- The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
Infobox Book
name = The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author = Jack Sullivan (editor)
country =United States
language = English
subject =Literature ;Horror fiction
genre = ReferenceEncyclopedia
publisher =Viking Press
release_date = 1986
media_type = 1Hardback Volume
pages = 482
isbn = ISBN 0-670-80902-0"The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural" is a
reference work onhorror fiction in the arts, edited by Jack Sullivan. The book was published in 1986 byViking Press .Editor Sullivan’s stated purpose in compiling the volume, as noted in his
Foreword to the book, was to serve as a “bringing together in one volume of thegenre ’s many practitioners and their contributions to the arts.” In addition toliterature and the art ofstorytelling , the book includes many entries onfilm ,music ,illustration ,architecture ,radio , andtelevision . The book contains over fifty majoressays and six hundred shorter entries coveringauthors ,composers ,film directors , andactor s, among other categories.More than sixty writers provided contributions to the book, including
Everett F. Bleiler , Timothy Sullivan,T. E. D. Klein ,Kim Newman ,Ramsey Campbell ,John Crowley .Thomas M. Disch ,Ron Goulart ,S. T. Joshi ,Darrell Schweitzer ,Whitley Streiber ,Colin Wilson , andDouglas E. Winter .Jacques Barzun provided the lengthy Introduction, “The Art and Appeal of the Ghostly and Ghastly”.In order to provide as broad as possible a study of fear, terror, and horror throughout the centuries, the book features numerous entries on “
mainstream ” artists who Sullivan notes “have dabbled in or plunged into horror”, such asCharles Baudelaire ,Thomas Hardy ,Henry James ,Franz Kafka ,Edith Wharton ,Sergei Prokofiev ,Charles Dickens ,Heinrich von Kleist ,Herman Melville ,Joyce Carol Oates ,Franz Liszt , Arnold Schönberg,William Butler Yeats , andIsaac Bashevis Singer , among others.Hundreds of genre author entries are provided, including:
William Beckford by E.F. Bleiler,Ambrose Bierce andAlgernon Blackwood by Jack Sullivan, Ramsey Campbell by Robert Hadji,Robert W. Chambers by T. E. D. Klein,James Herbert by Ramsey Campbell,Shirley Jackson by Sullivan,Stephen King by Don Herron,Arthur Machen by Klein,Ann Radcliffe byDevendra P. Varma , andPeter Straub by Patricia Skarda.Theme essays include: “
Arkham House ” by T. E. D. Klein, “The Continental Tradition” by Helen Searing, “English Romantic Poets” by John Calhoun, “Golden Age of the Ghost Story” by Jack Sullivan, “Illustration” by Robert Weinberg, “Opera ” by Arthur Paxton, “The Pits of Terror” by Ramsey Campbell, “The Pulps” by Ron Goulart, “Shakespeare’s Ghosts” by John Crowley, “Urban and Pastoral Horror” by Douglas E. Winter, and “Zombies ” by Hugh Lamb.Film and television related entries include: "
The Abominable Dr. Phibes ",Tod Browning ,Brian De Palma , "Eraserhead ", "Inferno",Boris Karloff , "Night of the Living Dead ",Roman Polanski , "Suspiria ", and "The Wolf Man".The book was reprinted in 1989 by
Random House .
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