Some members of the literary community always seem to express surprise and disbelief when they see women writing horror and speculative fiction books—and winning awards for them. Aren’t these genres predominantly the purview of men? Well, not really. Women have been there from the very beginning, and a compelling argument can even be made that these genres couldn’t exist without them. Scholars Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson do just that in Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror & Speculative Fiction. This exhaustive guide explores over one hundred female authors from the earliest days of speculative fiction to the present day. The book comes out tomorrow, September 17, and you do not want to miss it!
Monster, She Wrote takes on the ambitious task of covering the progression of horror and speculative fiction and all of the major female writers who played a part in it over the course of four centuries. Meticulously organized, the book is divided into eight parts, grouping authors into categories both thematic and chronological. Within each part, the contributions of half a dozen specific authors are examined. Each chapter contains a section on the woman’s life and one on her works, followed by a reading list organized into “Not To Be Missed,” “Also Try,” and “Related Works.” Intriguing quotes from the works being discussed are interspersed throughout the chapters, and the book is also beautifully illustrated by Natalya Balnova. No matter how much you think you know about these genres, I assure you that Monster, She Wrote will introduce you to more than a few works you’ve never heard of before. With such a dizzying number of authors, story titles, and book editions being thrown about, you’ll definitely want to keep a pen and paper (or notepad app) by your side to build your to-be-read list as you read! This book will be going directly onto my reference shelf, and I’m sure I’ll turn back to it many times as I work on future posts for this blog.
Of course, you can’t write an exploration of horror and speculative fiction without delving deeply into the Gothic. In fact, that’s essentially where the book starts (after a brief diversion into the fascinating life and works of Margaret Cavendish, who was writing sci-fi-like tales of parallel worlds well over a century before anyone else was doing anything of the sort). Apart from Cavendish, the other “Founding Mothers” discussed in Part One were all writing in the newly invented genre of the Gothic novel. In the introduction to this section, Kröger and Anderson discuss how, although invented by a man, the genre was propelled to its height of popularity by a wealth of female writers and readers. They also lead us into this section with a handy list titled “Spotting the Gothic,” which briefly summarizes some of the core tropes that you can use to recognize Gothic works, such as virtuous young women, sinister-looking villains, and crumbling castles or abbeys. Some of the women in this section are ones I’ve covered extensively on this blog—including Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley—while others are authors who have nearly faded to obscurity, like Regina Maria Roche and Charlotte Dacre. Kröger and Anderson return to the topic of the Gothic near the end of the book in a section titled “The New Gothic,” where they discuss how contemporary authors from the vampire queen Anne Rice to the queer Afrofuturist Jewelle Gomez reinterpret and subvert Gothic tropes.
One of the things that this collection does best is highlight those authors who are in danger of being lost to time or going out of print. Of course, the book talks about the big names in horror and speculative fiction, too—Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maruier, V. C. Andres, Angela Carter, etc. But it also makes a point to bring up authors you’ve likely never heard of before. This is especially true in the section about pulp fiction, since the delicate nature of the cheaply made magazines meant that the only texts from this era that we still have access to today are those that someone deemed worth preserving and reprinting. So, while H. P. Lovecraft is a household name and almost all of his writings can be found online or on shelves, many women who made similarly significant contributions to literature aren’t so lucky. One example highlighted in the book is Gertrude Barrows Bennett, whom the writers credit as “the first major woman writer of science fiction and fantasy in the United States.” Scholars consider her stories to be some of the earliest examples of the now-classic sci-fi trope of parallel universes, and many have speculated about how much influence she may have had on Lovecraft. Despite this, there is little documentation about her life and only a small portion of her works have found their way back into print. Some of the authors discussed in the “Paperback Horror” section have come up against similar obstacles. Many of the works that Kröger and Anderson recommend, such as Lisa Tuttle’s Familiar Spirit, have gone out of print and readers are encouraged to search used bookstores looking for copies. Hopefully, Monster, She Wrote will renew interest in these women’s works so that their contributions can be remembered—and their works can be reprinted—in the future.
If you have an interest in horror, speculative fiction, the development of literary genres, or women’s contributions to literature, Monster, She Wrote is an absolute must-read! You can find the book on shelves at your favorite local retailer beginning tomorrow, or you can buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process by clicking this Bookshop.org affiliate link. Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments!