SOURCE: Burleson, Donald R. “H. P. Lovecraft: The Hawthorne Influence.” Extrapolation 22, no. 3 (fall 1981): 262–69.

In the following essay, Burleson discusses Nathaniel Hawthorne as an important influence on many thematic elements in Lovecraft's fiction.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937), the Rhode Island fantaisiste whose cosmic mythos of primordial gods has moved some critics to proclaim him a unique figure among creators of supernatural horror, came to admire Nathaniel Hawthorne greatly but did not seem to consider him a major influence on his own work. Lovecraft perceived his primary sources as residing in Poe and Lord Dunsany, and indeed the influence of these writers is readily recognized, especially in Lovecraft's early tales—for instance, the Poesque tales “The Outsider” (1921) and “The Hound” (1922), and the Dunsanian tales “Celephaïs” (1920) and “The Quest of Iranon” (1921). But a Hawthorne influence can also be clearly discerned—an influence more thematic than stylistic, to be sure, but a...