S. T. Joshi

Sunand Tryambak Joshi (born 22 June 1958), known as S. T. Joshi, is an American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of H. P. Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction. Besides having written what critics such as Harold Bloom and Joyce Carol Oates consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft, I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft (Hippocampus Press, 2 vols., 2010 [originally published in one volume as H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996]),[1][2] Joshi has prepared (with David E. Schultz) several annotated editions of works by Ambrose Bierce. He has also written on crime novelist John Dickson Carr and on Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood and M. R. James, and has edited collections of their works, as well as collections of the best work of numerous other weird writers.

He has compiled bibliographies of Lovecraft, Bierce, Dunsany, Ramsey Campbell, Ray Bradbury and Clark Ashton Smith. He has been general editor of the Horror Classics series for Dover Publications.

Joshi is known for his acerbic style, and has been described by editor Ellen Datlow as 'the nastiest reviewer in the field'.[3] Most recently he has turned his attention to collecting and editing the works of H. L. Mencken. He currently resides in Seattle, Washington.

S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi (2002 promotional photo)
S. T. Joshi (2002 promotional photo)
BornJune 22, 1958 (age 60)
Pune, India
OccupationCritic, editor, historian
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States since 1978
SubjectH. P. Lovecraft, horror, fantasy, atheism, contemporary politics, women's studies, H. L. Mencken
Website
stjoshi.org

Literary criticism

Joshi discovered Lovecraft when he was 13 in the public library in Muncie, Indiana. He read L. Sprague de Camp's biography of Lovecraft, Lovecraft: A Biography, on publication in 1975 and began thereafter to devote himself to the study of Lovecraft, guided in this by scholars such as Dirk W. Mosig, J. Vernon Shea and George Wetzel.[4] He also wrote some Lovecraftian fiction such as the story "The Recurring Doom", which can be found in Robert M. Price's anthology Acolytes of Cthulhu. [5]

Joshi received a B.A. (1980) and M.A. (1982) in classics at Brown University, primarily because of the holdings of Lovecraft books and manuscripts in the John Hay Library.[6] He later did graduate work at Princeton University from 1982 to 1984, where he was the recipient of the Paul Elmer More fellowship in classical philosophy. Appalled at finding literally 1,500 textual errors in his favorite Lovecraft story, At the Mountains of Madness, he devoted years of research consulting manuscripts and early publications to establish the textual history of Lovecraft's works, in order to prepare corrected editions of Lovecraft's collected fiction, revisions and miscellaneous writings in collaboration with Jim Turner for Arkham House; they were published in five volumes between 1984 and 1995.[6]

His literary criticism focuses upon readability and exploration of the dominant worldviews of the authors in question. His The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority.[7]

A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The third of what amounts to a critical trilogy on the weird tale, The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004), includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others. Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (published in two volumes, 2012 by PS Publishing) is a comprehensive history of supernatural fiction from Gilgamesh to the present day.

In August 2014, Joshi strongly criticized author Daniel José Older after the latter started a campaign to change the World Fantasy Award statuette from a bust of Lovecraft to one of African-American author Octavia Butler.[8] Older claimed Lovecraft's image was unacceptable because of his racism; in response, Joshi stated ""the WFA bust acknowledges Lovecraft's literary status in the field of weird fiction and nothing more. It says nothing about Lovecraft's personality or character."[8] Joshi also argued that the critics of Lovecraft were ignoring "the significant question as to whether racism should be regarded as so much more significant a moral, intellectual, and personal flaw than many other stances one could name",[9] and argued that it was incorrect to think "that Lovecraft's undeniable racism somehow negates his immense talents as a writer and also negates the many virtues – intellectual, aesthetic, and personal – that he displayed over his life".[9] Journalist Laura Miller took issue with Joshi's arguments, stating Joshi "is essentially telling writers like Okorafor that they must accept an honour from that community in the form of a man who considered [black people] to be 'semi-human' and filled 'with vice'. Suck it up, or get out. I'm pretty sure this is not the message the World Fantasy Convention meant to send when they gave Okorafor the prize in the first place."[8][9]

Magazines edited

In 1987, Joshi became the fifth Official Editor of the EOD amateur press association (see Esoteric Order of Dagon), an organisation devoted to the study of H.P. Lovecraft particularly but which also examines weird and fantasy fiction in all its forms.

Joshi edited the journals Lovecraft Studies (1979–2001) and Studies in Weird Fiction (1986–2005), both published by Necronomicon Press; and Studies in the Fantastic (2008–09), published by the University of Tampa Press. He is editor of Weird Fiction Review (Centipede Press; 2010), and the Hippocampus Press journals Spectral Realms (from 2014); Lovecraft Annual (from 2007); Nemesis (from 2016). He was formerly co-editor of Dead Reckonings (from 2007).

Editions of Lovecraft's letters

Joshi and his editorial collaborator David E. Schultz have edited many volumes of Lovecraft's letters to individuals: for Necronomicon Press (including those to Robert Bloch, Henry Kuttner, Samuel Loveman and Vincent Starrett); for Night Shade Books (Mysteries of Time and Spirit: Letters to Donald Wandrei) and Letters from New York; and for University of Tampa Press (O Fortunate Floridian: Letters to Robert H. Barlow). Joshi and Schultz are now progressively issuing volumes of H. P. Lovecraft's letters to individual correspondents through Hippocampus Press. Volumes already issued include Lovecraft's letters to Rheinhart Kleiner; Alfred Galpin; August Derleth (2 volumes); Robert E. Howard (2 volumes); James F. Morton; Elizabeth Toldridge & Anne Tillery Renshaw; F. Lee Baldwin, Duane Rimel & Nils Frome; J. Vernon Shea, Carl F. Strauch & Lee McBride White; Robert Bloch; and Clark Ashton Smith.

Other works

Joshi edited the five-volume set of Lovecraft's Collected Essays issued by Hippocampus Press from 2004-2006. He edited two annotated volumes of Lovecraft's best work for Dell books (the second with Peter H. Cannon). He and David E. Schultz edited the collected poetry of Clark Ashton Smith, issued by Hippocampus Press (3 volumes, 2007–2008) and the collected poetry of George Sterling (3 volumes, 2013).

Joshi was general editor of a line of original Cthulhu Mythos works from Perilous Press, including works by Michael Shea and Brian Stableford. The first publication was Shea's Copping Squid and Other Mythos Tales (2009), with Stableford's volume titled The Womb of Time (two Mythos novellas).

A bibliography of William Hope Hodgson (co-compiled by Joshi with Sam Gafford and Mike Ashley) appears in Massimo Berruti, S. T. Joshi and Sam Gafford (eds). William Hope Hodgson: Voices from the Borderland.NY: Hippocampus Press, 2014, pp. 205–302.

Social and atheist criticism

Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.

Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, T.S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price. In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticized the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Irving Kristol and William Kristol, arguing that the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.

In 2011, Joshi was named the editor-in-chief of The American Rationalist magazine, beginning with the July/August 2011 issue.

Personal life

Joshi was raised in Illinois and Indiana. After attending Brown University, he settled in the New York City area, where he was a senior editor at Chelsea House Publishers. Currently he lives in Seattle, Washington.[7] Joshi married Leslie Gary Boba on September 1, 2001.[7] They divorced in December 2010.[10]

He wed Mary Krawczak Wilson in July, 2014 at a private ceremony in Seattle, WA.[11]

Bibliography (partial)

Books written

On H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos

  • H. P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1981). This volume is now superseded by Joshi's completely updated/revised edition: H.P. Lovecraft: A Comprehensive Bibliography (University of Tampa Press, 2009).
  • An Index to the Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft (Necronomicon Press, 1980; 2nd ed, 1991). (This indexes the five volumes of Lovecraft's letters published by Arkham House.)
  • H. P. Lovecraft (Starmont Reader's Guide 13) (Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1982).
  • H.P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography: Supplement, 1980-84 (with Leigh Blackmore) (Necronomicon Press, 1984).
  • H. P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West (Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1990).
  • H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1996). (Paperback, with a 250 copy limited hardcover printing). A condensed version was issued as A Dreamer and a Visionary: H.P. Lovecraft in His Time (Liverpool University Press, 2001). The Necronomicon Press edition was reissued in 2004 (paperback) with a new Afterword by Joshi. A new revised/uncut edition (as I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft) (2 vols, hardcover) has been issued in 2010 (Hippocampus Press); this restores 150,000 words cut for space reasons from the original edition, and is also thoroughly revised and updated in regard to new information on Lovecraft that has come to light since 1996.
  • A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of H. P. Lovecraft. (Wildside Press, December 1996). (A much revised and expanded version of Joshi's 1982 Starmont Guide on Lovecraft.)
  • An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia (with David E. Schultz) (Greenwood Press, 2001).
  • Primal Sources: Essays on H. P. Lovecraft (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2003). ISBN 9780972164405.
  • The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos (Poplar Bluff, MO: Mythos Books, 2008). ISBN 0-9789911-8-4. Revised/expanded edition as The Rise, Fall and Rise of the Cthulhu Mythos. NY: Hippocampus Press, 2015.

Other books

  • The Weird Tale (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990).
  • John Dickson Carr: A Critical Study (Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1990). (Nominated for the 1991 Anthony Award for "Best Critical / Non-fiction work".)[12]
  • Lord Dunsany: A Bibliography (with Darrell Schweitzer) (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1993).
  • Lord Dunsany: Master of the Anglo-Irish Imagination (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995).
  • The Core of Ramsey Campbell: A Bibliography & Reader's Guide (with Ramsey Campbell and Stefan Dziemianowicz) (West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1995).
  • Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography (Arkham House, 1999). ISBN 9780870541766.
  • The Modern Weird Tale (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, [March] 2001). ISBN 9780786409860.
  • Ramsey Campbell and Modern Horror Fiction (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, [June] 2001).
  • God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, [June] 2003). ISBN 978-1-59102-080-6.
  • The Evolution of the Weird Tale (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2004). ISBN 978-0974878928.
  • The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2006). ISBN 978-1-59102-463-7.
  • Gore Vidal: A Comprehensive Bibliography (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007). ISBN 0-8108-6001-5.
  • Emperors of Dreams: Some Notes on Weird Poetry (Sydney: P'rea Press, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9804625-3-1 (paperback, 500 copies); ISBN 978-0-9804625-4-8 (deluxe hardcover, 25 numbered & signed copies).
  • Classics and Contemporaries: Some Notes on Horror Fiction (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9814888-3-7.
  • Junk Fiction: America's Obsession with Bestsellers (San Bernardino, CA: Borgo Press, 2009). ISBN 978-1-4344-5713-4.
  • The Unbelievers: The Evolution of Modern Atheism (Prometheus Books, 2011). ISBN 9781616142360.
  • Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2 vols) (Hornsea, UKPS Publishing, 2012; NY: Hippocampus Press, 2014).
  • Letters from Arkham. Hornsea, UK: PS Publishing, 2015. An edition of the correspondence between Ramsey Campbell and August Derleth.
  • Varieties of the Weird Tale. NY: Hippocampus Press, 2017.

Books edited

Editions of works by or about H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos

  • Uncollected Prose and Poetry by H. P. Lovecraft (with Marc A. Michaud) (3 vols, Necronomicon Press, 1978–1982).
  • H. P. Lovecraft in "The Eyrie" (with Marc A. Michaud) (Necronomicon Press, 1979).
  • H. P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio State University Press, 1980).
  • The Private Life of H. P. Lovecraft by Sonia H. Davis (Sonia Greene) (Necronomicon Press, 1985, 1993).
  • Uncollected Letters by H. P. Lovecraft (Necronomicon Press, 1986).
  • The Dunwich Horror and Others (Arkham House, 1984).
  • At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels (Arkham House, 1985).
  • Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (Arkham House, 1986).
  • The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (Arkham House, 1989).
  • An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honour of H. P. Lovecraft (with David E. Schultz) (1991). (New revised edition forthcoming, Hippocampus Press, 2011.)
  • The H. P. Lovecraft Centennial Conference: Proceedings (Necronomicon Press, 1991).
  • H. P. Lovecraft in the Argosy (1994).
  • The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft [The Illustrated/Annotated H.P. Lovecraft] (Necronomicon Press, 1994; 2nd revised ed, 1997).
  • Miscellaneous Writings by H. P. Lovecraft (Arkham House, 1995).
  • Caverns Measureless to Man: 18 Memoirs of Lovecraft (1996).
  • The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (Dell Books, 1997).
  • More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (with Peter H. Cannon) (Dell Books, 1999).
  • The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics #1, 1999).
  • Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters by H. P. Lovecraft (Ohio University Press, 2000).
  • The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature by H. P. Lovecraft (Hippocampus Press, 2000).
  • The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft (Night Shade Books, 2001).
  • The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics #2, 2001).
  • The Shadow Out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft (with David E. Schultz) (Corrected text ed, Hippocampus Press, 2003).
  • Collected Essays by H. P. Lovecraft (NY: Hippocampus Press, 5 vols, 2004–2007). Hippocampus have also issued a searchable CD-ROM version containing the complete 5 volumes of Lovecraft's essays on one disc.
  • The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics #3, 2005).
  • O Fortunate Floridian: H. P. Lovecraft's Letters to Robert H. Barlow (with David E. Schultz) (University of Tampa Press, 2007).
  • Essential Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth (2 volumes) (with David E. Schultz, 2008).
  • A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (2 volumes) (with David E. Schultz and Rusty Burke, 2009).
  • Against Religion by H. P. Lovecraft. Introduction by Christopher Hitchens (Sporting Gentlemen, 2010). ISBN 9780578052489.
  • Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror (PS Publishing, 2010). ISBN 9780857687821.
  • The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: Annotated Edition by H. P. Lovecraft. (University of Tampa Press, 2010).
  • The Annotated Revision and Collaborations of H. P. Lovecraft (forthcoming, Bloodletting Press, 2 vols.). Vol 1 is titled The Crawling Chaos.
  • A Weird Writer in Our Midst (Hippocampus Press, 2010). ISBN 978-0-9844802-1-0. Collection of criticism about Lovecraft by writers contemporary with Lovecraft.
  • The Crawling Chaos and Others: The Annotated Revisions and Collaborations of H. P. Lovecraft Volume 1 (Arcane Wisdom/Bloodletting Press, 2011).
  • Medusa's Coil and Others: The Annotated Revisions and Collaborations of H. P. Lovecraft Volume 2 (Arcane Wisdom/Bloodletting Press, 2012).
  • The Ghost of Fear and Others: H. P. Lovecraft's Favorite Horror Stories, Volume 1 (Arcane Wisdom, 2012).
  • Black Wings II (PS Publishing, 2012).
  • The Dead Valley and Others (H. P. Lovecraft's Favorite Horror Stories, Volume 2) (Arcane Wisdom, 2012).
  • Lovecraft's Library: A Catalogue (3rd ed., Hippocampus Press, 2012).
  • Black Wings III (PS Publishing, 2014).
  • A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (Centipede Press, 2014).
  • The Madness of Cthulhu (2 vol.) (Titan, 2014/2015).
  • Black Wings IV (PS Publishing, 2015).
  • Black Wings V (PS Publishing, 2016).

Editions of works by others, reference works, etc.

  • Collected Poems by Donald Wandrei (1988).
  • Nostalgia of the Unknown: The Complete Prose Poetry by Clark Ashton Smith (with Marc & Susan Michaud and Steve Behrends)(Necronomicon Press, 1988, 1993).
  • The Count of Thirty: A Tribute to Ramsey Campbell (1993). (Critical appreciations of Campbell by various authors.)
  • Best Ghost Stories by Bram Stoker (with Richard Dalby and Stefan Dziemianowicz) (1997).
  • A Night with Mephistopheles by Henry Ferris (1997).
  • The Line of Terror and Other Essays by Arthur Machen (Hobgoblin Press, 1997.)
  • The Complete John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood (Dover Books, 1998).
  • A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography by Ambrose Bierce (with David E. Schultz) (1998).
  • Documents of American Prejudice (edited) (New York: Basic Books, 1999).
  • Great Weird Tales (Dover Books, 1999).
  • Collected Fables by Ambrose Bierce (2000).
  • Civil War Memories: Lost tales of the Civil War (Rutledge 2000; Gramercy 2003).
  • The Horror on the Stair and Other Weird Tales by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (2000).
  • The Monster Maker and Other Stories by W. C. Morrow (with Stefan Dziemianowicz) (2000).
  • The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce (with David E. Schultz) (2000).
  • The Yellow Sign and Other Stories: The Complete Weird Tales of Robert W. Chambers by Robert W. Chambers (2000).
  • Atheism: A Reader (Prometheus Books, [October] 2000).
  • The Fall of the Republic and Other Political Satires by Ambrose Bierce (with David E. Schultz) (2000).
  • The Mark of the Beast and Other Horror Tales by Rudyard Kipling (Dover Books, 2000).
  • From Baltimore to Bohemia: The Letters of H. L. Mencken and George Sterling (2001).
  • The Three Impostors and Other Stories by Arthur Machen (2001).
  • The Return of the Soul and Other Stories by Robert S. Hichens (2001).
  • The Black Diamonds by Clark Ashton Smith (2002).
  • Great Tales of Terror (Dover Books, 2002).
  • H. L. Mencken on American Literature (2002).
  • Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories by Algernon Blackwood (2002).
  • H. L. Mencken on Religion (2002).
  • Eyes of the God by R. H. Barlow (with Douglas A. Anderson and David E. Schultz) (2002).
  • Ramsey Campbell, Probably by Ramsey Campbell (2002).
  • The Place Called Dagon by Herbert S. Gorman (2003).
  • A Much Misunderstood Man: Selected Letters by Ambrose Bierce (with David E. Schultz) (2003).
  • The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror by George Sterling (2003).
  • The Pleasures of a Futuroscope by Lord Dunsany (2003).
  • The White People and Other Stories by Arthur Machen (2003).
  • Mencken's America by H. L. Mencken (2004).
  • The Complete Jorkens (3 volumes) by Lord Dunsany (2004).
  • In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales by Lord Dunsany (2004).
  • The House of Sounds and Others by M. P. Shiel (NY: Hippocampus Press, 2005).
  • The Terror and Other Tales by Arthur Machen (2005).
  • Closing Arguments: Clarence Darrow on Religion, Law, and Society by Clarence Darrow. (Ohio University Press, 2005).
  • Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopaedia (with Stefan Dziemianowicz) (2005).
  • Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James (2006).
  • The Haunted Doll's House and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James (2006).
  • In Her Place: A Documentary History of Prejudice Against Women (2006).
  • Icons of Horror and the Supernatural (Greenwood Press, 2006, 2 vols).
  • Warnings to the Curious: A Sheaf of Criticism on M. R. James (with Rosemary Pardoe, 2007).
  • The Agnostic Reader (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007).
  • American Supernatural Tales (Penguin Books, 2007).
  • Barry Pain, An Exchange of Souls/Henri Béraud, Lazarus (Hippocampus Press, 2007).
  • Francis Brett Young, Cold Harbour/Leland Hall, Sinister House (Hippocampus Press, 2008).
  • What is Man? and Other Irreverent Essays by Mark Twain (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2009).
  • The Great God Pan and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen (Arcane Wisdom/Bloodletting Press, 2009).
  • Collected Poems by H.L. Mencken (Hippocampus Press, 2009).
  • Mencken on Mencken: A New Collection of Autobiographical Writings (Louisiana State University Press, 2010).
  • Potash and Perlmutter: Stories of the American Jewish Experience by Montague Glass (Borgo Press, 2010).
  • Dear Dead Women:The Weird Stories of Edna W. Underwood by Edna W. Underwood (Tartarus Press, 2010).
  • Encyclopedia of the Vampire (Greenwood Press, 2010).
  • The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, & Memoirs by Ambrose Bierce, (Library of America, 2011).
  • Dead Titans, Waken! (early version of Web of Easter Island)/Invisible Sun by Donald Wandrei. (Centipede Press, 2011).
  • The Tangled Muse by W.H. Pugmire, (Centipede Press, 2011).
  • The White People and Other Weird Tales by Arthur Machen(Penguin Classics)
  • Bluebeard's Goat and Other Stories, by H.L. Mencken, (Dufour Editions, 2012).
  • Dreams of Fear: Poems of Terror and the Supernatural (Hippocampus Press, 2013).
  • Searchers After Horror: New Tales of Terror and the Fantastic (Fedogan & Bremer, 2014)
  • The Ghost in the Corner by Lord Dunsany (with Martin Andersson) NY: Hippocampus Press, 2017.

Books translated

  • Lovecraft: A Study in the Fantastic by Maurice Lévy (1988).

Foreign editions

Novels

  • The Removal Company: An Historical Mystery Novel as by "J.K. Maxwell" (Borgo Press, 2009). The identity of Joshi as the author of this novel was revealed on W. H. Pugmire's blog on 1 Aug, 2010, and has since been acknowledged on Joshi's own Web site.[13] The title has since been reprinted under Joshi's own name.
  • Tragedy at Sarsfeld Manor/Conspiracy of Silence (Borgo Press, 2011)
  • The Assaults of Chaos: A Novel About H. P. Lovecraft. NY: Hippocampus Press, 2013.

Introductions and forewords

  • Leigh Blackmore. Spores from Sharnoth & Other Madnesses. (P'rea Press,2008, 2010; Rainfall Books, 2010).
  • William F. Nolan & Jason V Brock, ed., The Bleeding Edge (Cycatrix Press, 2009) [signed/limited].
  • Jason V Brock & William F. Nolan, ed., The Devil's Coattails (Cycatrix Press, 2012) [signed/limited].
  • Washington Irving. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (Tartarus Press, 2009).
  • Voltaire God and Human Beings (Prometheus Books, 2010), the first translation of the work Dieu et les hommes (tr. Michael Shreve).

Magazines edited

  • Lovecraft Studies (1979–2004)(Nos. 1-41:Necronomicon Press); the double issue 42/43 was published by Hippocampus Press, after which rights reverted to Necronomicon Press, who published the final two issues, 44 and 45. Lovecraft Studies was replaced with Lovecraft Annual (see below).
  • Studies in Weird Fiction (1986–2003) (Nos. 1-24 and 27: Necronomicon Press). (No. 25 published by Hippocampus Press.) Note: The Summer 2003 issue was erroneously numbered 25 (which had been previously used on the Summer 2001 issue). There was no Issue 26. The final Issue was No. 27, Spring 2005.
  • Necrofile: The Review of Horror Fiction (1992–1999) (Necronomicon Press) (co-edited with Stefan Dziemanowicz and Michael A. Morrison). See also Necropsy under Reviews (below).
  • Lovecraft Annual (2007- ) (Hippocampus Press).
  • Dead Reckonings (2007-2012) (first co-editor Jack M. Haringa; second co-editor Anthony J. Fonseca) (Hippocampus Press). Since 2012 June Pulliam has replaced Joshi as co-editor of Dead Reckonings.
  • Studies in the Fantastic (2008–2009) ( Nos. 1-2 (all published): University of Tampa Press).
  • Weird Fiction Review (2010 - ) (Centipede Press).
  • Nameless Digest (2011 - ) (Cycatrix Press).
  • Spectral Realms (2014 - ) (Hippocampus Press)

Awards

  • Horror Writers Association – Bram Stoker Award for Nonfiction [1]
    1996 H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press) – Author
  • British Fantasy Society – British Fantasy Award for Best Small-Press Publication [2]
    1997 H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press) – Author
  • International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts – IAFA Distinguished Critic Award [3]
    2003
  • World Fantasy Award – Special Award for Professional Scholarship [4]
    2005
  • International Horror Guild – Outstanding Achievement in Horror & Dark Fantasy for Nonfiction [5]
    2005 Supernatural Literature of the World (Greenwood Press) – Co-editor
  • International Horror Guild – Outstanding Achievement in Horror & Dark Fantasy for Nonfiction [6]
    2006 Icons of Horror and the Supernatural (Greenwood Press) – Editor
  • World Fantasy Award – Special Award Non-Professional [7]
    2013 Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volumes 1 & 2 (PS Publishing) – Author

He has since returned his awards from the World Fantasy Convention for their decision to discontinue use of the bust of H.P. Lovecraft as the basis for their awards.[14]

References

  1. ^ "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life". The H.P. Lovecraft Archive. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  2. ^ Joyce Carol Oates (October 31, 1996). "The King of Weird". The New York Review of Books. 43 (17). Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  3. ^ Datlow in Joshi, S.T. (2009) Classics and Contemporaries. New York: Hippocampus Press. Pg. 10
  4. ^ Will Murray, "S.T. Joshi: Re-editor". Dagon 24 (Jan-Mar 1989), p. 24
  5. ^ Locusmag.com. (2018). Contents Lists. [online] Available at: http://www.locusmag.com/index/yr2001/t35.htm#A1641 [Accessed 14 Dec. 2018].
  6. ^ a b Will Murray, "S.T. Joshi: Re-editor". Dagon 24 (Jan-Mar 1989), p. 25
  7. ^ a b c "S.T. Joshi: An Autobiography". Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  8. ^ a b c Laura Miller, It’s OK to admit that H.P. Lovecraft was racist, salon.com, 12 September 2014.
  9. ^ a b c Alison Flood, "World Fantasy awards pressed to drop HP Lovecraft trophy in racism row", The Guardian, 17 September 2014; retrieved 23 September 2014.
  10. ^ S. T. Joshi. "Blog". S. T. Joshi. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
  11. ^ Joshi, S. T. "S. T. Joshi - Blog". www.stjoshi.org.
  12. ^ "Bouchercon World Mystery Convention : Anthony Awards Nominees". Bouchercon.info. 2003-10-02. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
  13. ^ Joshi, S. T. (17 August 2010). "S. T. Joshi as Fiction Writer". Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  14. ^ "November 10, 2015 — The World Fantasy Award". Retrieved 2015-09-10.

Bibliography

  • Griffin, David. "Interview: S.T. Joshi". Carnage Hall No 4 (1993).
  • Harksen, Henrik (ed). Out of the Shadows: An E.O.D. Tribute to S.T. Joshi. Odense, Denmark: H. Harksen Productions, 2004.
  • Murray, Will. "S.T. Joshi: Re-editor". [interview] Comics Buyer's Guide (Nov 18, 1988); Dagon 24 (Jan–March 1989).

External links

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – circa 1914) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and Civil War veteran.

Bierce's book The Devil's Dictionary was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. His story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" has been described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature"; and his book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (also published as In the Midst of Life) was named by the Grolier Club as one of the 100 most influential American books printed before 1900.A prolific and versatile writer, Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States, and as a pioneering writer of realist fiction. For his horror writing, Michael Dirda ranked him alongside Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. His war stories influenced Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, and others, and he was considered an influential and feared literary critic. In recent decades Bierce has gained wider respect as a fabulist and for his poetry.In December 1913, Bierce traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. He disappeared, and was rumored to be traveling with rebel troops. He was never seen again.

An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia is a reference work written by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. It covers the life and work of American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. First published in 2001 by Greenwood Publishing Group, it was reissued in a slightly revised paperback edition by Hippocampus Press.

The book provides entries on all of Lovecraft's stories, complete with synopses, publication history and word counts. People from Lovecraft's life, including selected writers who influenced his work, are also included.

Fictional characters from Lovecraft's work are given brief entries, but most Cthulhu Mythos-related subjects are not referenced. "The 'gods' themselves, with rare exceptions, do not figure as 'characters' in any meaningful sense in the tales, so there are no entries on them," the authors explain.

Arkham

Arkham () is a fictional town situated in Massachusetts. It is a dark city and an integral part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft. It is featured in many of his stories and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers.

Arkham House, a publishing company started by two of Lovecraft's correspondents, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, takes its name from this city as a tribute.

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (US: ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, but he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors of horror and weird fiction.Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are "The Rats in the Walls", "The Call of Cthulhu", At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time, all canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as an author and editor. He saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in progressively strained circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time he died, at age 46.

Ibid (short story)

"Ibid" is a parody by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1927 or 1928 and first published in the January 1938 issue of O-Wash-Ta-Nong.

In the Land of Time, and Other Fantasy Tales

In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales is a posthumous collection of short stories by the writer Lord Dunsany, in the Penguin Classics series. Edited and with an introduction by S.T. Joshi, it assembles material from across Dunsany's long career. The cover illustration is a colourised version of a classic illustration for an early Dunsany story by his preferred artist, Sidney Sime.

Lovecraft Country

Lovecraft Country is a term coined by Keith Herber for the New England setting, combining real and fictitious locations, used by H. P. Lovecraft in many of his weird fiction stories, and later elaborated by other writers working in the Cthulhu Mythos. The term was popularized by Chaosium, the producers of the Lovecraftian role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi refers to the area as the "Miskatonic region", after its fictional river and university, while Lovecraft biographer Lin Carter calls it Miskatonic County, though Lovecraft indicates that at least some of his fictional towns were located in the real-life Essex County of Massachusetts.In its 1998 supplement Dead Reckonings, Chaosium defined Lovecraft Country as "a land located in the northeast of Massachusetts. The most important portion stretches along the Miskatonic River valley, from Dunwich in the far west to where it enters the Atlantic Ocean between Arkham, Kingsport, and Martin's Beach." These locations, along with Innsmouth, are a list of the most significant locations in Lovecraft Country.

Sometimes the phrase is used in a more inclusive sense, encompassing not only northeastern Massachusetts but also the southern hills of Vermont (the setting of The Whisperer in Darkness) as well as Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, where he set such works as The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Haunter of the Dark.

Necronomicon

The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in the stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in Lovecraft's "The Nameless City". Among other things, the work contains an account of the Old Ones, their history, and the means for summoning them.

Other authors such as August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith also cited it in their works; Lovecraft approved, believing such common allusions built up "a background of evil verisimilitude." Many readers have believed it to be a real work, with booksellers and librarians receiving many requests for it; pranksters have listed it in rare book catalogues, and a student smuggled a card for it into the Yale University Library's card catalog.Capitalizing on the notoriety of the fictional volume, real-life publishers have printed many books entitled Necronomicon since Lovecraft's death.

Poetry and the Gods

"Poetry and the Gods" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Anna Helen Crofts. The two authors wrote the story in or shortly before the summer of 1920. It was published the following September in United Amateur, which credits Lovecraft as Henry Paget-Lowe. In the story, a young woman dreams that she has an audience with Zeus, who explains to her that the gods have been asleep and dreaming, but they have chosen a poet who will herald their awakening.The story was written after "The Green Meadow", and before "The Crawling Chaos"—two tales that Lovecraft and Winifred Jackson co-wrote with a Greek mythology basis. What Anna Helen Crofts contributed to "Poetry and the Gods" is unknown. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi reports that she "appeared sporadically in the amateur press, and may have been introduced to [Lovecraft] by Winifred Jackson." Lovecraft's surviving letters do not mention "Poetry and the Gods".In his 1955 essay on the Cthulhu Mythos, Lovecraft scholar George Wetzel compares the messenger god Hermes in "Poetry and the Gods" with Nyarlathotep, the "messenger of Azathoth". Wetzel considers the dream communication used by Hermes to be "the same psychic device used later by Cthulhu to contact his cult followers."

Prometheus Books

Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by the philosopher Paul Kurtz (who was also the founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, focusing on topics such as science, freethought, secularism, humanism, and skepticism. Their headquarters is located in Amherst, New York, and they publish worldwide. The publisher's name was derived from Prometheus, the Titan from Greek mythology who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man. This act is often used as a metaphor for bringing knowledge or enlightenment.

Authors published by Prometheus include Steve Allen, Molefi Asante, Isaac Asimov, Jeremy Bentham, Rob Boston, Ludwig Feuerbach, Antony Flew, R. Barri Flowers, Martin Gardner, Guy P. Harrison, Sidney Hook, Julian Huxley, S. T. Joshi, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, John Maynard Keynes, Philip J. Klass, Leon Lederman, John W. Loftus, Joe Nickell, Friedrich Nietzsche, Mario Perniola, Robert M. Price, James Randi, David Ricardo, Nathan Salmon, George H. Smith, John Steinbeck IV, Victor Stenger, Tom Toles and Ibn Warraq.

Prometheus Books obtained the bulk of the books and manuscripts of Humanities Press International. It has been building and expanding this into a scholarly imprint named Humanity Books. This imprint publishes academic works across a wide spectrum of the humanities.

In 1992 Uri Geller sued Victor J. Stenger and Prometheus Books for libel. The suit was dismissed and Geller was required to pay more than $20,000 in costs to the defendant.In March 2005, Prometheus Books launched the science fiction and fantasy imprint Pyr. In October 2012 it launched the crime fiction imprint Seventh Street Books.

As of 2006, the company and its various imprints have approximately 1,600 books in print and publish approximately 95–100 books per year. Since its founding, Prometheus Books has published more than 2,500 books.

In 2013 Prometheus Books partnered with Random House in an effort to increase sales and distribution.

Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946 in Liverpool) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them widely considered classics in the field. Three of his novels have been filmed, all for non-English-speaking markets.

Since he first came to prominence in the mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", and Robert Hadji has described him as "perhaps the finest living exponent of the British weird fiction tradition", while S. T. Joshi stated, "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."

The Call of Cthulhu

"The Call of Cthulhu" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, in February 1928.

The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical dictionary written by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce consisting of common words followed by humorous and satirical definitions. The lexicon was written over three decades as a series of installments for magazines and newspapers. Bierce's witty definitions were imitated and plagiarized for years before he gathered them into books, first as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906 and then in a more complete version as The Devil's Dictionary in 1911.

Initial reception of the book versions was mixed. In the decades following, however, the stature of The Devil's Dictionary grew. It has been widely quoted, frequently translated, and often imitated, earning a global reputation. In the 1970s, The Devil's Dictionary was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. It has been called "howlingly funny", and Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig wrote that The Devil's Dictionary is "probably the most brilliant work of satire written in America. And maybe one of the greatest in all of world literature."

The Moon-Bog

"The Moon-Bog" is a short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in or before March 1921. The story was first published in the June 1926 issue of the pulp magazine Weird Tales.

The Picture in the House

"The Picture in the House" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft. It was written on December 12, 1920, and first published in the July issue of The National Amateur—which was published in the summer of 1921.

The Tree (short story)

"The Tree" is a macabre short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was written in 1920, and published in October 1921 in The Tryout. Set in ancient Greece, the story concerns two sculptors who accept a commission with ironic consequences.

Lovecraft wrote "The Tree" early in his career. He was dismissive of the story in a 1936 letter. It was one that, he said, "if typed on good stock make excellent shelf-paper, but little else." The assessment of Lovecraft authority S. T. Joshi was that although the story "may be a trifle obvious… it is an effective display of Lovecraft's skill in handling a historical setting."

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