I had nearly the exact same reaction on first reading Lovecraft. My reaction was so extreme that I continue to be utterly astonished at the popularity of his work and at the constant barrage of references to "The Mythos," which seems to point, to me, to tacit acceptance of his racism.

As far as I'm concerned, the fact that the stories are founded on racism rather completely poisoned the well, as it were.

In addition to the lack of women in the stories, he also tampered with the work of women writers, while he was an editor. Some of the work he altered to fit in with his own ideas, and I think that some of it was published under his own name. I'm sorry I cannot give you the names of the women he stole from; I found this out in a volume of "Lovecraft" I picked up at a library sale and I was so revolted that I got rid of the book immediately.