H. P. Lovecraft's story “The Call of Cthulhu” was first published in 1928. It appeared in the February 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Weird Tales.
Lovecraft wrote the story in the summer of 1926, but publication came roughly two years later. The narrative follows Francis Wayland Thurston as he investigates notes left by his deceased grand-uncle, George Gammell Angell, and discovers evidence of a worldwide connection to the monstrous Cthulhu.
The story is especially important because it helped establish the Cthulhu Mythos, a fictional universe later expanded by Lovecraft's fellow writers and by generations of authors, artists, filmmakers, and game designers. Its themes of cosmic scale and human helplessness became central to cosmic horror.
Readers sometimes confuse the writing date with the publication date. Lovecraft completed the story in 1926, but the first printed appearance was in 1928, not 1926 or 1927.