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The Authors and Editors of Arkham House J.G. BALLARD (MEMORIES OF SPACE AGE) - has lived in England since the age of fifteen, but was born of British parents in Shanghai, China in 1930. In 1956, Ballard’s first imaginative stories began to appear in conventional genre periodicals, but with publication of a series of disaster novels in the early 1960s, he emerged as the most powerful and original talent in British science fiction. Later, as high priest of the New Wave movement, Ballard wrote a series of experimental “condensed novels,” collected in THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION (1970). The semi-autobiographical EMPIRE OF THE SUN(1984), filmed by Steven Spielberg, has brought J.G. Ballard to a vast new audience. More recent novels include CONCRETE ISLAND, CRASH, SUPER CANNES, and COCAINE NIGHTS. GREG BEAR (THE WIND FROM A BURNING WOMAN) - was born in San Diego, California, in 1951. A “Navy brat”, by the age of ten, he had traveled around the Far East, the continental United States and Alaska. Never quite certain where home was, he very early lost the prejudices of time and place that console many people and began to write about matters of which he knew absolutely nothing, except that they could be. When he was fifteen, Bear placed his first story with a professional magazine; by the age of twenty-three he had written several novels and was selling short stories with fair regularity. His first published novel, HEGIRA, appeared in 1979. Other novels rapidly followed including PSYCHLONE, BEYOND HEAVEN’S RIVER, STRENGTH OF STONES, THE FORGE OF GOD, ANVIL OF STARS, DINOSAUR SUMMER, DARWIN’S RADIO. The author now lives once again in San Diego, where he teaches high school and university courses on a free-lance basis. His chief interests, aside from writing, are history, astronomy, and physics.
ROBERT BLOCH (1917- 1994) (FLOWERS FROM THE MOON) - Enjoy this great book from the author of PSYCHO!
MARJORIE BOWEN (KECKSIES AND OTHER TWILIGHT TALES) – Marjorie Bowen was the pen name of Gabrielle M. V. Long (1886-1952), a prolific British historical novelist who is credited with over 150 books composed under various pseudonyms. Born in Hampshire of an impoverished clerical family, Miss Bowen was a reserved and sensitive child, living with an emotionally unstable mother and haunted by nocturnal fears. The author’s career began in 1906 with the publication of THE VIPER OF MILAN, and her contributions to the literature of darkness include two early novels, BLACK MAGIC (1909) and THE CHEATS (1920) and two astonishing collections, THE LAST BOUQUET (1933) and THE BISHOP OF HELL (1949). RAMSEY CAMPBELL began to create weirdness at the age of five, when he saw a copy of Weird Tales in a store window and perceived the cover painting as far stranger than it proved to be when he tracked it down five years later. Born in Liverpool, England in 1946, he read all the available classics of the field and had recycled fragments in a book, subsequently published by Arkham House (INHABITANT OF THE LAKE AND LESS WELCOME TENANTS - 1964). He was the youngest ever author for Arkham House, being only 18 years old when this was published. But despite Campbell’s early notoriety as a Lovecraftian pasticheur, the determinate influences on his mature work remain M.R. James, whose eerie epiphanies arise from the inexorable accumulation of subtly suggestive detail, and Fritz Leiber, whose seminal story “Story Ghost” (1941) invokes a “ghost of our times” within grimy urban milieu. Campbell’s first representative book was the landmark collection DEMONS BY DAYLIGHT ( 1973), which endeavored to address mainstream themes and which has remained his central aesthetic ever since. T.E. D. Klein’s critical analysis of this book, encouraged Campbell to become a full-time writer. After two indifferently received novels, Campbell finally achieved commercial success with THE PARASITE (1980), thereby affording him the freedom to write whatever he wished. The author lives in England with his wife and two children and intends to be publishing tales of terror and the supernatural for many years to come. PETER CANNON (editor: LOVECRAFT REMEMBERED) - is the author of the critical and biographical study H. P. LOVECRAFT , A Volume in Twayne’s United States Authors Series, as well as THE CHRONOLOGY OUT OF TIME: DATES IN THE FICTION OF H.P. LOVECRAFT and SUNSET TERRACE IMAGERY IN LOVECRAFT & OTHER ESSAYS. His scholarly articles have appeared in such periodicals as "Lovecraft Studies," "Crypt of Cthulhu," and "Studies in Weird Fiction." His most recent work is an autobiographical memoir, LONG MEMORIES: RECOLLECTIONS OF FRANK BELKNAP LONG. DAVID CASE (THE THIRD GRAVE) – was born in upstate New York in 1937, settled in England for ten years in 1960, and more recently has enjoyed a peripatetic writer’s existence that includes lengthy sojourns in Greece. His two collections of macabre tales – THE CELL AND OTHER TALES OF HORROR (1969) and FENGRIFFEN AND OTHER STORIES (1971) – occasioned critical comparison with the classic weird fiction of Algernon Blackwood, and these books now have attained a legendary status among devotees of the genre. Much of Case’s creative effort of late has been expended upon a series of Western novels. SCOTT CONNORS (Co-editor of SELECTED LETTERS OF CLARK ASHTON SMITH) - a veteran of the U.S. Army, has a B.A. in English and History and also attend the University of Salzburg in Austria. His most recent boos was LOVECRAFT: A CENTURY LESS A DREAM. In addition to having written scores of articles for such magazines as New York Review of Science Fiction and Publisher's Weekly, Connors is also the long-time editor of Continuity. His Clark Ashton Smith research began in 1975; his biography of Smith will be published by Arkham House in the near future. MARY ELIZABETH COUNSELMAN (1911 – 1995) (HALF IN SHADOW)- was born in Birmingham and later moved to Gainesville, Georgia where her father was a faculty member at the Riverside Military Academy. Miss Counselman attended the University of Alabama and Montevello University, and soon began placing her short stories and poetry with Weird Tales, Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and other magazines. The author resided in Gadsden, Alabama with her husband, Horace B. Vinyard, and large entourage of cats.
FREDERIC S. DURBIN (DRAGONFLY) - spent his childhood in the deep oak shade and sun-baked dust near Taylorville, Illinois, climbing trees and avoiding shoes. His parents opened the town's first bookstore; there, while still in elementary school, he discovered the works of H.P. Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkien, his earliest literary influences. He says, "Of particular fascination in his rural haunts were boundaries at the edges of light; the shimmering, green-gold walls of corn, masking alluring depths; the hour of twilight; the crumbling brick storm cellar, stone steps descending into coolness and mystery. A family trip to Mammoth Cave offered a first glimpse into realms of subterranean wonder, which remain a favorite setting for my stories." He experimented with poetry and the short story at Concordia College, River Forest, Illinois, where he majored in classical languages and edited the fine arts section of the college newspaper. After graduating summa cum laude in 1988, he traveled to Japan as a Lutheran volunteer missionary teacher. He has been teaching English and creative writing at Niigata University, in Niigata, Japan, since 1995. It was here, in the pine groves and pounding surf of Japan's northwestern sea coast, that he began to see the faces and hear the voices that became DRAGONFLY.JOHN D. HARVEY (THE CLEANSING) - grew up in Massachusetts and Rhode Island on a steady diet of Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Boris Karloff. He majored in creative writing and journalism at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California from 1987-1991. Since moving home to Rhode Island, he has worked in public relations. He is also a member of the Providence Film Commission and has been active in the New England film and screenwriting community. The author spent four years researching Indian legends for THE CLEANSING, and this shows in the incredible detail and authenticity he weaves into his novel. He plans two sequels. The first will focus on the Chupat tribe and the Wolf Society medicine man mention in THE CLEANSING. It recounts the legends surrounding the first Cleansing before European colonized America. The final volume brings the reader back to modern times when characters from the first novel must confront the violent aftermath of THE CLEANSING. ALEXANDER JABLOKOV (THE BREATH OF SUSPENSION) - was born in Chicago of Russian ancestry and worked for years in Boston as a communications engineer before becoming a full-time writer in 1988. Apart from his short fiction, often reprinted in the best-of-the-year anthologies, Jablokov’s critically acclaimed novels include CARVE THE SKY (1991), A DEEPER SEA (1992), and NIMBUS (1993), a triumvirate of works that sent reviewers scurrying back to Alfred Bester and Samuel R. Delany for appropriate comparison. An avid environmentalist and hiker, the author resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife Mary. S.T. JOSHI (Editor: MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS; Compiler: 60 YEARS OF ARKHAM HOUSE) - has done graduate work at Brown and Princeton and is a former senior editor at Chelsea House Publishers. A leading scholar of H. P. Lovecraft, he devoted years of research consulting manuscripts and early publications in preparing corrected editions of Lovecraft's collected fiction, revisions, and miscellaneous writings for Arkham House. They were published in five volumes from 1984-1995, including the best of Lovecraft’s fiction in THE DUNWICH HORROR, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS and DAGON.
J. SHERIDAN LE FANU - (1814-1873) (THE PURCELL PAPERS) - known primarily for his ghost stories and mysteries, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was one of the most popular writers of the Victorian era. Many of his works were published anonymously, and he either owned or had an interest in four Irish newspapers, which served as an outlet for other anonymous pieces written by him.
His first book was the privately printed SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH (Visionary Publishing Company, 1936), but it was not until 1939, two years after his death, that comprehensive publication of his work began with THE OUTSIDER AND OTHERS, a collection put together by two of his author friends, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, launching the Arkham House imprint. Lovecraft has become renowned as a master of the macabre in America, in the company of such writers as Poe, Hawthorne, Bierce, Chambers, Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman, Hearn and Edith Wharton. He has influenced countless other writers, among them: Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Henry Kuttner, Frank Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith and Donald Wandrei.
He sold his first story to Weird Tales in 1988, and has since published more than 20 short stories and novellas in most of the major magazines in the field of SF and fantasy. He has been nominated for the Nebula, British Science Fiction Association James Tiptree Awards. Despite this record, he maintains that he is not a genre-based writer. "Strange things simply happen in my stories," he says, "but I don't write them in terms of pure science-fiction or fantasy." VOYAGES BY STARLIGHT is MacLeod's first collection of short stories. His first novel, THE GREAT WHEEL, was published by Harcourt Brace in 1997. Although he now writes full time, MacLeod devotes part of his time teaching adult literacy classes. BARRY N. MALZBERG (IN THE STONE HOUSE) - has published more than 90 books and nearly 350 short stories under a variety of pseudonyms--including some in collaboration with noted mystery writer Bill Pronzini, with whom he also edited several anthologies. Among Malzberg's finest books are such classics as GALAXIES, HEROVIT'S WORLD, THE SODOM AND GOMORRAH BUSINESS, and the award-winning BEYOND APOLLO. We would like to tell you more, but Mr. Malzberg is a very private person and prefers to let his writings speak for him. E. HOFFMANN PRICE (1898 – 1988) (BOOK OF THE DEAD—FRIENDS OF YESTERYEAR: FICTIONEERS & OTHERS) - served in the Philippines and France during World War I, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1923. Without wars to be fought, Price had to forego a military career, and went to work at a Union Carbide Corp. chemical plant outside New Orleans, Louisiana. To occupy the long, quiet nights, Price bought a typewriter and after numerous rejections began selling humorous fiction in 1924 to Droll Stories and other pulp magazines in 1924. He soon graduated to writing Oriental fantasies for Weird Tales. Upon losing his job during Great Depression, Price turned to the only other profession for which he was qualified--a fictioneer for the pulp mystery, adventure and detective magazines. Over the next 20 years he published more than 500 stories. On a vacation trip to Chicago in the late 1920s, Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright introduced Price to writers Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton, Otis Adelbert Kline, Robert Spencer Carr, and artist Hugh Rankin. Over the next few years he launched into a massive correspondence with many of the great fictioneers of his day, whom he visited during his travels or entertained in his home. When the pulp magazines folded in the early 1950s, Price took a salaried job, but he kept in touch with his old colleagues and still visited with them during cross-country motor trips. Twenty-five years after giving up writing, Price made a remarkable literary comeback. Not only did he write the book of memoirs we will soon publish, but an autobiography, TROOPER OF THE 15TH HORSE. And in 1979 while in his 80th year, he sold THE DEVIL WIVES OF LI-PO and THE JADE ENCHANTRESS to Ballantine Books, followed by four space operas. He was sitting before his word processor in 1989, writing yet another book when he died of a heart attack. You can read more about E. Hoffman Price's long and colorful literary career in ARKHAM'S MASTERS OF HORROR. MARY ROSENBLUM (SYNTHESIS AND OTHER VIRTUAL REALITIES) – lives with her two sons, goats, sheep, large dogs, and other assorted livestock on a small farm in the Pacific Northwest. She is the author of numerous stories and full-length works, of which THE DRYLANDS received the Compton Crook Award in 1994 for best first novel. Other novels include CHIMERAand STONE GARDEN. When she is not writing, cutting firewood, or hiking with her sons, Rosenblum teaches creative writing and even manages to read books. PETER RUBER (Editor with historical commentary: ARKHAM’S MASTERS OF HORROR) - is the author and editor of more than 25 books relating to the uncollected and unpublished writings of Vincent Starrett, August Derleth and Seabury Quinn. He has been an advertising executive, book publisher, and for the past two decades, a free-lance journalist for many leading business information technology magazines. He is currently working on THE MAN OF A THOUSAND PLOTS: THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF H. BEDFORD-JONES, which includes a definitive bibliography of HB-J (the most prolific of all pulp writers of the 20th century) with collaborator Darrell C. Richardson, to be published in Fall 2001 by Adventure Fiction Press. DAVID E. SCHULTZ (Co-editor of SELECTED LETTERS OF CLARK ASHTON SMITH) - is a technical editor for an environmental engineering firm in Milwaukee. With S.T. Joshi, he has edited and co-written numerous books, including THE LAST OBLIVION: THE BEST FANTASTIC POETRY OF CLARK ASHTON SMITH, AN H.P. LOVECRAFT ENCYCLOPEDIA, several collections of HPL's non-fiction and letters; plus various editions of the works of Ambrose Bierce, including THE UNABRIDGED DEVIL'S DICTIONARY, THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC AND OTHER POLITICAL SATIRES, and other books.
MICHAEL SWANWICK (GRAVITY’S ANGELS) – was born in 1950 and remains a Guinness-level loser of major awards: “The Feast of Saint Janis,” “Ginungagap,” “Mummer Kiss,” and “Trojan Horse,” among others, were all Nebula Award finalists, while “The Man Who Met Picasso” was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. Finally, in 1990, “The Edge of the World” received the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short fiction – after losing both the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. The author resides in Philadelphia with his wife Marianne and son, Sean, and has also written the novels JACK FAUST (1997), STATIONS OF THE TIDE (1991), IN THE DRIFT (1985) and VACUUM FLOWERS (1987).
In 1939, Don and August Derleth founded Arkham House Publishers, to preserve the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Military service overseas during WWII interrupted his writing career and his help with Arkham House. After the War, he wrote for comics, collaborated on screenplays and even tried song writing in California. He resumed his involvement with Arkham House; assisting Derleth in the editing of Lovecraft’s letters and the fiction of Frank Belknap Long and Clark Ashton Smith. MARY E. WILKINS-FREEMAN (1852-1930) (COLLECTED GHOST STORIES) – lived in a typical rural New England setting. Born in Randolph, Massachusetts, 14 miles south of Boston and also living in Brattleboro, Vermont until she marrying Dr. Charles Freeman in 1902, in Metuchen, New Jersey. Her literary efforts first saw light in 1881 with the publication of her ballad “The Beggar Kind” in Wide Awake, a magazine for children. Other poems followed in the same periodical and others. Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman was more than a mere regionalist. Her creation of character, the universality of her themes, the inherent pathos in much of her work, the delicate blending of the comic and the serious – these qualities, and her exceptional talent in telling a good story, have earned her a host of admirers. During her lifetime, only six of the author’s supernatural stories were collected between hard covers. The balance was scattered through several volumes of general short stories. THE WIND IN THE ROSE-BUSH and OTHER STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL appeared in 1903. COLLECTED GHOST STORIES is her complete edition of twilight tales. JOSEPH WRZOS (Editor: IN LOVECRAFT’S SHADOW: THE CTHULHU MYTHOS STORIES OF AUGUST DERLETH, editor/contributor NEW HORIZONS) - a retired educator who is now a freelance writer and editor. He served as an associate editor for Gnome Press in the 1950s. Thereafter (under the "Joseph Ross" pseudonym), he simultaneously edited both Amazing Stories and its companion magazine Fantastic, as well as The Best of Amazing (Doubleday & Co., 1967). He resides in Saddle River, New Jersey. |
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