It's tragic that Lovecraft basically died of poverty when his ideas have spawned so much. Losing him and Howard, both in the prime of their careers, either robbed us of even more genius level works down the road or kept their memories pristine (well, as much as it can be given their personal writings) as they had no time to sell out. And never forget August Derleth who is really the one that kept HPL awareness alive until it could gain a critical mass. I'm also convinced that his dying with no heirs allowed his works to go into the public domain right away and thus be easily perpetuated and riffed on with no governing body. The quality of his writing is undeniable, just look at how many TERRIBLE adaptations have been made, basically all of them not made by Stuart Gordan, yet HPL comes back, stronger than ever, year after year.