# Dear Lord, H.P. Lovecraft was one freaky looking guy. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325 "2008-10-30T21:25:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/61 "2008-11-03T04:26:45Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Yea, I’ve seen it. It is dated visually. They didn’t capture the ethereal. > > But, it was the best to date, I admit. And [_Pickmans Model_](http://www.fierrofilms.com/pickmansmodel/) doesn’t really look to be an improvement. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/62 "2008-11-03T08:12:37Z")
In the first pic, he seems handsome enough to me. Now, _I’m_ freaky lookin’. After looking at the next to pictures linked, I see there is something a bit odd about his jaw & lips. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/63 "2008-11-04T02:17:51Z")
Is it just me, or does he look at least a little like fellow New Englander [Fred Allen](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/16170/96533/Fred-Allen)? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/64 "2008-11-04T02:30:07Z")
> [@Governor\_Quinn](#): > > Is it just me, or does he look at least a little like fellow New Englander [Fred Allen](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/16170/96533/Fred-Allen)? “Cthulhu was born ignorant and he’s been losing ground ever since!” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/65 "2008-11-04T02:36:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You don’t know the half of it. It would be trite and not wholly accurate to say that no human pen could describe him, but one may properly say that he could not be vividly visualized by anyone whose ideas of aspect and contour are too closely bound up with the common life-forms of this planet and of the three known dimensions. He was partly human, beyond a doubt, with very manlike hands and head, and the enlongated, highbrowed face had the stamp of the Lovecrafts upon it. But the torso and lower parts of the body were teratologically fabulous, so that only generous clothing could ever have enabled him to walk on earth unchallenged or uneradicated. Above the waist he was semi-anthropomorphic; though his chest had the leathery, reticulated hide of a crocodile or alligator. The back was piebald with yellow and black, and dimly suggested the squamous covering of certain snakes. Below the waist, though, it was the worst; for here all human resemblance left off and sheer phantasy began. The skin was thickly covered with coarse black fur, and from the abdomen a score of long greenish-grey tentacles with red sucking mouths protruded limply. Their arrangement was odd, and seemed to follow the symmetries of some cosmic geometry unknown to earth or the solar system. On each of the hips, deep set in a kind of pinkish, ciliated orbit, was what seemed to be a rudimentary eye; whilst in lieu of a tail there depended a kind of trunk or feeler with purple annular markings, and with many evidences of being an undeveloped mouth or throat. The limbs, save for their black fur, roughly resembled the hind legs of prehistoric earth’s giant saurians, and terminated in ridgy-veined pads that were neither hooves nor claws. When he breathed, his tail and tentacles rhythmically changed colour, as if from some circulatory cause normal to the non-human greenish tinge, whilst in the tail it was manifest as a yellowish appearance which alternated with a sickly grayish-white in the spaces between the purple rings. Marry me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/66 "2008-11-05T15:09:56Z")
Have we got a high priest of Nyarlathotep who could conduct the twisted, otherworldly marriage rites? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/67 "2008-11-05T15:24:55Z")
There’s nothing weird or scary about him. He looks like a farmer to me. Stick a pair of overalls and a straw hat on him and he’s the spit and image of a sharecropper straight out of The Grapes of Wrath. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/68 "2008-11-05T15:28:27Z")
> [@](#): > > There’s nothing weird or scary about him. He looks like a farmer to me. Stick a pair of overalls and a straw hat on him and he’s the spit and image of a sharecropper straight out of The Grapes of Wrath. Only he’d have to be a New England farmer. A Down Easter, maybe. “R’lyeh? Ya can’t GET the-ah from he-ah!” (How do you say “R’lyeh” with a Maine accent?) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/69 "2008-11-06T15:17:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …(How do you say “R’lyeh” with a Maine accent?) “Kennebunkport.” :eek: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/70 "2008-11-06T20:41:34Z")
> [@BrassyPhrase](#): > > I thought when I saw that pic (in an homage to MST3K) > > “Michael Phelps! No!” Same here [http://hillbuzz.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/michael-phelps.jpg](http://hillbuzz.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/michael-phelps.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/71 "2008-11-06T22:30:52Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > “Kennebunkport.” :eek: 😉 I’m glad I wasn’t drinking when I read that. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/72 "2008-11-07T01:56:47Z")
It’s funny how you can look at a photo of someone and come up with what their name “should” be. I will henceforth know him as “Chad Lovecraft.” ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/73 "2008-11-07T06:37:42Z")
I think he looks like he’s got a wad of bubblegum in his mouth and the photo was taken a split second before he was about to blow a bubble. ---
**Author:** ![GregL65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2acd7d/32.png) [@GregL65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GregL65)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/74 "2016-10-18T06:57:13Z")
I think it looks like a jaw tumor. I see it in several photos of him. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/75 "2016-10-18T12:25:46Z")
I can do no better than to quote a former California governor: ‘Its not a tumour’. I’ve met people with this sort of underbite - they have had all their upper teeth removed and the resorption of the bone gives them a strong underbite, as well as messing with the fit of their dentures. I even met a bloke of HPL’s vintage who as a 21st [?] birthday present had all his teeth removed and was given a complete set of choppers by his family. Dentistry was not that great and if you had to have one visit you’d want to make it count. He said it was a fairly common thing among his generation. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/76 "2016-10-18T12:56:39Z")
I did an oral report on Lovecraft in the eighth grade, I guess based on of that de Camp biography. It was pretty successful as such reports go, mainly because I laid it on thick about all the mean things his mom said about his appearance to her friends. No wonder he grew up writing eldritch fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/77 "2016-10-18T14:34:20Z")
I’ve always thought that [Aldous Huxley](http://www.tristanharris.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/huxley.jpg) looked exactly like an Aldous Huxley should. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/78 "2016-10-18T16:58:42Z")
Somebody once pointed out the similarity in appearances between Lovecraft and [Ernst Kaltenbrunner](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Ernst-Kaltenbrunner-72-916.jpg/220px-Ernst-Kaltenbrunner-72-916.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/79 "2016-10-18T17:19:32Z")
A while ago I finally picked up a copy of the CRiterion Collection’s edition of Carl Dreyer’s film **Vampyr** , a film made at the same time as Tod Browning’s _Dracula_, and an interesting take on the Vampire film. It’s been ripped off by several filmmakers (most notably Francis Ford Coppola, who took the idea of shadows moving independently of people from this film – regardless of what Sergio Aragones might think.) I’ve always wanted to see a decent copy of the film, because most editions are poor copies, with really bad translated titles. In any event, I was really struck by how much the main character, played by Julian West, resembles Lovecraft. (They had to let him play the main character – he was bankrolling the production): West in _Vampyr_ and Lovecradt picures on the same webpage: [http://www.thingsinmovies.com/julian-west-baron-nicolas-de-gunzburg-in-vampyr/](http://www.thingsinmovies.com/julian-west-baron-nicolas-de-gunzburg-in-vampyr/) ---
**Author:** ![TheInimitableMaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TheInimitableMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheInimitableMaven)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325/80 "2016-10-18T17:27:39Z")
Am I the only one who thinks that **[D.B. Cooper](http://image.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/width960/img/oregonian/photo/2011/08/-72360b87ce5489d7.jpg)** bore a somewhat uncanny resemblance to H.P. Lovecraft? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-lord-h-p-lovecraft-was-one-freaky-looking-guy/470325.md?page=3)