Kirby McCauley (September 11, 1941 – August 30, 2014) was a Minnesota-born American fan of the macabre who went on to a career as a major literary agent and editor professionally based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, becoming influential in Modern Horror.

Early life

Kirby McCauley attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

and worked as an insurance salesman in the Twin Cities. He was a fan of

H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...

and the Weird Tales school of horror writers. By the mid-1960s McCauley was corresponding with his favourite supernatural writer, British ghost story great Robert Aickman. He met the Arkham House authors in and around his native Minneapolis, including Carl Jacobi, Donald Wandrei, and

August Derleth August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. He was the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. He made contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the Lovecraftian horror, cosmi ...

. In 1973, ''Etchings and Odysseys'' magazine was launched in Minneapolis by McCauley, John J. Koblas, Eric Carlson, Joe West and others.

Career

When he decided to move to New York City in the 1970s to become a literary agent, writer and friend Richard L. Tierney helped drive him there to set up. McCauley soon had a successful agency representing authors such as

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

, Roger Zelazny, and George R. R. Martin, who credits him with helping to launch his writing career. In the following years King's star rose steadily, a result both of his productivity and the promotion his agent provided for him. The novel '' Pet Sematary'' is dedicated to McCauley, and all but the earliest of the pseudonymous Richard Bachman novels were copyrighted in his name; for the first edition of ''Thinner'' (1984), McCauley provided him with a fake author picture of the elusive "Bachman" that actually showed his own insurance agent, Richard Manuel. King's memoir ''On Writing'' (2000) covers the years he worked with McCauley. The success of King convinced publishers that a market existed for this sort of fiction and a host of contracts were signed by McCauley, who represented many horror writers with his agency. In 1975, McCauley chaired the first World Fantasy Convention, an event he conceived with T. E. D. Klein and several others. McCauley was a co-executive producer on the John Carpenter-directed 1983 movie of Stephen King's novel '' Christine''. He received special thanks on the 1987 King-based movie '' Creepshow 2'' and the 2008 documentary about the making of Frank Darabont's 2007 version of King's '' The Mist'', titled ''When Darkness Came: The Making of The Mist.''

Works edited

* ''Night Chills''. NY: Avon, Nov 1975. * ''Beyond Midnight''. NY: Berkley, Nov 1976. Italian edition as ''Racconti senzo respiro. Volume primo'' (trans. Giuseppe Lippi). Mondadori, 1981. * ''Frights''. NY: St Martin's, 1976. London: Gollancz, 1977. US paperback Warner, 1977. Italian edition as ''Racconti senzo respiro. Volume secondo'' (trans. Giuseppe Lippi). Mondadori, 1981. UK paperback in two volumes as ''Frights 1'' and ''Frights 2'', Sphere, 1979. * '' Dark Forces''. NY: Viking, 1980. Published simultaneously in UK by Macdonald. US paperback Bantam, 1981. Limited 25th Anniversary edition issued in 2007 by Lonely Road Books (Forest Hills, MD). German edition as ''Acht Stationen des Grauens'' (Moewig Verlag; trans Elisabeth Simon). Dutch edition as ''Macaber Carnaval'' (Loeb, 1983; reprint 1990; new edition In der Toren publisher, 1993). * ''Stille Nacht, grausame Nacht'' (Moewig Verlag, 1979, 1985). * Hammett, Dashiell. ''Nightmare Town: Stories'' (edited with Martin H. Greenberg and Ed Gorman). NY: Knopf Doubleday, 2000. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2000.

Awards

McCauley was the recipient of the 1996 Minnesota Fantasy Award, presented at Arcana 26 (Oct 4–6, 1996) - see Arcana (convention).

Interviews with McCauley

* "The Kirby McCauley Interview" (1978) by David Bischoff. ''Thrust'' No 10 (Spring 1978) * ''Dark Forces: The 25th Anniversary Special Edition'' (Lonely Road Books, 2007). Interview by Kealan Patrick Burke

Death

He died of kidney failure associated with long-term diabetes in August 2014.'Kirby McCauley, September 11, 1941 – August 30, 2014' (Black Gate)
/ref>

Awards

* 1979 World Fantasy Convention Award * 1996 Minnesota Fantasy Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccauley, Kirby 1941 births 2014 deaths American book editors American science fiction editors University of Minnesota alumni American speculative fiction editors Writers from Minnesota