Bentley Little

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bentley Little

Bentley Little is the author of numerous horror novels. He was discovered by Dean Koontz.

1 Personal History
2 Recurring Themes
3 Awards
4 Adaptations of Little's Work
5 Bibliography

[edit] Personal History

Bentley Little was born in Arizona in 1960, one month after his mother attended the world premiere of Psycho. He published his first novel, The Revelation, with St. Martin's Press in 1990. After reading it, Stephen King became a vocal fan of Little's work, and Little won the Bram Stoker Award for "Best First Novel" in 1990. He moved to New American Library for his next two novels, but was dropped from the company after he refused to write a police procedural as his next novel. He eventually returned to New American Library, where he continues to publish his novels.

Little has stated on several occasions that he considers himself a horror novelist, and that he writes in the horror genre, not the "suspense" or "dark fantasy" genres. He is an unabashed supporter of horror fiction. He has also been referred to as a disciple of Stephen King, a label he wears with pride.

Little has stated in the past that he does not like computers, and he refuses to operate an official web site; though you can glean a web presence via the following sites created by his ardent fans - (e.g.) [[1]] and [[2]] -- http://www.geocities.com/bentley_little/ -- http://www.bentleylittle.homestead.com/

[edit] Recurring Themes

Recurring themes in Bentley Little's works include a distrust of conformity (The Association, The Ignored), distaste for large corporations (The Store, The Policy), and taboo subjects such as incest and unusual sexuality (The Town, The Store, The Mailman). Nearly all of his novels have extremely simple titles. There is also a recurring character in several of his novels called Phillip Emmons, after a pseudonym he used for an early novel. Little's novels tend to contain overtly supernatural forces rather than relying on pseudo-scientific explanations like many other horror authors.

[edit] Awards

1990 Bram Stoker Award winner: Best First Novel (The Revelation) 1993 Bram Stoker Award nominee: Best Novel (The Summoning) 2002 Bram Stoker Award nominee: Best Fiction Collection (The Collection)

[edit] Adaptations of Little's Work

So far there have been few adaptations of Bentley Little's work in the media. However, the horror anthology Masters of Horror will adapt Little's short story The Washingtonians. It will be directed by Peter Medak.