tional fairy tales, each title of which involved a
color, hence The Blue Fairy Book (1889) with
eleven sequels, the last being The Lilac Fairy Book
(1911). Although Lang was forced to draw upon
less interesting stories as the series progressed, his
books did serve to preserve the fairy tales that
might otherwise have been lost. A selection of
some of the best of these was assembled in 1993 as
The Rainbow Fairy Book.
Most of Lang’s most memorable original works
were fantasies for children, such as The Gold of
Fairnilee(1888), a fairy–tale inspired story of a man
abducted into the land of the fairies, where he re-
mains for seven years before being allowed to return.
That Very Mab(1885), a collaboration with May
Kendall, also involves fairies, although it was written
for adults. The queen of the fairies has been gone
from England for some time, vacationing in the
South Pacific, and she returns to find things decid-
edly not to her liking. Lang also collaborated with
H. Rider HAGGARDfor The World’s Desire(1890),
the story of Odysseus’s later adventures in Egypt.
Several of Lang’s short stories are also fantasy.
“In the Wrong Paradise” (1886) follows the travails
of a man who is sent to a series of incorrect par-
adises after his death, with satiric results. “The
House of Strange Stories” (1886) is about ghosts,
and “The End of Phaeacia” (1886) involves a mag-
ical curse. Lang also did a translation of The
Odyssey and wrote extensive nonfiction on the
subject of fairy tales and fantasy in general. His
original fiction, though occasionally interesting, is
minor, and he will be remembered primarily for his
preservation of many obscure stories.
Lansdale, Joe R.(1951– )
Joe Lansdale’s gritty, unsettling, occasionally over-
the-top short horror stories first began appearing
around 1980. He caused a considerable stir right
from the outset with disturbing and effective sto-
ries such as “Chompers” (1983), “Bestsellers Guar-
anteed” (1985), and “Tight Little Stitches in the
Dead Man’s Back” (1986). He mixed supernatural
and nonfantastic themes, and his stories were filled
with powerful scenes and graphic images that
might have been mere sensationalism in the hands
of a lesser writer.
His first book-length horror story was Dead in
the West(1986), a blend of the supernatural and
the traditional western that he and occasional
other writers revisited intermittently in the future.
Lansdale, in fact, coedited with Pat Lobrutto an
anthology of such stories, Razored Saddles(1990).
In Dead in the Westthe residents of a small town
are stalked by the walking dead, zombies com-
pelled by an unseen intelligence. Their champion
is an itinerant gun-slinging preacher who is not
afraid to face the supernatural.
The Nightrunners(1987) is much more con-
ventional horror. After young Becky escapes from a
gang of brutal rapists, their leader is captured and
subsequently dies while in custody. During her re-
covery she slowly begins to regain her self-confi-
dence and sense of security. Unfortunately, the
dead man’s spirit returns and directs his former
companions on a campaign of terrifying
vengeance. Lansdale followed up with two linked
novels that were far less conventional and filled
with bizarre imagery. The Drive-In(1988) and The
Drive-In 2(1989) take place in a drive-in theater
whose customers find themselves trapped one
night by an inexplicable field of force. The initial
panic becomes more frantic when the unseen
power begins to physically affect individuals, trans-
forming their bodies and personalities. In the sec-
ond novel they are finally liberated, but the
changes do not reverse themselves. The survivors
attempt to form some kind of new community, but
it is inherently unstable.
With the collapse of the booming horror mar-
ket in the late 1980s, Lansdale shifted emphasis in
his novels to more conventional suspense themes,
although always maintaining his extraordinary
ability to describe the most unusual events in a lit-
erate, deliberately nonsensational style. His short
stories still employed supernatural elements, how-
ever, and many of them were award contenders.
“The Night They Missed the Horror Show” (1988)
and “With Dead Folks (1989) both won the Bram
Stoker Award, as did “Found in a Harlequin Ro-
mance” (1992), “The Big Blow” (1997), and “Mad
Dog Summer” (1999). Other notable stories in-
clude “The God of the Razor” (1987) and “ON THE
FAR SIDE OF THE CADILLAC DESERT WITH THE
DEAD FOLKS” (1989).Lansdale, Joe R. 203