Ray Russell

Ray Russell (4 September 1924 – 15 March 1999) was an American writer of short stories, novels, and screenplays. In 1991 he received the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.^[1]

His most famous short fiction is "Sardonicus", which appeared in the January 1961 issue of Playboy magazine, and was subsequently adapted by Russell into a screenplay for William Castle's film version, titled Mr. Sardonicus. American writer Stephen King called "Sardonicus" "perhaps the finest example of the modern gothic ever written". "Sardonicus" was part of a trio of stories with "Sanguinarius" and "Sagittarius".

Russell was also one of the screenwriters for Roger Corman's X (also known as X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes) and The Premature Burial (based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story).

Books

• Sardonicus and Other Stories (1961)
• The Case Against Satan (1963)
• Unholy Trinity (1964)
• The Little Lexicon of Love (1966)
• The Colony (1969)
• Sagittarius (Playboy Science Fiction/Fantasy, 1971)
• Prince of Darkness (1971)
• Incubus (1976)
• Holy Horatio! (1976)
• Princess Pamela (1979)
• The Devil's Mirror (1980)
• The Book of Hell (1980)
• The Bishop's Daughter (1981)
• Haunted Castles: The Complete Gothic Tales of Ray Russell (1985)
• Absolute Power (1992)

Short stories

• "Sardonicus"
• "Comet Wine"
• "The Actor"
• "The Cage"
• "The Exploits of Argo"
• "The Sword of Laertes"
• "Montage"
• "Booked Solid"
• "Take A Deep Breath"
• "The Pleasure Was Ours"
• "The Room"
• "I Am Returning"
• "Incommunicado"
• "His Father's House"
• "Last Will And Testament"
• "The Rosebud"
• "London Calling"
• "Ounce of Prevention"
• "Xong of Xuxan"

Screenplays

• Mr. Sardonicus (1961)
• The Premature Burial (1962)
• Zotz! (1962)
• The Horror of It All (1963)
• X (1963)
• Chamber of Horrors (1966)

References

External links

• Ray Russell at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database