Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia

Supernatural Literature of the World #1-3

by S.T. Joshi, K.A. Laity (Contributor)

The literature of the supernatural has had a distinguished history over the past two centuries, while the incorporation of the supernatural in literary works can be traced back as far as classical antiquity. Such prominent writers as Edith Wharton and Henry James made use of the supernatural in their writings, and numerous contemporary writers continue to do so. Supernatural literature is widely enjoyed by high school students and general readers, and scholars are devoting more and more attention to it. This encyclopedia provides thorough coverage of the literature of the supernatural. The most exhaustive work of its kind, it covers authors and works from the ancient world to the present. Two of the world's foremost authorities on supernatural literature have coordinated a team of internationally recognized contributors, including: Mike Ashley, Benjamin F. Fisher, Paula Guran, Stephen Jones, Darrell Schweitzer, and Brian Stableford. While other references chiefly offer biographical and critical information, this encyclopedia also provides entries on numerous special topics, including: Alien Abduction, Curses, Dreams and Nightmares, Fantasy Tales, Feminism, Hinduism, Islam, Munsey Magazines, Occultism, Southern Gothic, Urban Legends, Voodoo, Werewolves, and many more. The set includes roughly 1,000 alphabetically arranged entries and presents the work of some 70 contributors. It provides entries on such major canonical writers as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, and Oscar Wilde, while also devoting attention to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, R. L. Stine, and other popular contemporary writers. Entries also include special topics and cultural traditions in the genre. Entries citeworks for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography of major works on supernatural literature. Supernatural literature figures prominently in the curriculum, and students are often interested in reading such works on their own. This encyclopedia is an essential tool for student research on supernatural literature and world literary traditions, and is equally valuable for teachers planning related courses. Both school and public libraries need this work to support the interests of general readers.

Genres: Short Stories, Nonfiction

1556 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Sunand Tryambak Joshi is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections of their works.

His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and 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. 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 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.

Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.

In addition to literary 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 such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as 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 criticised 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 and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.

Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.

Reviews

[James Doig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a massive 3 volume work containing an awful lot of fascinating facts and research. My only gripe is the skewed nature of the contents - so the Canadian Ash Tree gets an entry, but not the UK Tartarus, Sarob, Ghost Story Press. Also, the entries on contemporary authors are often not critical or objective enough for this type of reference book. Quite a few authors are omitted, but that's inevitable I guess - complete coverage of the field is impossible.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four and a half stars: There's probably a 99.9% chance I will never manage to finish reading tese 1500 pages -- 180 of them containing indices of Fictional Characters, a general index, an index of motifs ("Cosmic Horror," "Haunted Houses," "Shape Shifters," etc) a bibliography, and short paragraphs about the many contributors who voiced their opinions of the hundreds of works included.

I'm happy to be able to wade through the books at my leisure. The type is very small (which is the reason I didn't give it 5 stars; although it would have been too heavy to lift if a larger font had been used), and there are a number of illustrations but I expect to discover some tales of the supernatural I will track down and read.