The 85 Weirdest, Day 54: Sylvia Townsend Warner
The 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!
SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER (1893–1978) is one of the most oddly overlooked giants of weird fantasy; her epic literary life stretches from the 1927 novel Mr. Fortune’s Maggot to the 1977 collection Kingdoms of Elfin. Within that half-century came volumes of poetry, a classic Arthurian biography — and yet Warner’s most enduring tale remains her very first novel, 1926’s Lolly Willowes, in which a gentle woman rebels against a life of conformity by turning to witchcraft. Warner was ahead of her time.
Tags: bizarre, cthulhu, elfin, faerie, fairy, fairytale, fantasy, fortune, freak, goth, gothic, horror, kingdom, lolly willowes, lovecraft, maggot, poe, sci-fi, science fiction, scifi, surreal, sylvia townsend warner, sylvia warner, weird, Weird Tales
