Raise your mead-horns--or chalices of ichor--high. Author Ramsey Campbell turned seventy-five today. One of the most honored horror authors on the planet, Ramsey has received three Bram Stoker Awards, four World Fantasy Awards, ten British Fantasy Awards, and the Horror Writers' Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. Before taking the horror genre by storm, however, Campbell wrote some bloody tales of darksome sword and sorcery back in the '70s.

Ramsey and I go way back. All the way to Swords Against Darkness II. When I checked out that battered Zebra Books anthology from my hometown library, I was just starting to explore outwards from Robert E. Howard-based S&S. Within its pages were gripping tales of adventure by Keith Taylor, Tanith Lee, Manly Wade Wellman, Richard L. Tierney...and Ramsey Campbell.

Campbell's tale, "The Changer of Names", featured his S&S hero, Ryre. Ryre was a barbarian-ish mercenary in the Conan mold, but with subtle differences, just as Ryre's world of Tond differed from the "standard" Hyborian Age. The tale itself made an impression on me because, despite obviously being a story in the Howardian S&S mold, it had the horror track dialed way up, moreso than the other stories in S.A.D. II.

I would later track down the other volumes in the "Swords Against Darkness" series, all but one of which contained more tales of Ryre. My favorite ended up being "The Sustenance of Hoak", followed by "The Mouths of Light". I was a confirmed fan of Ryre and Ramsey Campbell from then on.

Of course, the Ryre tales weren't Campbell's first published stories. Ramsey grew up in post-WWII England, an avid reader of fantasy and horror. He especially loved the tales of H.P. Lovecraft. At the age of sixteen, he sent a Lovecraftian story to August Derleth, the editor and publisher at Arkham House. Arkham House was the premiere horror publisher in the English-speaking world. Derleth accepted the story. The tale was "The Church in High Street" and the year was 1962.

Derleth, a seasoned veteran, who also started the writing game at an early age, had some advice for young Ramsey. Here is Campbell's account from a recent interview:

"When August Derleth bought the first tales of mine he published, he advised me to find a steady--but not too demanding--job that would leave me time to write, but not to try to depend on writing to make a living. I was then sixteen. I worked four years in the civil service, which I then left for the public libraries – seven years of those. I actually went fulltime in 1973, eleven years after my first professional publication (and nine after the first published book)."

That "first published book" was The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, a collection of Lovecraftian horror which Arkham House released in 1964. Ramsey was all of eighteen years old, the youngest author--then or since--to have a book published by Arkham House. Campbell would go on to justify Derleth's faith in him--which faith Campbell never forgot, despite the later posthumous attacks on Derleth from various quarters—winning multiple honors on both sides of the Atlantic in the decades since.

The 1970s would find Campbell casting about for his true calling in the SFF/horror field. In the first half of the decade, he wrote about thirty horror short stories, most of which were non-Lovecraftian, as was his first book, The Doll Who Ate His Mother. That well-regarded novel was followed soon after by three horror movie novelizations, all of which now command lofty prices on the secondary market.

This Campbellian time period--the mid-1970s--is the one of most interest to S&S fans. This was the era when Ramsey wrote his tales of Ryre. It is also when he worked on the Bantam Solomon Kane collections, penning excellent introductions and writing posthumous completions of three fragmentary SK tales. Campbell also participated in the all-star round robin story, "Ghor, Kin-Slayer". His chapter was entitled, "The Way of Chaos".

However, Ramsey was still writing horror all the while. During the second half of the '70s, he penned about forty horror stories and also published the novel, The Face That Must Die. He received the World Fantasy award for "The Chimney" in 1978 and another for "Mackintosh Willy" in 1980. "The Changer of Names", a Ryre tale, was nominated for a British Fantasy Award in 1979.

Meanwhile, Campbell also made his bones as an editor during this same period, putting together the Superhorror anthology in 1976 and New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos in 1980.

As he drifted away from sword and sorcery, Campbell went from strength to strength in the horror field, winning four prestigious awards in that category through the course of the 1980s and becoming an ever-bigger name in the horror market.

So, what Campbell horror was I reading during this era? Not that much, honestly. I am a bit of a Mythos/Lovecraftian/cosmic horror snob. While I will read weird fiction/horror of various sorts from the library now and then, I generally won't go out of my way and buy non-Mythos/Lovecraftian horror. “Psychological horror” leaves me cold. Ramsey was creating his own literary space during this period, moving decidedly away from his Lovecraftian roots. Critics and readers thought that was great. I wished him well. My literary interests are fairly wide-ranging, and there are so many books and so little time. I will say that I enjoyed The Hungry Moon, which came out in the '80s.

In 1990, I picked up a copy of the expanded Tor edition of Cold Print, which collected most of Ramsey's Mythos/Lovecraftian fiction up to that time. I loved or liked almost every story in it, but "The Voice of the Beach" really stood out. In my opinion, it is one of the finest Lovecraftian tales written in the last forty years...and not a whisper of Arkham--or Exham Priory--or the Necronomicon anywhere in its text.

I picked up the Made in Goatswood anthology--a tribute antho to Campbell's Severn Valley/Brichester Mythos tales--from Chaosium a few years later and enjoyed it. Then, in 2004, I bought The Darkest Part of the Woods. It was Ramsey's only novel--up to that point--in his Severn Valley setting. I thought it was great. Apparently, Campbell considers it one of his better novels as well.

These last few years have seen the publication of Campbell's "The Three Births of Daoloth" trilogy, which is set in Brichester. It sounds quite good. I am resolved to buy it and read it in its entirety.

I don't believe I've mentioned anything about Mr. Campbell's style in this essay. Here is how he summed it up:

"Lovecraft and Leiber are united with M. R. James and Machen and Blackwood in different examples of my stuff."

That sounds accurate to me. I would add that there is more of an Howardian feel in his S&S tales.

Notice his mention of Fritz Leiber? Ramsey is a huge Leiber fan. Check this out:

"Fritz Leiber...may be said to have invented the modern urban supernatural tale in “Smoke Ghost”, in which instead of being invaded by the supernatural, the mundane setting – forties Chicago – is now its source, and the grubby half-glimpsed spectre its genius loci. Grab all of his tales that you can find – you should be glad you did."

Penultimately, I should note that Mr. Campbell has always enjoyed a reputation in the weird fiction field as being a really good guy. Andy Offutt stressed that in the intro to “The Changer of Names” and I have never seen anything to refute it. Ramsey was kind enough to accept my “friend” request on Facebook several years ago and I can attest that he is very cool to his fans. Apparently, his childhood was not that great and he consciously worked at being outgoing. That seems to have paid off. In person, his cherubic countenance probably doesn’t hurt.

In closing, Campbell's tales of Ryre deserve their own in-depth blog entry, as does Ramsey's decades-long involvement with Solomon Kane. Those are for another day. Tonight, I simply wish Mr. Campbell a happy birthday.