Get your ownFree Home PageOne of the foremost writers in the field of horror, David J. Skal authored Hollywood Gothic, the book that Newsweek Magazine called the "ultimate book on Dracula." Although Hollywood Gothic was Skal's first foray as an author in the horror genre, he had previously seen three works of science fiction published in the 80's. Nor was he a novice in the realm of horror, having been a member of the International Bela Lugosi Fan Club as a pre-teen in the early 60's, which was how I first met him.
David J. Skal was born and grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, 44 years ago. Being a precocious child, he developed an interest in the macabre at an early age, and even then he was possessed of an unusually intense interest in horror and a keen awareness of things around him. David and I subsequently became penpals and we corresponded for the better part of ten years thereafter. The entertaining letters that he wrote and some drawings which he did in his early teens are still prizes of my collection of Dracula and Lugosi-related memorabilia.
David even at that point showed a real talent in the areas of drawing and painting and in putting his thoughts into written form. And unlike most of us dilettantes, who dabbled in this and that interest and then went on to some other field of endeavour, sometimes never finding a field in which we could truly dedicate ourselves, David took his pastimes seriously. He was a talented writer, so he joined the staff of the Garfield Mirror, his high school paper. He then succeeded in obtaining a full-tuition scholarship to study journalism at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. While there, he was able to translate his interest in theatre and movies to move into the field of theatrical public relations, and he was employed in this field upon graduation from university.
Like most of us vampire aficionados, David was a foul-weather fiend for a few years following graduation, having basically abandoned the horror genre. He maintained his interests in writing and art, however, and in 1980 and 1981, saw his first science fiction novels, Scavengers and When We Were Good published by Pocket Books. Both of these books are now out of print and difficult to track down (try your friendly neighborhood inter-library loan).
During the course of the 80's, however, David found his interest in the undead being resurrected - as he tells it now, it was an unconscious reaction by him to the relentless and seemingly inexorable loss of many of his closest friends and associates to the AIDs epidemic.
The result was that, while at the time working as a graphic designer for theatrical publications under the business name of Visual Cortex Ltd., David began to research "the tangled web of Dracula from novel, to stage, to screen." In this enterprise, he found his contacts in the theatre very useful, since so much of the story of Dracula revolved around its production for the stage, both in Britain and the U.S.
David's passion for perfectionism led him to travel to many of the crucial sites of the story, from London, to New York, to Los Angeles, and even to Cuba (at the time a very delicate undertaking due to the strained relations between the U.S. and Cuba) to view the only remaining complete copy of the Spanish-language Dracula. His efforts paid off, when he succeeded in having the film returned to the U.S. and restored and released on videotape by Universal Studios.
David's career since Hollywood Gothic has burgeoned, evidencing his ability to pursue his chosen fields with discipline and dedication. Still only possessing a bachelor's sheepskin, he has been far more successful than many of his peers possessing higher degrees. Remarkably, though in many ways' possessing an intellectual bent which would seem to fit him well for an academic environment, he has also been able to make a living by his own wits and has made himself a marketable commodity in the often dog-eat-dog world of free-lance writing.
For details on Skal's publications in the science fiction and horror genres, jump to the David J. Skal Bibliography page.
David's recent activities have included -
1) writing, co-writing and editing four books since the publication of
Hollywood Gothic and working on two more at the present time,
The Norton Critical Edition of Dracula, with Nina Auerbach, and
Screams of Reason, the companion to Hollywood Gothic and
The Monster Show, a history of mad scientists from the alchemists of the
Middle Ages to the films of the 20th. Century.
2) scripting and co-producing several of the A&E Biographies, especially
those on Karloff, Lugosi, and Chaney, and he is scheduled to work on Angela
Lansbury's in the upcoming year.
3) attending numerous conventions as a guest of honor and universities as
a guest speaker, lecturing on horror and related popular obsessions.
4) scripting various weird and horrific TV episodes.
5) helping to coordinate the organization of the Dracula 97 Centennial
Celebration being held at the LA Doubletree Hotel from August 14-17, 1997.
6) and hopefully scripting a television special version of Hollywood Gothic to be broadcast sometime in 1997.
David J. Skal has single-handedly helped to make critical writing on horror a much more intellectually rigorous enterprise than had previously existed. He has made a unique contribution to the genre and seems to be just hitting his stride, so in the fulness of time, the reading public should be treated to a number of challenging and stimulating works which combine a keen analysis of works of horror with the social trends of the various periods which are the subject of his scrutiny.
And for all of his intensive labours, the readers, his fans, will be the beneficiaries.
Keep Watching This Space!! This is a work in progress and much more is to come!!!
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