There was a long period of time where he _was_ ignored and underrated, up until 1981, when Stephen King gave him a shoutout in his book about horror writing (Da

There was a long period of time where he _was_ ignored and underrated, up until 1981, when Stephen King gave him a shoutout in his book about horror writing (Danse Macabre) and the Call of Cthulhu RPG was published. Until then, his books were entirely an underground phenomenon, and even then it wasn't until the early 2000s or late 1990s that Cthulhu was anything but a shibboleth for ultra-nerds. He was sort of a perfect fit for the generation of kids raised on computer games and RPGs that had voracious appetites for new mythologies. It is funny how once you get tagged with "underrated" it just stays with you forever, though.