Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. He was raised by his mother, two aunts, and grandfather after his father was institutionalized for mental illness and his mother was later also committed. Lovecraft married a Jewish woman named Sonia Greene but struggled to find work in Brooklyn, which he blamed on the large immigrant population. In his writing, Lovecraft explored the idea that human laws and values have no meaning in a vast, indifferent cosmos. He used allegorical monsters in his work to represent social issues and fears in a way that could reach broader audiences.