I thought a big reason HP was so disregarded in his own time was because he didnt set it in the south. His big departure from other gothic authors at the time was that he didnt write stuff about how awful the south was, but instead set it in a place more familiar to urban audiences, like college towns and new england, etc.
Its crazy that people forget that from 1860-1930 the only stories in the US were about how evil the south was, the beloved classics from the US were more like the F&F of its day, either non-political or breaking from the hackery
Lovecraft was writing around the time the North started developing a keen interest in Appalachia, “othering” it with theories of racial degeneration, myths about Elizabethan English, lots of stuff that made it out to be like this mysterious otherworld with sinister vibes (instead of just a chunk of Old Stock pioneers living in a particularly underdeveloped area). That eventually lead to a bunch of hicksploitation movies later in the 20th Century.
Deep South got a similar treatment, but I don’t know as much about the history with it.
Seen a few other comments like this. Not exactly.
The KKK went through three major incarnations. First one, the Reconstruction Klan, was a Southern nationalist organization that, along with similar groups like Redshirts in Louisiana and others, waged an insurgency and terror campaign against the Blacks and Republicans in the South. They were violently suppressed by the Feds but made enough of a mess that they ended up getting what they wanted. Part of a broader Redeemer movement.
The second Klan, of the Progressive Era, were basically American nationalists, proto-fascist. Rooted in the South, but it spread and ended up becoming based primarily in the Midwest, with huge branches in pretty much every state and major city. It was virulently Protestant and anti-everything-not-White, along with strong anti-Communism. Had mass appeal and was a national problem, not a sectional one. Mirrored the rise of fascism in other countries. Fell apart during the New Deal.
The third Klan was a reaction of the South to desegregation, and was sectional in nature, but still had leftovers from the second Klan in other sections. It was killed by the Feds and no real successor has ever emerged.
I don’t know when Lovecraft Country is set, but if it’s the second Klan era (when Lovecraft lived) it’s entirely possible. Rural New England is not that progressive and Yankees have always had a strong streak of righteous hypocrisy (preach tolerance to the rest of the Union, but freak out when Blacks move into their neighborhood).
