On June 13, 2010, genre fiction lost one of its most significant supporters. Everett Franklin Bleiler, the noted editor, scholar and bibliographer, passed away in Ithaca, New York at the age of 90. For more than 60 years, Bleiler made important academic contributions to the horror, mystery and science fiction genres, and he was widely respected by colleagues and readers alike.
“I can’t think of any other researcher to whom we all owe a bigger debt in the field of supernatural fiction,” says publisher Ray Russell of Tartarus Press.
Bleiler’s early bibliographical work, The Checklist of Fantastic Literature (1948), took years to compile and laid the groundwork for scholars who would follow in his footsteps.
“He had such a comprehensive knowledge of supernatural fiction,” explains Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, “that…
