American
short story writer and poet. One of the most prominent exponents
of classic weird fiction.
Thomas
Ligotti was born in 1953, a second-generation American of
predominately Sicilian heritage. Brought up a Roman Catholic,
Ligotti had rejected the doctrines of the church by his late
teens. After habitual use of drugs and alcohol in the late 1960s,
he suffered the onset of a lifelong chronic anxiety-panic disorder
in August 1970. The following year he graduated from Grosse Pointe
North High School.
Ligotti
began to write fiction in college. He was awarded a BA degree in
English from Wayne State University (Detroit) in 1978. Around this
time he began submitting horror tales to Arkham House Publishers,
but they were all rejected as unsuitable.
Ligotti
found employment at the Literary Criticism Division of Gale
Research Company (now Thomson Gale) in 1979. His first published
story, "The Chymist" appeared in Nyctalops # 16, March 1981. During 1983
Ligotti attended the World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada.
At the time, he was relatively unknown as a writer, but throughout
the 1980s many more of his stories were published in small press
journals and his reputation grew among aficionados of weird
fiction, culminating in the landmark volume Songs of a Dead
Dreamer from
Silver Scarab Press in 1985. A revised and expanded volume of this
book, featuring substantially different contents, was published in
the UK as a trade paperback in 1989 and in the United States the
following year in hardcover. Two further major collections of
stories, Grimscribe (1991) and Noctuary (1994) enjoyed simultaneous publication on both
sides of the Atlantic. A selection from all three collections
followed in 1996 under the title The Nightmare
Factory,
which also included six new stories.
In 1997,
Ligotti's In a
Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land saw print, and this heralded
the beginning of his association with David Tibet's band Current
93. Tibet's Durtro Press subsequently issued three chapbooks of
Ligotti's poems I Have a Special Plan for This
World (2000),
This
Degenerate Little Town (2001), Death Poems (2004) and his screenplay Crampton (2003-co-written with Brandon
Trenz). Ligotti left his job of twenty-three years during 2001 and
subsequently began working as a freelance writer and editor.
Shortly afterwards he moved from the Detroit area to the Gulf
coast of Florida to be near his family. The year 2003 also saw the
appearance of Ligotti's longest work to date, the short novel
My Work is Not
Yet Done from
Mythos Books in the United States.
Ligotti's
new short stories often appear in Weird Tales magazine, and he continues to
feature regularly in prestigious book anthologies.
Mark
Samuels
Short Stories
Songs of a Dead Dreamer, Silver Scarab Press
(Albuquerque, N.M.), 1985
Limited
edition of 300 trade paperback copies [no hardcovers recorded.]
Illustrated by Harry O. Morris. Includes: "Introduction" by Ramsey
Campbell, Here and There: "The Frolic", "Les Fleurs", "Aunt Elise:
A Tale of Possession in Old Grosse Pointe", "Drink to Me Only with
Labyrinthine Eyes", "Alice's Last Adventure", "Dream of a
Mannikin, or the Third Person", "The Troubles of Dr. Thoss",
Elsewhere: "Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech", "The Greater Festival of
Masks", Tales Retold: "Three Scientists" ["One Thousand Painful
Variations Performed upon Divers Creatures Undergoing the
Treatment of Dr. Moreau, Humanist", "The Excruciating Final Days
of Dr. Henry Jekyll, Englishman", and "The Agonizing Resurrection
of Victor Frankenstein, Citizen of Geneva"], "Two Immortals" ["The
Heart of Count Dracula, Descendent of Attila, Scourge of God", and
"The Insufferable Salvation of Lawrence Talbot the Wolfman"],
"Leading Men" ["The Unbearable Rebirth of the Phantom of the Wax
Museum", and "The Intolerable Lesson of the Phantom of the
Opera"], Nowhere: "Professor Nobody's Little Lectures on
Supernatural Horror", "Notes on the Writing of Horror: A
Story".]
Songs of a Dead Dreamer, Robinson, 1989
(A different
selection to the above, includes: "Introduction", by Ramsey
Campbell, "The Frolic", "Les Fleurs", "Alice's Last Adventure",
"Dream of a Mannikin, or the Third Person", "The 'Chymist", "Drink
to Me Only with Labyrinthine Eyes", "Eye of the Lynx", "Notes on
the Writing of Horror: A Story", "The Christmas Eves of Aunt
Elise", "The Lost Art of Twilight", "The Troubles of Dr. Thoss",
"Masquerade of a Dead Sword", "Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech", "Professor
Nobody's Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror", "Dr. Locrian's
Asylum", "The Sect of the Idiot [Azathoth]", "The Greater Festival
of Masks", "The Music of the Moon", "The Journal of J.P. Drapeau",
"Vastarien".)
Grimscribe: His Lives and Works, Carroll &
Graf, 1991
(Including:
"Introduction", "The Last Feast of Harlequin", "The Spectacles in
the Drawer", "Flowers of the Abyss", "Nethescurial", "The Dreaming
in Nortown", "The Mystics of Muelenburg", "In the Shadow of
Another World", "The Cocoons", "The Night School", "The Glamour",
"The Library of Byzantium", "Miss Plarr", "The Shadow at the
Bottom of the World".)
ditto, Robinson (London), 1991
The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein
and Other Gothic Tales, Silver Salamander Press,
1994
(Includes:
"Introduction: Good-Tom-Go-Lightly" by Michael Shea, "One Thousand
Painful Variations Performed Upon Divers Creatures Undergoing the
Treatment of Dr. Moreau, Humanist", "The Excruciating Final Days
of Dr. Henry Jekyll, Englishman", "The Agonizing Resurrection of
Victor Frankenstein, Citizen of Geneva", "The Heart of Count
Dracula, Descendant of Attila, Scourge of God", "The Insufferable
Salvation of Lawrence Talbot the Wolfman", "The Intolerable Lesson
of the Phantom of the Opera", "The Unbearable Rebirth of the
Phantom of the Wax Museum", "The Perilous Legacy of Emily St.
Aubert, Inheritress of Udolpho", "The Eternal Devotion of the
Governess to the Residents of Bly", "The Unnatural Persecution, by
a Vampire, of Mr. Jacob J.", "The Superb Companion of André
de V., Anti-Pygmalion", "The Ever-Vigilant Guardians of Secluded
Estates", "The Scream: from 1800 to the Present", "The Transparent
Alias of William Wilson, Sportsman and Scoundrel", "The Worthy
Inmate of the Will of the Lady Ligeia", "The Interminable
Residence of the Friends of the House of Usher", "The Fabulous
Alienation of the Outsider, Being of No Fixed Abode", "The
Blasphemous Enlightenment of Prof. Francis Wayland Thurston of
Boston, Providence, and the Human Race", "The Premature Death of
H. P. Lovecraft, Oldest Man in New England".)
Noctuary, Robinson (London),
1994
(Including:
"In the Night, in the Dark", Part One: Studies in Shadow: "The
Medusa", "Conversations in a Dead Language", "The Prodigy of
Dreams", "Mrs. Rinaldi's Angel", Part Two: Discourse on Blackness:
"The Tsalal", "Mad Night of Atonement", "The Strange Design of
Master Rignolo", "The Voice in the Bones", Part Three: Notebook of
the Night" "The Master's Eyes Shining with Secrets", "Salvation by
Doom", "New Faces in the City", "Autumnal", "One May Be Dreaming",
"Death without End", "The Unfamiliar", "The Career of Nightmares",
"The Physic", "The Demon Man", "The Puppet Masters", "The Spectral
Estate", "Primordial Loathing", "The Nameless Horror", "Invocation
to the Void", "The Mocking Mystery", "The Interminable Equation",
"The Eternal Mirage", "The Order of Illusion".)
The Nightmare Factory, Raven, 1996
(Contains
the collection Grimscribe (1991), selections from Songs of a Dead
Dreamer (1986) and Noctuary (1994); and new stories. Includes:
"Foreword" by Poppy Z. Brite, "Introduction: The Consolations of
Horror", Part I: from Songs of a Dead Dreamer: "The Frolic", "Les
Fleurs", "Alice's Last Adventure", "Dream of a Mannikin", "The
'Chymist", "Drink to Me Only with Labyrinthine Eyes", "Eye of the
Lynx", "The Christmas Eves of Aunt Elise: A Tale of Possession in
Old Grosse Pointe", "The Lost Art of Twilight", "The Troubles of
Dr. Thoss", "Masquerade of a Dead Sword: A Tragedie", "Dr. Voke
and Mr. Veech", "Dr. Locrian's Asylum", "The Sect of the Idiot
[Azathoth]", "The Greater Festival of Masks", "The Music of the
Moon", "The Journal of J.P. Drapeau", "Vastarien", Part 2:
Grimscribe: "Grimscribe: His Lives and Works", "The Last Feast of
Harlequin", "The Spectacles in the Drawer", "Flowers of the
Abyss", "Nethescurial", "The Dreaming in Nortown", "The Mystics of
Muelenburg", "In the Shadow of Another World", "The Cocoons", "The
Night School", "The Glamour", "The Library of Byzantium", "Miss
Plarr", "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World", Part 3: from
Noctuary: "The Medusa", "Conversations in a Dead Language", "The
Prodigy of Dreams", "Mrs. Rinaldi's Angel", "The Tsalal", "Mad
Night of Atonement", "The Strange Design of Master Rignolo", "The
Voice in the Bones", Part 4: Teatro Grottesco and other tales:
"Teatro Grottesco", "Severini", "Gas Station Carnivals", "The
Bungalow House", "The Clown Puppet", "The Red Tower".)
ditto, Carroll & Graf (New York), 1991
In A Foreign Town, In a Foreign
Land, Durtro (London), 1997
(With cd.
Including: "His Shadow Shall Rise to a Higher House", "The Bells
Will Sound Forever", "A Soft Voices Whispers Nothing", "When You
Hear the Singing, You Will Know It Is Time".)
I Have A Special Plan For This
World, Durtro (London), 2000
(With
cd.)
This Degenerate Little Town, Durtro (London),
2001
(With
cd.)
My Work Is Not Yet Done, Mythos Books, 20002
(Contains:
"The Wages of
Life: My Work
is Not Yet Done", "The Second Coming of the Dead: I Have a Special Plan for
this World", "Going Out Of Business: The Nightmare
Network".)
TV Play
Crampton, Durtro (London), 2002
(written with Brandon Trenz).
(Paperback,
with cd "The Unholy City)
Poetry
Death Poems, Durtro (London), 2002
Please click
on the index to access authors by surname:
