Horror: The 100 Best Books (43 page)

GARRY KILWORTH (b. 1941) was born in York and spent his formative years in Aden. He studied English at King's College, London, after twenty years of global travel with the Royal Air Force and, later, Cable and Wireless. More recently he has lived in Hong Kong for several years before moving to Ashingdon, Essex, with his wife Annette. Kilworth's first science fiction story, "Let's Go to Golgotha", was published in
The Gollancz/Sunday Times Best SF Stories
anthology in 1975, having won the competition. His first SF novel,
In Solitary
, appeared two years later, since when he has written more than sixty short stories and is the prolific author of many science fiction, fantasy, horror, mainstream and young adult books, including
Theatre of Timesmiths
,
Witchwater Country
,
The Wizard of Woodworld
,
Cloudrock
,
Abandonati
,
Spiral Winds
,
The Voyage of the Vigilance
,
Hunter's Moon
(USA:
The Foxes of First Dark
),
The Rain Ghost
,
Midnight's Sun
,
The Drowners
,
The Third Dragon
,
The Gulli-Gulli Man
and
Frost Dancers
. His short fiction has been collected in
The Songbirds of Pain
;
In the Hollow of the Deep-Sea Wave
;
Dark Hills, Hollow Clocks: Stories from the Otherworld
and
In the Country of Tattooed Men
, while an urban horror novel,
The Street
, was published under the pseudonym "Garry Douglas".

STEPHEN KING (b. 1947) is arguably the most popular novelist in the history of American fiction and is indisputably the most successful horror writer of all time, with more than 100 million copies of his books in print. Born in Portland, Maine, he currently lives in Bangor with his wife, Tabitha, and their three children. His first published story was "I Was a Teenage Graverobber" in a 1965 comic book fanzine. He made his first professional sale with "The Glass Floor" in
Startling Mystery Stories
(1967), which was quickly followed by sales to better-paying markets. King's first novel,
Carrie
, appeared in 1974, since when he has published a phenonomenal string of bestsellers:
'Salem's Lot
,
The Shining
,
The Stand
,
The Dead Zone
,
Firestarter
,
Cujo
,
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
,
Cristine
,
Cycle of the Werewolf
,
Pet Sematary
,
The Talisman
(with Peter Straub),
The Eyes of the Dragon
,
It
,
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
,
Misery
,
The Tommyknockers
,
The Dark Half
,
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
,
Needful Things
and
Gerald's Game
. His short fiction and novellas have been collected in
Night Shift
,
Different Seasons
,
Skeleton Crew
and
Four Past Midnight
, and he wrote a non-fiction volume about the field,
Danse Macabre
. As "Richard Bachman" he has also published
Rage
,
The Long Walk
,
Roadwork
,
The Running Man
and
Thinner
. Most of King's books and stories have been filmed or optioned by Hollywood; he wrote and directed
Maximum Overdrive
(1986), and his original screenplays include
Creepshow
and
Sleepwalkers
. There are numerous volumes available dissecting his work.

T. E. D. KLEIN (b. 1947) is a native New Yorker who has been described as "one of the finest stylists among modern horror writers." He became a horror enthusiast after discovering the works of H.P. Lovecraft while studying at Brown University. His blending of themes found in Lovecraft and Machen's fiction resulted in the acclaimed short story The Events at Poroth Farm", first published in
The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series II
(1974). This was expanded to novel-length in the British Fantasy Award-winning
The Ceremonies
(1984), which he followed with
Dark Gods
(collecting three novelettes: "Prey", "Nadelman's Gold", "Black Man with a Horn", and the short novel, "Children of the Kingdom"). For five years Klein was editor of the successful
Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Magazine
and he also edited the true-crime magazine,
CrimeBeat
. In 1994 he scripted the Dario Argento movie
Trauma
.

HUGH (CHARLES) LAMB (b. 1946) was born in Sutton, Surrey. A journalist by profession, Lamb is one of Britain's most diligent and accomplished anthologists of ghost and horror fiction, unearthing obscure tales by Victorian and Edwardian writers. His first anthology,
A Tide of Terror
(1972), was compiled to show that the same stories need not be reprinted endlessly. His collections have often included original fiction by some of the genre's leading contemporary writers, and he has also edited volumes by individual neglected authors (Erckmann-Chatrian, E. Nesbit, Jerome K. Jerome and Bernard Capes). Lamb discovered a lost M.R. James story for his 1975 anthology
The Thrill of Horror
, and his numerous other books include
Victorian Tales of Terror
,
Star Book of Horror
volumes
1
and
2
,
Terror by Gaslight
,
The Taste of Fear
,
Cold Fear
,
Forgotten Tales of Terror
,
The Man Wolf and Other Horrors
,
New Tales of Terror
,
Stories in the Dark
, and the recent
Gaslit Nightmares
and
Gaslit Nightmares 2
.

DAVID LANGFORD (b. 1953) was born in Newport, Gwent, South Wales. He graduated from Oxford University and between 1975-1980 worked as a weapons physicist at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment in Aldermaston. Since then he has been a freelance writer, critic, and software consultant, dividing his creative endeavours between books and SF fandom. His novels include
The Leaky Establishment
(based on his experiences at Aldermaston),
The Space Eater
, and
Earthdoom
(co-written with John Grant). Langford published a collection of pastiche stories in
The Dragonhiker's Guide to Battlefield Covenant at Dune's Edge: Odyssey Two
, and he also writes futurological nonfiction studies such as
War in 2080
and, in collaboration with Brian Stableford,
The Third Millennium
. He has won the Hugo Award numerous times.

JOE R. LANSDALE (b. 1951) was born in Gladewater, Texas, and now lives in Nacogdoches. He has been writing since he was nine, but only started taking it seriously around the age of twenty-five, when he admits to once getting one thousand rejection slips for three months' work! Nowadays he is no less prolific but much more successful, with articles and short stories appearing in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies. His first novel,
Act of Love
(1981), was a psychosexual thriller that revealed the influence of his self-confessed "role models": Matheson, Nolan, King, Bloch and McCammon. Since then his books have included
The Magic Wagon
,
Dead in the West
,
The Nightrunners
,
Cold in July
,
The Drive-In (A B Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas)
,
The Drive-In 2 (Not Just One of Them Sequels)
,
Savage Season
, and
Batman: Captured by the Engines
. His short fiction has been collected in
By Bizarre Hands
,
Night Visions 8
and
Stories By Mama Lansdale's Youngest Boy
, and he has edited the anthologies
The New Frontier
,
Razored Saddles
(with Pat LoBrutto) and
Dark At Heart
(with Karen Lansdale). Lansdale won the Bram Stoker Award for his short story "Night They Missed the Horror Show" in 1989, and for the novella "On the Far Side of the Cadilac Desert With Dead Folks" in 1990.

STEPHEN LAWS (b. 1952) lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, and works as a Committee Administrator in local government. He has been writing since he was eight, and while at school became a great fan of Hammer Films and actor Peter Cushing. During this time he became "Playground Storyteller", giving blow-by-blow renditions of the plots from the horror films he'd sneaked underage into cinemas to see. Bitten by the storytelling bug, he was writing television plays at age 27 and his short stories of the supernatural were published locally and on radio. After winning a fiction competition in 1981, Laws decided to attempt his first novel. The result was
Ghost Train
, published in 1985 to enthusiastic reviews and with a publicity campaign which was banned from railway stations around the country by British Rail, who were concerned that it might alarm their passengers. This initial success has led to further novels such as
Spectre
,
The Wyrm
,
The Frighteners
,
Darkfall
,
Macabre
and
Daemonic
.

SAMANTHA LEE (b. 1940) was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, but currently spends her time commuting between London and her home in Aberdeen, Scotland. Her short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies and magazines, including
The Pan Book of Horror Stories
,
Spectre
,
Nightmare
,
The Fontana Book of Monsters
and
Fantasy Tales
. She has also had several tales broadcast on London's Capital Radio, and her original screenplay,
The Gingerbread House
, was optioned by Orion Pictures. Lee's novels include "The Lightbringer Trilogy" (
The Quest for the Sword of Infinity
,
The Land Where Serpents Rule
and
The Path Through the Circle of Time
),
Childe Rolande
, and a retelling of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
, to which she added a number of gruesome murders for the juvenile readers to enjoy! Her latest work is a "lifestyle" book,
Fit to be 50
.

H. P. (HOWARD PHILLIPS) LOVECRAFT (1890-1937) is probably the most important and influential author of supernatural fiction in the twentieth century. A life-long resident of Providence, Rhode Island, he remained a studious antiquarian and virtual recluse until his untimely death. Poor health as a young boy led him to read voluminously, and the stories of Poe, Dunsany and Machen inspired his own writing career. Although he was never prolific, Lovecraft's fiction, poems and essays received popular acclaim in the amateur press and through such pulp magazines as
Weird Tales
and
Astounding Stories
. In 1939, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei established their own imprint, Arkham House, to publish a posthumous collection,
The Outsider and Others
, and eventually bring all Lovecraft's work back into print. Many of his tales are set in the fear-haunted towns of an imaginary area of Massachusetts or in the cosmic vistas that exist beyond space and time, and a number of loosely-connected stories have become identified as "The Cthulhu Mythos". During the decades since his death, H.P. Lovecraft has become acknowledged as a master of modern horror and a mainstream American writer second only to Poe, while his relatively small body of work has influenced countless imitators and formed the basis of a world-wide industry of books, games and movies based on his concepts.

BRIAN LUMLEY (b. 1937) was born in Horden, on England's northeast coast just nine months after the death of H.P. Lovecraft. He claims that's just a coincidence. He joined the Army when he was twenty-one and was stationed in Germany and Cyprus, where he fell under Lovecraft's spell. He decided to try his own hand at writing horror tales, initially updating the Cthulhu Mythos, starting with his first sale, "The Cyprus Shell" (1968). Arkham House published two collections of short stories,
The Caller of the Black
(1971) and
The Horror at Oakdene
(1977), and the novel
Beneath the Moors
(1974). He has continued Lovecraft's themes in two series of books:
The Burrowers Beneath
,
The Transition of Titus Crow
,
Spawn of the Winds
,
The Clock of Dreams
,
In the Moons of Borea
,
Elysia
,
The Compleat Crow
, and the "Dreamland" trilogy:
Hero of Dreams
,
Ship of Dreams
and
Mad Moon of Dreams
. Lumley's other novels include
Khai of Ancient Khem
,
Psychomech
,
Psychosphere
,
Psychamok
,
The House of Doors
,
Demogorgan
, the bestselling "Necroscope" series (
Necroscope
,
Wamphyri!
,
The Source
,
Deadspeak
,
Deadspawn
), and the follow-up series beginning with
Blood Brothers
. His "Tales of the Primal Land" have been collected in
Iced on Aran and Other Dreamquests
,
Tarra Khash: Hrossok!
and
Sorcery in Shad
, while his more recent short fiction can be found in
The House of Cthulhu
and
Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi
(which includes the 1989 British Fantasy Award-winning title story).