RHODE ISLAND

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)

A Providence native and author of horror stories and novels, Lovecraft is considered the father of American science fiction and a successor to Edgar Allen Poe. Some of his stories describe an imaginary place named Arkham that was based on Providence. He was born in 1890 at the house currently numbered 454 Angell Street. His fascination with the macabre and weird may have begun with the stories he heard from his grandfather.


The Gravesite of H. P. Lovecraft
Swan Point Cemetery
585 Blackstone Blvd.
Providence, RI
401-272-1314 or 401-272-3570

When Lovecraft died in 1937, his name was added to a family monument. It was not until many years later that this individual monument was erected at his gravesite.
Hours: Open daily, 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Clement C. Moore (1779-1863)

A man known throughout the Western world as the author of the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" and who created the sentimental image of Christmas at home, was born in 1779 in Manhattan. When he wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in 1822, at the age of 43, Moore was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He died in Newport, his summer home, in 1863.


Cedars, Clement C. Moore House, or The Night Before Christmas House
25 Catherine Streeet
Newport, RI

Now divided into apartments, the house (c. 1856) is where Moore died after long and fruitful life. There is no truth to the myth that he wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas" here, because he did not begin summering in Newport until about the 1850s.