What Do I Read Next? Review: The Evolution of the Weird Tale By S. T. Joshi

By Neil Barron

S. T. Joshi is one of the major critics of weird/supernatural/horror fiction, especially of the works of H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), who's attracted a cult following. Joshi's latest book is The Evolution of the Weird Tale (Hippocampus Press, Box 641, NY 10156, 2004, $15 trade paper, 216 p.). Joshi has explored this territory before in The Weird Tale (1990), which focuses on Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, M. R. James and Ambrose Bierce. The Modern Weird Tale (2001) covers contemporary writers such as Shirley Jackson, William Peter Blatty, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub and Anne Rice.

This latest book reprints and revises a number of specialty magazine essays and some book introductions. His subjects range from American and British writers of the "golden age" (roughly 1890 to 1930), including Robert W. Chambers, F. Marion Crawford, Kipling, E. F. Benson and L. P. Hartley. Lovecraft is discussed in moderate detail along with those he strongly influenced, such as Frank Belknap Long, Robert Bloch and Fritz Leiber. Contemporary writers discussed include Rod Serling, L. P. Davies, Les Daniels, Dennis Etchison, David J. Schow and Poppy Z. Brite.

Joshi is a stern critic, dismissing as meretricious most of the work of the "splatterpunks" and trendy writers like Brite. Libraries owning works by the better writers Joshi discusses with insight and, generally, fairness, could broaden the horizons of weird/horror fiction readers with this inexpensive and clearly written survey.