Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Why Write About Horror? xiii
What Is Horror Fiction? xiv
American and British Horror Literature Before the Twentieth Century xvi
International Horror xviii
Part 1 1901-1939, The Golden Age 1
Chapter 1 British Writers 3
The "Classical" Tradition(s) 3
The Machen Quartet 4
Breaks with Tradition 6
Naturalism and the Psychological Ghost Story 8
Traditionalists and Holdovers 8
New Voices 10
The War Years 13
Voices of the Twenties 13
The End of the Golden Age 15
Chapter 2 American Writers 18
The Great Age of the American Ghost Story 18
East Coast versus West Coast 19
The East Coast School 19
Sexism and Great Age Content 21
East Coast Membership 22
The West Coast School 24
Exceptions 26
After Weird Tales' Debut 27
Chapter 3 Horror in the Pulps 30
Before Weird Tales 30
Weird Tales 31
H. P. Lovecraft 32
The Weird Tales Crew 34
What Lovecraft and Weird Tales Wrought, and What They Did Not 37
Outside of Weird Tales 39
The Shudder Pulps 42
The End of Weird Tales' Golden Age 43
Chapter 4 Horror in the Mainstream 44
The Creation of the Mainstream 44
Before the Great War 45
America 46
England 47
After the War 48
Chapter 5 Outside the Anglosphere, 1901-1939 56
Africa (Angola, Lesotho, Nigeria, South Africa) 56
The Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela) 58
Asia (India, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines) 63
Europe (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia and the Soviet Union, Spain) 67
The Middle East (Egypt, Iran, Turkey) 77
Part 2 1940-1970, Midcentury Frights 79
Chapter 6 American Writers 81
Ray Bradbury 81
Robert Bloch 82
Richard Matheson 83
Charles Beaumont 84
The Group 84
Fritz Leiber 85
Midcentury Writers of Horror 86
One-Shots 88
Chapter 7 British Writers 90
The Changing Landscape 90
The 1940s 91
The 1950s 93
The 1960s 95
Chapter 8 Horror in the Mainstream 98
The Effects of the War 98
American Writers 100
Writers of the United Kingdom 101
Chapter 9 Horror on the Cheap 105
Pulps and Digests 105
Paperbacks 107
Comics 110
Chapter 10 Outside the Anglosphere, 1940-1970 113
Africa (Angola, Congo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa) 113
The Americas (Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela) 117
Asia (India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines) 124
Europe (Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain) 129
The Middle East (Israel, Syria, Turkey) 134
Part 3 1971-2000, The Boom Years 137
Chapter 11 Horror as Big Business 139
American Best Sellers 139
The British Response 147
In the Mainstream 150
Chapter 12 The Boom and Bust of the 1980s and 1990s 152
Full-Timers 153
Part-Timers, Tourists, and Dabblers 161
RPG Fiction 165
Chapter 13 Short-Fiction Authors, 1971-2000 166
From Before the Boom 167
The 1970s Generation 168
The 1980s Generation 170
The 1990s Generation 172
Chapter 14 Horror for Children and Young Adults 175
1900-1960 175
The 1960s 177
The 1970s 178
The 1980s 181
The 1990s 182
Chapter 15 Outsiders Writing Horror 184
African American Writers 184
Australian Aboriginal Writers 189
Latinx Horror 192
Native American Horror 193
Queer Horror 195
Chapter 16 Outside the Anglosphere, 1971-2000 199
Africa (Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa) 199
The Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Quebec, Venezuela) 203
Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand) 209
Europe (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland) 216
The Middle East (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Turkey) 222
Epilogue 225
Notes 229
Selected Bibliography 261
Index 269