<b>A definitive collection of stories from the unrivaled master of twentieth-century horror</b><br><br>"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." -Stephen King<br><br>Frequently imitated and widely influential, Howard Philips Lovecraft reinvented the horror genre in the 1920s, discarding ghosts and witches and instead envisioning mankind as a tiny outpost of dwindling sanity in a chaotic and malevolent universe. S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft''s preeminent interpreter, presents a selection of the master''s fiction, from the early tales of nightmares and madness such as "The Outsider" to the overpowering cosmic terror of "The Call of Cthulhu." More than just a collection of terrifying tales, this volume reveals the development of Lovecraft''s mesmerizing narrative style and establishes him as a canonical- and visionary-American writer.<br><br>For more than seventy years, Penguin has been