S._T._Joshi

S. T. Joshi

S. T. Joshi

American literary critic (born 1958)


Sunand Tryambak Joshi (born June 22, 1958) is an American literary critic whose work has largely focused on weird and fantastic fiction, especially the life and work of H. P. Lovecraft and associated writers.

Quick Facts Born, Occupation ...

Career

His literary criticism focuses upon the worldviews of authors. His The Weird Tale examines horror and fantasy writing by Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, Ambrose Bierce, and Lovecraft.[1]

Personal life

S. T. Joshi was born on June 22, 1958, in Pune, India, to Tryambak M. Joshi and Padmini T. Joshi.[2][3][4] When he was four, his family moved to the United States and settled in Indiana.[2][4] He discovered the work of Lovecraft at age 13 in a public library in Muncie, Indiana. He also read L. Sprague de Camp's biography of Lovecraft, Lovecraft: A Biography, on publication in 1975, and began thereafter to devote himself to Lovecraft. This devotion led him to decline offers from Yale and Harvard so that he could attend Brown University.[5][6] He is an atheist.[6]

He lives in Seattle, Washington.[1][6] Joshi married Leslie Gary Boba on September 1, 2001.[1] They divorced in December 2010.[7]

In August 2014, Joshi opposed the decision to retire and replace Gahan Wilson's bust of Lovecraft as the World Fantasy Award statuette in light of a campaign highlighting Lovecraft's history of racism; Joshi returned his World Fantasy Awards in protest.[8]

Notable publications

Books

  • Lord Dunsany: A Bibliography (1993) (co-writer: Darrell Schweitzer)
  • H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996)
  • Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography (Arkham House, 1999) ISBN 9780870541766
  • I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft (2010)
  • Lord Dunsany: A Comprehensive Bibliography (2013)

Edited volumes

Awards

  • Horror Writers Association – Bram Stoker Award for Nonfiction
    1996 H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press) – Author
  • British Fantasy Society – British Fantasy Award for Best Small-Press Publication
    1997 H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press) – Author
  • International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts – IAFA Distinguished Critic Award
    2003
  • World Fantasy Award – Special Award for Professional Scholarship
    2005
  • International Horror Guild – Outstanding Achievement in Horror & Dark Fantasy for Nonfiction
    2005 Supernatural Literature of the World (Greenwood Press) – Co-editor
  • International Horror Guild – Outstanding Achievement in Horror & Dark Fantasy for Nonfiction
    2006 Icons of Horror and the Supernatural (Greenwood Press) – Editor
  • World Fantasy Award – Special Award Non-Professional
    2013 Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volumes 1 & 2 (PS Publishing) – Author
  • S. T. Joshi Endowed Research Fellowship
    2013
    [10][11]

References

  1. "S.T. Joshi: An Autobiography". Archived from the original on April 3, 2019.
  2. Setiya, Kieran (2020). "Correspondence; Revisiting H. P. Lovecraft". The Yale Review. 108 (3): 138. doi:10.1353/tyr.2020.0048. hdl:1721.1/130173. ISSN 0044-0124. S2CID 236895320.
  3. "Obituary for Tryambak M. Joshi (Aged 83)". Muncie Evening Press. February 26, 1994. p. 15. Archived from the original on August 23, 2021.
  4. "Sunand Tryambak Joshi". Indianapolis: Federal Naturalization Records, 1892–1992. August 15, 1978. Archived from the original on August 23, 2021 via Ancestry.com.
  5. "New Fans: H. P. Lovecraft Is As Good As Poe, They Say". The Ludington Daily News. July 8, 1977. p. 11. Archived from the original on February 28, 2020 via Newspapers.com.
  6. Oppenheimer, Mark (March 15, 2014). "Spreading the Word on the Power of Atheism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. ProQuest 2213674612. Archived from the original on July 9, 2017.
  7. S. T. Joshi. "Blog". S. T. Joshi. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012.
  8. Flood, Alison (November 11, 2015). "HP Lovecraft biographer rages against ditching of author as fantasy prize emblem". The Guardian. eISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021.
  9. Briefly reviewed in the May 2015 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, pp.107–111

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