The man could torture prose better than anyone. You can almost hear Mrs Lovecraft in the background saying “Honey, quit rambling and come to bed so Miss Frisky can ride the Love Pony”.
Lovecraft wrote like he was going to get a lash for every word he missed in the dictionary.
Ah you see... there was no Mrs. Lovecraft, he was a permanent bachelor who lived with his mother. Of course, that probably explains a LOT.