Book excerpt: Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 - 1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, but he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth", both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos.Stories included in this volume: Dagon / Herbert West-Reanimator / The Call of Cthulhu / The Dunwich Horror / The Whisperer in the Darkness / At the Mountains of Madness / The Shadow over Innsmouth / The Shadow out of Time / The Hunter of the Dark