Top 15 Horror Authors

[dask]

A "straight literary writer" wrote Fin Fang Foom?

 

[Lobolover]

On Stan (the Man) Lee... yes, and even well within the superhero days, Marvel had quite a few such titles. A fair amount of these, however, were either adaptations or riffs on work done by straight literary writers in the field, however, so I'm not sure they quite apply....



On Aickman... well, you can now and again find copies of his earlier collections for quite reasonable (even cheap) prices, especially Cold Hand in Mine and Painted Devils (both of which I would highly recommend)... in part because they were also released through book club editions and paperback....

However , it's usualy not "now and again" whenever you actualy search for it .

I would say that alot of his repute comes from a time before the internet , e books and L.W.Currey . I imagine it was much easier/cheaper getting some Aickman in the 80's , say , then today . I have a theory that is when most of the critics spreading the word about him got their copies .

 

[j d worthington]

A "straight literary writer" wrote Fin Fang Foom?

Errrr, no... but I wouldn't call that horror, either. That's straight fantastic adventure fiction with a typical comic-book monster as antagonist (or sometimes semi-protagonist); another sort of thing entirely.

Mind you, I happen to have a great deal of fondness for a lot of Stan's work, but -- a horror writer????

However , it's usualy not "now and again" whenever you actualy search for it .

I suppose, too, that depends on where you live. I come across his books with a fair amount of regularity in used book stores here in the States and, as he was a British author/anthologist (he was editor of the first several Fontana Books of Great Ghost Stories... a series of very fine selections, well worth acquiring), they may be even more common in the UK.

I would say that alot of his repute comes from a time before the internet , e books and L.W.Currey . I imagine it was much easier/cheaper getting some Aickman in the 80's , say , then today . I have a theory that is when most of the critics spreading the word about him got their copies .

Certainly, his reputation came into existence long before there was an internet... it began almost with his first publications in the field, and has only grown larger with time. He was a master of enigma and ambiguity while nevertheless maintaining a powerful eerie atmosphere. He also, in one of his introductions (to the First Fontana Book, if I recall correctly) drew the analogy between the ghost story and poetry (not verse, but poetry); one which, for the most part, I tend to agree with.

Those interested in Aickman may want to look at the following:

Robert Aickman - An Appreciation

And, just as an example of what I meant about finding his work:

Amazon.com: Cold Hand in Mine: Books

Amazon.com: Painted Devils: Strange stories (9780684159997): Robert Aickman: Books

While the first couple of items in that first link are a bit pricey, if you'll look further down, you'll see that one can find used copies of even the hardbound editions for $3.98 up....

 

[w h pugmire esq]

My list would definitely include Aickman, who is so potent and original. Yet I would also be tempted to add Henry James, who cannot be called a horror author and yet has written classics of supernatural horror; and I would add Fred Chappell, who cannot be classified a horror writer yet has written outstanding weird fiction, and the disturbing Lovecraftian novel, Dagon. I would not include Wilde, but I would ponder his place in the genre. Another interesting list would concern the best horror novels ever published.

 

[Fried Egg]

Looks like you can get a few of Aickman's books new at amazon.co.uk although they are fairly pricey...

 

[Connavar]

I did read a ghost story that was so slow,uninteresting that i almost feel sleep on it. It was in a Terror by Gaslight anthology the problem is that i dont remember which James it was. Henry James or M.R James. Hehe

 

[j d worthington]

My list would definitely include Aickman, who is so potent and original. Yet I would also be tempted to add Henry James, who cannot be called a horror author and yet has written classics of supernatural horror; and I would add Fred Chappell, who cannot be classified a horror writer yet has written outstanding weird fiction, and the disturbing Lovecraftian novel, Dagon. I would not include Wilde, but I would ponder his place in the genre. Another interesting list would concern the best horror novels ever published.

Well, yes, if we are including a writer due to a single piece or a small handful of pieces, then certainly Henry James belongs; The Turn of the Screw is one of the high points in the genre, and several of his other ghost stories are notable as well (in my opinion). Chappell -- most definitely! A man who can capture the essence of the strange and weird in such a poetic and powerful way should definitely be considered, with the above stipulation in mind. Wilde... aside from The Picture of Dorian Gray, there are weird elements in his work, but I agree, I'm not sure he can be classed as a "horror writer" by the loosest use of the term. He has, however, had his influence on both this and the fantasy field....

Connavar: Looks like it was "The Experiment", by M. R. James....

Contents Lists

 

[dask]

Errrr, no... but I wouldn't call that horror, either. That's straight fantastic adventure fiction with a typical comic-book monster as antagonist (or sometimes semi-protagonist); another sort of thing entirely.

Monster stories/movies aren't considered horror?

 

[j d worthington]

I think that all depends on the effect aimed for. The ones you mentioned in particular were adventure tales, with an emphasis on the adventure, the battle, the trickster element... fantasies of a different order than genuine horror (or terror) tales. There was no real element of awe, terror, the sublime, or the "dark numinous", as it has been called. There isn't even really an intent to horrify or frighten. (This is also why I'm afraid the Godzilla films and the like don't really fit as horror, either. A monster does not of itself make a horror tale -- vide various tales of Howard the Duck, or Shakespeare's The Tempest, for the matter of that....)

Granted, Stan did have some such tales now and again (though he didn't always write them) -- I recall in particular a story titled "One Hungers", which was actually quite an effective bit of weirdness and horror in comic form. And with comics of that sort... well, yes, those could be considered as horror, but I'm afraid that, fond as I am of many of them, I simply can't put them in anywhere near the same class as the greats of the literary horror field. They are too simplistic, very often regurgitations of ideas or stories which have been banging about in the field for decades, and simply lack all the finer points which make for truly good literature, in the horror field or any other. That is more the nature of the medium, I'm afraid, than anything else.

Which is not to say that these aren't enjoyable little chillers when they were intended as "straight" horror, rather than adventure tales with some horrific elements or a monster, or what-have-you. But they simply are not, by their very nature, in the same league as the writers listed above, with the possible exceptions of King and, on occasion, Barker.

 

[dask]

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the time and thought you put into it. I wasn't super-serious by the way --- that's why I put Mr. Lee at number 16.

 

[j d worthington]

I rather thought as much... but it was a fun discussion, no?

(All right, yes, my idea of fun is a dead giveaway that I desperately need a life!!!!)

 

[thatollie]

What about Robert Louis Stevenson?
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was the first book to really scare the pants off me, and I'd read hundreds of mediocre horrors at the time.

 

[nomadman]

It's not a bad list, and whilst I of course have a different one, there are no writers that I take exception to being there. Of older writers conspicuous by their absence, I'd have to mention Hodgson, Hearn, Onions, Chambers, Wharton and James (the other one). Kipling also wrote some classics in the field. Of mid twentieth century writers Bloch and Leiber deserve a mention; latter twentieth century: TED Klein, Thomas Tessier, Steve Rasnic Tem and Jonathan Carroll (whom I think is quite underrated as regards horror. His works have a sort of creeping unease and sesne of dislocation that's up there with the best of them). As regards foreign writers, I believe I've already lauded the praises of Quiroga, Grabinski and Rampo on these boards, but given the relative scarceness of their work in the English language, it's not surprising that they aren't better known.

 

[j d worthington]

What about Robert Louis Stevenson?
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was the first book to really scare the pants off me, and I'd read hundreds of mediocre horrors at the time.

I'm not sure I'd rate him quite that highly, though it would be a near thing as, at his best, he was tremendouly effective. Not only with Jekyll and Hyde, but "The Body Snatchers", "Markheim", "Olalla", and "Thrawn Janet"... which last is one of the nastiest ghost stories I think I have ever read....

I also think -- despite some claims to diffuseness and tameness in some of his work -- Henry S. Whitehead deserves to be up there someplace, as well. Perhaps not in the top 15 or 20, but not too far from that, either. Again, at his best, his work was tremendously effective, erudite, eloquent, and often rather complex in its emotional impact ("Passing of a God", for instance, stirs not only horror and terror, but also pity, wonder, pathos, a sense of beauty, and a wistful sense of the strange, all at once....)

That's the problem with such a list... it does tend to be very subjective, even if it uses very good criteria, as there really have been (and are) a tremendous number of very talented people writing for the field. I mean, just look at so many of the things HPL writes about (or mentions in passing) in his Supernatural Horror in Literature essay... not to mention the number of first-rate writers who have graced the field since!

 

[Lobolover]

@ J.D. : Odd that you never mentioned "Thrawn Janet" while we were discusing Stevenson .

 

[j d worthington]

@ J.D. : Odd that you never mentioned "Thrawn Janet" while we were discusing Stevenson .

That certainly is odd... could have sworn I had....

Well, here's what I had to say about it the last time I read it:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/46327-julys-jubilant-joust-at-new-books-9.html#post1158843

 

[Lobolover]

Thanks .

On top of that , I sort of hate to advertise meself as much but

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/527092-it-isnt-all-over-at-20-a.html#post1380122

 

[Fried Egg]

Thinking about it, I would have to put Thomas Ligotti right at the top. He is my all time favourite horror author. In fact, he might even be my favourite author of any genre.

I'm dying to read something else by him now. I've read both his currently available collections: "Teatro Grottesco" and "My Work is not Yet Done" and I crave more. Does anyone know if he's got any more fiction coming out soon or if any of his older fiction is going to be re-printed?

 

[J Riff]

I'd leave out King, Bradbury, Jackson and Barker. Not even close.
Robert Bloch ? There's a LOT of stuff out there that this list misses.

 

[mrichardson17]

In general it is a good list, although Ligotti should be near the top, King should be near the bottom, and Bradbury shouldn't be on there at all.