Clive Barker Returns to Horror With Library of the Dead
There are few names in modern horror literature with quite the same weight as Clive Barker, and now the man who gave us Books of Blood is returning to the form that first made him impossible to ignore.
Barker has announced Library of the Dead, an ambitious three-volume collection of horror fiction being released through Kickstarter. Described as a spiritual successor to Books of Blood, the project will combine brand-new stories with previously unavailable or out-of-print material, alongside Barker’s own poetry and black-and-white illustrations.
Perhaps the most encouraging part of the announcement, however, has nothing to do with limited editions or collector’s items. Barker says that following a period of ill health he is celebrating his recovery and has rediscovered his appetite for creating uncompromising horror. For admirers who have spent years hoping for substantial new Barker material, that’s pretty wonderful news.
And judging by the response to the campaign, plenty of people agree. Library of the Dead was given an initial Kickstarter target of $25,000 and quickly sailed past it, reaching more than $62,000 at the time the announcement was made.
Three New Journeys Into Clive Barker’s Nightmares
Library of the Dead will unfold across three books: Fear Eternal, Pyres of Bedlam and Dark Descents. The volumes are being edited by Barker’s long-time collaborators Phil and Sarah Stokes and are intended to form a year-long publishing event, with the books currently expected to begin shipping in 2027.
According to those behind the project, the collections will return to territory Barker has spent his career exploring, including obsession, mythology, beauty and horror. The presentation is also very much part of the experience, with Barker contributing illustrations and poetry while new cover artwork has been commissioned for the books.
For Barker, the freedom provided by crowdfunding appears to be part of the attraction. Rather than simply delivering another conventional anthology to a publisher, Library of the Dead is being built as an elaborate celebration of his work, with different editions, artwork and additional material available through the campaign.
Barker himself sounds suitably enthusiastic about it.
“I’m profoundly excited by all that Library of the Dead offers, and the freedom that I now have to present it to you with Kickstarter. It’s going to be a blast for us all, my friends!”
For anyone familiar with Barker’s imagination, the prospect of giving him more freedom is both extremely exciting and possibly something we should alert the authorities about.
Following in the Bloody Footsteps of Books of Blood
Calling Library of the Dead a spiritual successor to Books of Blood inevitably gives the new project some enormous boots to fill. First published during the 1980s, Barker’s six-volume Books of Blood collection helped establish him as one of the most important new voices in horror and demonstrated an imagination that seemed determined to go places other writers hadn’t even considered.
The stories weren’t confined to one particular flavour of horror. Barker moved between the supernatural, monsters, sexuality, violence, dark comedy, urban nightmares and more fantastical territory, often combining several of them in the same story. The result was a body of short fiction that didn’t merely introduce a new writer; it provided the foundations for a career that would eventually stretch across novels, films, painting, theatre and other forms.
Several Books of Blood stories subsequently escaped from the page and developed lives of their own on screen. The Midnight Meat Train became the 2008 film starring Bradley Cooper and Vinnie Jones, while Rawhead Rex was adapted for cinema in 1986. The story The Forbidden provided the basis for Bernard Rose’s 1992 classic Candyman, although the film relocated Barker’s original Liverpool setting to Chicago and substantially developed its own mythology.
Other adaptations followed over the years, including Lord of Illusions, based on The Last Illusion, and the 2020 film Books of Blood, which drew upon Barker’s work while also introducing new material. The reach of those original collections is remarkable when you consider just how many characters, ideas and adaptations grew from them.
And Books of Blood was only the beginning. Barker would go on to write The Hellbound Heart, which became the foundation for Hellraiser, a film he adapted and directed himself in 1987. Works including Weaveworld, Cabal, The Great and Secret Show and Imajica further demonstrated just how difficult it was to squeeze Barker neatly into the horror box. His imagination could be grotesque and frightening, but it could also be romantic, fantastical and strangely beautiful.
That mixture is precisely why a return to shorter horror fiction is so intriguing.
Books of Blood Is Getting the Deluxe Treatment Too
Library of the Dead isn’t the only attraction in the Kickstarter campaign. Appropriately, Barker’s original landmark collection is also being celebrated with a Books of Blood Remastered Edition.
The new edition brings all six volumes together as a premium two-volume leather-bound omnibus and includes new illustrations accompanying stories including The Midnight Meat Train, Rawhead Rex and The Forbidden. For readers who discovered Barker through the original collections, it makes the campaign as much a celebration of where he began as where he is going next.
There are some considerably more extravagant options as well. The Art of Clive Barker Portfolio collects fine-art prints based upon Barker’s artwork, while the Library of the Dead Book Coffin is an ornate stone-effect display piece designed to house the collection. Apparently simply putting books on a shelf was never going to be sufficiently Clive Barker.
Additional stretch goals, special editions and artwork are also planned as the Kickstarter progresses.
But underneath all the collector’s editions and elaborate presentation, the important story remains Barker himself. The author says he has experienced a “full recovery” following a period of ill health and has “reawakened” his creative passion for what he describes as unapologetic and terrifying horror fiction.
For horror readers, that might be the most exciting stretch goal of all.
Books of Blood introduced the world to an extraordinary imagination more than four decades ago. If Library of the Dead really does represent the beginning of another substantial period of Clive Barker horror, 2027 suddenly can’t arrive quickly enough.
