Happy Birthday to These 12 Horror Authors Born in January

January is a time for beginnings

New year. New resolutions. New births.

FearSome Fiction would like to wish everyone born in January a very happy birthday.

We’d like to particularly raise a glass and eat cake to celebrate the birthdays of the following 12 horror authors. This is obviously not every horror author who’s ever born in January.

Some of these authors won’t ever write any more stories, but that doesn’t matter. The legacy they’ve left is amazing.

And to those that will write more … we’re waiting.

Charles Beaumont

Happy birthday to Charles Beaumont who was born on 2 January 1929 in Chicago, USA.

Born Charles Leroy Nutt, Charles Beaumont was an American author best known for his short cautionary tales and some classic Twilight Zone episodes. During his writing career, he wrote short stories, screenplays, television scripts, comics, and non-fiction.

Seven interesting facts about Charles Beaumont

He dropped out of the tenth grade and joined the army, but only lasted three months before he was discharged with back problems.
He held a variety of jobs, including cartoonist, illustrator, disc jockey, usher, and dishwasher.
He wrote 72 stories before he sold his first one, The Devil, You Say?, which was published in January 1951 in Amazing Stories.
His September 1954 short story Black Country was the first piece of original fiction published by Playboy
He loved motor racing and he and some friends built a race car.
His pseudonyms included Keith Grantland, Charles McNutt, and E.T. Beaumont.
In 1963, he began to suffer from a mysterious disease that seemed to age him rapidly. Charles Beaumont died in California on 21 February 1967 at the age of 38.

A couple of Charles Beaumont books to check out

The Intruder (1959)

The Supreme Court has ordered an end to racially segregated schools, and folks in the predominantly white Southern town of Caxton are prepared to grudgingly comply with the ruling.

That is until Adam Cramer, a handsome and smooth-talking young man, arrives in town and begins to make incendiary speeches and stoke the flames of racial prejudice.

But Cramer is not what he seems. Who is he really, and what is the sinister truth behind his agenda? As tensions build and violence flares, it all leads to an explosive and disturbing conclusion.

Perchance to Dream: Selected Stories (2015)

A selection of stories, including seven that Beaumont later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes, with a foreword by Ray Bradbury and an afterword by William Shatner.

Ramsey Campbell

Happy birthday to Ramsey Campbell who was born on 4 January 1946 in Liverpool, England.

Ramsey Campbell is an award-winning British author of horror short stories and novels.

Seven interesting facts about Ramsey Campbell

His pen names include Carl Dreadstone, Jay Ramsay, Montgomery Comfort, and John R. Campbell.
His mother wrote novels and short stories but only managed to publish a few short stories in writer’s magazines.
His English teacher used to get him to read his stories to the class.
He wrote his first collection of sixteen stories and a poem at the age of 11 and submitted it to a number of publishers but it was rejected. This collection was published 30 years later, in 1987, as a special issue of Crypt of Cthulhu
He worked as a tax officer after he left school, and later as a library assistant and acting librarian in charge.
The Church in High Street was his first professionally-published story which appeared in Arkham House anthology Dark Mind, Dark Heart.
He’s collected no less than thirty awards over his writing career.

A couple of Ramsey Campbell books to check out

Alone with the Horrors (1993)

Nearly forty tales from the first thirty years of Campbell’s writing, including several award-winners.

Includes a lengthy preface which traces his early publication history, discusses his youthful correspondence with August Derleth, and illuminates the influence of H.P. Lovecraft on his work.

Fellstones (2022)

Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green.

It’s where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident for which he blames himself.

The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name.

Why were they obsessed with a strange song he seemed to have made up as a child?

Now their daughter Adele has found him.

By the time he discovers the cosmic truth about the stones, he may be trapped. There are other dark secrets he’ll discover, and memories to confront.

The Fellstones dream, but they’re about to waken.

Seanan McGuire

Happy birthday to Seanan McGuire who was born on 5 January 1978 in California, USA.

Seanan McGuire is an award-winning American author who writes speculative fiction short stories, novels, essays, and poetry.

Seven interesting facts about Seanan McGuire

Her pseudonyms include Mira Grant and A. Deborah Baker.
Despite her “almost magnetic attraction to anything venomous”, she’s still alive.
She worked at a reptile rescue organization before becoming a full-time writer.
In 2013, she received five Hugo nominations.
She’s a filker, which is a “musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan work” and has many CD recordings of her original filk music.
She’s a cartoonist.
Her Fifty Thoughts on Writing is a fantastic read for any aspiring writer.

A couple of Seanan McGuire’s books to check out

Into the Drowning Deep (2018)

Writing as Mira Grant.

Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a mockumentary bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a tragedy.

Now a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

InCryptid (12 book series)

The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity, and humanity from them.

Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, Verity Price would rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and she’s spending a year in Manhattan to pursue her dream career in professional ballroom dance.

That is, until talking mice, telepathic mathematicians, and a tangle with the Price family’s old enemies, the Covenant of St. George, get in her way.

R. Murray Gilchrist

Happy birthday to R. Murray Gilchrist who was born on 6 January 1867 in Sheffield, England.

Robert Murray Gilchrist was an English writer of decadent Gothic short fiction. He also wrote some non-fiction about the Peak District of north central England.

Seven interesting facts about R Murray Gilchrist

He never married and lived for most of his life with his mother and a male companion.
During World War 1, he assisted Belgian refugees, many of whom attended his funeral.
His first novel, Passion The Plaything, was published in 1890.
His first short story collection, The Stone Dragon and Other Tragic Romances (1894), was a collection of weird stories.
In his writing career, he churned out twenty-two novels, six short story collections, four non-fiction books, and a play (which was published after his death).
Some of his stories were republished in anthologies from the 1970s onwards.
R. Murray Gilchrist died of pneumonia on 9 April 1917 at the age of 50.

A couple of R. Murray Gilchrist books to check out

The Stone Dragon and Other Tragic Romances (1894)

Reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible.

A Night on the Moor & Other Tales of Dread (2006)

Collection of mystery and horror. If you are looking for a conventional horror story, in which the supernatural element is paramount, try The Crimson Weaver, Dame Inowslad, Witch In-Grain, or A Night on the Moor.

If you are more taken with the psychology of the participants, often allied to a fascination with the killing of friends or lovers, then Francis Shackerley, The Noble Courtesan, Althea Swathmore, and My Friend will be right up your street.

For humour we are offered the Peakland comedy of The Panicle or A Witch in the Peak.

And when it comes to love, there are the tragic and poignant tales – The Return, The Lost Mistress. The Madness of Betty Hooton – as well as the engaging and unusual Bubble Magic – a story of romantic betrayal which hints at a happy ending.

William Peter Blatty

Happy birthday to William Peter Blatty who was born on 7 January 1928 in New York City, USA.

William Peter Blatty was an award-winning American writer, director, and producer of comedy and horror. His best-known work is The Exorcist, for which he wrote both the novel and the screenplay.

Seven interesting facts about William Peter Blatty

After completing his Masters in English Literature, he sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door, drove a beer truck, and worked as a ticket agent for United Airlines, before enlisting in the United States Air Force. He reached the rank of Lieutenant in the Psychological Warfare Division.
His mother was very religious and earned money by selling homemade quince jelly on the streets of Manhattan. She once offered a jar of it to Franklin D Roosevelt.
He won $10,000 on the gameshow You Bet Your Life and told the host he was going to take time off to work on a novel. He used that time to write and publish The Exorcist.
The Exorcist was on the New York Time bestseller list for 57 weeks, 17 of them in the number 1 spot.
In 1973, following the release of the movie The Exorcist, there were reports of vomiting, fainting, and fits in cinemas worldwide.
In a 1999 interview, he said, “I have never read horror, nor do I consider The Exorcist to be such, but rather as a suspenseful supernatural detective story, or paranormal police procedural. As a boy I did read every ghost story ever written, along with all of P.G. Wodehouse, a balance of opposites that has continued in my work. Horror does not interest me, and so I know little of its practitioners, old or current.”
William Peter Blatty died on 12 January 2017 at the age of 89 from a type of blood cancer.

A couple of William Peter Blatty books to check out

The Exorcist (1971)

The terror begins unobtrusively. Noises in the attic. In the child’s room, an odd smell, the displacement of furniture, an icy chill. At first, easy explanations are offered.

Then frightening changes begin to appear in eleven-year-old Regan. Medical tests fail to shed any light on her symptoms, but it is as if a different personality has invaded her body.

Father Damien Karras, a Jesuit priest, is called in and exorcism seems to be the only answer.

The Ninth Configuration (1978)

Hidden away in a brooding Gothic manor in the deep woods is Center Eighteen, a secret military “rest camp” currently housing twenty-seven inmates. All are officers who have succumbed to a sudden outbreak of mental illness.

Have the men truly lost their minds, are they only pretending to be insane to avoid combat, or is some more sinister conspiracy at work?

Clark Ashton Smith

Happy birthday to Clark Ashton Smith who was born on 13 January 1893 in California, USA.

Clark Ashton Smith was an American artist, poet, and writer whose work aimed at deluding “the reader into accepting impossibility, or a series of impossibilities”.

Seven interesting facts about Clark Ashton Smith

He started writing around the age of 11 and by 14 had written a short adventure novel The Black Diamonds, which was lost but found again in 2002.
He suffered from intense agoraphobia among other psychological disorders.
He read a lot and had an eidetic memory.
He once read an unabridged dictionary, studying the etymology of the words as well as the definitions.
He and Lovecraft became friends and they each borrowed place names and god names for their work.
He stopped writing in 1937 for a while as he was affected by the deaths of people close to him over the previous years, including his parents, H. P. Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard.
Clark Ashton Smith died at the age of 68 on 14 August 1961 following a series of strokes.

A couple of Clark Ashton Smith books to check out

The Collected Fantasies (5 book series)

Published in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context.

Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S. Hilger excavated the still-existing manuscripts, letters and various published versions of the stories, creating a definitive “preferred text” for Smith’s entire body of work.

The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies (2014)

A collection of prose and poetry selected and introduced by supernatural literature scholar S. T. Joshi.

Thomas Tryon

Happy birthday to Thomas Tryon who was born on 14 January 1926 in Connecticut, USA.

Thomas Tryon was an American actor who turned to writing when he became disillusioned with acting. He wrote screenplays and horror, science fiction, and mystery fiction.

Seven interesting facts about Tom Tryon

His father was a clothing retailer and owned Stackpole, Moore & Tryon in Hartford, Connecticut.
He enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 17 and worked as a radio specialist during and after World War 2.
Before he started acting, he worked as a set painter and designer and assistant stage manager.
His best-known acting role was Texas John Slaughter in Disney’s TV western series of the same name. Seventeen episodes aired between 1958 and 1961.
In 1958, he starred in the low-budget sci-fi movie I Married a Monster from Outer Space.
The movie Rosemary’s Baby inspired him to write his first novel. The Other was published in 1971 and adapted into a movie in 1972.
Thomas Tryon died on 4 September 1991 at the age of 65. Although he was HIV-positive, the announced cause of death was stomach cancer.

A couple of Thomas Tryon books to check out

The Other (1971)

Tryon’s debut novel. Holland and Niles Perry are identical thirteen-year-old twins. They are close, close enough, almost, to read each other’s thoughts, but they couldn’t be more different. Holland is bold and mischievous, a bad influence, while Niles is kind and eager to please, the sort of boy who makes parents proud.

The Perrys live in the bucolic New England town their family settled centuries ago. The extended clan has gathered at its ancestral farm this summer to mourn the death of the twins’ father in an unfortunate accident.

Mrs. Perry hasn’t recovered from the shock of her husband’s gruesome end and stays in her room, leaving her sons to roam free. As the summer goes on, Holland’s pranks become increasingly sinister, and Niles finds he can no longer make excuses for his brother’s actions.

Harvest Home (1973)

After watching his asthmatic daughter suffer in the foul city air, Theodore Constantine decides to get back to the land. When he and his wife search New England for the perfect nineteenth-century home, they find the farming village of Cornwall Coombe where they begin a new life: simple, pure, close to nature.

When the Constantines win the friendship of the town matriarch, they are invited to join the ancient festival of Harvest Home, a ceremony whose quaintness disguises dark intentions.

In this bucolic hamlet, where bootleggers work by moonlight and all the villagers seem to share the same last name, the past is more present than outsiders can fathom. And something far more sinister than the annual harvest is about to rise out of the earth.

Benjamin Kane Ethridge

Happy birthday to Benjamin Kane Ethridge who was born on 16 January 1977 in California, USA.

Benjamin Kane Ethridge is an award-winning American horror and dark fantasy writer.

Seven interesting facts about Benjamin Kane Ethridge

His master’s thesis was titled ‘Causes of Unease: The Rhetoric of Horror Fiction and Film’.
He wanted to be a veterinarian but couldn’t stomach the thought of seeing animals suffer all the time.
He’s worked as a substitute teacher and an environmental compliance inspector.
The Wizard of Oz was the story that made him want to be a writer.
He wrote his first book, The Favored One, in middle school just to see if he could write an entire novel. It’s never been published.
He started submitting short stories when he was 19 and then stopped for a few years. He was still writing, just not submitting.
His first novel, Black & Orange, was published in 2010 and won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.

A couple of Benjamin Kane Ethridge books to check out

Black & Orange (2010)

Forget everything you know about Halloween. The stories are distortions. They were created to keep the Church of Midnight hidden from the world. Every October 31st a gateway opens to a hostile land of sacrificial magic and chaos.

Since the beginning of civilization, the Church of Midnight has attempted to open the gateway and unite with its other half, the Church of Morning. Each year they’ve come closer, waiting for the ideal sacrifice to open the gateway permanently.

This year that sacrifice has come. And only two can protect it. Martin and Teresa are the nomads, battle-hardened people who lack identity and are forever road-bound on an endless mission to guard the sacrifice. Their only direction is from notes left from a mysterious person called the Messenger. Endowed with a strange telekinetic power, the nomads will use everything at their disposal to make it through the night alive.

But matters have become even more complicated this year. Teresa has quickly lost ground battling cancer, while Martin has spiralled into a panic over being left alone. His mind may no longer be on the fight when it matters most, because ever on their heels is the insidious physical representation of a united church: Chaplain Cloth.

This House (2019)

When Joey Lodge sustains a severe brain trauma, his delusions take the form of an alien spirit that guides him in the creation of a haunted house.

He begins to populate the house with ghosts of his choosing, from family members to criminals, until the line between fantasy and reality blurs and even his delusions start fighting back.

As terror in the house ratchets up to a maddening pitch, the alien spirit has one shocking revelation still in store.

Graham Masterton

Happy birthday to Graham Masterton who was born on 16 January 1946 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Graham Masterton is an award-winning British writer of horror fiction.

Seven interesting facts about Graham Masterton

He trained as a newspaper reporter and was the editor of Mayfair and the British Penthouse
His first novel. The Manitou, was written in a week, published in 1976, and adapted into a movie in 1978.
His novel Family Portrait (aka Picture of Evil) is a reworking of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
In 2017, he set up the Nagroda Grahama Mastertona W Wiezieniu Pisane (Graham Masterton Written in Prison Award), a short story contest open to inmates in Poland’s prisons. This is now an annual event.
He’s published over one hundred novels so far, and that’s not counting his short stories, movie tie-ins, and sex ‘how to’ books.
His pseudonyms include Dr Jan Berghoff, Alan Blackwood, Thomas Luke, Anton Rimart, Angel Smith, Edward Thorne, and Katherine Winston.
Although he’s British, a lot of his novels are set in America.

A couple of Graham Masterton books to check out

The Manitou (1976)

Phony psychic and conman Harry Erskine never really believed in the occult until Karen Tandy approached him with a rapidly growing tumor on her neck, complaining of dark and disturbing dreams. When the mass is revealed by doctors to contain something living, the stakes skyrocket, not only for Karen and Harry but for all humanity.

Something terrible is returning from the shadows to which it has been confined for centuries: a Native American monstrosity determined to destroy every vestige of the white race that oppressed and preyed upon America’s Indians.

Unless a motley group of ill-prepared defenders can harness an ancient native magic, there will be no stopping the malevolent shaman’s terrible rebirth.

The House at Phantom Park (2022)

St Philomena’s military hospital has been abandoned for over three years. Now Lilian Chesterfield, who works for one of the most successful building companies in England, is in charge of developing it into a luxury housing complex.

But as soon as she and her colleagues start work in the Jacobean-style mansion, their dream turns into a nightmare. They hear screaming from wards full of empty beds. They hear doors slamming and find cutlery scattered over the kitchen floor. Then they see faces peering at them from the mullioned windows.

Lilian doesn’t believe in the supernatural. But just when she’s put her mind at rest by scouring the mansion from top to bottom and finding nothing, a former patient of St Philomena’s arrives with a warning. The hospital is haunted. And it is haunted by something a thousand times more terrifying than ghosts.

C. M. Eddy Jr.

Happy birthday to C. M. Eddy Jr. who was born on 18 January 1896 in Rhode Island, USA.

Clifford Martin Eddy Jr. was an American writer of horror, mystery, and supernatural short stories.

Seven interesting facts about CM Eddy Jr

He began writing short stories for pulp magazines, such as Weird Tales, Munsey’s Magazine, and Snappy Stories.
His wife said he “was always interested in the idea of parallel planes … the themes of teleportation, vampirism, ghosts and the mystery of unexplained phenomena” and “he spent hours in the library researching the unusual, the unique, the bizarre”.
He became friends with H.P. Lovecraft after their mothers, who were active in the women’s suffrage movement, introduced them.
He and Lovecraft edited each other’s work and Eddy’s wife, Muriel, typed many of Lovecraft’s manuscripts.
He was a theatrical booking agent for 25 years. He was also a proofreader, a clerk, and held the positions of secretary treasurer of the Rhode Island Theatrical Booking Agents’ Association, and president and treasurer of the Rhode Island Writers’ Guild.
His grandson set up Fenham Publishing in 2000 to publish his grandparents’ work.
M. Eddy Jr. died on 21 November 1967 aged 71.

A couple of C. M. Eddy Jr. books to check out

The Loved Dead and Other Tales (2008)

This collection of C.M. Eddy, Jr. short stories showcases his Weird Tales creations together with a variety of other tales.

These thirteen tales, taken from their original manuscripts, show the diversity and range that he displayed as an author.

The stories in this volume run the gamut from horror to detective mystery and the supernatural.

Many included here are the first time they have been reprinted since they graced the pages of the pulp magazines back in the early part of the 20th Century.

Exit Into Eternity: Tales of the Bizarre and Supernatural (2000)

This volume is a carefully chosen collection of five stories that reflect the close relationship between C. M. Eddy Jr. and H. P. Lovecraft.

Three of the stories in this book, “Pilgrimage of Peril”, “The Vengeful Vision”, and “A Solitary Solution”, were written during the Lovecraftian association.

A fourth “Miscreant from Murina”, was completed in 1951. The fifth story “Black Noon”, was started in 1967 but not completed before his death.

Edgar Allan Poe

Happy birthday to Edgar Allan Poe who was born on 19 January 1803 in Massachusetts, USA.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer of mystery and macabre, best known for his poetry and short stories.

Seven interesting facts about Edgar Allan Poe

His parents were both actors.
His father left the family in 1810 and his mother died in 1811. He then went to live with John and Francis Allan in Virginia, but they never formally adopted him.
In 1825, a rich uncle died and left him some valuable real estate in Richmond, Virginia.
He enlisted in the United States army under the assumed name Edgar A. Perry. He served for two years and attained the rank of Sergeant Major for Artillery. He later took up an appointment at West Point military academy but purposely got himself court-martialled so he could leave.
In 1836, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. She died of tuberculosis in 1847.
One of his pseudonyms was Henri Le Rennet and his first book was released as being “by a Bostonian”.
Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore on 7 October 1849. The circumstances leading up to his death are murky and his cause of death is disputed. He was found in a delirious state in a tavern, and he died four days later in the hospital. All medical records, including his death certificate, have been lost, or possibly never existed.

A couple of Edgar Allan Poe books to check out

The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe (2008)

Signet Classics.

Although best known for his short stories, Edgar Allan Poe was by nature and choice a poet. From his exquisite lyric “To Helen,” to his immortal masterpieces, “Annabel Lee,” “The Bells,” and “The Raven,” Poe stands beside the celebrated English romantic poets Shelley, Byron, and Keats, and his haunting, sensuous poetic vision profoundly influenced the Victorian giants Swinburne, Tennyson, and Rossetti.

Today his dark side speaks eloquently to contemporary readers in poems such as “The Haunted Palace” and “The Conqueror Worm,” with their powerful images of madness and the macabre. But even at the end of his life, Poe reached out to his art for comfort and courage, giving us in “Eldorado” a talisman to hold during our darkest moments.

The Portable Edgar Allan Poe (2006)

Penguin Classics.

A compilation of Poe’s tales of fantasy, terror, death, revenge, murder, and mystery, including “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” the world’s first detective story.

This volume also includes letters, articles, criticism, visionary poetry, and a selection of random “opinions” on fancy and the imagination, music and poetry, intuition, and sundry other topics.

JG Faherty

Happy birthday to JG Faherty who was born on 27 January 1961 in New York, USA.

JG Faherty is an award-winning American writer of horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy.

Seven interesting facts about JG Faherty

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology.
He has a resume preparation business, called A Perfect Resume, that he started in 1999.
He started writing in 2002 but only did short stories for a few years.
His first novel, Carnival of Fear, came from a dream he had about a carnival from Hell. The complete novel was laid out in front of him and it took him 10 days to write the first draft.
One Halloween he got kicked out of a party for wearing a costume that was too extreme. He was dressed as Jesus on a cross.
In college, he studied herpetology and at one point owned many venomous snakes.
He tried to write a novel in college, but he thought it was so bad he stopped writing, believing he could never match someone like Stephen King.

A couple of JG Faherty books to check out

Carnival of Fear (2010)

The Halloween carnival seemed like the perfect way to spend a Friday night, but when a group of teenagers find themselves trapped in the haunted mansion, they learn the awful truth about the carnival, and the demons that run it.

Now they’re trapped, fighting their way through a maze of torturous attractions where vampires, werewolves, aliens, and other monsters come to life, eager for human blood. As the body count rises, friendships are made and lost, and unlikely heroes emerge.

The Monster Inside (2014)

A collection of creepy, disturbing, shiver-inducing short stories ranging from dark psychological fiction and science fiction to downright horror.

Features fiction and poetry from early in JG Faherty’s career that is no longer available in print or on the web. It also contains several never-before-published pieces.

Published: 24 January 2023

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