Stephen King is a world-renowned author, best known for his horror and fantasy work, who has made several contributions to the expanded Cthulhu Mythos. He has stated on multiple occasions that H. P. Lovecraft is one of his greatest influences, possibly due to having spent some of his childhood growing up in New England, the setting for many of his own works.
“Now that time has given us some perspective on his work,” King has written, “I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.” He credits his discovery about 1960 of a paperback copy of Lovecraft’s The Lurking Fear and Other Stories as a decisive moment in his development as a writer. “Lovecraft. . . opened the way for me, as he had done for others before me.... It is his shadow, so long and gaunt, and his eyes, so dark and puritanical, which overlie almost all of the important horror fiction that has come since.”[1]
Critics have noted similarities between King's recurring antagonist Randall Flagg and Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep, and between the cosmic entity encountered in King's novel It and Cthulhu.[2]
Selected Bibliography[]
Novels[]
- It
- Revival
Short Stories[]
- "Crouch End"
- "Gramma"
- "I Know What You Need"
- "Jerusalem's Lot"