I was at my first Science Fiction convention, SciCon in 1970, a vague affair in my memory, but recollections swim hazily through my consciousness. There were a small gathering of folk around a rather heavily built fellow, who sported thick-framed spectacles and long, dark curly hair. The figure spoke: “And do you know who I am?” I had to confess my ignorance on the occasion, for the only photo I’d ever seen of J. Ramsey Campbell (as he was then known), was that of the schoolboy portrait in The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, published by Arkham House in 1964. This first collection was a medley of Lovecraftian pastiches, written under the careful nurturing of Arkham’s progenitor, the late August Derleth, and Ramsey’s apparently dramatic change in appearance from his earlier photo was, perhaps, a good indication that his writing style had also dramatically changed.

By 1972, when my fanzine Shadow was developing into something of a serious journal on fantasy literature, I was happy to present a critical appraisal of Ramsey Campbell by the now well-known Belgian SF and fantasy writer, Eddy C. Bertin. The article made it clear that Ramsey was by this time emerging, a la chrysalis to butterfly, from his Lovecraft pastiche days into a very original talent in the field of the horror story. Such tales as The Cellars, Reply Guaranteed, The Stocking, Cold Print, The Scar, Napier Court and Broadcast, had appeared in various anthologies since 1987. These stories showed a strikingly new approach to the writing of horror and supernatural fiction.

Ramsey was becoming more prolific in the short story field and since ’67 his tales have appeared in a great many horror anthologies and magazines. His anthologists include, August Derleth, Richard Davis, Hugh Lamb, Kirby McCauley, Stuart Schiff, Michel Parry, Robert Lowndes, Gerald Page and others, including myself. To do justice to his carefully crafted stories in terms of a bibliography would take many pages, space we do not have, unfortunately, in this programme booklet.

In 1973 he published Demons by Daylight, his second collection from Arkham House. Therein are to be found such superb tales as The Sentinels, The Second Staircase, Made in Goatswood, Potential, The Enchanted Fruit and The Old Horns among others. In a review of the book I said, “Campbell has developed his own style and in so doing the Lovecraft apparatus, including much of the Cthulhu verbosity, has been abandoned. Now he wraps his horrors up in a panorama of fresh symbols with tight moments of squealing terror”. I think Demons By Daylight was a very important landmark in the career of Ramsey Campbell, for it collected together in one place and for the first time, all those elements which he had been cultivating and developing and which he would subsequently develop further in the creation of some of the most unnerving horror tales ever completed.

Ramsey’s third collection appeared in 1976. The Height of the Scream was again from Arkham House, this time a bigger book, which contained stories collected from earlier sources. Such gems as Horror House of Blood, Jack’s Little Friend, Smoke Kiss, Reply Guaranteed and Cyril among numerous others provided a range of stories dating from 1967 to 1976, almost a decade of Campbell-style horror. It introduces the reader to samples of the diverse ways in which the author utilises contemporary settings and artifacts and distorts them to horrible effect,

Thus far Ramsey had published widely in the strictly short story genre, but soon was to come his first job as editor. The result, Superhorror, published in 1976 by W.H. Allen, provided Ramsey with an opportunity to collect stories which were the most terrifying possible, A difficult task even for a seasoned editor, but Mr. Campbell succeeded admirably with a restrained, gripping and mostly successful batch of stories by Brian Lumley, Fritz Leiber, David Drake, Robert Aickman and others. Superhorror, on the whole, lives up to its name and the criterion the editor set for himself.

As an author who has gained a very deserved reputation for highly charged and well written short stories, it was perhaps no surprise to find him writing a novel. In 1976, Bobbs-Merrill in the USA published The Doll Who Ate His Mother, an evocative title indeed for a first novel, The British publication of this book, from Millington Books, does in fact coincide with the convention and we are happy to be able to have representatives from Millingtons with us this weekend.

This brief article does no justice at all to an author who has simply stormed into the first rank of horror writers, either living or dead, but at this point, with Doll, I am more or less up to date in telling you about some of Ramsey’s published works. For the future, I can tell you that a new novel is in progress, twice as long as the previous one and called, To Wake the Dead. In the editing line, he has a new anthology from Arkham House, New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. He has also completed the unfinished ‘Soloman Kane’ stories of Robert E. Howard and the whole of Kane will be published in two volumes with introductions from Ramsey (this is from Bantam Books, USA).

Ramsey Campbell has been President of The British Fantasy Society during 1977 and it is with great pleasure that we find him as our Master of Ceremonies at this, the fourth annual fantasy convention. I can think of no one more suitable and qualified for the role than he - the Maestro of Horror fiction!

Written by David A. Sutton for the fourth annual fantasy convention in 1978