H.P. Lovecraft.
Who is this man, you ask? Let me enlighten you. Howard Philips Lovecraft was a writer of short stories who was born in 1890 and died in 1937. Many believe that he was the finest writer of horror fiction of the twentieth century, something agreed on by Stephen King and Brian Lumley.

Lovecraft wrote about a group of powerful alien beings who were once in control of the world, and were deposed by some calamity. Over the eons, however, through mental messages they have sent to humanity, members of our race and other races discovered the old ones again and decided to worship them as gods. These cults have over time tried to bring their masters back to destroy humanity and take over the Earth again. This group of stories in known collectively as the Cthulhu Mythos, named after the most powerful alien being trapped on Earth, Cthulhu.

Most of these stories were published in pulp magazines of the 20's and 30's, and were never taken seriously by major literary critics. It wasn't until the people who read those pulps and magazines began to write themselves that Lovecrafts stories became popular and recognized. Now Lovecraft is a celebrated author and has his life picked apart by biographers. His stories are dissected by college students in term papers, and are analyzed by phsychologists.

In short, if you read this blog, and you consider yourself a horror afficiando, check him out immediately. You are missing out on one of the most disturbing and disturbed works of fiction ever.

P.S. Just one warning: Lovecraft nearly choked his works with descriptors and adverbs. Be prepared for some purple prose.