"Fond of medieval romance and mystery as a dilettante's diversion, and with a quaintly imitated Gothic castle as his abode at Strawberry Hill, Walpole in 1764 published The Castle of Otranto; a tale of the supernatural which . . . was destined to exert an almost unparalleled influence on the literature of the weird." -- H. P. Lovecraft,"Supernatural Horror in Literature"

Author Biography

Horatio Walpole (1717 - 1797) - also known as Horace Walpole - was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, south-west London, reviving the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors. His literary reputation rests on his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto (1764) and his Letters, which are of significant social and political interest.