Today, HP Lovecraft's name is a byword for the mysterious, the arcane and the bizarre. His stories of fantasy and horror are revered, his creations still vivid. Yet during his short, unhappy life, he was all but unknown. Physically weak and tormented by his own eccentricities, his was a hand-to-mouth existence spent in shabby dwellings in Providence and Brooklyn. From childhood, he fantasised about life in pre-Revolutionary America; as an adult he undertook long sojourns up and down the eastern seaboard, visiting sites he associated with an age of lost glory. All of this is documented in the map and guide within, along with the real-life locations that formed the basis for his most famous fictional creations - Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich and Kingsport. Welcome to the world of HP Lovecraft: you might say it's an interesting place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there.