Horror: The 100 Best Books (45 page)

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) has been described as "the father of modern horror" (and of scientific and detective fiction as well). He was born in Boston to parents who were itinerant actors, but the death of his mother and the desertion of his father resulted in Poe, aged three, being made the ward of Virginia merchant John Allan, who later disowned him. Expelled from the University of Virginia for not paying his gambling debts and dismissed from the West Point military academy for deliberate neglect of duty, Poe finally embarked on a literary career. In 1836 he married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm, who burst a blood vessel in 1842 and remained a virtual invalid until her death from tuberculosis five years later. Poe suffered from bouts of depression and madness and in 1848 he attempted suicide. In September 1849, on his way to visit his new fiancen Richmond, he vanished for three days, and inexplicably turned up in a delirious condition in Baltimore, where he died a few days later. Poe published a volume of poetry,
Tamerlane and Other Poems
, in 1827 but it wasn't until he wrote "The Raven" (1845) that he became known as "Mr. Poe the poet". His first short story, "Metzengerstein", appeared in 1832, and although his tales of madness and premature burial were admired, they never gained him wealth or recognition until after his death. His best stories include "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839), "William Wilson" (1839), "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842), "The Black Cat" (1843), "The Gold Bug" (1843), "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843), "The Premature Burial" (1844) and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (1845). Poe's only novel,
The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym
(1837), was left unfinished. Much of his work has been adapted for films, television and radio -- often with little regard to Poe's original concepts.

TERRY PRATCHETT (b. 1948) was born in Beaconsfield, England, and moved to Winscombe in the early 1970s. He worked as a journalist before becoming Press Officer for the Central Electricity Board Western Region, with special responsibility for nuclear power. In 1987 he gave the CEGB three months' notice and became a full-time writer. Pratchett's early books include the children's novel
The Carpet People
(1970) and two science fiction adventures,
The Dark Side of the Sun
(1976) and
Strata
(1981). However it was in 1983 that he scored an unexpected success with his first "Discworld" novel,
The Colour of Magic
, quickly establishing himself as Britain's most popular and successful author of humorous fantasy. He has continued the series with such bestselling titles as
The Light Fantastic
,
Equal Rites
,
Mort
,
Sourcery
,
Wyrd Sisters
,
Pyramids
(winner of the 1990 BSFA Award),
Guards! Guards!
,
Moving Pictures
,
Reaper Man
,
Small Gods
, and
Witches Abroad
. Pratchett's other books include the three-volume children's series
Truckers
(adapted for TV in 1992),
Diggers
and
Wings
,
The Unadulterated Cat
,
Eric
, and the horror spoof
Good Omens
(written with Neil Gaiman).

GEOFF RYMAN (b. 1951) was born in Canada and has lived in London since the early 1970s. He worked at a number of jobs while establishing himself as a full-time writer, and his first story was published in 1976. A successful playwright whose work includes an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
, Ryman's first novel,
The Warrior Who Carried Life
, was published in 1985. Subsequent books include
The Unconquered Country
(winner of the 1985 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella),
The Child Garden
(winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and The John W. Campbell Memorial Award, plus the British Science Fiction Award for the source story, "Love Sickness") and a fictionalized fantasy of Hollywood, "
Was . . .
"

JESSICA AMANDA SALMONSON (b. 1950) lives in Seattle, Washington, where she writes and edits books and watches a lot of samurai movies. In 1980 she won the World Fantasy Award for her anthology
Amazons!
, and followed it with
Amazons II
, two volumes of
Tales By Moonlight
, and
What Did Miss Darrington See? An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Fiction
. An expert on supernatural fiction from the last century, Salmonson's own writing reflects her love of Japanese culture and high fantasy, with such novels as
Tomoe Gozen
,
The Golden Naginata
,
Ou Lu Khen and the Beautiful Madwoman
and
The Swordswoman
, plus the non-fiction study
The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era
. She has also written a contemporary horror novel,
Anthony Shriek
, and her short fiction can be found in the collections
A Silver Thread of Madness
and
John Collier and Fredric Brown Went Quarrelling Through My Head
.

AL SARRANTONIO (b. 1952) was born in Queens, New York, and currently lives in Putnam Valley, N.Y. with his wife and two sons. His stories have been published in such magazines and anthologies as
Heavy Metal
,
Twilight Zone
,
Analog
,
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
,
Shadows
,
Whispers
,
Great Ghost Stories
and
The Year's Best Horror Stories
. Sarrantino has had regular book review columns in
Night Cry
and
Mystery Scene
, and his horror novels include
The Boy with Penny Eyes
,
Totentanz
,
Campbell Wood
,
The Worms
,
Moonbane
,
October
,
House Haunted
and
Skeletons
.

DAVID J. SCHOW (b. 1955) was born in Marburg, West Germany, and lived in Middlesex, England, until 1957 when he moved to the United States. In 1985 he won
Twilight Zone
magazine's Dimension Award for his short story, "Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You". Based on a reader poll, the prize was only given once as, shortly after the ceremony, the organizer was sacked! However, Schow's stories continued to appear in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies -- he is a regular contributor to the various "Year's Best" volumes -- and in 1987 he won the World Fantasy Award for his tale, "Red Light". He is the author of a number of novelizations under the pseudonym "Stephen Grave", co-writer of the non-fiction study
The Outer Limits: The Official Companion
, and editor of
Silver Scream
. One of the leaders of the so-called "Splatterpunk" movement in horror fiction, Schow's novels include
The Kill Riff
and
The Shaft
and his short fiction has been collected in
Seeing Red
,
Lost Angels
,
Black Leather Required
and
Look Out He's Got a Knife
. Schow has written teleplays and scripts for
Freddy's Nightmares
,
The Outer Limits
,
Leatherface The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
,
Critters 3
and
4
, and
The Crow
. His latest projects include a book and CD-ROM update of his guide to
The Outer Limits
(about which he knows more than any ten people, living or dead), more screenplays, and an almost-finished-no-really-any-day-now new novel.

DAN SIMMONS (b. 1948) was born in Peoria, Illinois. A teacher for eighteen years, he lives with his wife and daughter in Colorado. He began writing his first short fiction at the age of nine and in 1982 he won the Rod Serling Memorial Award for his story "The River Styx Runs Upstream". Simmons' first novel,
Song of Kali
, won the 1986 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and was described by Harlan Ellison as "one of the most brilliant first novels I've read." His subsequent books include
Phases of Gravity
,
Carrion Comfort
(winner of the 1990 Bram Stoker Award),
Hyperion
(winner of the 1990 Hugo Award),
The Fall of Hyperion
,
Summer of Night
,
The Hollow Man
and
Children of the Night
. Simmons' short fiction has appeared in such magazines as
Omni
and
Asimov's
, one-third of
Night Visions 5
(UK:
Dark Visions
), and the collection
Prayers to Broken Stones
. His story
Entropy's Bed at Midnight
appeared as a separate volume, and
Going After the Rubber Chicken
is a selection of guest of honour speeches.

JOHN SKIPP (b. 1957) is one of a new breed of writers working at the cutting-edge of horror. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (the beer capital of the U.S.) and has lived in a variety of locations: Arlington, Va; Buenos Aires, Argentina; York, Pa; and New York City. He was forced to leave Buenos Aires at the age of thirteen when President Ongania was deposed, and grew up with a healthy disrespect for authority and a need to rock "n" roll. Skipp started writing horror stories at the age of ten and had his first success in 1986 with
The Light at the End
, like most of his work, co-written with Craig Spector. Since then they have published such novels as
The Cleanup
,
The Scream
,
Dead Lines
,
The Bridge
,
Animals
, the novelization of
Fright Night
, and edited the zombie anthologies
Book of the Dead
and
Book of the Dead 2: Still Dead
. Skipp & Spector have also been involved with the movies, working on the scripts for
Nightmare on Elm Street The Dream Child
and
Class of 1999
, or appearing in Clive Barker's
Nightbreed
and the colour remake of
Night of the Living Dead
. Skipp's ambition is to be the Woody Allen of horror: "To wit: To write, direct, produce, score and star in films where I play this nebbish who gets horribly murdered, then wanders around whining about how death is even worse than he thought it would be, and he still doesn't understand what it all means."

JOHN SLADEK (b. 1937) was born in Iowa and lived in London for many years. He was educated at the University of Minnesota where he studied mechanical engineering and English Literature. Since then he has worked as a technical writer, barman, draughtsman and railroadman. His first published story was "The Poets of Milgrave, Iowa" in
New Worlds
(1966) and he started writing science fiction with "The Happy Breed" in Harlan Ellison's
Dangerous Visions
anthology the following year. Sladek's first novel,
The Reproductive System
(US:
Mechasm
), was published to enormous critical acclaim in 1968, and his blend of black comedy and SF has been likened to Kurt Vonnegut at his best. The author's other books include
The Muller-Fokker Effect
,
The Steam-Driven Boy
,
Keep the Giraffe Burning
,
Roderick
,
Roderick At Random
,
Tick-Tok
,
Alien Accounts
,
The Lunatics of Terra
and
Bugs
. His detective novel
Black Aura
contains borderline SF elements, and he has collaborated with Thomas M. Disch on the Gothic novel
The House That Fear Built
(1966, as "Cassandra Knye") and the thriller
Black Alice
(1968).

GUY N. SMITH (b. 1939) is the versatile and incredibly prolific author of more than sixty horror novels. He was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire, and currently resides in Shropshire with his wife Jean, where he works as a farmer, bookseller and writer of ecological/countryside books (with such titles as
The Rough Shooter's Handbook
,
Practical Country Living
and
Moles and Their Control
). He began writing when he was twelve and his first short stories were published in
The London Mystery Magazine
(1972). Smith entered the horror genre in 1974 with
Werewolf by Moonlight
, and the following year he gave up his job in banking to become a full-time writer. Among his many books are
The Sucking Pit
,
The Slime Beast
,
Night of the Crabs
(and its six sequels), the four-volume
Sabat
series,
The Lurkers
,
The Festering
,
The Knighton Vampires
,
Satan's Spawn
and novelizations of
The Ghoul
,
Song of the South
,
Sleeping Beauty
and
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
.

CRAIG SPECTOR (b. 1958) was born in the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. Spector tells us, "Tom Robbins once described Richmond as a town "settled by a race of thin bony-faced psychopaths", who would "sell you anything they had, which was nothing, and kill you over anything they didn't understand, which was everything." Of course, he was referring to
South
Richmond, and I was in the West End, but there you are. Narrowly escaping a promising career of juvenile delinquency in Virginia Beach by being force-marched to Pennsylvania at the tender age of fifteen, where I shortly thereafter met John Skipp and began the series of creative mutations that led me to where I am today. Used to consider myself a cartoonist, until art school beat it out of me. Hands-down winner of
Most Surprising Mutation
award." Like Stan Laurel and Lou Costello, Spector is condemned by alphabetical order in reference books to have most of his works listed under his partner's name. For details, see under John Skipp.