Which horror writer (in your opinion) is the best wordsmith?

Personally, so far, I would have to say Poe.

Oh and if you can, please tell me why you feel this particular author is the best wrier.

First of all, I'm realizing that my experience with horror is too loaded with modern authors to really give any sort of knowledgeable answer. I've picked up a bunch of collections of classic authors. I just need to buckle down and read them.

For this post, I'm thinking back on authors whose writing regularly draws my attention because of clever turns of phrase, apt metaphor or nicely handled description. Authors whose writing I enjoy sometimes more than the stories they are telling, if you see what I mean.

Steinbeck is my favorite author, but my favorite wordsmith in any field would be Raymond Chandler (you owe it to yourself to read one of his books, whatever your feeling on mysteries).

For horror, I really enjoy Peter Straub. His writing is smart and layered and clear.

I also really groove on later Stephen King. He's always been a hell of a writer. But somewhere around It or Misery maybe his voice started getting... what? More personable? I dunno. But which each successive book I've noticed his actual word usage and phrasing more and more.

I like Robert E. Howard quite a bit. But though he wrote a bunch of horror, I consider him a fantasy writer.

As for Poe, I have fond memories of The Oblong Box and Hop-Frog. And The Tell-Tale Heart is a masterpiece. But recently I tried reading Berenice and I just could not get into it. I'm willing to say it may have been me at the time though.

I would say H P Lovecraft. I know you wanted a why but you didn't really give one for EAP yourself. :p

jseger, just out of curiousity, which classical authors have you picked up?

Dan Simmons is one of my favorite authors. His crime, thriller, science fiction, and horror books are very readable. That is why I think he is one of the best writers.

#4 - Horror collections I've picked up, but not yet read:

Oliver Onions - The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions
William Fryer Harvey - The Beast with Five Fingers
J.S. LeFanu - Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu
Ambrose Bierce - Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce
Algernon Blackwood - Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood
Fritz Leiber - Night Monsters and Dark Ladies. (I've read a bit of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories and liked them a lot. But I'm not familiar with his horror.)

I have read some 'old timers' (say from the pulp era backwards), but couldn't remember enough of their writing to say they were talented wordsmiths.

Edgar Allan Poe I would have included him, but like I said, I can only remember the writing for Tell-Tale Heart (perfect) and Berenice (did not like at all).
Shirley Jackson Haven't read past The Lottery, though I really need to.
Richard Matheson Love his stories, but the writing itself never jumped out at me.
Roald Dahl

I did not like the writing of (please remember, I'm only speaking about writing, not whether they have other worthy qualities):

H.P. Lovecraft He's a horror hall-of-famer for sure. But his writing just works my nerves. God spare me from reading the word 'affrighted' again.
William Hope Hodgson - The House on the Borderland In my review, I say I did like the writing, but then there's a ton of caveats, like a love affair run-on sentences, broken up with commas, much like what I'm doing here.
L.Ron Hubbard - Fear. Ugh! I HATED this book. The good reviews it garners baffles me. That book (and the whole Dianetics cult thing) put me off giving him a second chance.

Susan Hill and Jonathan Aycliffe because they write beautiful quiet horror that chills you (me) to the bone and I don't want to miss a word.

Shirley Jackson (whose writing spans several genres)

Blackwood, Bierce, and Hodgson.

Wlliam Sloane (forgotten, undeservedly)

Robert Bloch and Ray Bradbury

Lovecraft...was a pioneer. Although The Colour Out of Space is a masterpiece, a lot of his works aren't that good.

I think this depends upon how you interpret "best writer." Styllistic: Despite some of the flaws, such as the overuse of melodramatic adjectives, my vote goes in favor of H.P. Lovecraft. The images and diction are intelligent and effective in creating atmosphere. His unique ideas have probably not been surpassed. Thoguh some of his writings are poor, in sheer volume, he has more to his credit than any other horror writer I know.

Narrative: Poe. Tight, cohesive, powerful stories.

Character and scope: Stephen King. Again, despite some flawed works, his characters always seem to me to be idiosyncratic and vivid. It does seem to me that he re-uses some types, yet they usually have individuality. As for scope, he draws upon a number of subjects, settings and situations throughout a prolific body of work, despite re-using some of these as well.

Now, the question of "best work" might elicit different answers, as some books that can be classified as horror may have been written by authors who do not primarily write horror (or who have simply not produced many works at all). I'm thinking of S.P. Somtow's "Moondance" and Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves."

#9 Andrew

I loved the tale, the actual story of House of Leaves and thought the writing was very inivitive, but.... I found the style very annoying and wouldn't read it again.

House Of Leaves was tough. You have to work, for that one. Stephen King is a bore. Joe R. Lansdale's voice as a story teller is one of the best out there, and a truly American author in the tradition of Twain. Read any of his stuff, horror or otherwise, and it's like the man is the room with you, instead of on the page.

Edith Nesbit was very good (and yes, it´s the Edith Nesbit. She didn´t just write for kids.) Also Walter de la Mare and Gustav Meyrink, although elaborate language doesn´t always make the book more readable in my humble opinion.

Hm. I love Gustav Meyrink, but I don't know if I feel qualified to judge his "wordsmithery" since I've only read him in English translation.

Clark Ashton Smith deserves mention, I think.

Ah,well... To tell you the truth I did read him in german, but since I´m not german myself I might not be qualified to make such a statement. And to top it all, I got confused and wrote Edith Nesbit when I ment May Sinclair. The problem when you read a lot is that you also forget a lot. Maybe I shouldn´t post here at all. My wife tells me I´m senile.

Lovecraft for atmosphere. He truly makes you feel the horror. King for characterization and imagination.

M.R.James is well in front of any of the others.
Malden and Munby are also great.

Stephen King is IMO the best there is at character development. By the end of one of his books you KNOW those characters, and love, despise or feel something in-between for all of them. I think one of his best was Larry Underwood from The Stand. I was uncertain of what my feelings for the character were for a good part of the story, and I think that was what was intended, because I really believe King didn't know which way he was going to go.

The best wordsmith however (in horror) is Dan Simmons. (I will include that this is my opinion, but this seems redundant. As a highschool writing teacher once told me, "Of course it is your opinion, you're the one writing it". However I have seen people jump on posters who seemed to be making some definitive statement.) Dan Simmons writes a beautiful sentence, and builds great suspenceful and interesting worlds.

Holy crap jseger, I just picked up a paperback book of peter straub short stories and I think he's fantastic! Thanks for the reccomendation.

I agree with 17 tjm568 about Dan Simmons. The first book of his I read was in Gardner R. Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection. It was called Looking for Kelly Dahl. I recall re-reading sentences/passages. I had not done that before or after. "Beautiful" is a good description.

#18 - Glad you like him. I think he's a hell of a writer. Even his books which I didn't love are well written enough that I would give them a second chance. Which book was it?

#17 - (Going backwards, sorry.) I have seen people jump on posters who seemed to be making some definitive statement.

I think that happens a lot less on LT unless you're in one of the Pro and Con groups (or certain threads in Recommended Site Improvements of all things). At least I can say I've never, ever seen any sort of dust-up here in Thing(amabrarians).

I think it's because tjm is part of Science Fiction Fans which is notorious for being unwelcoming - people's opinions get stomped on and book snobbishness is rampant.

Yeah, I forgot about those guys. I'm a member of that group too. I used to wade into the thick of it from time-to-time, but I realized I would rather watch than participate. Same goes for the Pro and Con groups.

Greg F. Gifune gets my vote. His wordsmithing is lyrical, setting a tone and mood that plumbs the darker regions of humanity and the soul so well you feel as if you have a long climb before you just to see light again after turning the last page.

#18: Holy crap jseger, I just picked up a paperback book of peter straub short stories and I think he's fantastic! Thanks for the reccomendation

Peter Straub is a favorite of mine too. I also like Stephen King and Ramsey Campbell a lot...

It's hard to argue against Edgar Allan Poe and H.P Lovecraft but Stephen King gets my nod for more contemporary horror. I also like Robert McCammon. Swan Song (apocalyptic good vs. evil story) and The Wolf's Hour (werewolf spy in WWII) are great books.

I think the sign of a mature writer is that they have identified their own voice and this is what makes their wordsmithery shine. Have I just made up wordsmithery? Possibly.

Of contemporary writers, I would choose Thomas Ligotti as I adore his mastery of plain prose for expressing subject matter that is more often identified with the more luxurious prose of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft.

Did you actually manage to make someone's writing sound like a big fluffy lazy boy chair to sink yourself into?

I do believe you just did. :P

17; 20; 21; 22
Hear, hear in relation to some posters on Science Fiction Fans and Pro and Con (especially religious) threads.

I find Dan Simmons a great writer, even when he's writing something I believe may not be worth writing. I read Drood (having, of course, first read Dicken's The Mystery of Edwin Drood) with the view that there was no point to the writing of this novel. I must say, Simmons's skill at producing a book with a style appropriate to Dickens and Collins was wonderful. I had read Simmons work before, so I was, and still am, favourably disposed towards reading his books.

M.R. James has a style I enjoy.

Thomas Ligotti must figure well up on the list of good wordsmiths in the world of horror.

The issue of translation has been mentioned earlier, so I must qualify my views on some non-English language authors by including their translator. Two I can think of are:
Stefan Grabinski tranlsated by Miroslaw Lipinski and,
Jorge Luis Borges (The Gospel according to Mark) translated from the Spanish by, I believe it was, Antonios Sarhanis, on the Anagrammatically website.

I think I will choose a contemporary horror writer who has not been mentioned yet. W.H. Pugmire is a fairly recent discovery of mine and he is a Cthulhu Mythos writer so he will only really appeal to Lovecraftians *but* I love how he has an individual identity that blends Lovecraft with the influence of Oscar Wilde, punk rock and Henry James. His characters are much more emotionally engaging than Lovecraft's and his stories are primarily supernatural rather than being cosmic and cerebral so there is a uniqueness there that one doesn't always get with Mythos writers.

For sheer elegant beauty, I don't if you can top Clark Ashton Smith.