Best horror writer

[Kyriakos]

Although in the past i had made a number of polls about literature, and some about horror, none of their variations - i believe- gave a case identical to this.
So the question is which of the writers in the list you consider to be the greatest horror writer.

Of course there are other horror writers out there, apart from the ones named here, but they either have not been read by me, or i did not personally like their writing. But you can vote "other" if you wish too, and name who you had in mind

Also you could note that some of the writers in the list are not strictly horror writers. But they have produced at least some works which fall into that category.

The nominations are as follows:

H.P. Lovecraft
E.A. Poe
Arthur Machen
Guy De Maupassant
Bram Stoker
R.L. Stevenson
Henry James
(Other)

I will vote later on, since i like a number of these almost equally, for slightly different reasons. De Maupassant tends to be my favourite writer of all genres though, so i will probably end up voting for him

 

[GoodGame]

I have more experience with Poe than Cthulhu mythos, so I'll go with Poe.

Wasn't aware the Maupassant (isn't that the guy who wrote the story about a peasant going to jail for allegedly stealing a piece of string?) did horror. I'll have to look him up.


In other, I like a few of R.E. Howard's stories about Solomon Kane, especially with his Shaman sidekick. Basically heroic pulp but I'd still classify as a bit horrific (also kind of racist though not incorruptedly).

 

[useless]

Ben Biddick! "Rust-coloured blood..."

 

[Kyriakos]

Wasn't aware the Maupassant (isn't that the guy who wrote the story about a peasant going to jail for allegedly stealing a piece of sting?) did horror. I'll have to look him up.

Although he didnt start as a horror writer, he must have written the largest number of horror stories in french literature. It appears that they were, mostly, auto-biographical, since it is almost always entirely psychological horror, about people who become mad.

Also, gradually, he wrote more and more dark stories, and in the end he tried to cut his throat in despair. His life ended shortly afterwards in a mental asylum

Still i think that he was an incredibly powerfull writer.

 

[ValkyrieQueen]

I always enjoyed Poe the most.

 

[holy king]

stephen king. end of.

 

[JohnRM]

stephen king. end of.

this.

 

[cardgame]

stephen king. end of.

that. no, seriously.

/thread

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Clive Barker.

 

[Plotinus]

Are Lovecraft and Poe really horror writers? Surely they are more like gothic macabre if anything. I don't think either intended their work to be scary, which is surely a sine qua non of "horror" writing.

 

[Kyriakos]

The first actual text that i remember being scared of was one of Lovecraft's, which i read when i was 16 (i do, very vividly, recall being horrified by a colourfull drawing of Polyphemus i saw when i was 8, but not by the actual text i think)

Poe is by far the more encephalic writer of course.

And if you limit "horror" to that which makes you feel scared then you will inevitably be left with very very few pieces of art, not enough to make a genre

 

[holy king]

he didnt limit horror to what makes you feel scared but to what is intended to make consumers feel scared.

 

[Takhisis]

A Mr. Dominique Copperson, a little known author. Perhaps you've heard of him?

 

[Kyriakos]

 

[bigdog5994]

well the only time ive ever been scared shirtless by a book was when i was in the 3rd grade and i read a Edgar Allen Poe book.

It was the pit and the pendulum that gave me the chills the most

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Clive Barker.

This.

Lovecraft and Poe are ok. Call of Cthulu beats the hell out of the books tho, goddamn scary game.

Also i remember a collection of scary short stories by Robert Silverberg.

 

[Glassfan]

Are Lovecraft and Poe really horror writers? Surely they are more like gothic macabre if anything. I don't think either intended their work to be scary, which is surely a sine qua non of "horror" writing.

Several HPL stories are the scariest I've ever read. It's been over thirty years since I read them - the paperback reprints of the 1970's, and I can't remember a single title, but to this day I have disturbing memories of interdimensional beasts lurking just beyond the angle of the wall...

 

[Kyriakos]

HPL was, in my view as well, a very talented writer, insofar as creating anxiety goes. His letters reveal that he had a vivid imagination, from which he took the elements presented in his stories.
On the downside he does seem to "write the same story over and over again", as he put it as well. Most of the main works have similar structure (some have claimed that it imitates some of Poe's work) and the horrors only change on the surface.
All in all he didnt write that much either, at least literature anyway. Too bad he died relatively young, and virtually entirely unknown.

Poe on the other hand is today mostly known as the inventor of the crime-enigma solving story. Although these stories are only a small fraction of his work, what is common throughout it is the use of logic in forming patterns which make the world understandable, even if though logic in some of his stories leads to the wrong conclusions. Definately a far more influenctial writer than Lovecraft, he is in my view the greatest non-european writer of the macabre and the arabesque.