S. T. Joshi
Sunand Tryambak Joshi 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 focuses upon the worldviews of authors. His The Weird Tale examines horror and fantasy writing by Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, Ambrose Bierce, and Lovecraft.Personal life
S. T. Joshi was born on June 22, 1958, in Pune, India, to Marathi parents Tryambak M. Joshi and Padmini T. Joshi. When he was four, his family moved to the United States and settled in Indiana. He discovered the work of Lovecraft at age 13 in a public library in Muncie, Indiana. He also read L. Sprague de Camp'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 and Harvard so that he could attend Brown University, which is located in Providence, Rhode Island where Lovecraft had lived. He is an atheist.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 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
- H. P. Lovecraft: A Life
- Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography
- I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft
- Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction
- ''Lord Dunsany: A Comprehensive Bibliography''
Edited volumes
- Miscellaneous Writings by H. P. Lovecraft.
- Documents of American Prejudice: An Anthology of Writings on Race from Thomas Jefferson to David Duke.
- The [Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories] by H. P. Lovecraft.
- Atheism: A Reader.
- The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft.
- Searchers After Horror: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic.
- The [Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories] by H. P. Lovecraft.
- The Short Fiction of Ambrose Bierce - Comprehensive Edition in 3 Volumes, edited with Lawrence I. Berkove & David E. Schultz.
- The Ghost in the Corner and Other Stories by Lord Dunsany, edited with Martin Andersson.