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It is difficult to separate Lovecraft’s racism from his stories. For example, “The Horror at Red Hook" is both one of Lovecraft’s most well-known stories and one of his most racist, with Lovecraft describing Aryan civilization as being all that stands against the “primitive half-ape savagery” of lesser races.

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Response to those who say Lovecraft merely reflected the racism and hatred of his times

H.P. Lovecraft lived in what has been called the nadir of American race relations. Because of this many people attempt to excuse Lovecraft’s racism and anti-Semitism as merely being a product of his time.

However, Lovecraft’s racism and anti-Semitism went far beyond the norm even of those horrific times. And as times changed, Lovecraft didn’t change with them, instead sticking firmly to his racism and anti-Semitism.

Lovecraft’s hateful views were a major concern of his wife Sonia Greene, who was Jewish. Sonia was extremely disturbed by Lovecraft’s anti-Semitism and repeatedly raised this issue with Lovecraft, as related in this Wired article which states “Greene told a biographer later that she kept reminding Lovecraft about her own background, but it didn’t seem to dissuade him from his fear of Jews and other immigrants.”

Sonia even once confronted Lovecraft on how she was a member of a group he despised, to which he responded by saying she “no longer belonged to these mongrels.”

Despite Sonia repeatedly raising these issues with Lovecraft, she later wrote, “Whenever we found ourselves in the racially mixed crowds which characterize New York, Howard would become livid with rage. He seemed almost to lose his mind.”

It’s likely even Lovecraft knew his views were not the standard racism and hate of his day. Otherwise, why would he have worked so hard to defend his views? An example of this is related in S.T. Joshi's A Dreamer and a Visionary: H.P. Lovecraft and his Time. Joshi describes how Charles D. Isaacson wrote an essay on racial tolerance which also attacked the film Birth of a Nation for inciting “racial hatred.” In response Lovecraft wrote that “Mr. Isaacson’s views on racial prejudice … are too subjective to be impartial.”

Isaacson responded with an essay attacking Lovecraft, saying that the author “is against tolerance of color, creed and equality, upholds race prejudice…”

The year this exchange took place? 1915. Even that long ago people were willing to call out Lovecraft for his racism.

Lovecraft’s friend Wilfred Branch Talman also noted Lovecraft’s racism, although unlike with the Isaacson exchange Talman merely dismissed Lovecraft’s “racist viewpoint” as being part of the bizarre 18th century aristocratic pose Lovecraft affected. But the fact that Talman even noticed Lovecraft’s racism during one of the most racist times in American history speaks volumes about how bad Lovecraft’s views were.

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http://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2016/10/disturbed-by-lovecraft

The link has various links to references -- apparently in the conversation with his wife regarding "mongrels"
he had also referred to the various races of New York as the 'alien hordes'

Maybe that fear of the world surrounding him
drove the fear of the unknown and hostile experience he seemed to view life as
which was influential in his writings


Literary genius with an undeniable impact on the fantasy genre
and love his work either way