Robert R. McCammon

Robert Rick McCammon (born July 17, 1952) is an American novelist from Birmingham, Alabama. One of the influential names in the late 1970s–early 1990s American horror literature boom, by 1991 McCammon had three New York Times bestsellers (The Wolf's Hour, Stinger, and Swan Song) and around 5 million books in print.[1][2] Since 2002 he’s written several books in a historical mystery series featuring a 17th-century magistrate’s clerk, Matthew Corbett, as he unravels mysteries in colonial America.

Personal life

His parents are Jack, a musician, and Barbara Bundy McCammon. After his parents' divorce, McCammon lived with his grandparents in Birmingham. He received a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Alabama in 1974. McCammon lives in Birmingham.[3] He has a daughter, Skye, with his former wife, Sally Sanders.

Career

McCammon has published multiple award-winning books, including Mine in 1990 and Boy's Life in 1991.[4] After the release of Gone South, McCammon chose to leave his publisher. After clashing with an editor at a new publisher over the direction for his historical fiction novel Speaks the Nightbird, he retired from writing. After a long hiatus which resulted from the reorganization of the publishing industry and McCammon's personal depression and soul searching,[5] he returned to the publishing world with Speaks the Nightbird, the first book in the Matthew Corbett series.[6] Publishers Weekly called it a "compulsively readable yarn," and said, "McCammon's loyal fans will find his resurfacing reason to rejoice." Since 2002, fourteen new books have been published, including eight, so far, in the Matthew Corbett series.

In 1985, McCammon's story "Nightcrawlers" was adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone (1985).[3]

Like Dean Koontz, McCammon for a while refused to let his first novels (up to and including They Thirst) be republished because, while not disliking the books, he did not feel that they were up to the standards of his later works. He wrote that he feels he was allowed to learn how to write in public, and therefore had decided to officially retire his earlier works.[7] However, Baal, Bethany's Sin, The Night Boat, and They Thirst were re-released by Subterranean Press as limited edition novels. In a 2013 interview, McCammon acknowledged that some readers would like to have a complete collection of his work, and said "reading back over those books I find they’re not as poorly written as I recall them to be."[3] They have also all been released as ebooks and audiobooks.

Bibliography

Michael Gallatin books
  • The Wolf's Hour (1989) - Nominated for the 1989 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel; New York Times Bestseller
  • The Hunter from the Woods [Collection] (2011)

Matthew Corbett series
  • Speaks the Nightbird (2002) - Later published as two paperback volumes, Judgement of the Witch and Evil Unveiled
  • The Queen of Bedlam (2007)
  • Mister Slaughter (2010)
  • The Providence Rider (2012)
  • The River of Souls (2014)
  • Freedom of the Mask (May 2016)
  • Cardinal Black (April 2019)
  • The King of Shadows (December 2022)
  • Leviathan (Forthcoming)

Seven Shades of Evil [Short story collection] (forthcoming)

Trevor Lawson series
  • I Travel by Night (2013) - Novella
  • I Travel by Night 2: Last Train from Perdition (Fall 2016)

References
  1. As seen in foreword to Mine, ISBN 0-671-73944-1 Pocket Books paperback
  2. Stefan Dziemianowicz, "McCammon, Robert R(ick)" in St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, edited by David Pringle. London : St. James Press,1998, ISBN 1-55862-206-3 (pp. 398-99)
  3. "Interview: Robert McCammon". 26 June 2013.
  4. World Fantasy Convention. "Award Winners and Nominees". Archived from the original on 1 December 2010. Retrieved 4 Feb 2011.
  5. "Robert McCammon » Robert R. McCammon - A Biographical Essay".
  6. "Onyx reviews -- Speaks the Nightbird -- Robert R. McCammon". www.bevvincent.com. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
  7. Why are some of McCammon's novels out-of-print?
  8. D'Ammassa, Don (2006). Encyclopedia of fantasy and horror fiction. Infobase Publishing. p. 403. ISBN 0-8160-6192-0.
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