15 Best Horror Authors: Dead and Alive
Looking for a good scare? Check out this list celebrating some of horror fiction’s most well-known authors.
“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”
—Stephen King
Horror fiction has captured hearts for centuries, from listeners hearing folktales to readers of modern-day horror stories. These frightening tales can revolve around ghosts, monsters, and other killers stalking their way through hellraiser plots.
Today, we look at some of the best horror authors. Looking for a good scare? Check out this list celebrating some of horror fiction’s most well-known and beloved authors. These writers named in this video from Become a Writer Today will send a shiver up your spine and leave you reeling for days (if not weeks on end).
Whether you’re looking for a classic ghost story or real-life serial killer scares, these 15 authors are can keep you up at night and may even leave you rattled during the day.
Don’t just watch the video! Scroll down to find more info about each of the authors below the video. We’ve got details and links for further reading about Stephen King, Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, Clive Barker, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Matheson, Peter Straub, Ray Bradbury, Dan Simmons, Daphne Du Maurier, and Jack Ketchum.
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15 Best Horror Authors: Alive and Dead | Become A Writer Today
15 Best Horror Authors: Alive and Dead according to Become A Writer Today
Find more info about each of the authors below…
More authors listed here:
#1 Stephen King
The author of such popular horror novels as The Stand and The Shining and ’Salem’s Lot (not to mention the epic Dark Towers series) and SO MANY MORE, Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories.
In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers.
King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts. Stephen lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to a number of charities including many libraries and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.
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#2 Bram Stoker
Irish author Bram Stoker (1847-1912) is best-known for writing the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. His other horror fiction also included the mummy novel The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), as well as The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).
In his life, he was the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre, which Irving owned. Stoker worked as a theatre critic for an Irish newspaper, and wrote stories as well as commentaries. He died in 1912 due to locomotor ataxia and was cremated in north London.
His novel Dracula is, of course, one of the most influential works in English literature. The novel has been adapted lots of times—in fact, the character of Dracula has been done hundreds of times, making him one of (if not the) most adapted figure of all time.
More about Bram Stoker online:
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#3 Shirley Jackson
One of the most brilliant and influential authors of the twentieth century, Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) is widely acclaimed for her stories and novels of the supernatural, including the well-known short story “The Lottery” and the best-selling novel The Haunting of Hill House.
Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco on December 14, 1916, and began writing poetry and short stories as a young teen. Her first novel, The Road Through The Wall, was published in 1948.
That same year The New Yorker published Jackson’s iconic story, “The Lottery,” which generated the largest volume of mail ever received by the magazine—before or since—almost all of it hateful. “The Lottery” has since been published in dozens of languages, and is still required reading in U.S. high schools. It is possibly the most well-known short story of the 20th Century.
In 1951 Jackson’s succession of Gothic novels began with the publication of Hangsaman, and her “The Summer People” was chosen for Best American Short Stories.
In 1952, “The Lottery” had its first of several adaptations for television. Jackson continued to be a prolific writer of short stories for popular magazines. “The Lottery” was adapted for stage. In 1959 came The Haunting of Hill House, her best-known novel, generally regarded as the “quintessential haunted house tale.” That novel has twice been adapted for feature films.
In 1961 Jackson received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for “Louisa, Please,” one of the few such awards she ever received during her lifetime. The following year her best-selling novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle was included in the year’s “Ten Best Novels” by Time Magazine.
In 1963, director Robert Wise released The Haunting, the first film adaptation of Jackson’s novel, to superb reviews.
In 1965 Jackson was awarded the Arents Pioneer Medal for Outstanding Achievement from Syracuse University, but illness prevented her from attending. On August 8, at the age of 48, Shirley Jackson died unexpectedly of heart failure during her usual afternoon nap.
The following year came the first of two posthumous anthologies, The Magic of Shirley Jackson, a collection of short stories and three previously-published novels. This was followed in 1968 by Come Along With Me, the unfinished novel that Jackson was working on at the time of her death, along with sixteen short stories and three lectures.
Years later, in 1997, two of Jackson’s children edited Just An Ordinary Day, a collection of many of Jackson’s previously unpublished or uncollected short stories, which received near-unanimous great praise.
More about Shirley Jackson online
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#4 Clive Barker
Clive Barker is a man of astonishing creativity—novelist, director, screenwriter and dramatist—who has taken the worlds of the fantastique and horror and made them his own. Born in Liverpool in 1952, Barker studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University before moving to London.
Barker began writing horror early in his career with short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1–6) and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). His fiction also includes The Hellbound Heart (1986), the classic tale of supernatural obsession that inspired the cult classic film Hellraiser, as well as the modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), and the world-spanning Imajica (1991).
Running parallel with his publishing successes is a flourishing career as a film-maker. Barker’s directorial debut, HELLRAISER, touched new heights of horror and earned him world-wide recognition.
More about Clive Barker online:
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#5 Dean Koontz
Dean Koontz is the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, including suspense thrillers that frequently touch on elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and satire. His books include The House at the End of the World, From the Corner of His Eye, After Death, The Big Dark Sky, the Odd Thomas series, By the Light of the Moon, and the Frankenstein series.
He lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirits of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
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#6 Anne Rice
Anne Rice (1941-2021) wrote gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature. Best known for her series of novels The Vampire Chronicles, Rice’s fiction also includes the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, the Wolf Gift Chronicles series, her Ramses the Damned mummy series, her religious Christ the Lord books, Servant of the Bones (also adapted into a graphic novel), and Exit to Eden.
One of the best-selling authors of modern times, Rice’s books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. Her books have been adapted into films and TV shows over the years. Her Vampire Chronicles books have been adapted to the screen, including the AMC TV shows Interview With the Vampire and Mayfair Witches. There have also been the movies Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Queen of the Damned (2002), and Exit to Eden (1994).
Rice was born in New Orleans in 1941 and grew up there and in Texas. She lived in San Francisco with her husband, the poet and painter, Stan Rice until 1988, when they returned to New Orleans to live with their son, Christopher. Anne and her son Chris co-wrote several books. She died in 2021.
More about Anne Rice online:
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#7 Edgar Allan Poe
An American writer, poet, and critic—and one of the country’s earliest writers of the short story—Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) has influenced literature in the United States and around the world. He is best remembered for his mysteries and his macabre fiction and poetry.
His important creepy stories include “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” The Masque of the Red Death, The Oval Portrait, “The Premature Burial,” “The Man of the Crowd, ” and “The Black Cat.” They are included in this collection: Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems
Poe actually invented the detective fiction genre. His 1841 short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” considered to be the first modern detective story, starred detective C. Auguste Dupin solving the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. That was followed by “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” with Poe writing a detective story driven by a real-life murder investigation. This was followed by a third Dupin mystery, “The Purloined Letter,” which Poe considered the best of his “tales of ratiocination.” The three books are included in this collection: C. Auguste Dupin Collection (Illustrated): The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter
Poe was also a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction. Examples include “The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfall” and “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.”
The first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, Poe suffered a financially difficult life and career. When he died, he left his legacy behind to another author who, sadly, decided to besmirch Poe’s reputation. So, there’s stuff about Poe we keep hearing that’s not actually true.
By the way, you should also read Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and The Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower. This nonfiction book details the real-life events where Poe worked to solve a real-life murder investigation—by inventing the detective story. It is an amazing account. (I love this book!)
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#8 H.P. Lovecraft
Born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island, where he lived most of his life, H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) wrote weird, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He wrote many essays and poems early in his career, but gradually focused on the writing of horror stories, after the advent in 1923 of the pulp magazine Weird Tales, to which he contributed most of his fiction.
Best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos, his relatively small corpus of fiction—three short novels and about 60 short stories—has nevertheless exercised a wide influence on subsequent work in the field, and he is regarded as the leading twentieth-century American author of supernatural fiction. H. P. Lovecraft died in Providence in 1937.
One of the most influential writers of the 20th century. He was also one of its most racist—Lovecraft apparently held a number of racist views for much of his adult life. (More info here.)
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#9 Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell is a British horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for more than 50 years. The author of more than 30 novels, his books include Ancient Images, Fellstones, The Searching Dead, Somebody’s Voice, The Nameless, Pact of the Fathers, and The Influence. He has also written hundreds of short stories.
Campbell has received more awards than any other writer in the genre, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award.
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#10 Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson (1926-2013) wrote in several genres including horror, paranormal, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and western. His works include I Am Legend, Hell House, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” A Stir of Echoes, What Dreams May Come, Somewhere in Time, The Shrinking Man, and more.
Several of Matheson’s novels and stories have been made into movies. He also wrote for TV shows like Star Trek, Twilight Zone, and Night Gallery.
Incredibly, Matheson’s post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film novel I Am Legend was adapted into movies starring Vincent Price (1964’s The Last Man on Earth) AND Charlton Heston (1971’s The Omega Man) AND Will Smith (2007’s I Am Legend). And the novel ALSO inspired George A. Romero’s 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead—which transformed the entire zombie genre.
Matheson’s many awards include the Bram Stoker Award and World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Hugo Award, Edgar Award, Spur Award for Best Western Novel, and Writer’s Guild awards. In 2010, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
More about Richard Matheson online:
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#11 Peter Straub
Born in Milwaukee, Peter Straub (1943-2022) was a novelist and poet who wrote numerous popular horror and supernatural fiction novels. His books include Ghost Story, Mr. X, Floating Dragon, Shadowland, the Blue Rose trilogy, and Julia. He teamed up with Stephen King to co-write the novels The Talisman and Black House. Straub also wrote a collection of short stories, Magic Terror.
Straub received such literary honors as the International Horror Guild Award. He won the British Fantasy Award, two Bram Stoker Awards and two World Fantasy awards. Straub passed away on September 4, 2022 at the age of 79.
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#12 Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) was the author of more than three dozen books, including Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, as well as hundreds of short stories.
He wrote for the theater, cinema, and TV, including the screenplay for John Huston’s Moby Dick and the Emmy Award-winning teleplay The Halloween Tree, and adapted for television sixty-five of his stories for The Ray Bradbury Theater.
He was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, and numerous other honors.
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#13 Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons is a science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos series and the Seasons of Horror series, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes within a single novel.
Simmons’s genre-intermingling Song of Kali won the World Fantasy Award. His science fiction novel Hyperion won the Hugo Award. His other novels and short fiction have also been honored with nine Locus Awards, four Bram Stoker Awards, the French Prix Cosmos 2000, the British SF Association Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Award.
“Writing in different genres requires wildly different mindsets,” he told The Internet Writing Journal, “and also wildly different approaches in research, style, plotting, characterization, use of dialogue, and narrative. I promised myself more than 20 years ago that if I were ever lucky enough to write full time and continue to be published, that I would write what I wanted to write, enjoy creating different types of novels in different fields of literature just as I enjoy reading such a wide variety of quality fiction.”
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#14 Daphne Du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989) has been called one of the great shapers of popular culture and the modern imagination. Among her more famous works are The Scapegoat, Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, and the short story “The Birds,” all of which were subsequently made into films—the latter three directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
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#15 Jack Ketchum
Horror fiction author Jack Ketchum—the pen name for Dallas William Mayr (1946-2018)—was the winner of four Bram Stoker Awards. His novels include The Girl Next Door, Off Season, Stranglehold, Joyride, Ladies’ Night, and more. His novels Offspring and Red were also adapted into movies. Ketchum’s stories were collected in The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard, Broken on the Wheel of Sex, and Peaceable Kingdom.
In 2011, Ketchum received the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award for outstanding contribution to horror fiction. His short story “The Box” won a 1994 Bram Stoker Award from the HWA and his story “Gone” won in 2000.
More about Jack Ketchum online:
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A Totally Definitive List of the Best Horror Authors of All Time (Book Riot)
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The 50 Best Horror Books of All Time Will Scare You Sh*tless (Esquire)
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The All-Time Greatest Horror Writers (Ranker)
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The Rondo Awards honor the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation. This year's winners include the reissue of ROBOT MONSTER, the movie GODZILLA: MINUS ONE, the TV series WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, and more! Find out the details here.