Sunand Tryambak Joshi (born June 22, 1958) is an American literary critic whose work has largely focused on weird and fantastic fiction, especially the life and work of H. P. Lovecraft and associated writers.

Career

His

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

focuses upon the

worldview A worldview (also world-view) or is said to be the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and Perspective (cognitive), point of view. However, whe ...

s of authors. His ''The Weird Tale'' examines horror and fantasy writing by

Arthur Machen Arthur Machen ( or ; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh people, Welsh author and mysticism, mystic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for his influential supernatural ...

, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany,

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the Univers ...

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...

, and Lovecraft.

Personal life

S. T. Joshi was born on June 22, 1958, in Pune, India, to Tryambak M. Joshi and Padmini T. Joshi. When he was four, his family moved to the United States and settled in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. He discovered the work of Lovecraft at age 13 in a public library in Muncie, Indiana. He also read

L. Sprague de Camp Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American author of science fiction, Fantasy literature, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of ...

's biography of Lovecraft, '' Lovecraft: A Biography'', on publication in 1975, and began thereafter to devote himself to Lovecraft. This devotion led him to decline offers from

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

so that he could attend

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, which is located in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

where Lovecraft had lived. He is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. He lives in Seattle, Washington. Joshi married Leslie Gary Boba on September 1, 2001. They divorced in December 2010. In August 2014, Joshi opposed the decision to retire and replace Gahan Wilson's bust of Lovecraft as the

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

statuette in light of a campaign highlighting Lovecraft's history of racism; Joshi returned his World Fantasy Awards in protest.

Notable publications

Books

*''Lord Dunsany: A Bibliography'' (1993) (co-writer: Darrell Schweitzer) *'' H. P. Lovecraft: A Life'' (1996) *''

Sixty Years of Arkham House ''Sixty Years of Arkham House'' is a bibliography of books published from 1939 to 1999 under the imprints of Arkham House, Mycroft & Moran and Stanton & Lee. It was released in 1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older ...

: A History and Bibliography'' (

Arkham House Arkham House was an American publishing house specializing in weird fiction. It was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish hardcover collections of H. P. Lovecraft's best works, which had ...

, 1999) *''I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft'' (2010) *''Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction'' (2012) *''Lord Dunsany: A Comprehensive Bibliography'' (2013)

Edited volumes

*'' Miscellaneous Writings'' by H. P. Lovecraft (Arkham House, 1995). *''Documents of American Prejudice: An Anthology of Writings on Race from Thomas Jefferson to David Duke'' (Basic Books, 1999). *'' The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories'' by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 1, 1999). *''Atheism: A Reader'' (Prometheus Books, 2000). *'' The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories'' by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 2, 2001). *''Searchers After Horror: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic'' (Fedogan & Bremer, 2002).Briefly reviewed in the May 2015 issue of '' Asimov's Science Fiction'', pp.107–111 *'' The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories'' by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 3, 2005). *''The Ghost in the Corner and Other Stories'' by Lord Dunsany, edited with Martin Andersson (Hippocampus Press, 2017).

Awards

Literary awards

Honors

* *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Joshi, S. T. 1958 births Living people American literary critics American male biographers American book editors American atheists Brown University alumni American male writers of Indian descent H. P. Lovecraft scholars Indian emigrants to the United States American science fiction critics American science fiction editors World Fantasy Award–winning writers Writers from Pune Cthulhu Mythos writers American satirists American weird fiction writers Weird fiction publishers American critics of religions 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Writers from Seattle People from Muncie, Indiana