H.P. Lovecraft Questions

The violent deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many other horrifying events painfully remind us that the HPLHS celebrates the works of an author whose opinions regarding race have no place in the modern world. It is true that Lovecraft wrote offensively racist things in his private correspondence and public essays, and held some very regrettably racist views which come through in a number of his stories. We do not agree with those views, but choose not to ignore his otherwise very significant contributions to the genres of horror and science fiction because of them. If he were still alive and capable of change, the situation might be different. As it is, we enjoy those parts of his work that do appeal to us: his fantastical imagination and worlds of ancient mystery. The HPLHS does not subscribe to Lovecraft's racial, political or sociological views, and does not support or promote them in any way. We believe in racial equality and social justice, and welcome everyone into our society.

We grapple constantly with the challenge of reconciling apprehensions about the man with appreciation for his artistic creations. We strive to recontextualize those creations for a new era. We fully agree that Black lives matter. We can’t change Lovecraft, but we can help change our world. We must evaluate the past unflinchingly, see the present honestly, and embrace changes to create a future that brings justice and equality to everyone. To pursue that change, the HPLHS donates a portion of its profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Further, we do our best to work with a diverse team of artists to ensure that the products we make are inclusive and welcoming to all. We frequently discuss these difficult issues as best we can in our podcast Voluminous.

Copyright issues surrounding Lovecraft's estate are insanely complicated. Only a court of law could definitively settle the question, and we are not lawyers. The HPLHS does not speak for the Lovecraft estate. All that said, we firmly believe that Lovecraft's works are in the public domain.

HPLHS Questions

Yes, we are. We admit we’re probably not like other historical societies you may know. But we have thousands of members all across the globe who, like us, admire the works of H.P. Lovecraft and who enjoy being associated with other like-minded folks. We are a for-profit business, but one of our goals is to share and promote an appreciation for the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the times in which he lived.

We love making movies and aspire to make more Lovecraftian films. Unfortunately, making movies is a very expensive and time consuming process and involves marshalling tremendous resources. Rest assured, we’re working on some very interesting movie projects. We’ll tell you more about them just as soon as the stars are right.

HPLHS does have a retail store in Glendale, California! It is generally open from 9AM to 5PM Mondays through Fridays.

As full time Cthulhu-ists, the HPLHS is Andrew Leman and Sean Branney. We’re backed up by Kevin Stidham, the Shipping Shoggoth (yes, that’s really his job title). We get occasional support from Kacey Camp and Mike Dalager. Darrell Tutchton is a co-founder and remains active as the official HPLHS illustrator. Jamie Anderson did a lot of work building this new and improved website and helps maintain it. Cinematographer Davey Robertson is often at HQ working on one kind of project or another. Then we have a whole slew of outside artists, musicians, composers, actors, etc… with whom we work regularly. In terms of members, we currently have about 2,000 active members in 29 countries.

We got our start playing Cthulhu Lives!™, our own system of live action Lovecraftian gaming. Back when we were in college and graduate school, we were able to produce some pretty thrilling live games. But as we’ve gotten older, we’ve moved away from producing live games in favor of producing entertainment which more people can enjoy like movies, CDs and books. We occasionally conspire with film festivals and conventions to put on LARP-style events, but as a regular practice, we no longer produce LARP games. We do occasionally host TTRPG game nights at headquarters, and once the pandemic is under control we look forward to resuming that.

When we ship orders out, our customers receive an email from us with a link to allow them to track their shipment’s progress. If you need help with your order beyond that, send us an email. We ship many thousands of packages a year and it’s very rare that they go missing.

For starters, we recommend you join the Society. If you want to contribute your talents (e.g. send us art, music, etc…) please feel free. Please realize that we get a lot more of these kind of submissions than we can use, so we hope you’ll understand if we may not have a gig for you. But when we can, we try and involve members in projects that the HPLHS is working on.

Belonging to the Facebook group is not the same thing as belonging to the HPLHS. Official members of the society have a membership number, and a card and certificate, and enjoy other benefits. To learn more, visit our Membership Page. To join, please go here.

Contacts

Business Hours

  • Pacific Time
  • Monday-Friday: 9am to 5pm
  • Saturday & Sunday: Closed

HPLHS on Facebook

The HPLHS has a Facebook page and also maintains a number of groups. The largest one is available to the general public, and currently has some 57,000 members. It is a very active place full of interesting and sometimes crazy people who post all kinds of things, not all of which is pleasing or interesting to everyone. There is also a smaller private group just for card-carrying HPLHS members. Only official members of the HPLHS can join this group, and it is more focused in its content. There is also a group for fans of the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre series of audio dramas produced by the HPLHS.

Social Media