Les Daniels
Leslie Noel Daniels III, better known as Les Daniels (October 27, 1943 – November 5, 2011), was an American writer. Background Daniels attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he wrote his master's thesis on ''Frankenstein'', and he worked as a musician and as a journalist. Career He was the author of five novels featuring the vampire Don Sebastian de Villanueva, a cynical, amoral and misanthropic Spanish nobleman whose predatory appetites pale into insignificance compared with the historical catastrophes which he witnesses in his periodic reincarnations. These include: the Spanish Inquisition in ''The Black Castle'' (1978); the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in ''The Silver Skull'' (1979); and the French Revolution's Reign of Terror in ''Citizen Vampire'' (1981). In the later novels ''Yellow Fog'' (1986, revised 1988) and ''No Blood Spilled'' (1991), Sebastian is resurrected in Victorian London and India, where the horror of his vampirism is again cont ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fred Chappell
Fred Davis Chappell (May 28, 1936 – January 4, 2024) was an author and poet. He was an English professor for 40 years (1964–2004) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was the Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997 to 2002. He attended Duke University. His 1968 novel ''Dagon'', which was named the Best Foreign Book of the Year by the Académie française, is a recasting of a Cthulhu Mythos horror story as a psychologically realistic Southern Gothic. His literary awards include the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the Bollingen Prize, and the T. S. Eliot Award for Creative Writing. Fred Chappell died in Greensboro, North Carolina on January 4, 2024, at the age of 87. Bibliography Books Poetry * * ''Backsass'', LSU Press, 2004. * ''Bloodfire: A Poem'', LSU Press, 1978. * ''C'', LSU Press, 1993. * ''Castle Tzingal'', LSU Press, 1984. * ''Driftlake: A Lieder Cycle'', Iron Mountain Press, 1981. * ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another, they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods: *Between 1612 and 1757, the East India Company set up "factories" (trading posts) in several locations, mostly in coastal India, with the consent of the Mughal emperors, Maratha Empire or local rulers. Its rivals were the merchant trading companies of Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, and France. By the mid-18th century three ''Presidency towns'': Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, had grown in size. *During the period of Company rule in India, 1757–1858, the Company gradually acquired sovereignty over large parts of India, now called "Presidencies". However, it also increasingly came under British government oversight, in effect sharing sovereig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Comics Interview
David Anthony Kraft (May 31, 1952 – May 19, 2021) was an American comic book writer, publisher, and critic. He was primarily known for his long-running journal of interviews and criticism, ''Comics Interview'', as well as for work for Marvel Comics in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Writing career Before his comics career, Kraft worked as a rock and roll journalist. In September 1976, he became editor of '' FOOM'' with issue #15, Marvel's self-produced fan magazine, lasting as editor until the magazine's final issue (#22) in 1978. Known for his offbeat approach, Kraft first made a name for himself as a comic book author with his work on Marvel Comics' '' The Defenders'', particularly the 1977 "Scorpio Saga" story-arc (issues #46, 48–50). In ''The Defenders'', Kraft wrestled with large philosophical issues: the temptations of power, the Cold War and nuclear power, sibling rivalry, and growing old alone. Scorpio also listened to a record by Edgard Varèse. Kraft also merged ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of Fan (person), fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices, differentiating fandom-affiliated people from those with only a casual interest. A fandom can grow around any area of human interest or activity. The subject of fan interest can be narrowly defined, focused on something like a Media franchise, franchise or an individual celebrity, or encompassing entire hobby, hobbies, genres or fashions. While it is now used to apply to groups of people fascinated with any subject, the term has its roots in those with an Sports fandom, enthusiastic appreciation for sports. Merriam-Webster's dictionary traces the usage of the term back as far as 1903. Many fandoms are overlapped. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mad Peck
John Frederick Peck (November 16, 1942 – March 15, 2025), known as The Mad Peck, was an American underground cartoonist, rock poster artist and disc jockey. His most famous poster is a 1978 comic book-style poster that starts with the line, "Providence, Rhode Island, where it rains two days out of three except during the rainy season when it snows like a bitch." The poster has been reprinted many times and is widely available for purchase throughout Rhode Island. Background Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 16, 1942, John Frederick Peck grew up in Connecticut and attended Brown University, where he studied engineering.Berke, Ben"Providence's Mad Peck receives little recognition, and wants even less: Counterculture artist, archivist's job description falls somewhere between 'renaissance man' and 'hustler,'"''Providence Journal'' (October 20, 2016). Graduating from Brown in 1967, in the intervening years he also attended New York University and the Rhode Island School of D ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hippocampus Press
Hippocampus Press is an American publisher that specializes in "the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his literary circle". Founded in 1999 and based in New York City, Hippocampus is operated by founder Derrick Hussey. As of 2017, it has issued over 200 publications, including editions of the complete fiction, essays, and poetry of Lovecraft, and thirteen volumes in the ongoing series of Lovecraft's ''Collected Letters''. In 2014, ''Publishers Weekly'' said Hippocampus Press is "the world's leading publisher of books related to horror writer H. P. Lovecraft". Output Hippocampus has also published previously unavailable weird fiction by Lord Dunsany (''The Pleasures of a Futuroscope'', ''The Ghost in the Corner and Other Stories''), as well as the "Lovecraft's Library" series, which collects works by authors who influenced Lovecraft but have since fallen out of fashion, such as Algernon Blackwood and M. P. Shiel. Hippocampus Press also publishes the periodicals ''Dead Reckonings: ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Dickson Carr
John Dickson Carr (November 30, 1906 – February 27, 1977) was an American author of detective stories, who also published using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn. He lived in England for a number of years, and is often grouped among "British-style" mystery writers. Most (though not all) of his novels had English settings, especially country villages and estates, and English characters. His two best-known fictional detectives ( Dr. Gideon Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale) were both English. Carr is generally regarded as one of the greatest writers of so-called "Golden Age" mysteries; complex, plot-driven stories in which the puzzle is paramount. He was influenced in this regard by the works of Gaston Leroux and by the Father Brown stories of G. K. Chesterton. He was a master of the so-called locked room mystery, in which a detective solves apparently impossible crimes. The Dr. Fell mystery '' The Hollow Man'' (1935), usually considered Carr's ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime fiction, crime, psychological horror fiction, horror and Fantasy Fiction, fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small amount of science fiction. His writing career lasted 60 years, including more than 30 years in television and film. He began his professional writing career immediately after graduation from high school, aged 17. Best known as the writer of ''Psycho (novel), Psycho'' (1959), the basis for the Psycho (1960 film), film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock, Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. He was a protégé of H. P. Lovecraft, who was the first to seriously encourage his talent. However, while he started emulating Lovecraft and his brand of ''cosmic horror'', he later specialized in crime and horror stories working with a more psychological approach. Bloch was a contribut ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Melodrama
A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or extremely sentimentality, sentimental, rather than on action. Characters are often Character (arts)#Round vs. flat, flat and written to fulfill established character archetypes. Melodramas are typically set in the private sphere of the home, focusing on morality, family issues, love, and marriage, often with challenges from an outside source, such as a "temptress", a scoundrel, or an aristocratic villain. A melodrama on stage, film, or television is usually accompanied by dramatic and suggestive music that offers further cues to the audience of the dramatic beats being presented. In scholarly and historical musical contexts, melodramas are Victorian era, Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or son ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marie Tussaud
Anna Maria "Marie" Tussaud (; née Grosholtz; 1 December 1761 – 16 April 1850), commonly known as Madame Tussaud, was a French artist known for her wax sculptures and Madame Tussauds, the wax museum she founded in London. Biography Marie Tussaud was born on 1 December 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her father, Joseph Grosholtz, was killed in the Seven Years' War just two months before Marie was born. When she was six years old, her mother, Anne-Marie Walder,Concannon, Undine. "Tussaud, Anna Maria (bap. 1761, d. 1850)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004 ed.). Oxford University Press. . took her to Bern, Switzerland. There the family moved into the home of local doctor Philippe Curtius (1741–1794), for whom Anne-Marie acted as housekeeper. Curtius, whom Marie would call her uncle, was skilled in wax modeling. He initially used this talent to illustrate anatomy, but he later used it for portraits. He moved to Paris in 1765 to establish a ''Cabinet de Portra ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marquis De Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography. His works include novels, short stories, plays, dialogues, and political tracts. Some of these were published under his own name during his lifetime, but most appeared anonymously or posthumously. Born into a noble family dating from the 13th century, Sade served as an officer in the Seven Years' War before a series of sex scandals led to his detention in various prisons and insane asylums for most of his adult life. During his first extended imprisonment from 1777 to 1790, he wrote a series of novels and other works, some of which his wife smuggled out of prison. On his release during the French Revolution, he pursued a literary career and became politically active, first as a constitutional monarchist then as a radical republican. Duri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue adventure and riches in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an ''encomienda'' (the right to the labor of certain subjects). For a short time, he served as ''alcalde'' (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, which he partly funded. His enmity with the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cué ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |