Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890. He is commonly regarded as one of the most influential American horror writers of all time, and is frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe. He lived primarily in Providence, Rhode Island, and helped invent the genre of cosmic horror, which is the idea that the universe is an alien and dangerous place, incomprehensible to most sane people. His stories often feature protagonists who encounter horrible beings from outside our world, resulting in horror, insanity, and death. Lovecraft has a cult following that revolves around his Cthulhu Mythos, which is defined by a series of loosely connected stories that feature encounters with inhuman creatures such as horrible fish-men, faceless flying devils, and tentacled beasts, as well as semi-human cultists that worship mind-shattering deities like Cthulhu, Dagon, Azathoth, and Nyarlathotep. The dreaded Neconomicon, a grimoire of evil knowledge and rites, features heavily in some of his fiction. He died on March 15, 1937, and is still loved by fans of his unique kind of science fiction and horror.