once he shrugged off his Jim Crow-born “education” and lived a while as his own man.
He still really hated the Irish though. He was a very xenophobic and disturbed man. But not as racist as people would think reading this little joke poem he wrote in his 20’s. We all grow out of the mistakes that our previous generations teach us… and Howard was no exception.
May 17, 2017 at 6:07 pm
I CONCUR CLATON.
May 18, 2017 at 7:17 am
Not all people grow out of those mistakes. Racism is alive and well. We need to learn from the past, not dismiss it.