Christopher Fowler - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 10

Comic strip artist Lee Eliasdied at a nursing home on April 8th, aged 77. From 1952–55 he collaborated with Jack Williamson on the daily newspaper strip Beyond Mars. He also worked on Terry and the Pirates for many years.

Singer, photographer and vegetarian Linda McCartneydied from breast cancer on April 17th, aged 56. Along with her husband Paul (whom she married in 1969) she was in the group Wings, and her photo of Clive Barker appeared on the dust jacket of Weaveworld.

American Gothic novelist and essayist Wright Morrisdied on April 25th, aged 88.

Carlos Castaneda, the author of a series of mystical novels about Yaqui Indian shaman Don Juan, died of liver cancer on April 27th. His age was uncertain, but he was somewhere between 68 and 74.

Veteran short story author and screenwriter (Drexel) Jerome(Lewis) Bixbydied on April 28th from a heart attack after complications following quadruple bypass surgery. He was 75. The author of more than a thousand short stories, Bixby’s first sale was to the pulp magazine Planet Stories in 1949, which he also edited from 1950–1 along with the first three issues of its companion title, Two Complete Science-Adventure Books. After working as an associate editor for Galaxy, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories, he sold a number of screenplays to Hollywood, including It! The Terror from Beyond Space, The Lost Missile and Curse of the Faceless Man. His story “It’s a Good Life” was adapted for TV’s Twilight Zone and again for the 1983 movie, he wrote the original story for what later became Fantastic Voyage, and his Star Trek scripts include “Mirror Mirror” and “Day of the Dove”. Some of his best fiction is collected in Space by the Table and The Devil’s Scrapbook.

Prolific children’s author Mabel Esther Allandied on May 14th, aged 83. Among her 180 books were the short ghost novel, A Chill in the Lane, The Haunted Valley and Other Poems and A Strange Enchantment.

British author and actor Ivan Butler, the last surviving cast member of the first commercial London stage production of Dracula, died on May 17th, aged 89. In 1929, Butler played Lord Godalming and then understudied the part of Dracula in Hamilton Deane’s dramatization of Bram Stoker’s novel. He went on to play every male part in the play, including the Count, and produced Dracula on the stage many times. In the early 1950s he had several plays presented on television by the BBC and in later years he was the author of such books as The Horror Film, The Cinema of Roman Polanski and Cinema in Britain.

Alan D. Williams, who edited half a dozen novels and the collection Different Seasons by Stephen King while at Viking Penguin, died of cancer the same day. He was 72.

Novelist, playwright and screenwriter Wolf Mankowitzdied in County Cork, Ireland, on May 20th from cancer, aged 73. His screenplays include Hammer’s The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (aka House of Fright), The Day the Earth Caught Fire and Casino Royale. Among his books are the fantasies A Kid for Two Farthings and A Night With Casanova, the vampire novel The Devil in Texas (illustrated by Ralph Steadman), plus the biography The Extraordinary Mr Poe.

British novelist and playwright Robert Mullerdied on May 27th, aged 72. In 1977 he created and scripted seven of the eight episodes of the BBC TV series Supernatural, two of which starred his wife Billie Whitelaw. A tie-in paperback was published by Fontana.

Mary Elizabeth Grenander, a leading authority on Ambrose Bierce, died in her sleep on May 28th, aged 79. She edited and wrote the introduction for the 1995 book Poems of Ambrose Bierce.

Book editor William Abrahams, who worked for Atlantic Monthly Press and later for Holt, Reinhart and Winston and Dutton, died on June 2nd, aged 79. His authors included Pauline Kael and Joyce Carol Oates, and he presided over the annual O. Henry short story awards for more than three decades.

New York bookseller and publisher Jack Biblodied on June 5th, aged 92. With his business partner Jack Tannen he started Canaveral Press in the 1960s. Under the editorship of Richard A. Lupoff, Canaveral reprinted a number of Edgar Rice Burroughs books which had gone into public domain, eventually becoming the sole authorized hardcover publisher of Burroughs, along with titles by Lupoff, L. Sprague de Camp and E. E. Smith.

French novelist Thomas Narcejacdied in Paris on June 9th, aged 89. He collaborated with Pierre Boileau on more than forty thrillers, including Les Louves, Les Yeux Sans Visage and Body Parts, which were all filmed.

Bestselling thriller writer (Ralph) Hammond Innesdied June 10th, aged 84. He first novel, The Doppelgänger (1936), was an occult thriller, and his ghost story “South Sea Bubble” (from the Christmas 1973 Punch) has been anthologized often. He left behind an unexpected collection of rare stamps worth up to £11,000 as part of his £6.8 million estate.

Romantic bestseller Dame Catherine Cookson(Catherine Ann McMullen) died on June 11th, aged 91. She made her writing debut at the age of 44, producing an average of two books a year. Her children’s fantasy Mrs. Flannagan’s Trumpet was published in 1976. She was awarded an OBE in 1985, and made a Dame in 1993.

Ann Elizabeth Dobbs, the only grandchild of Dracula author Bram Stoker and the last surviving link with his wife Florence, died at her home on June 15th, aged 81. She reportedly found her grandfather’s novel too scary to read!

Playwright, screenwriter and lyricist Edward Eliscudied on June 18th, aged 96. He wrote the words to “Flying Down to Rio” and was blacklisted in the 1950s for his outspoken political views.

Michael D. Weaver, whose novels include Mercedes Night and the Norse werewolf trilogy, Wolf-Dreams (1987) , Nightreaver and Bloodfang, died on July 5th when he drowned in three feet of water. He was 36.

Writer, editor and fan Robert A. W.(“Doc”) Lowndesdied on July 14th of renal cancer. He was 81. A founder member of New York’s Futurians SF club in 1938, he began writing his own stories in the 1940s, often in collaboration with other authors. His novels include The Mystery of the Third Mine (1953), Believer’s World and The Puzzle Planet, and a collection of his columns appeared under the title Three Faces of Science Fiction in 1973. Although Lowndes was editor of the Avalon Books hardcover science fiction line from 1955–70 and compiled The Best of James Blish in 1979, he is best remembered as a magazine editor, beginning with Future Fiction and Science Fiction Quarterly (both 1941–43), followed by Dynamic Science Fiction (1952–54) and Science Fiction Stories/The Original Science Fiction Stories (1954–60). During the 1960s he worked for Health Knowledge Inc., editing a series of digest magazines that included The Magazine of Horror (1963–71), Startling Mystery Stories (1966–71), Famous Science Fiction (1966–69) and Bizarre Fantasy Tales (1970–71). It was during this period that he published the young Stephen King’s first two professional tales in 1967 and 1969 issues of Startling Mystery Stories.