I'd have to say a a tie between clive barker and lovecraft with king in second.

peter straub

Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka

Well, Stephen King will always be at the top of my list, with Clive Barker and Joe R. Lansdale close runners-up. Richard Matheson's up there, too. Jack Ketchum's good but spotty; The Girl Next Door was excellent I thought, but She Wakes was downright awful.

Peter Straub... I've read a few, of course the ones co-written with King. Loved The Talisman, thought Black House was pretty good, but the omniscient narrator was sort of off-putting. Straub seems like a mixed bag, but maybe I just haven't read enough of his stuff. I really liked Koko. Floating Dragon was a chore to get through, didn't care for that one at all. I thought Ghost Story was pretty good, if a little over-hyped. Recently I read If You Could See Me Now, and thought the plot was way too similar to Ghost Story. I started on Julia, got about 50 pages in, thought 'Ugh, more female ghosts,' and gave up. Maybe somebody could recommend me one of his other books, cause it seems like he's the only "big" horror author I haven't read too much of.

Also, I don't see the big fuss over Richard Laymon. I've read a handful of his books, and they all seem like badly fleshed-out outlines. And after seeing his picture I couldn't keep the image out of my mind of him hunched over a keyboard fat and sweaty, jerking off while writing all of those rape scenes. Although I admit I enjoyed The Traveling Vampire Show.

H.P. Lovecraft and maybe even Franz Kafka but he's not really a horror writer but more like absurd and mystery.

I liked Metamorphosis but i couldn't get through the trial. If you people like lovecraft you should check the graphic novel. It's about lovecrafts family and him and how the monsters were real.

I'm a huge fan of H. P. Lovecraft, who pretty much started the whole "cosmic horror" sub-genre.

"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" was a wonderful piece of short fiction.

Dean Koontz, hands down.

Yeah kafka is more of a crazy freakout paranoia kind of theme. But Lovecraft is fucking awesome. Some of my favorite books when I was younger were his.

You mean WHO is YOUR. It's okay, you'll learn eventually.

Dean Koontz.
Whispers was pretty amazing.

Fuck this noise.

I'd have to say Mark Danielewski. He isn't so much completely a horror writer anymore, but House of Leaves falls under that category (and several others, to be fair) and I think it was an absolutely masterful take on the genre. Aside form him, I have a big literary hard-on for Lovecraft and Poe. There is a sort of mythical, grandiose yet earthy take to horror and writing in general from them that I can really attach myself to.

I have to go with King--especially his early work, before he quit doing drugs and started getting literary aspirations.

__________________
"If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." -- I Corinthians, 3:18-19

I second House of Leaves and throw in King as well as Clive Barker

R.L. Stine will always be a master of horror. Goosebump books truly provide entertaining horror, for young people.

Poe for me, truely the father of the genre. as for more modern Id have to say king (I know, never would have guessed) but Ive only read on book coauthored by peter straub and hes supposed to be pretty damn (book was the talisman(super loved it))

ps I know I used double brackets, please forgive me

Poe and Lovecraft. I'm a stickler for the classics, too. Stoker and Shelley.

I have a soft spot for King, not sure why. I just enjoy reading his books. I've recently gotten into reading Lovecraft as well and I'm finding it greatly rewarding.

Well, that's a hard one really. I guess it depends on my mood. It's hard to beat people like King and Barker, but Bentley Little is pretty awesome. Little's stories usually start off like something King would do but leave you scratching your head at the end wondering just how the fuck the story got so wonderfully weird.

i like the sound of that tell more, how long are his books usually.

Bentley Little's books are usually much shorter than Kings. Probably around 350 pages generally. Either way, they're really fast reads.

(It's almost impossible to talk about horror authors without mentioning King, isn't it? That bugs me for some reason.)

Yah same way you cant drive a few blocks without seeing a McDonald. Also for all horror lovers with itunes on their computer. Get the podcast "pseudopod" Short horror stories read aloud by a variety of narrators and if your an aspiring horror writer good place to send them in(damn this sounds like a plug) Anyway the British narrator is the best.

hp lovecraft.

wonderful horror which captures the grand scheme of the monster/spirit while focusing on the sanity of the lowly human dealing with whatever is in the story.

my favorite is the music of erich zann and rats in the walls, speaking of that i'm going to read a shadow over innsmouth right now.