There was an author before lovecraft, I believe he was an ambulance driver in ww 1, or something. I know he was on ww 1 and one of the stories talked about how much that shit sucked. I think he’s died young, like 20s. Had a few published stories.
Ring any bells for anyone?
Edit: title…
That sounds like William Hope Hodgson. He was in an artillery company rather than an ambulance driver. He wrote The Night Land and The House on the Borderland, two of my favourite novels.
William Hope Hodgson was a prolific British author. H.P. Lovecraft lists Hodgson works to be among his greatest influences. His works are also known to have inspired Clark Ashton Smith and Henry S. Whitehead. Among all his most influential works you can find:
The House on the Borderland (1908)
Another author worth mentioning is Algernon Blackwood and his short story The Willows was praised by H.P. Lovecraft as the finest supernatural tale in English literature
The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson have one of the craziest world building one can image
The Sun has gone out: the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a Circle of energy, known as the “air clog,” powered from the Earth’s internal energy. For millennia, vast living shapes - the Watchers - have waited in the darkness near the pyramid: it is thought they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle’s power finally weakens and dies. Other living things have been seen in the darkness beyond, some of unknown origins, and others that may once have been human.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQjS9nGrM_U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy_RiohWtXE&list=PLyXmh8JiqrctE7CF56JFTS12O4mco-b2d