[j. d. worthington]

In one way or another, Lovecraft has influenced the vast majority of writers in the field since his day. With most, they've either written Lovecraftian pieces of their own, or studiously avoided anything they felt smacked of the man and his work in any way; much like Poe after his death, Lovecraft has had perhaps more influence on the genre than anyone of the past century (including King, who most definitely has been influenced by him in many tales... not just overt pastiches, but in other, more subtle ways).

Nor are some of these either third- (or fourth-) raters, nor hacks, but genuine talents either serving their apprenticeship or paying hommage to the man. These would include Ramsey Campbell, Robert Bloch, T. E. D. Klein, Thomas Ligotti, Willum H. Pugmire, W. Paul Wilson, Joanna Russ, Phillip José Farmer, Gary Myers, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Fritz Leiber, Roger Zelazny.....

Simply put, Lovecraft was (and, like Poe or Mary Shelley or M. R. James or Arthur Machen, etc., remains) a seminal influence. It isn't so much being ahead of his time as being a distinctly individual voice with a very unique approach to life and the world that could not help but be reflected in his work (both fiction and non-fiction). Love him or hate him, to deny his importance to the fields of horror, fantasy, and science fiction is to completely ignore the facts of the matter. And while the bulk of Lovecraftian pastiche (or even work influenced by) may be quite easy to dismiss, there are always those which, for one reason or another, do haunt the reader long afterward... usually because they combine the Lovecraftian influence with a unique vision of their own.