Two terrifying classics by “the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction” (The Washington Post) Thomas Ligotti’s debut collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and his second, Grimscribe, permanently inscribed a new name in the pantheon of horror fiction. Influenced by the strange terrors of Lovecraft and Poe and by the brutal absurdity of Kafka, Ligotti eschews cheap, gory thrills for his own brand of horror, which shocks at the deepest, existential, levels. Ligotti’s stories take on decaying cities and lurid dreamscapes in a style ranging from rich, ornamental prose to cold, clinical detachment. His raw and experimental work lays bare the unimportance of our world and the sickening madness of the human condition. Like the greatest writers of cosmic horror, Ligotti bends reality until it cracks, opening fissures through which he invites us to gaze on the unsettling darkness of the abyss below. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe

Literature & Fiction

Ligotti, Thomas

United States

Penguin Classics

In Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction outing, an examination of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life through an insightful, unsparing argument that proves the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination but instead are found in reality. "There is a signature motif discernible in both works of philosophical pessimism and supernatural horror. It may be stated thus: Behind the scenes of life lurks something pernicious that makes a nightmare of our world." His fiction is known to be some of the most terrifying in the genre of supernatural horror, but Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction book may be even scarier. Drawing on philosophy, literature, neuroscience, and other fields of study, Ligotti takes the penetrating lens of his imagination and turns it on his audience, causing them to grapple with the brutal reality that they are living a meaningless nightmare, and anyone who feels otherwise is simply acting out an optimistic fallacy. At once a guidebook to pessimistic thought and a relentless critique of humanity's employment of self-deception to cope with the pervasive suffering of their existence, The Conspiracy against the Human Race may just convince readers that there is more than a measure of truth in the despairing yet unexpectedly liberating negativity that is widely considered a hallmark of Ligotti's work.

The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror

Essays & Correspondence

Penguin??Books

Seeking deadly justice when she and her invalid father receive next to nothing in a lawsuit settlement, nurse Hester Jones targets the defense attorney's daughter, hematologist Liz Broward. By the author of Blood Work. Original.

Grimscribe: his lives and works

Genre Fiction

Jove

A literary tribute to a true visionary. David Tibet has been a poet, artist, and musician for over 30 years and has influenced countless other musicians, artists, and authors. In this anthology, those who have been influenced by Tibet and Current 93 try to repay this debt in literary form. Authors include Thomas Ligotti, Joseph Pulver Sr., Daniel Mills, Michael Griffin, Robert M. Price and lots more.

Mighty in Sorrow: A Tribute to David Tibet & Current 93

Price, Robert M.

Krall, Jordan

Mills, Daniel

Cushing, Nicole

Pulver, Sr. Joseph S.

Short Stories & Anthologies

Dynatox Ministries International

Teatro Grottesco

This collection features tormented individuals who play out their doom in various odd little towns, as well as in dark sectors frequented by sinister and often blackly comical eccentrics. The cycle of narratives that includes the title work of this collection, for instance, introduces readers to a freakish community of artists who encounter demonic perils that ultimately engulf their lives. These are selected examples of the forbidding array of persons and places that compose the mesmerizing fiction of Thomas Ligotti.

Virgin Books

When junior manager Frank Dominio is suddenly demoted and then fired, it seems there was more than a grain of truth to his persecution fantasies. But as he prepares to even the score with those responsible for his demise, he unwittingly finds an ally in a dark and malevolent force that grants him supernatural powers. Frank takes his revenge in the most ghastly ways imaginable—but there will be a terrible price to pay once his work is done. This tale of corporate horror and demonic retribution will strike a chord with anyone who has ever been disgruntled at work.

My Work Is Not Yet Done

Noctuary

This collection of horror stories, many previously unpublished, includes "The Medusa," "Conversations in a Dead Language," and "Mad Night of Atonement"

Carroll & Graf Pub.

Running the gamut of modern horror fiction, this collection of twenty tales ranges from the domestic terrors of "The Frolic" and "Aunt Elise" to the exotic nightmares of "Masquerade of a Dead Sword" and "The Lost Art of Twilight"

Songs of a Dead Dreamer

Songs of a Dreamer was Thomas Ligotti's first collection of supernatural horror stories. When originally published in 1985 by Harry Morris's Silver Scarab Press, the book was hardly noticed. In 1989, an expanded version appeared that garnered accolades from several quarters. Writing in the Washington Post, the celebrated science fiction and fantasy author Michael Swanwick extolled: 'Put this volume on the shelf right between H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Where it belongs.' The revisions in the present volume of Songs of a Dead Dreamer have been calculated to make its stories into enhanced incarnations of the originals. This edition is and will remain definitive. For those already familiar with the stories in Songs of a Dead Dreamer, an invitation is extended to return to them in their ultimate state. For those new to the collection, it is submitted to engage them with some of the most extraordinary tales of their kind. In either case, this publication of Songs of a Dead Dreamer offers evidence for why Ligotti has been judged to be among the most important authors in the history of supernatural horror.

A gruesome scientist and addict of the paranormal shares his encounters with mad characters and paranormal events, including the Shadow at the Bottom of the World; the Last Feast of Harlequin; the mystics of Muelenberg; and Fr. Sevich, the priest from the old country

Grimscribe: His Lives and Works

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ligotti, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ligotti, Thomas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ligotti, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe

The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror

Grimscribe: his lives and works

Mighty in Sorrow: A Tribute to David Tibet & Current 93

Teatro Grottesco

My Work Is Not Yet Done

Noctuary

Songs of a Dead Dreamer

Songs of a Dead Dreamer

Grimscribe: His Lives and Works