He smiled as he pushed out of the store, making the small bell tinkle overhead. He headed to the Miskatonic vaults, but first he needed to find a place to write.

“Maybe one day they’ll refer to me as the Mad American – Mad Matt.” He grinned and turned his face to the sky, catching a ray of sun on his face. Overhead a bird circled, and as he watched, another joined it, and then another.

As he passed across the campus a small cloud of birds formed above him…following.

Author’s Notes

Many readers ask me about the background of my novels – is it real or fiction? Where do I get the situations, equipment, characters or their expertise from, and just how much of any legend has a basis in fact? In the case of Book of the Dead, there is one absolute reality – its real creator: the American author Howard Phillips “H.P.” Lovecraft.

My book, most of the creatures described, and even my hero being a professor in search of science and knowledge, are drawn from Lovecraft’s mythos universe.

This book is where I pay homage to the man. I hope he would have approved.

Howard Phillips “H.P.” Lovecraft

Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on August 20 1890. Today, he is considered one of the most influential fathers of monstrous and macabre horror, though it was only years after his death that he received the recognition he and his work deserved.

A young Lovecraft spent his early life being cosseted by an overprotective mother, as his father was confined to a mental institution. His grandfather turned out to be a significant influence, as much of the time he was with Howard was spent telling him fantastic make-believe stories, and this soon became their favorite pastime.

It wasn’t long before an eight-year-old Lovecraft began composing his own rudimentary horror tales. Then later, when in high school, he began to involve local children in elaborate fantasy play-acting, only stopping the projects just prior to his eighteenth birthday. At school, Lovecraft abhorred many of the traditional subjects, but developed a keen interest in history, linguistics, chemistry, and astronomy, and obtained a deep understanding and knowledge of each of these. Though his intellect was being honed, his lack of interest in traditional topics led to him failing to graduate.

Lovecraft began to withdraw from the world, and soon was living a near nocturnal lifestyle. However, his writing, if mostly just personal, continued. At twenty-three, his literary flair was seen in the letter pages of a story magazine and he was soon invited to join an amateur journalism association. This was the trigger he needed and he soon began to send out more of his works. At the age of thirty-one he had his first formal publication in a professional magazine.

Lovecraft’s life seemed to be thrown open then – he lived in New York, married an older woman he had met at one of his journalism conferences, and, by thirty-four, was a regular contributor to a new fiction magazine called Weird Tales.