Christopher Marlowe Doctor Faustus (c. 1592) William Shakespeare The Tragedy of Macbeth (1606) John Webster The White Devil (1612) William Godwin Caleb Williams (1794) Matthew Gregory Lewis The Monk (1796) Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann The Best Tales of Hoffmann (1814-16) Jane Austen Northanger Abbey (1817) Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein (1818) Charles Maturin Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) James Hogg The Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) Nathaniel Hawthorne Twice-Told Tales (1837) Edgar Allan Poe Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1838) Jeremias Gotthelf The Black Spider (1842) Eugene Sue The Wandering Jew (1844-45) Herman Melville The Confidence Man (1857) Sheridan Le Fanu Uncle Silas (1864) Robert Louis Stevenson Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) H. Rider Haggard She (1887) Robert W. Chambers The King in Yellow (1895) H. G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) Bram Stoker Dracula (1897) Henry James The Turn of the Screw (1898) Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness (1902) Bram Stoker The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) M. R. James Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904) Arthur Machen The House of Souls (1906) Algernon Blackwood John Silence (1908) G. K. Chesterton The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) William Hope Hodgson The House on the Borderland (1908) Ambrose Bierce Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1909) Oliver Onions Widdershins (1911) E. F. Benson The Horror Horn (1912-34) David Lindsay A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) Franz Kafka The Trial (1925) James Branch Cabell Something About Eve (1929) E. H. Visiak Medusa (1929) Guy Endore The Werewolf of Paris (1933) Marjorie Bowen The Last Bouquet (1933) Alexander Laing The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck (1934) Hugh Walpole, ed. A Second Century of Creepy Stories (1937) C. S. Lewis The Dark Tower (c. 1938) Dalton Trumbo Johnny Got His Gun (1939) H. P. Lovecraft The Outsider and Others (1939) Clark Ashton Smith Out of Space and Time (1942) Fritz Leiber Conjure Wife (1943) Cornell Woolrich Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1945) H. P. Lovecraft & August Derleth The Lurker at the Threshold (1945) Paul Bailey Deliver Me from Eva (1946) Boris Karloff, ed. And the Darkness Falls (1946) August Derleth, ed. The Sleeping and the Dead (1947) Walter Van Tilburg Clark Track of the Cat (1949) Sarban The Sound of His Horn (1952) William Golding Lord of the Flies (1954) Richard Matheson I Am Legend (1954) Ray Bradbury The October Country (1955) Joseph Payne Brennan Nine Horrors and a Dream (1958) Robert Bloch Psycho (1959) Nigel Kneale Quatermass and the Pit (1959) H. P. Lovecraft Cry Horror! (1959) Shirley Jackson The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
Philip K. Dick The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1964) Jerzy Kosinski The Painted Bird (1965) J. G. Ballard The Crystal World (1966) Robert Aickman Sub Rosa (1968) Kingsley Amis The Green Man (1969) Anthony Boucher The Complete Werewolf (1969) John Gardner Grendel (1971) William Peter Blatty The Exorcist (1971) John Brunner The Sheep Look Up (1972) Manly Wade Wellman Worse Things Waiting (1973) Robert Marasco Burnt Offerings (1973) Stephen King Salem's Lot (1975) Harlan Ellison Deathbird Stories (1975) Hugh B. Cave Murgunstrumm and Others (1977) Bernard Taylor Sweetheart, Sweetheart (1977) John Farris All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By (1977) Stephen King The Shining (1977) William Hjortsberg Falling Angel (1977) Whitley Streiber The Wolfen (1978) David Morrell The Totem (1979) Peter Straub Ghost Story (1979) Jonathan Carroll The Land of Laughs (1980) Richard Laymon The Cellar (1980) Thomas Harris Red Dragon (1981) F. Paul Wilson The Keep (1981) Dennis Etchison The Dark Country (1982) Karl Edward Wagner In a Lonely Place (1983) Tim Powers The Anubis Gates (1983) Robert Erwin The Arabian Nightmare (1983) Iain Banks The Wasp Factory (1984) T. E. D. Klein The Ceremonies (1984) Robert Holdstock Mythago Wood (1984) Michael Bishop Who Made Stevie Crye? (1984) Dan Simmons Song of Kali (1985) Clive Barker The Damnation Game (1985) Peter Ackroyd Hawksmoor (1985) Lisa Tuttle A Nest of Nightmares (1986) Charles N. Grant The Pet (1986) Robert McCammon Swan Song (1987) Ramsey Campbell Dark Feasts (1987) The criteria were also more difficult to settle on. While Sci-Fi has had awards like the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus that have been around for several decades, the top horror honor, the Bram Stoker Award, has only been around since 1987, a nd the International Horror Guild Awards were only started in 1994. So while the awards might have some influence, it isnt nearly as much as in the Sci-Fi ca tegory. The other things Ive taken into consideration are body of work, the longevity of the work, and the influence of the work on popular culture. Als o, it was important that the writers work have been predominantly in the horror field. Dan Simmons, for example, has written a couple of outstanding horr or novels but I would not consider him a horror writer. I began my list with close to 60 names and whittled it down to the final 20, an d once again that last spot was the one that was the most difficult to fill. There were many names I came close to including and I will note those in t he honorable mentions. There were also names I excluded for various reasons that I will also note. The emphasis is on HORRORnot dark fantasynot romantic vamp ires and werewolves trying to disguise themselves as horror (Sorry Anne Rice fans!). These are the writers who will truly give you sleepless nights! 20.
Graham Masterton
Masterton has written over 40 horror novels and dozens of short stories but he still seems to be a guy unknown to a lot of people. His first novel, The Manitou was adapted into a film in fairly major 1978, starring Tony Curtis, Burgess Meredith, and Susan Strasberg. My first Masterton read was the gruesome Charnel House with its tale of an evil force living within an old hous e. Masterton is still going strong with a new book due out this year. His early books are fairly quick reads and while they are long out of print, the yd make a good quest for used book stores. 19. Richard Laymon Laymon died all too young in 2001 at the age of 54 but he left behind an incred ible legacy of horror. He was nominated three times for The Stoker Award for best Novel, winning once in 2001 for The Traveling Vampire Show. One of his ear liest (and best books) The Woods are Dark was just released last year in an uncut version with fifty pages of material not in the books original release in 1981. Laymon often worked in more visceral sub-genres of horror such as splatterpunk, but his 1991 novel Darkness, Tell Us is a fantastic supernatural s tory. Funland is another classicwho doesnt love a horror tale involving a carnival funhouse! 18. F. Paul Wilson Wilsons first novel The Keep (1981) is a classic that was adapted into a film by the same name. It tells the story of Nazi soldiers in 1941 who are being killed off within the confines of a mysterious castle in Romania. This would be the first of Wilsons Adversary Cycle, a series of six books so far. The second book in the series, The Tomb, would introduce Wilsons popular anti-hero, R epairman Jack. The Repairman Jack novels (a dozen in all) have tied in with the Adversary Cycle works to create a lush mythos of classic supernatural a nd modern horror. Outside of these series, Wilsons Midnight Mass is a superlative vampire novel. 17. Robert McCammon McCammon could have been ranked much higher on this list and perhaps will some day. During the 1980s, McCammon could easily be mentioned in the same breath as Stephen King and Dean Koontz. His early novels, now out of print are classic s: Baal, Bethanys Sin, They Thirst, Swan Song, Stinger, and The Wolfs Hour. McCammon won the Bram Stoker award for best novel three years in a row from 198 9 1991, a feat no other writer has duplicated. But then McCammon took over a decade off from writing, some people even thought that he had passed away. He returned in 2002 with the first in his Matthew Corbett series of historical mysteries set in early colonial America that border the horror genre and are fantastic. They show that McCammon lost none of his skill during his ten year sabbatical. Hopefully he will return to some straight horror but even if he doesnt, he has earned his spot on the list. 16. Ambrose Bierce Bierce may be the most colorful writer on the list. Bierce was a novelist, jour nalist, and adventurer. Bierce was a Civil War veteran who joined up with Pancho Villas army as an observer in 1913 and was never heard from again. Bierce wrote one of the most famous horror stories of the 1800s, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, about a Confederate sympathizer who is about to be hanged w hen the rope breaks and he falls into the creek, escaping to return to his wife and childrenonly to find it was all an illusion as he feels a sharp pain in his neck and all goes black as he dies at the end of the rope. This story was adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone. This story has influenced coun tless films and TV episodes over the years. His story An inhabitant in
Carcosa would later be an influence on Lovecrafts Cthulhu Mythos. His story, The Damned Thing, Was recently adapted into an episode of Showtime s Masters of Horror. 15. Algernon Blackwood Blackwood is one of the legends of early horror. This English writer was called one of the Masters by no less than H.P. Lovecraft. In fact, Lovecraft considered Blackwoods tale The Willows to be the finest weird tale ever written. If you read Blackwoods stories such as The Man Who Found Out and Ancient Sorceries would heavily influence the Lovecrafts Cthulhu Mythos. Long before mode rn day supernatural detectives came along, Blackwood created his Supernatural hunting Psychic, John Silence. The Complete John Silence stories ar e readily available as our many collections of Blackwoods work. If youve never read Blackwood, hes certainly worth checking out. Even though many of the stories are over one hundred years old, they are still powerful and relevant. 14. John Saul John Saul is one of the finest horror writers in the classic tradition of old s tyle supernatural fare. His subtle prose has sometimes kept him under the radar of modern horror fans, even though most of his books have made the New Yo rk Times Best Seller List. His first novel, Suffer the Children (1977) remains a potent and disturbing read. Hellfire is a quintessential New England h orror about a haunted mill where children died in a tragic fire decades earlier. His serialized novel, The Blackstone Chronicles dealt with the effects than an old asylum had on the residents of a nearby town. Saul has been criticized for writing the same type of story over and over but he really is the master at what he does. These are the kinds of books you read on a dark and stormy night. Pure horror in the classic vein! 13. Jack Ketchum Jack Ketchum aka Dallas Mayr isnt your traditional horror writer. He doesnt write about demons, vampires, vengeful spirits, or ax-wielding maniacs his monsters are much more mundane and terrifying because they are us, man everyday pe ople. His stories are among the most unsettling to read because of this. The Girl Next Door is a terrifying tale about everyday suburban kids who brutal ly torture the nieces of an alcoholic woman, often with her encouragement. Its as depressing a story as I have ever read. Ketchums first book Off Season abou t a clan of cannibals preying on vacationers in rural Maine created somewhat of a stir when it was released in 1980. The original story was edited, and later pulled from shelves by the publisher because of its explicit content. An unedited version was release in 1999. Ketchum has been nominated for seven Bram Stoker awards, winning three times, including his long fiction story, Closing Time. 12. Dean Koontz Ive always like Dean Koontz. Koontz effectively blends elements of science ficti on and horror to be wholly unique among modern horror writers. His novels often contain threats which are technological or biological in scope but they n ever lose that pervasive sense of terror. Koontz breakthrough novel was Whispers about a psychotic man who is killing women he believes are possessed by the spirit of his abusive mother. Koontz wrote a number of very good books prior to Whispers under various pen names including The Funhouse, later adapted into a film of the same name. In Phantoms (good book, bad film) the residents of a small ski resort village are being devoured by an amorphous creat ure which can create life-like phantoms that go out and hunt for food.
Other Koontz rs (including Koontz wrote rt-order cook has received
works adapted into film or TV include Hideaway, Demon Seed, Watche sequels, Intensity, and The Servants of Twilight. In 2003 the first of six planned novels about his creation Odd Thomas, a sho who is able to see and communicate with the dead. Koontz three Stoker Award nominations for best novel.
11. Brian Lumley Perhaps no modern horror writer has done more to keep the spirit of Lovecraft s C thulhu Mythos stories alive than Brian Lumley. His Titus Crow character has appeared in over a dozen novels and short stories. The difference with Lumle ys stories is that Crow and his allies dont drop dead or go insane when confronted by the creatures of the Mythos. They actually strive to defeat them a nd so there is a far more heroic tinge to Lumleys take on the Mythos. Lumleys other famous creation is the long-running Necroscope series, now up to ov er a dozen novels. Harry Keough is the Necroscope, able to communicate with the dead and use their knowledge and abilities in battling the Wamphyri, e vil, vampire-like creatures. The prolific Lumley has also had numerous collections of his short fiction published as well. 10. Joe R. Lansdale Good ol Texas boy Joe Lansdale is one of the most diversely talented writers in the business. Novels, short stories, screenplays, comic books you name it and Lansdale has done it. How can you not love a guy who can write the raucousl y satirical Bubba Ho-Tep, and then can turn around and write the blood-soaked zombie classic, On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Fo lks. The Drive in is another classic about a group of friends who go to an all-night drive-in theater to watch a horror film marathon, and find they are t rapped inside, along with the rest of the movie-goers, by a malignant force. His story Incident On and Off a Mountain Road was the adapted as the first epis ode of Showtimes Masters of Horror series. Lansdale has been nominated for an incredible 16 Stoker Awards, winning seven times, most recently in 2006 f or his anthology, Retro Pulp Tales. True to his tough guy image, Lansdale operates his own martial arts school in Texas. 9. Peter Straub Were it not for the looming shadow of Stephen King, Peter Straub might be the m ost well-known American horror writer of the past thirty years. Ironically the two would become friends and collaborators on two best-selling novels. Strau bs first big hit was the chilling Ghost Story in 1979, and later adapted into a lackluster film. The novel that made me a Straub fan was his next one fro m 1980, Shadowland. This is an enthralling story about two prep school buddies who spend the Summer at the creepy estate of one of the boy s uncle, a mag ician whose magic may not be just parlor tricks. He and King wrote Talisman in 1984, and then got together again for the sequel Black House in 2001 . Straub has won four Stoker Awards for Best Novel (The Throat, Mr. X, Lost Boy Lost Girl, and In the Night Room), two Stokers for Best Collection, and ano ther for Best Long Fiction. The thing that might work against Straub is that he has had numerous gaps in his writing career where he has gone several years at a time without publishing anything new.
8. M.R. James The UK has an incredibly rich tradition when it comes to horror literature. Som e of the great writers of English literature like Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson took their turn at writing horror tales. Particularly popular i n the UK were themes involving ghosts and the supernatural and there is no
finer writer of ghost stories than Montague Rhodes James. James was a well-respe cted mediaeval scholar who wrote numerous book on historical subjects but it was his ghost stories that he became famous for around the world. His most famo us books are Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories. Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad is a truly chilling story of a man who find s an ancient whistle buried in the sand of a beach, and what is summoned when the whistle is blown. The Ash Tree was adapted into a 1975 UK produced film. Several other James stories were adapted for British television on the BBC. When you sit down as a kid to tell ghost stories, these are the kind of sto ries you want to tell. They exude atmosphere and even after a hundred years they are still terrifying. Many of James stories are now in public domain so they can be read for free. Just Google his name. 7. Ramsey Campbell How good is Ramsey Campbell? S.T. Joshi, one of the most respected historians o f weird and horror fiction, considers him every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood." High praise from a man noted for being highly critical of modern horror writers. Campbell burst onto the scene in the 1960s with a volume of Lovecraft-inspired tales The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants. C ampbell isequally adept at short fiction as he is with novels, perhaps more soCollections such as Alone with the Horrors (1993), Demons by Daylight (197 3), and Told by the Dead (2003) are classic short-story collections. His 2008 novel The Grin of the Dark was one of the best horror novels of the year. C ampbell has won two Stoker Awards, Nine British Fantasy Awards, and an International Horror Guild Award. I can see Campbell one day cracking the top fi vehe is THAT good! 6. Robert Bloch As a mere teenager, Robert Bloch became a regular contributor to the pulp magaz ine Weird Tales. He became a letter-writing pal of H.P. Lovecraft and soon was writing his own tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. However in 1959, Robert Bloch wrote a story that took the horror world by storm and eventually went on to influence literally hundreds of horror films, Psycho! Without crazed Norman Bate s and his motel of horrors, would we ever have a Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, or any of the other modern horror icons? Bloch wrote a sequel in 1982 called Psycho II that is completely different than the film of the same name. he completed his trilogy with Psycho House in 1990. Bloch won a Hugo for his 19 59 horror tale The Hell-Bound Train. While Psycho is one of the most important horror novels ever written, Bloch truly shined as a writer of shorter fiction. If you read one Bloch collection, it must be The Early Fears, a collection of forty stories. This was released as a limited edition and is hard to find and hopefully it will be re-printed one day but this book gives a fantastic overview of Blochs work. 5. Clive Barker I dont think its an exaggeration to say that the most significant event in horror fiction in the last 25 years was the publication of Barkers Books of Blood series in the mid-1980s. These books changed horror fiction as we knew it then, ushering in a raw power that Stephen King hailed as the future of horror. The six books feature thirty stories in all, several of which have been a dapted into feature films including The Forbidden (Candyman 1992), The Last Illusion (Lord of Illusions 1995), and Midnight Meat Train (2008). The Books of Blood should be required reading for any horror fan. Barker s story The Hellbound Heart would introduce the Cenobites and become the basis for the Hellraiser film series. His novella Cabal, would be adapted into the 1990 film, Nightbreed. In recent years, Barker has been devoting more time to hi s career as a painter and writing far less than he did twenty years ago.
In fact hes written only ten books in the last two decades. Fans can only hope Ba rker returns to horror soon. 4. Edgar Allan Poe Like a lot of great horror writers, Poe died very young and you can t help but wo nder what works he would have produced had he lived a full life. Poe s work cannot be described as anything else but macabre. He was infatuated with de ath and themes of premature burial and torture. Poes stories read like the Hall of Fame of horror tales: The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fa ll of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Premature Burial, and Ligeia. All of these stories have been adapted for film or TV, some multiple times. Legendary horror actor, Vincent Price, made a career out of star ring in roles based on Poes stories. Even his Poetry has been adapted to film including The Raven, The Conqueror Worm, and The Haunted Palace. As recentl y as the second season of Showtimes Masters of Horror we saw an adaptation of The Black Cat, showing how relevant his work still is over 150 years later. 3. Richard Matheson Richard Matheson may very well be the greatest horror writer NOT to be influenc ed by H.P. Lovecraft. His accomplishments in the horror field are staggering! His 1954 novel I am Legend is one of the top ten greatest horror novels ever wr itten. Hollywood has failed to do the story justice in three attempts so if you havent read the book you DONT know the story. Matheson wrote one of the most f amous episodes of the original Twilight Zone TV series, Nightmare at 20,000 feet in which a traveler on an airplane (played by William Shatner) sees a monster on the wing of the plane. So many of Mathesons stories have been turned into feature films or TV episodes or movies including The Incredible Shri nking Man, Stir of Echoes, and Hell House (The Legend of Hell House). The made-for-TV movie Trilogy of Terror, was based on three of Matheson s tales includ ing the one about the Zuni warrior doll that comes to life and tries to kill a woman in her apartment. His story, Duel, about a motorist stalked by a tr ucker along a remote highway is regarded as one of the great TV films of all time and was the first film directed by Steven Spielberg. His novels The Night Stalker & The Night Strangler would both be adapted into TV films and introduce the character of monster-hunting newspaper reporter, Carl Kolchak. The character would later get his own series that unfortunately only lasted one season. 2. Stephen King Love him or hate him, one cannot deny Kings overwhelming credentials. There simp ly is no more important person in horror literature in the past 40 years than Stephen King. His books have sold over 300 million copies. King has won 6 S toker awards, 6 Horror Guild awards, 5 Locus Awards, 3 World Fantasy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004). He was given a Lifetime Achiev ement Award in 2003 by the Horror Writers' Association. It all began with Carrie in 1974 and thus began an unparalleled string of best-selling novels. Sal ems Lot (1975), perhaps the only vampire novel that may be better than Mathesons I am Legend; The Shining (1977); The Stand (1978); Cujo (1981); Christi ne (1983); Pet Sematary (1983); The Talisman W/ Peter Straub (1984); It (1986); Misery (1987); The Dark Half (1989); Needful Things (1990); Gerald s Game (1992); Then there are the collections: Night Shift (1978); Skeleton Crew (1985); Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993); and Everythings Eventual (2002). No need to talk about adaptations as there are too many to list, suffice to say that nearly every novel and numerous short stories have been adapted for film or TV. King has shown a remarkable ability to regionalize his work into his quaint New England settings while still being able to reinvent himself
with new takes on old plots. Snobbish critics have often lambasted King s writing style but such is the price of fame when everything you write becomes an instant best seller. Jealousy knows no bounds! After all, it s idiot snobs who ga ve us Chariots of Fire over Raiders of the Lost Ark and Annie Hall over Star Wars as Oscar Winners for Best Picture. 1. H.P. Lovecraft Its fitting that the #1 writer on the list have probably the greatest name a hor ror writer could ever have. Lovecrafts influence has not waned, even more than 70 years after his death. Any writer who mentions old Gods, Elder Gods or bein gs of cosmic origin owes a debt of gratitude to Lovecraft. Like so many other horror writers, he died before he could see the fruits of his labors flourish. His works have been adapted into film, TV, comic books, video games, and role-playing games. The conception of the Cthulhu Mythos, and its pan theon of terrifying deities and monstrosities remains the most important creation in horror during the 20th century. Lovecraft show incredible foresight by opening up the Mythos for writers to create their own characters and stories. This early group consisted of writers who would all become legends in t heir own right including: Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, August Derleth, and Henry Kuttner. Lovecrafts most famous Mythos stories include The Unnamable, The Call of Cthulhu , The Colour out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, Dreams in the Witch House, The Shadow out of Time, and The Haunter in the Dark. Lovecrafts stories were frequently set in his beloved New England and often in the fictional town of Arkham, MA. Miska tonic University, located in Arkham played a role in many Lovecraft tales including the ghoulish Herbert West-Re-animator, later adapted into a cult horro r film that spawned several low-budget sequels. Lovecrafts stories have often failed when being adapted to film and TV, largely because of poor directin g and adaptations and the fact that his suggested and psychological horror just doesnt translate well to live action. Still, one of the better recent adapta tions was a Masters of Horror episode featuring a faithful version of Dreams in the Witch House. Lovecraft by no means took full credit for the development of the Cthulhu Mytho s. He pointed to many writers as inspiration including Robert W. Chambers, Lord Dunsay, Ambrose Bierce, Poe, and Arthur Machen. But his genius was taking various ideas and concepts and molding them into a coherent, shared landscape that still has many active writers today. There can be little doubt th at Lovecraft is the clear choice for #1 horror writer of all-time. Honorable Mentions John Skipp Skipp is regarded as the Godfather of splatterpunk horror and curren tly two of his novels are in film development. If he gets a bit more work under his belt, Hes a guy who could be on the list in a decade or so. Ed Lee Lees situation is similar to Skipp. Much of his work has been done for sm all press publishers but hes certainly a talented writer. Frank Belknap Long Long was very close to making the list. He was one of the ea rly group of writers who contributed stories to the Cthulhu Mythos and he wrote hundreds of short stories. It was a very difficult decision to leave h im out and it came down to the fact that while he was undoubtedly a great horror writer, he didnt have the scope of influence that other writers did. Robert E. Howard The creator of Conan, King Kull, Solomon Kane and other fantas y characters was also very gifted as a horror writer. He was another original Cthulhu Mythos contributor and produced many of his own original horror stories, often set in the deep south such as Pigeons from Hell one of the great stories dealing with voodoo and zombies.
