Reference Book Articles

Anon.  "John Ramsey Campbell, 1946-    ."  Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 42.  Detroit: Gale Research Co.

Excerpts from previously published essays on Campbell that are of use to young adult students.

Anon.  "John Ramsey Campbell (1946-    )".  Contemporary Authors Vol. 57-60.  Detroit: Gale Research Co.

A brief bibliography with two works in progress, the novels From the Hole and The Swordsman and the Ghost Girl. Also includes brief comments by Campbell himself.

Anon.  "Ramsey Campbell."  Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Vol. 52. Farmington Hills, MI:  Gale, 2003. 63-70.

An excellent source for young adult readers. A selective primary and secondary bibliography and an overview of his life and works.

Ashley, Mike "Ramsey Campbell (1946-    )."  The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.  Ed. John Clute and John Grant.  New York:  St. Martin's Press, 1997.

A good overview of Campbell's fiction that notes his mature tales are far better than the earlier Lovecraftian pastiches.  Especially points out Campbell's gradual emphasis on character, especially in the later novels.  He has written some of the finest ghost stories of the 1970's.

Ashley, Mike.  "Ramsey Campbell." Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction. New York: Taplinger, 1978.

A brief entry discussing Campbell's work up to about 1977.

Bosky, Bernadette Lynn.  "Ramsey Campbell, (1946-      )".Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 261:  British Fantasy and Science-Fiction Writers Since 1960.  Farmington Hills, MI:  Gale/Bruccoli Clark Layman, 2002.

A good biographical and critical survey that quotes from previous scholarship.  As have other critics, Bosky comments on the realistic horrors in Campbell's fiction, out of which grow supernatural elements.

Crawford, Gary William.  "The Modern Masters, 1920-1980."  Horror Literature:  A Core Collection and Reference Guide.  Ed. Marshall B. Tymn. New York:  R.R. Bowker, 1981.

Touches upon Campbell's fiction, noting the influence of the 1960's psychedelic culture, and the paranoiacal imagery in his descriptions.  Comments on the stories "Potential" and "Missing" and the sexually potent evil of The Doll Who Ate His Mother.  Provides annotated entries for Campbell's major works in book form.

Crawford, Gary William.  "The Short Fiction of Campbell."  Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature. Ed. Frank Magill.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Salem Press, 1983.

An overview of Campbell's short fiction up to about 1981.

Crawford, Gary William.  "The Parasite." Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Ed. T.A. Shippey.  Pasadena, CA:  Salem Press, 1996.

A brief discussion of the novel that shows that the central character's perceptions are described in terms of mental illness.  Here Campbell blurs the line between delusion and the supernatural and Rose Tierney's gradual initiation into the occult appears to her not be mental illness.  Her friend, Colin, is a psychologist who is really an occultist, and he knows about the parasitic spirit that inhabits Rose.

Crawford, Gary William.  "The Parasite."  Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature.  Ed. Frank Magill.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Salem Press, 1983

A shorter and slightly different version of the essay on The Parasite annotated above.

D'Ammassa, Don.  "Ramsey Campbell."  Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction.  New York:  Checkmark Books, 2006.

Empasizes Campbell's most recent novels as his best work.  Informative overview.

Drabble, Margaret, ed. "Ramsey Campbell." The Oxford Companion to English Literature.  6th ed.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2000.

A brief mention noticing Campbell's skill "characterized by a sly and subtle undermining of his characters' perceptions of reality."

Hadji, R.S.  "Campbell [John] Ramsey."  The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural.  Ed. Jack Sullivan.  New York:  Viking, 1986.

Campbell has developed  "a personal aesthetic of horror, rooted in recognizable human behavior within a contemporary environment suffused with menace.  In such a world, paranoia is a reasonable response to reality, an uncertainty becomes the only certainty."

Holmes, John R.  "Ramsey Campbell."  Guide to Literary Masters and Their Works.  Salem Press.

A brief biographical and critical survey.

Joshi, S.T.  "John Ramsey Campbell."  St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers.  Ed. Davis Pringle.  Detroit: St. James/Gale, 1998.

A good piece that reiterates much of what Joshi has said elsewhere.  Also contains a brief piece by Campbell himself.

Joshi, S. T.  "John Ramsey Campbell."  Supernatural Literature of the World.  3 vols.  Ed. S. T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemianowicz.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2005.

An excellent overview of Campbell's work by his finest critic.  Detailed and perceptive, reiterates much of what Joshi has written in his book on Campbell.

Joshi, S. T.  "Demons by Daylight."  Supernatural Literature of the World.  3 vols.  Ed. S. T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemianowicz.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2005.

Notes Campbell's "dreamlike, hallucinatory prose and its frank focus on contemporary issues of sexuality, gender, drugs, and identity."

Joshi, S. T.  "The House on Nazareth Hill."  Supernatural Literature of the World.  3 vols.  Ed. S. T. Joshi and Stefan Dzieminowicz.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2005.

Notes the concise and sparse depiction of only two characters and their complex interaction.

Joshi, S. T.  "Incarnate."  Supernatural Literature of the World.  3 vols.  Ed. S. T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemianowicz.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2005.

Says "In its crisp character portrayal, immense complexity, and fluidity of prose, it perhaps ranks as Campbell's most distinguished novel."

Jurkiewicz, Kenneth. "Ramsey Campbell."  Supernatural Fiction Writers:  Fantasy and Horror.  Ed. E.F. Bleiler.  New York:  Scribner's, 1985.

"Nearly every one of Campbell's protagonists must face up to the absurdist dread that accompanies Campbellian self-discovery. . . . The hideous fates that befall his banal and usually inoffensive victims are not only pointlessly extreme but are also, if not exactly deserved, somehow inevitable and even grotesquely logical."  A good overview with a helpful selective secondary bibliography.

Laity, K.A.  "Ramsey Campbell, 1946-    )."  Supernatural Fiction Writers:  Contemporary Fantasy and Horror.  2nd ed.  Ed. Richard Bleiler.  New York: Scribner's, 2003

A good biographical and critical survey with a selective bibliography.  Discusses Campbell's subtlety and his use of urban settings that make Campbell's work more immediate and gripping.

Neilson, Keith.  "Contemporary Horror Fiction, 1950-1988."  Horror Literature:  A Reader's Guide.  Ed. Neil Barron. New York:  Garland, 1990.

Moves from Campbell's early Lovecraftian pastiches and shows how he modernized Lovecraft in his more mature tales.  These later tales "are characterized by vivid dramatic vignettes, extreme compression, and a blurring of the lines between the rational and the insane, the real and the nightmarish."  Discusses the major novels, such as the The Doll Who Ate His Mother and The Face That Must Die, noting how Campbell utilizes the movements of the thriller or detective novel.  Regards The Parasite as Campbell's "scariest novel."  Notes the "humanist elements" in his terror novels.  Regards The Hungry Moon as his weakest work.  Provides annotations of the major works in book form.

Punter, David, and Glennis Byron. "Ramsey Campbell, 1946-    )."  The Gothic.  Oxford:  Blackwell, 2004.

A brief entry that notes Campbell's use of urban settings and his use of the most ordinary characters and situations.  Ultimately, Campbell's characters face horrors that seem so unjust.

Spratford, Becky Siegel, and Tammy Hennigh Clausen.  The Horror Readers' Advisory:  The Librarian's Guide to Vampires, Killer Tomatoes, and Haunted Houses.  Chicago:  American Library Association, 2004.

Annotates a number of Campbell's works in several categories, such as demonic possession, ghost stories, maniac stories, psychological horror, and splatterpunk.

Wiloch, Thomas.  "John Ramsey Campbell, 1946-     ).  Contemporary Authors New Revision Series  Vol. 7.  Detroit:  Gale Research Co.

A brief bibliography of primary and secondary sources with comments about Campbell and some remarks from Campbell himself.

Anon.  "John Ramsey Campbell, 1946-    ).  Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 102.  Detroit:  Gale Research.

A revision and expansion of previous Contemporary Authors listings.  The secondary bibliography is highly selective.

Edited by Gale Staff. "Ramsey Campbell."  Short Story Criticism Vol. 19.  Detroit:  Gale Research Co, 1995.

Reprints excerpts from previously published criticism of Campbell along with short pieces by Campbell himself and an interview with him.  Particularly useful for young adult students who want to read more about Campbell.