Conspiracy of Silence (17 page)

S. T.
Joshi
is a widely published critic and editor. He is the author of such critical studies as
The Weird Tale
(1990),
H. P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West
(1990), and
The Modern Weird Tale
(2001). For Penguin Classics, he has prepared three annotated editions of Lovecraft's tales, as well as editions of the works of Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, and M. R. James, and the anthology
American Supernatural Tales
(2007). His exhaustive biography,
H. P. Lovecraft: A Life
(1996), won the British Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association. He is coeditor of Ambrose Bierce's
Collected Short Fiction
(2006; 3 vols.), and has edited several editions of the work of H. L. Mencken. He is coeditor of
Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia
(2005; 3 vols.) and the editor of
Documents of American Prejudice
(1999),
Atheism: A Reader
(2000),
In Her Place: A Documentary History of Prejudice against Women
(2006),
Icons of Horror and the Supernatural
(2006; 2 vols.),
The Agnostic Reader
(2007), and other volumes. Among his writings on politics and religion are
God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong
(2003) and
The Angry Right
(2006). He has compiled bibliographies of H. P. Lovecraft (1981; rev. 2009), Ambrose Bierce (1999), Gore Vidal (2007), H. L. Mencken (2009), and other authors. He lives with his numerous cats in Seattle, Washington.