Providence After Dark and Other Writings by T E D Klein

Author:T E D Klein [Klein, T E D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781614982685
Publisher: Hippocampus Press
Published: 2019-11-09T13:00:00+00:00

Standing Behind the Curtains:

A Conversation with T.E.D. Klein[34]

In the early 1980s, horror fiction had reached a wider audience than ever before. Authors such as Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, and, of course, Stephen King raised the standards of writing quality, deftly scaling the summits of popularity and bringing the genre to a new level of literary appreciation. Among their ranks was a writer named T.E.D. Klein, who would ultimately become one of the most important voices in modern horror fiction.

Theodore Donald Klein (the “E” stands for “Eibon,” a literary reference to Clark Ashton Smith’s Hyperborean sorcerer) was born and raised in New York. A graduate of Brown University, Klein would later study at Columbia, which led to a stint in the late 1970s at Paramount as a script reader. In 1981, he became the founding editor of the highly acclaimed Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Magazine, publishing works by authors such as Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Harlan Ellison before parting ways in 1985.

In 1984, Klein published his first, and so far only, novel, The Ceremonies. An expansion of an earlier novella titled “The Events at Poroth Farm” (itself in turn inspired by “The White People,” a classic short story by Welsh dark fantasy author Arthur Machen), The Ceremonies was an excursion into cosmic horror set against the backdrop of contemporary American culture. The Ceremonies enjoyed a brief ride on the New York Times bestseller list, and although it’s now long out of print, it is considered a classic.

The following year, Klein released a collection of four novellas, known as Dark Gods. Although three of its novellas were previously published elsewhere (one in Kirby McCauley’s legendary 1980 anthology Dark Forces), one of them, “Nadelman’s God,” was original to the collection and would subsequently go on to win the 1986 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella. And just like The Ceremonies, Dark Gods is unfortunately very much out of print.

As the years went by, Klein would go on to publish fewer than a dozen short stories, most of which (along with “The Events at Poroth Farm”) were collected in a 2006 limited-edition book from Subterranean Press, Reassuring Tales. As with his previous works, this has unfortunately become an out-of-print rarity, and due to its limited print run (only 600 signed and numbered copies exist), it’s even harder to find than the others, often being listed for over $100 in online stores.

Klein may have estranged himself from the genre that he helped shape, but even after nearly three decades his influence has never been forgotten. To date, authors such as Thomas Ligotti, John Langan, Laird Barron, Paul Tremblay, and Simon Strantzas look fondly upon his works as a direct influence upon their own.

In a rare and exclusive gesture, Mr. Klein broke his silence to generously discuss his life, writings, and career.

BLD: While you were growing up, what did you like to read? Who were some authors that you just couldn’t get enough of, and not necessarily in horror?

TK: I loved a series

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