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Horror literature is packed with chilling and gruesome depictions of specters and creatures. While these terrifying elements are confined to the pages for many horror authors, some find their real lives just as horrifying as their fictional stories. Though this list of eerie facts about horror authors doesn’t feature bloodthirsty vampires or ravenous zombies, it does include ghosts and witches.
10. Susan Hill Believes in Ghosts
Susan Hill, the author of The Woman in Black (1983), has never seen a ghost but firmly believes in their existence. In a 2019 interview, Hill mentioned that many people she knows have experienced places radiating an evil aura, compelling them to flee. She also noted how dogs often react to unseen presences, questioning, “Why would animals fabricate such reactions?”
While Hill is a believer in the supernatural, she acknowledges that not all ghost sightings are genuine. According to the Telegraph, she thinks 99 percent of ghostly manifestations can be explained logically, but the remaining one percent defies rational understanding. Although unproven scientifically, Hill suggested in 2016 that “quantum physics might one day confirm the existence of ghosts.”
9. Stephen King Fears the Number 13
Stephen King has terrified millions with his horror stories featuring vampires, ghosts, and malevolent vehicles. However, what truly frightens King is the number 13. In a 1984 New York Times article, he discussed his triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13. He noted that 1984 was especially unlucky, as it contained three Friday the 13ths, the highest possible in a single year.
“I always combine the last two steps on my back stairs to turn 13 into 12,” King explained. “While reading, I avoid stopping on pages like 94, 193, or 382, as their digits sum to 13.” He acknowledges this behavior as neurotic but prefers to err on the side of caution. This fear even influenced his writing. His 1999 short story 1408 revolves around a haunted hotel room on the 13th floor (disguised as the 14th), and the room number’s digits (1+4+0+8) add up to the dreaded number 13.
8. Algernon Blackwood Was Part of the Ghost Club
Algernon Blackwood, renowned for his 1907 novella The Willows, which follows two men encountering supernatural forces on a Danube River journey, had a deep fascination with the paranormal. Beyond his literary works, Blackwood delved into mysticism and the occult, exploring these themes throughout his life.
He explored Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, and Theosophy, a spiritual belief system centered on reincarnation and karma. Beyond religious practices, he pursued the supernatural through secular avenues. He became a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a group focused on magical practices, and also joined The Ghost Club, an organization dedicated to investigating paranormal phenomena. Notable members included writers like W.B. Yeats, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Charles Dickens, the latter of whom remained skeptical about ghosts.
8. Anne Rice Thought She Resided in a Haunted Home
Anne Rice, the author of Interview with the Vampire (1976), didn’t believe in vampires but was convinced of the existence of ghosts. Her successful writing career allowed her to purchase several mansions in New Orleans, one of which she believed was haunted. Rice told NPR that her Rosegate Mansion, an opulent antebellum-style residence at 1239 First Street, “has legends. It has ghosts.”
She added, “I don’t see them, but others have.” The spirit of Pamela Starr Clapp, who lived in the mansion for most of her life and passed away there in 1934, is said to linger in the grand house. She isn’t the only one rumored to have died on the property; a man is believed to have taken his own life on the staircase.
6. Edgar Allan Poe’s Death Remains Shrouded in Mystery
The cause of Edgar Allan Poe’s death remains an unsolved mystery, fitting for a writer known for his dark and eerie stories. On September 27, 1849, Poe left Virginia for Philadelphia but never reached his destination. Six days later, he was discovered in Baltimore, disoriented and dressed in dirty, unfamiliar clothes. In a letter seeking assistance from one of Poe’s friends, the man who found him described Poe as “in poor condition” and “deeply distressed.” His friend later noted that Poe appeared “haggard, almost bloated, unwashed, with messy hair, and his entire appearance was repulsive.
Poe spent his final days in a hospital, experiencing hallucinations and repeatedly calling out for someone named Reynolds before passing away on October 7. Doctors were unable to diagnose his condition. Over the years, numerous theories have emerged to explain his strange demise, including suggestions of a brain tumor, murder, rabies, or cooping—a form of electoral fraud where victims were abducted, intoxicated, and forced to vote for a specific candidate.
5. M.R. James Wrote About His Personal Paranormal Encounters
M.R. James, a renowned ghost story writer, may have drawn inspiration for his tales from a childhood experience. His final story, “A Vignette,” is believed to be autobiographical, reflecting a confessional tone and set in his childhood home, Livermere Rectory, near a reportedly haunted forest.
The story’s narrator recounts a childhood memory of seeing something through a hole in the garden gate. Upon closer inspection, he notices a “malevolent” face staring back at him, described as “not monstrous or ghostly,” but rather “pink,” with visible whites around the eyes. Terrified, he runs away, glancing back to see “a draped figure shuffling into the trees.”
4. H.P. Lovecraft Feared Vast Enclosed Spaces
Shortly before his passing, H.P. Lovecraft, the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, described his fears in a letter to Harry O. Fischer. “I’m familiar with claustrophobia and agoraphobia, but I don’t suffer from either. Instead, I experience a unique blend of the two—a fear of enormous enclosed spaces,” he wrote. This condition, which he didn’t know had a name, is called kenophobia.
Lovecraft provided examples of what triggered his fear: “The shadowy interior of an abandoned stable, the vast emptiness of a deserted gas-house, the hollow expanse of an empty theater, or the echoing depths of a large cave.” He speculated that these fears stemmed from the “dark abysses of my childhood nightmares.” This lifelong phobia influenced many of his horror tales. Amusingly, Lovecraft ended the letter by signing off as “Grandpa Cthulhu.”
3. Mary Shelley Preserved Her Husband’s Calcified Heart (and Possibly Engaged in Graveyard Encounters)
When Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet, died in a storm at sea in 1822, his wife, Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (1818), kept an unusual memento. While his body was cremated, his heart remained intact, likely due to calcification caused by tuberculosis. The preserved heart was eventually handed over to his grieving widow.
Mary Shelley kept her late husband’s heart for the remainder of her life. After her death, their son, Percy Florence Shelley, discovered the heart in her desk, wrapped in a copy of his father’s final poem, “Adonais” (1821), which mourns the early death of John Keats. Percy Florence later ensured the heart was buried in the family vault, where it remains today.
The relationship between Mary and Percy Shelley is said to have had a dark beginning. Mary’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, a prominent women’s rights advocate, passed away shortly after giving birth to her. As a child, Mary often visited her mother’s grave in Saint Pancras’ Churchyard and later brought Percy there during their courtship. Scholars speculate that it’s highly probable Mary lost her virginity to Percy at her mother’s gravesite.
2. Peter Watts Suffered from a Flesh-Eating Infection
Though primarily known as a science fiction author, Peter Watts’s works often delve into horror. His most famous novel, Blindsight (2006), is essentially a haunted house tale set in space, complete with a vampire character. In 2011, Watts contracted necrotizing fasciitis, a gruesome flesh-eating disease. In a blog post, he described nearly dying from the illness and being left with “a crater the size and shape of Australia in my right calf.”
Despite his lengthy hospital stay, Watts found a way to inject humor into the grim situation. “If there’s ever a disease suited for a sci-fi writer, it’s flesh-eating disease. This thing spread across my leg like a Star Trek space disease in fast-forward.” For those curious, graphic images of his infected leg can be viewed on his blog.
1. Shirley Jackson Allegedly Practiced Witchcraft (and Experienced a Terrifying Sleepwalking Episode)
Whispers of Shirley Jackson being a witch began with the author bio for her debut novel, The Road Through the Wall (1948), which humorously stated she was “possibly the only modern writer who is also a practicing witch.” Though meant as a joke, the claim gained traction, and Jackson often played along. In an Associated Press profile, W. G. Rogers quipped that “Miss Jackson writes not with a pen, but with a broomstick.” She even joked about casting spells on publisher Alfred Knopf and the rivals of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Jackson fueled the rumors further by owning hundreds of books on witchcraft and publishing a 1956 book on the Salem witch trials. However, her fascination with witches remained purely academic and literary, never crossing into actual practice.
While witchcraft wasn’t part of her real life, Jackson did have a chilling sleepwalking incident while writing The Haunting of Hill House (1959). In an essay from Come Along with Me (1968), she described waking up to find the words “DEAD DEAD” scrawled on a piece of paper in her handwriting. She noted that the eerie note inspired her to “finish the book while awake, which I promptly did.”
