James is the quintessential ghost story writer yes, but his specters are throughly alien and un-ghostlike, and the dark secrets hiding behind the banal seem cosmic in nature.

If Blackwood had written only 'The Willows', he still would have singlehandedly helped define cosmic horror.

I love the Cthulhu mythos, but there's something to be said for those who give only ambiguous hints at the otherwordly, as Machen did in 'White People' and other masterworks.

A limited writer with stunning vision, Hodgson's masterpiece reads like a nightmare occuring in the light of day.

The Grand Master still, for all his flaws; the genre as a whole wouldn't exist without him. Perhaps the american Kafka.

An interesting failure; try to overlook the olde-tyme style and Visiak's puritanical philosophy, as the chapter in which the medusa is encountered is a jaw-dropping, boschian bit of phantasmagoria more than makes up for it.

A major influence on Campbell and others, Leiber relocated cosmic horror to the everyday world of the modern city.

At his best, Wellman draws on folklore to portray the dark, forgotten corners of America, where things otherwise hidden are revealed.

After Campbell, none are better than subtly showing gradually mounting horror, just out of the corner of the doomed character's eye.

Campbell's latest and most experimental novel finds him exploring Ligotti's territory (whom he references) of cosmic chaos, infecting reality via forgotten films. Masterful.

Lansdale's gonzo pulp masterpiece features trapped moviegoers aa the playthings of maleovolent powers.

The progenitor of cyber and splatterpunk brings this angry, grim and gory updating of cosmic horror for the me decade.

Entertaing update of cosmic horror for the 'new age'.

Cosmic horror for cubicle dwellers! Another masterful, uniquely themed collection from Ligotti. Worth it for the titular tale alone.

Metaphysical horror seriously influenced by Ligotti, but with its own voice, a major upcoming talent. A new collection, Glyphotech, is forthcoming later in '08.

Another acolyte of Ligotti's, Cardin draws on gnostic and other heretical philosophies to create a unique brand of cosmic horror.

The most impressive collection, debut or otherwise, I have read in ages;imagine the ontolgical terrors of Ligotti filtered through K.E. Wagner's hardboiled vision.