The Call of Cthulhu

This legendary 11,000-word novelette is the first piece of writing to come off H.P. Lovecraft’s pen after settling into his new home in his old home town of Providence, after his failed attempt to establish himself in New York the previous year. By the time he finished it, he had fully drafted his "master's thesis," Supernatural Horror in Literature, and was mostly just fine-tuning it; but the insights he had gleaned in the course of his researches were finding more and more full expression in his fiction. At the same time, his profound sense of relief at being away from New York, of joy at being home again, and of focus at having had his social calendar cleared of all the Kalem Club activities, were combining to set him up for the most productive and satisfying phase of his writing life. In the following 12 months Lovecraft would produce more than 150,000 words, including some of his most iconic works — starting, of course, with this one.