Rest in peace, Mark Samuels

[Doctor Dugald Eldritch]

I have just been informed of the tragic passing of Mark Samuels at the age of fifty-six. I believe he died peacefully in his sleep, ten years on after another much-missed English master of the uncanny, Joel Lane. I was, and am, an admirer of his nightmarish fictions, which harkened back to Machen and Lovecraft, with inspiration also drawn from the likes of Ligotti and Borges and de Quincey. In his depiction of a universe blighted by metaphysical rot and evil, people by questers after the spectral and spiritually-malnourished loners, he was unmatched. Whether transcendent or decadent or absurdist, his style and themes were at once recognisable, his settings either his native London or that eerie Mitteleuropa where the supernatural and grotesque thrive; and, though he had a reputation for quarrelsomeness, his passion for the mystic and wyrd served as a beacon of inspiration for many, and he was always welcoming and jovial on the occasions when we met.

So, farewell, Mark; the Graal loses another champion.

[Arthur Staaz]

Oh goodness, no. I never met him in person. I was in Kings Langley shortly after he moved there but didn’t get the opportunity to meet up. I had been in touch with him earlier this year and had hoped to make it to a Machen event with him sometime soon. Mark was very encouraging and helpful to me with my fitful writing and publishing attempts. Beyond that, I considered Mark’s writing on the same level as Thomas Ligotti, deserving of greater recognition within the weird fiction community. His friends and weird fiction have suffered a terrible loss.

[Nemonymous]

This has been an enormous shock to me. I had not met up with Mark for some years, but we were friends in the late 1980s / early 1990s, in the South London area, often meeting up in various pubs along with two or three others. He was very young then.
I shall write something more substantial in due course after processing this very very sad news.
RIP Mark.

[dr. locrian]

My condolences on Mark's passing to all his friends and family. He was a stellar author and an extremely intelligent, talented individual. What an untimely death, to say the least.

[Arthur Staaz]

A remembrance at Wormwoodiana -

Wormwoodiana: RIP Mark Samuels [by R.B. Russell]

[njhorror]

Thank you for posting this. Mark was a good guy. I'll miss him.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Very sad news... he was quite a character and a singular talent and will be missed...

The Onyx Glossary: Requiescat in pace Mark Samuels

[Raul Urraca]

I just got a hard copy of The Man Who Collected Machen on the cheap. I remember reading it as an ebook (along with The White Hands) November/December of 2016 and being amazed. He really made me want to start writing, and it felt good that there was someone alive doing the kind of stuff I liked and aspired to do.

It's sad to hear about his passing. He was one of the few living writers I really admire, and I've always kept up with his work. I wish I had sent him a fan letter or something. His best stories remind me of the strange, oddly-shaped texts I read in my dreams. RIP Mark.

[In A Dark Light]

Samuels was one of my personal five pillars of weird fiction in the twenty-first century, along with Joel Lane, Quentin S. Crisp, John Howard and Mark Valentine. It's heart-breaking to think that two of those five are gone now.

Rest in Peace, Mark Samuels.

[ZC_HAWK]

A bitter reminder of the cruelty of mortality, and also that I have much of Mr Samuels work yet to read.
Nothing but my deepest condolences to the bereaved, I am not overly fond of the term 'before their time' but 56 is a shockingly young age.

May he rest well.