Book review: Ramsey Campbell, Certainly edited by S. T. Joshi
RAMSEYCAMPBELL, CERTAINLYESSAYSAND REVIEWS, 2002–2017
Editedby S. T. Joshi
Publishedby Drugstore Indian Press, an imprint of PS Publishing Ltd 2021
Overthe years Ramsey Campbell has written knowledgeably, often humorously, butalways with sincerity on a range of subjects from other authors, artists,films, books and, quite honestly, about anything and everything to do withweird literature and beyond.
Thisbook includes those written over a fifteen-year period from 2002 till 2017. Iwas pleased to see it included the article I commissioned for TheFantastical Art of Jim Pitts which I published in 2017 under my ParallelUniverse Publications imprint.
Includedin this collection of articles and essays are reminiscences of many importantgenre people. One is about the American literary agent Kirby McCauley who waspartly responsible for creating and organising the first World FantasyConvention and its awards. Though I never met him, he did provide me with myfirst American sale (to issue one of Whispers magazine). This had adouble benefit for me as, when Whispers won a World Fantasy Award thatyear my story from issue four was included in the hardcover book produced tocommemorate the event, edited by Gahan Wilson, who designed the famous awardcaricaturing Lovecraft’s head. Other reminiscences include such legendaryfigures as Fritz Leiber, Nigel Kneale, Manly Wade Wellman and Richard Matheson,as well as contemporary writers too, such as David Case, Gary Fry, MarkSamuels, Thana Niveau, Joe Hill and Joe R. Lansdale amongst quite a few others.
Campbellwill always be associated with H. P. Lovecraft and there are five articlesabout the master himself: ‘Lovecraft Analysed’, ‘Lovecraft in Retrospect, inRetrospect’, ‘Influences’, ‘He Was Providence’, ‘Glimpses in the Dark’, and ‘Lovecraft’sMonster’, all of them brimming with insights.
Asanyone who follows Campbell on Facebook will know, over the years he oftencatches the attention of any number of cranks, trolls, and other miscreants thatprowl the internet, though woe on those who mislead themselves into thinkingthey can get the better. Nor is he adverse to taking on those he believes havetaken a step too far in attacking writers whose work he admires. Here we havetwo articles, ‘Plagued by Plagiarism parts 1 and 2’, in which he takes to taskhis old adversary Chris Barker over accusations against M. R. James in abooklet titled ‘Plagiarism and Pederasty: Skeletons in the Jamesian Closet’. Campbellis succinctly impressive in the way in which he playfully yet factually debunksBarker’s ill-informed contentions, which give the impression he fired them offin a scattergun attempt to at least hit the target once. Thanks to Ramsey’scritique he fails completely. Both articles are not only critically observantbut a joy to read.
Thereis, in fact, a great deal to enjoy in this book, which covers an entertaininglywide number of subjects. The good news, of course, is there’s a six year gapsince the last article published in this book and now, so there must already bequite a few new ones for another book.
