H. P. Lovecraft was not a very popular writer during his lifetime but
achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror
fiction. Today he is widely acknowledged as one of the most significant
20th-century authors in the genre of horror and the supernatural. The
title of this story came from an actual house in Providence, Rhode
Island, Lovecraft's hometown. It was built around 1763 and still stands
on Benefit Street. The story is a masterpiece of supernatural horror and
was descripted by Robert Weinberg as "one of Lovecraft's best short
novels."