Horror as a genre is rather new in terms of the age of the world’s literature scene, only coming into the light when a teenage girl by the name of Mary Shelley became “the Mother of Horror” in 1818. Since then, this genre has grown immensely, has paved the way for dozens of subgenres, and has even influenced and inspired Science Fiction.
1. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) – The Mother of Horror
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin met the young romantic poet Percy Shelley at a very young age, and they soon fell in love. While Percy Shelley was already married and had two children, this did not stop the two from running off together.
In 1816, Shelley and his writer friends decided to put on a writing competition due to the weather being too awful to do much else. The theme of the game was ghost stories and Mary decided to participate herself. Mary, having a fascination with death after losing her mother and first-born child, decided to write about a scientist who she had once seen in a dream. Though at first a short story, Percy insisted she expand her idea into a full-length novel, and in 1818 Mary Shelley published Frankenstein anonymously.
After creating two more editions and adding her name, Mary Shelley became known as the Mother of Horror. Her work was the foundation of horror as we know it today. If you have not read Frankenstein, I highly suggest it. The adaptations do not convey the intense emotion and underlying themes of this classic novel.
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2. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) – Master of Macabre
After losing his parents as a toddler, Edgar Poe was taken in by John Allan, who never truly adopted or accepted his foster son. While enrolling Poe in the best schooling, he did not give him the proper funds to continue studying at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. After dropping out, Poe joined the army and eventually was honorably discharged at the rank of regimental sergeant major and was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Again, Allan refused to fund Poe’s schooling, but also refused to give the permission needed to withdraw. To gain dismissal, Poe neglected duties and began breaking rules.
All while this was going on, Poe was publishing poems, but they gained very little popularity. After being dismissed from the Military Academy, Poe began working on short stories. These were much more popular than his first couple collections of poetry and one of his short stories won a prize for best story in the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. After Allan’s death, Poe became the editor of The Southern Literary Messenger. This was just the beginning in establishing himself as a talented poet and writer as well as a literary critique.
One of the things Poe was most well-known for was his love of psychological horror, giving him the title of the Master of the Macabre. Some of his most iconic works include “The Raven,” The Cask of Amontillado, and The Fall of the House of Usher. He is also credited for helping pioneer Science Fiction and the development of modern detective stories.
3. H.P. Lovecraft (1890- 1937) – Creator of Cthulhu
Like Shelley and Poe, H.P. Lovecraft had a tough childhood. His father was diagnosed with a mental disorder after suffering from syphilis and lived out the remainder of his life in the hospital. Lovecraft, being sickly himself, was homeschooled until high school, at which point he had a breakdown that caused him to drop out. He was a recluse for many years, locked away reading and studying on his own.
After publishing a few astronomy articles in several newspapers, Lovecraft became a journalist. He soon launched his own magazine in which he published his own essays. In 1917, he became serious about fiction. His work was influenced by an Irish fantasy author, Lord Dunsany, and Edgar Allen Poe. These short stories were purchased by a horror magazine called Weird Tales. After his wife’s death, Lovecraft brought to light some of his most popular works, one of which was “The Call of Cthulu.”
Unlike Shelley and Poe, Lovecraft didn’t gain the fame he deserved until after his death in 1937. Leaving behind dozens of short stories and a couple of novels, his work was promoted and preserved by the Arkham House publishing company which was opened and maintained by his close friends August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. H.P. Lovecraft’s style and worlds have inspired and paved the way for many and, even today, “The Call of Cthulu” is a cult classic.
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4. Stephen King (1947) – King of Film Adaptations
Stephen King was born in Maine and lived there for a majority of his of his life. His parents separated when he was a toddler, and he and his siblings were raised by his mother. His mother would eventually take in her elderly parents.
King graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Maine at Orono. During college, King wrote for the school newspaper and established his support for the anti-war movement. After graduating, he was drafted, but they found that he was unfit for the military due to medical reasons. He met his wife at the university library where they both worked, and they got married in 1971. During this time, he began selling his short stories to men’s magazines. He eventually started teaching high school and wrote novels in his spare time.
In 1973, Carrie was accepted by Doubleday & Co. and was published in 1974. This marked the beginning of King’s immense popularity. Today, Stephen King has published 58 novels, a couple hundred short stories, and a few nonfiction books. Some of his most popular works include The Shining,It, and Pet Semetary.
King is also known for his insane number of movie adaptations. In 2011, The Slate composed a list of authors with the most film and television adaptations, with number one being William Shakespeare with 831. Stephen King was ranked at #18 with 127 adaptations in total. In 2017, Lit Hub published a list comprised of currently living writers. They had a stricture set of rules, however, for their calculation: only theatrical releases (no TV movies), sequels without coinciding text didn’t count, and they were only counting authors that wrote in English. Lit Hub found King ranked #1 with 34 adaptations, followed by Nicholas Sparks with 11.
While I found a lot of this information from an array of sources, here are a few that were the most helpful if you are interested in finding out more:
https://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein/MShelley/bio
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edgar-allan-poe
https://www.stephenking.com/the_author.html
https://www.biography.com/people/hp-lovecraft-40102