John Pelan
Encyclopedia
John C. Pelan is an American author
, editor
and publisher
in the small press
science-fiction, weird
and horror fiction
genres.
He first founded Axolotl Press
in 1986 and published several volumes by authors such as Tim Powers
, Charles de Lint
, Michael Shea
and James P. Blaylock. Following this, he founded Darkside Press, Silver Salamander Press and co-founded Midnight House. Darkside Press printed classics of Science Fiction, Midnight House published classic horror fiction (including
Charles Birkin
, Jane Rice
and R. R. Ryan
) and Silver Salamander Press was devoted to new works of modern horror, but all three have been inactive since 2006.
Pelan has edited over two dozen single-author collections and novels by such authors as Russell Kirk
, Violet Hunt
and Fritz Leiber
for various publishers including Ash-Tree Press. He is currently working on assembling collections by, Uel Key
, Daniel F. Galouye
and Richard B. Gamon. He is also the editor of several "new fiction" anthologies, including Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium, The Devil Is Not Mocked, The Last Continent: New Tales of Zothique, The Children of Cthulhu and the Bram Stoker Award
-winning The Darker Side.
Pelan's short stories have appeared in Carpe Noctem, The Urbanite, Enigmatic Tales, and on-line at Gothic.net and Horrorfind.com. His first novella, the Lovecraftian work The Colour Out of Darkness, was published by Cemetery Dance Publications
.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
and publisher
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
in the small press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
science-fiction, weird
Weird fiction
Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction written in the late 19th and early 20th century. It can be said to encompass the ghost story and other tales of the macabre. Weird fiction is distinguished from horror and fantasy in that it predates the niche marketing of genre fiction...
and horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
genres.
He first founded Axolotl Press
Pulphouse Publishing
Pulphouse Publishing was an American small press publisher based in Eugene, Oregon and specializing in science fiction and fantasy. It was founded by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch in 1988. The press was active until 1996...
in 1986 and published several volumes by authors such as Tim Powers
Tim Powers
Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
, Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and folk musician. He is also the chief book critic for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction....
, Michael Shea
Michael Shea
Michael Shea is an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author living in California. He is a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award.-Life and work:...
and James P. Blaylock. Following this, he founded Darkside Press, Silver Salamander Press and co-founded Midnight House. Darkside Press printed classics of Science Fiction, Midnight House published classic horror fiction (including
Charles Birkin
Charles Birkin
Sir Charles Lloyd Birkin, 5th Baronet was an English author of horror short stories and the editor of the Creeps Library of anthologies...
, Jane Rice
Jane Rice
Jane Dixon Rice was an American science fiction and horror writer.Her science fiction debut was with "The Dream" in the July 1940 issue of Unknown, edited by the legendary sf editor John W. Campbell. She published a number of other stories in Unknown...
and R. R. Ryan
R. R. Ryan
R R. Ryan, a pseudonym of Evelyn Bradley , was the author of twelve published horror/thriller novels.-Identity:There can be few authors in the horror–thriller genre as elusive as R. R. Ryan. Until recently no biographical details about this author were known. Interest in the work of R. R...
) and Silver Salamander Press was devoted to new works of modern horror, but all three have been inactive since 2006.
Pelan has edited over two dozen single-author collections and novels by such authors as Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...
, Violet Hunt
Violet Hunt
Isobel Violet Hunt was a British author and literary hostess. Her father was the artist Alfred William Hunt, her mother the novelist and translator Margaret Raine Hunt. Her younger sister Venetia married the designer William Arthur Smith Benson .-Biography:Hunt was born in Durham; the family moved...
and Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
for various publishers including Ash-Tree Press. He is currently working on assembling collections by, Uel Key
Uel Key
Uel Key was the pseudonym of British author Samuel Whittell Key , who wrote short stories regarding Prof. Arnold Rhymer, the Spook Specialist. These tales appeared in Pearson's Magazine in 1917 and 1918 and were later collected in The Broken Fang and Other Experiences of a Specialist in Spooks . A...
, Daniel F. Galouye
Daniel F. Galouye
Daniel Francis Galouye was an American science fiction writer. During the 1950s and 1960s, he contributed novelettes and short stories to various digest size science fiction magazines, sometimes writing under the pseudonym Louis G...
and Richard B. Gamon. He is also the editor of several "new fiction" anthologies, including Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium, The Devil Is Not Mocked, The Last Continent: New Tales of Zothique, The Children of Cthulhu and the Bram Stoker Award
Bram Stoker Award
The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association for "superior achievement" in horror writing. The awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA...
-winning The Darker Side.
Pelan's short stories have appeared in Carpe Noctem, The Urbanite, Enigmatic Tales, and on-line at Gothic.net and Horrorfind.com. His first novella, the Lovecraftian work The Colour Out of Darkness, was published by Cemetery Dance Publications
Cemetery Dance Publications
Cemetery Dance Publications is a specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with Cemetery Dance magazine, which was founded in 1988. They began to publish books in 1992.Cemetery...
.
Short stories
- "The Piano Player Has No Fingers" co-authored with Edward LeeEdward LeeEdward Lee may refer to:* Edward Lee , American horror writer* Edward Lee , Archbishop of York, 1531–1544...
and published in Palace Corbie #7 (19971997 in literatureThe year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a...
) - "Genesis Revisited" published in Palace Corbie #7 (19971997 in literatureThe year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a...
) - "Girl's Night Out" co-authored with Edward Lee and published in Brutarian #23 (19971997 in literatureThe year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a...
) - "The Case of the Police Officer's Cock Ring and The Piano Player Who Had No Fingers", co-authored with Edward Lee, Dark Raptor Press (19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
) - "Stillborn" co-authored with Edward Lee and published in Imagination Fully Dilated, editors Alan M. ClarkAlan M. ClarkAlan Marshall Clark is an author and an artist who is best known as the illustrator and book cover painter of many pieces of horror fiction. He was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel for his 2005 book Siren Promised .He has won the World Fantasy Award for his illustrations ,...
& Elizabeth EngstromElizabeth EngstromElizabeth Engstrom is best known as a speculative fiction writer. She was born Bette Lynn Gutzmer, but she legally changed her name to Elizabeth Engstom a few years after publishing her first novel under that pseudonym. She is married to Al Cratty, and sometimes writes under the name Liz Cratty as...
(Cemetery Dance PublicationsCemetery Dance PublicationsCemetery Dance Publications is a specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with Cemetery Dance magazine, which was founded in 1988. They began to publish books in 1992.Cemetery...
, 19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
) - "TV Eye" published in Nasty Piece of Work #10 (19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
) - "Twins" published in The Urbanite #10 (19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
)
Novels
- Goon co-authored with Edward Lee, Necro Publications (19951995 in literatureThe year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....
)
- Goon co-authored with Edward Lee, The Overlook Connection (20032003 in literatureThe year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell Tales*Atsuko Asano - No...
)- Shifters co-authored with Edward Lee, Obsidian Books,(19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
) - Splatterspunk: The Micah Hayes Stories co-authored with Edward Lee, Sideshow Press (19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
) - An Antique Vintage, The Gargadillo Press (19991999 in literatureThe year 1999 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*June 19 - Stephen King is hit by a Dodge van while taking a walk. He spends the next three weeks hospitalized...
) - The Colour Out of Darkness, Cemetery Dance PublicationsCemetery Dance PublicationsCemetery Dance Publications is a specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with Cemetery Dance magazine, which was founded in 1988. They began to publish books in 1992.Cemetery...
(20042004 in literatureThe year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation....
)
- Shifters co-authored with Edward Lee, Obsidian Books,(1998
Anthologies edited
- Axolotl Special 1, Axolotl PressPulphouse PublishingPulphouse Publishing was an American small press publisher based in Eugene, Oregon and specializing in science fiction and fantasy. It was founded by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch in 1988. The press was active until 1996...
(19891989 in literatureThe year 1989 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.-Literature:...
) - Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium, Darkside Press (19951995 in literatureThe year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....
)
- Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium, Penguin BooksPenguin BooksPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
(19971997 in literatureThe year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a...
)- The Last Continent: New Tales of Zothique, Shadowlands Press (19991999 in literatureThe year 1999 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*June 19 - Stephen King is hit by a Dodge van while taking a walk. He spends the next three weeks hospitalized...
) - The Children of Cthulhu co-edited with Benjamin Adams, Del Rey BooksDel Rey BooksDel Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy...
(20022002 in literatureThe year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic...
) - The Darker Side: Generations of Horror, Penguin Books (20022002 in literatureThe year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic...
) - Shadows Over Baker StreetShadows Over Baker StreetShadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! is an anthology of stories, each by a different author and each concerning an exploit of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes set against the backdrop of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos...
co-edited with Michael ReavesMichael ReavesJames Michael Reaves is an American writer, known for his contributions as producer and story editor to a number of 1990s animated television series, including Disney's Gargoyles and Batman: The Animated Series. He has also written media tie-in novels, children's books, and original fiction...
, Del Rey Books (20032003 in literatureThe year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell Tales*Atsuko Asano - No...
) - Lost on the Darkside, Roc Books (20052005 in literatureThe year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation....
)
- The Last Continent: New Tales of Zothique, Shadowlands Press (1999