The Dark Descent

Born and brought up in England during the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods, Algernon Henry Blackwood spent his early adult life in a variety of occupations in Canada and the U.S.A. before returning to England (Wikipedia). He was a lifelong bachelor. His fascination with the supernatural and mysticism was reflected in many of his writings, which influenced numerous 20th century science fiction and fantasy writers.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist.

Charles Dickens, was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era, and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most iconic characters, with the theme of social reform running throughout his work. The continuing popularity of his novels and short stories is such that they have never gone out of print. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens

Charles L. Grant is the author of the chilling horror collection Prime Evil. He's a writer who knows how to craft a good scare. If you enjoy dark, suspenseful stories, his work is definitely worth checking out.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a writer and social reformer whose work often explored the lives of women. She's best known for her chilling short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," a powerful look at mental health and societal pressures. Gilman's writing frequently touched on themes of feminism and social critique.

Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, film director, and visual artist. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works, and his fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser and Candyman series. He was also the executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters. Barker's paintings and illustrations have been f...

David G. Hartwell curated collections like Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder, showcasing his keen eye for exceptional fantasy and science fiction. He was a significant voice in bringing imaginative stories to readers.

American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction.

D.H. Lawrence was an English author, poet, playwright, essayist and literary critic. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.[1] He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in...

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.

Edith Wharton was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer and designer. The Age of Innocence (1920) won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, making her the first woman to win the award. She spoke fluent French as well as several other languages and many of her books were published in both French and English. ([Source][1]) [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wharton

Fitz-James O'Brien penned imaginative tales, including the collection Dragon Tales. He's a writer to check out if you enjoy fantastical stories.

O'Connor was American writer, particularly acclaimed for her stories which combined comic with tragic and brutal. Along with authors like Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor belonged to the Southern Gothic tradition that focused on the decaying South and its damned people. O'Connor's body of work was small, consisting of only thirty-one stories, two novels, and some speeches and letters. ([Source][1].) [1]: http://kirjasto.sci.fi/flannery.htm

Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. (December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright and chess expert. With writers such as Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, Leiber can be regarded as one of the fathers of sword and sorcery fantasy, having coined the term. Source: [Fritz Leiber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Leiber) on Wikipedia.

Harlan Ellison was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a Jewish-American family. His family moved to Painesville, Ohio, but returned to Cleveland in 1949 after the death of his father. As a child, he performed in minstrel shows, and frequently ran away from home, taking odd jobs. He attended Ohio State University but was expelled after 18 months for hitting a professor who had denigrated his writing ability. He moved to New York City in 1955 to become a science fiction writer. Over the next...

Henry James, was an American writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_James

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life in New England. After his father's institutionalization in 1893, he lived affluently until his family's wealth dissipated after the death of his grandfather. He then lived with his mother, in reduced financial security, until her institutionalization in 1919. He began to write essays for the United Amateur Press Association, and in 1913 wrote a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fi...

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Russian: Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́нев) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West. His first major publication, a short story collection titled A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), was a milestone of Russian realism. His novel Fathers and Sons (1862) is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction.

Joanna Russ is a writer whose work often explores science fiction and feminist themes. You might know her from her contributions to the Dangerous Visions anthology series.

John Collier is the author of the collection Short Stories from the New Yorker. His work often explores dark humor and the uncanny.

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of Prentice Hall Literature--Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes--The American Experience. Her work often explores the American experience.

American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy,

Lucy Clifford is the author of The Color of Evil, a gripping thriller that will keep you guessing. If you enjoy suspenseful mysteries with a dark edge, you'll want to pick this one up.

Manly Wade Wellman was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy stories.

Michael Shea is the editor behind The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. He has a knack for finding the most compelling stories in the dark fantasy and horror genres.

Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–18), and of Eton College (1918–36). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–15). Though James's work as a medievalist and scholar is still highly regarded, he is best remembered for his ghost stories, which some regard as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the forma...

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history. Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged...

George Oliver Onions was born on 13 November 1873 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, UK, of humble parents. He studied art for three years in London at the National Arts Training Schools (now the Royal College of Art). His interests were motoring and science; and he was also an amateur boxer as a young man. On 1909, he married the also writer Berta Ruck (1878-1978), and they had two sons, Arthur (b. 1912) and William (b. 1913). On 1918, legally changed his name to George Oliver, but continued to p...

Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work during his lifetime was almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states. In his later works, Dick's thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology. He often drew upon his own life experiences and addressed t...

Ramsey Campbell (born in Liverpool) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. Two of his novels have been filmed, both for non-English-speaking markets. - Wikipedia

Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than five hundred published works -- short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse -- exemplify the American imagination at its most creative. Once read, his words are never forgotten. His best-known and most beloved books, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes, are masterworks that readers carry wi...

Richard Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey, the son of Norwegian immigrant parents. He was raised in Brooklyn and started writing at age eight. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He served as an infantry soldier in World War II. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1949. His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. Between 1950 and 1971, he wrote d...

Robert Aickman is the author of The Color of Evil, a chilling exploration of the uncanny. If you enjoy stories that linger long after you've turned the page, you'll find much to appreciate here.

Robert Albert Bloch was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of German-Jewish Americans. During the 1930s, he was an avid reader of Weird Tales magazine and H. P. Lovecraft in particular. He wrote to Lovecraft, who responded with advice on writing, and Bloch sold his first published short story, "The Feast in the Abbey" to Weird Tales when he was just seventeen. He continued to write for Weird Tales and went on to become one of its most popular authors, while also contributing to other magazine...

Robert Smythe Hichens is the author of the chilling novel The Dark Descent. He's known for his atmospheric and often unsettling tales. If you enjoy stories that linger long after you've finished them, you'll want to explore his work.

An American artist and author who wrote a great variety of novels. Not to be confused with [Raymond Wilson Chambers](http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL3653502A) (1874-1942).

Russell Kirk is the author of The Color of Evil, a chilling exploration of the darker side of human nature. He's known for his suspenseful thrillers that keep you guessing until the very end.

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (28 August 1814 – 7 February 1873), best known as Sheridan Le Fanu, was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are Uncle Silas, Carmilla, and The House by the Churchyard. **S...

Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer, known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Source: [Shirley Jackson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson) on Wikipedia.

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of over 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book (Animal Castle), and many poems. She also wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. She was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award (also known as the August Derleth Award), for her book Death's Master (1980). Source: Wikipedia

Theodore Sturgeon was born Edward Hamilton Waldo in Staten Island, New York. He changed his name in 1929, choosing Sturgeon to match his mother's surname after her second marriage, and "Theodore" to match his nickname, "Teddy." His mother, Christine Hamilton Dicker Sturgeon, was a well-educated writer, watercolorist, and poet who published journalism, poetry and fiction under the pseudonym Felix Sturgeon. As an adolescent, Sturgeon wanted to be a circus acrobat, but then had an episode of r...

Thomas M. Disch was a writer who explored science fiction and dark fantasy. His work, like The Vintage Book of Amnesia, often played with memory and identity. He was a sharp voice in speculative fiction.

Walter de la Mare was a poet, short-story writer and novelist, whose best-known work remains his poetry for children, though his ghost stories have long been highly regarded.

William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner