This collection of juvenilia was published thirty years later, as a special issue of Crypt of Cthulhu magazine titled Ghostly Tales: Crypt of Cthulhu 6, No 8, whole number 50, Michaelmas 1987, edited by Robert M. Campbell) submitted Ghostly Tales to 'numerous publishers' including Tom Boardman publisher Boardman rejected it as they did not publish ghost stories, but his rejection letter included encouragement to Campbell to keep writing. His English teacher, Brother Kelly, used to have him read his stories to the class. Campbell intended to submit to Phantom, but his mother, who regarded literary success as a possible way of financing her escape from her disastrous marriage, persuaded him to wait until he had a whole book to show to publishers. Ghostly TalesĬampbell's earliest tales, written when he was 11 years old (1957–58) (under the influence of a magazine from Bolton, Lancashire, called Phantom), comprised a self-illustrated collection of sixteen stories and a poem he entitled "Ghostly Tales". Growing up in the blitzed landscape of post-war Liverpool, he avidly consumed the work of Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, Franz Kafka and the cinema of film noir. Joshi, Hornsea, UK: PS Publishing, 2002).Ĭampbell's mother "wrote a great deal, novel after novel, but was largely unpublished aside from a handful of short stories in writer's magazines." She encouraged her young son to send his writing off from an early age. Other autobiographical pieces regarding Campbell's life are available in Section V, "On Ramsey Campbell" in his essay collection Ramsey Campbell, Probably: 30 Years of Essays and Articles (ed. Campbell states, "I didn't see my father face to face for nearly twenty years, and that was when he was dying." Years later, Campbell's mother degenerated into paranoia and schizophrenia, rendering his own life a living hell - an experience he has discussed in detail in the introduction and afterword to the restored text of The Face That Must Die. Campbell's father became a shadowy presence more often heard than seen. Campbell's childhood and adolescence were marked by the rift between his parents, who became estranged shortly after his birth. He was educated by Christian Brothers at St Edward's College, Liverpool. Campbell was born in Liverpool, England, to Alexander Ramsey and Nora (Walker) Campbell.
0 kommentar(er)
