Joseph Payne Brennan

Joseph Payne Brennan (December 20, 1918 – January 28, 1990) was a prolific American writer of fantasy and horror fiction, and also a distinguished poet. Of Irish ancestry, he was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and he lived most of his life in New Haven, Connecticut, and worked as an Acquisitions Assistant at the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University for over 40 years. Brennan published several hundred short stories (estimates range between four to five hundred), two novellas and reputedly thousands of poems. His stories appeared in over 200 anthologies and have been translated into German, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. He was an early bibliographer of the work of H.P. Lovecraft.

Brennan's first professional sale came in December 1940 with the publication of the poem, "When Snow Is Hung", which appeared in the Christian Science Monitor Home Forum, and he continued writing poetry up until the time of his death. As a fiction witer, Brennan started out writing westerns stories for the pulps, then switched to horror stories for Weird Tales in 1952. He began publishing his own magazine Macabre, which ran from 1957 to 1976. Several of his short story collections concern an occult detective named Lucius Leffing in the vein of Carnacki and Algernon Blackwood's John Silence.

His 1958 collection Nine Horrors and a Dream, containing classic stories like "Slime" (which has been reprinted at least fifty times) and "Canavan's Back Yard", is celebrated in an essay by Stephen Gallagher in the book Horror: 100 Best Books, edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. Stephen King has called him "a master of the unashamed horror tale". Don D'Amassa considers that "His stories were noteworthy for their effective development of suspense and terror without the excesses of violence which characterise modern horror fiction".

Brennan's personality was described in an interview as "reserved: he is friendly but not flamboyant. He is most comfortable with his wife (Doris) and his dog (Chaucer). He is a gentle, softspoken, modest man. But beware, for beneath that ordinary exterior lurks the mind of a modern master of fright."

Life and work

Early career: 1940s: Western Stories

Brennan has stated in numerous autobiographical snippets that a chance encounter with the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe is what sparked his interest and ambition to engage in writing himself. Shortly after he was born in Bridgeport, CT, in 1917 (the same year of birth as his fellow Weird Tales writer Robert Bloch), Brennan's family moved back to New Haven, where he lived thereafter. He was forced to drop out of college in his sophomore year owing to an illness in the family; thus, he was largely self-educated. He then took a position in the advertising department at The New Haven Journal-Courier (1937-1939).

Little is known about how Brennan went about submitting his early manuscripts, although Brennan used many different agents in the course of his career. Before and during World War II, Ulrich Troubetzkoy acted as his de facto agent as well as the guardian of his manuscripts while he was stationed overseas. Later he used, with varying degrees of rapport and success, Laurence R. D'Orsay, Jack Schaffner, the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Kirby McCauley, Kenneth S. White and R. Dixon Smith. Troubetzkoy was born Dorothy Livingston Ulrich in Hartford, Connecticut in 1914, and known professionally as Ulrich Troubetzkoy after her 1941 marriage to Prince Serge Troubetzkoy; she met Brennan when they both worked at the New Haven Journal-Courier in the late 1930s.

Recognized editors of his work include Dorothy McIlwraith, Frank Belknap Long, Charles L. Grant, Peter Haining, Helen Hoke, Robert Arthur, Les Daniels, August Derleth, Ruth Iodice, Lilith Lorraine, Gustav Davidson, F. E. S. Finn, Stuart David Schiff], Gerald W. Page, George Abbe, and Loring Williams.

Brennan began working at the Yale University Library in 1941; this was interrupted by military duty in the U.S. Army where he served three years (including one year with General Patton's Third Army in the 26th Infantry Division (United States) ("Yankee Division")), during which time he received a unit citation of five battle stars, including one for the so-called Battle of the Bulge). Brennan resumed work at Yale in 1946 and began to write and publish western-themed short fiction for the pulp markets. His debut pulp western appearance occurred in December 1948 with the yarn "Fast-Gun Freedom", in Western Short Stories. Brennan made his first professional fiction sale with the western yarn "Endurance", which appeared in Masked Rider Western (Feb 1950). A total of 26 western yarns by him can be found in 25 pulp titles.

Brennan's novelette "Slime" was the cover story in the March 1953 Weird Tales

1950s: Poetry and Supernatural Work

When the market for western fiction dried up in the mid-1950s, Brennan simply turned his hand to the supernatural.

In 1950 Brennan established the little poetry journal Essence, which was published irregularly, with 47 issues spanning a period of 28 years (1950–1977). Among the many poets who contributed over the years were George Abbe, Duane Ackerson, Doris Philbrick Brennan, Judson Crews, August Derleth, Alan Donovan, Alfred Dorn, Janet Fox (Scavenger's Newsletter), Skip Galloway, Joseph Joel Keith, Lilith Lorraine, Joseph Francis Murphy, Rebecca Newth, William J. Noble, Lori Petri, Dorothy Quick, Sydney King Russell, Wade Wellman (son of Manly Wade Wellman), Mary Winter, and Celeste Turner Wright. Also included were reprints of the work of David Park Barnitz, Arthur Rimbaud, and others[1]. Brennan was on the staff of Jack Schaefer's Theatre News for the year 1940.

His first book, Heart of Earth, also issued in 1950, was a collection of poems.

That same year Frank Belknap Long wrote to Brennan suggesting that they meet, because Long was going to stay at Short Beach following his mother's death. The environs of Yale University were closely bound up with Long's ancestral heritage - his maternal forebears the Manfields were among the city's earliest settlers, and this gave him much in common with Brennan. Long's intention was to discuss with Brennan the antiquities of New Haven, their mutual interest in H.P. Lovecraft and writing in general. This meeting did not occur, but they did meet at a later time in a restaurant opposite Yale University Campus. Long and Brennan would not meet again until the time of the First World Fantasy Convention (1975 in Providence).

Brennan belatedly "broke into" the pages of Weird Tales with the short-short "The Green Parrot" in the July 1952 issue of that unique magazine, to which Brennan became a regular contributor. In fairly quick succession this tale was followed up by his novelette, "Slime", the dark whimsy "On The Elevator", and the classic "The Calamander Chest". These tales appeared only months before the magazine's demise deprived him of a professional market for any further such fiction. Much later Brennan was also collected in the Zebra Books revival of the magazine, "Weird Tales" #2, with the Leffing case, "The Nursing Home Horror", retitled "Fear".

Late 1950s and 1960s: Macabre House, Macabre magazine and Arkham House

In 1955 Brennan tried his hand at a new endeavour, and his imprint Macabre House was launched with the publication of the pamphlet H.P. Lovecraft: An Evaluation (now incredibly scarce, like many of the other Brennan-published efforts).

Macabre House published its own magazine, Macabre. According to Donald M. Grant, "together with its companion magazine, Essence, it (Macabre) provided the opportunity and the encouragement for publication of poems and stories by writers seeking recognition in a period that lacked a vehicle for development. Macabre ran for 23 issues and just shy of 20 years; issues are prized collector's items. Macabre was founded in 1957 to "work for the revival" of Weird Tales. He also wanted Macabre to "serve as a rallying place for all those devoted to horror and the supernatural". Twenty three issues were released, the last one in 1976. Issues of Macabre included Brennan's "Lucius Leffing" stories, and well as other of his well-known stories and articles on H. P. Lovecraft": "Time and Lovecraft" and "Lovecraft on the Subway". The ninth issue (Summer 1961) also featured an article on H.P. Lovecraft by Brennan. Other contributions included "Wei-Thogga" by Mike Ambrose, "Ice People" by George Dendrinos, "Balthor the Dreamer" by W. Paul Ganley (Eerie Country), "The Floating Coffin" by John Perry, and "Day of Departure" by Frank Sherry. Other contributors include Ramsey Campbell, Robert Caspar, Lawrence R. Griffin, Helen T. Hill, Leslie Nelson Jennings, Lilith Lorraine, Joseph Francis Murphy, William J. Noble, Voilet Hiles Ringer, Richard L. Tierney, Lawrence A. Trissel, and Elizabeth Weistrop. Several stories in Macabre have been cited as essential to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.[2]

The Macabre House imprint also published most of Brennan's horror fiction in the 1950s to early 1970s, such as the volumes The Dark Returners (1959), Scream at Midnight (1963) and The Casebook of Lucius Leffing (1973).

August Derleth had been an early correspondent and so Brennan sought publication for his first fiction collection with Arkham House; Derleth assembled this volume as Nine Horrors and a Dream (1958). Arkham House would later publish one of his volumes of poetry, Nightmare Need (1964) and Brennan's fifth volume of supernatural tales, Stories of Darkness and Dread (1973). Additionally, the 1961 poetry collection Wind of Time was issued by Derleth under the Hawk and Whippoorwill Press imprint, a subsidiary of Arkham House. As early as 1961, Brennan had more entries than any other poet in Derleth's anthology Fire and Sleet and Candlelight - fourteen poems. Stefan Dziemanowicz has written that "his volumes Nightmare Need and Creep to Death rank as high watermarks of modern macabre verse" .

Brennan was repeatedly turned down for grants to help produce and sustain his "little" magazines, Essence and Macabre. These two outlets were carried on for decades by his own determination and the assistance of numerous private contributions. The only organization to contribute substantially was the Virginia Humanities Foundation, most likely through the auspices of Dorothy Ulrich Troubetzkoy, who had worked with Brennan in the late 1930s on staff at the New Haven Journal-Courier, 1937-1939.

Lucius Leffing (occult detective) series

In the tradition of the psychic or paranormal detective, Brennan introduced his character Lucius Leffing, the sarsaparilla-sipping occultist private detective and psychic investigator, who resides at Number 7 Autumn St, New Haven, and collects antique glass, first appeared in the story "The Haunted Housewife" (Macabre XII, Winter 1962-1963).Leffing was quoted, and briefly appeared at the end of the story "In The Very Stones" which appeared in Scream At Midnight (1963). Macabre published two more of his adventures ("Apparition In The Sun," and "In Death As In Life") before the series began to run in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, where a further thirteen tales appeared prior to the 1973 publication of The Casebook of Lucius Leffing.

The forty or so stories comprising the Lucius Leffing canon are amongst Brennan's best-loved work. They are clearly affectionately akin to the Holmes and Watson stories of Conan Doyle, and to the Solar Pons and Parker stories of August Derleth. In the stories, Leffing's adventures are chronicled by his protege and friend - Brennan himself. Three collections of Leffing stories, plus the novel Act of Providence (in which Leffing investigates the bizarre happenings at the First World Fantasy Convention) comprise the Leffing 'canon'. Stefan Dziemianowicz has pointed out how Leffing's status as a psychic detective changed over time: "Leffing began life as a psychic detective, but after his third escapade, Brennan felt compelled to minimize the supernatural content of the stories to ensure their acceptance in the mystery/detective magazines. With the revival of the horror market in the 1980s, Leffing turned ghostbuster once again - a career move that mirrors Brennan's own resurrection in the horror mainstream following his years of exile in the small press".

Frank Belknap Long explains that while there had been occult detectives before, "Lucius Leffing is in all respects unique. He seldom engages in dramatic confrontations on a mundane human plane, and he does not shout at the reader, his clients, or anyone else. But in his scholarly reserve and quietness there is a sagacity of a high order, a brilliance that blazes and sears and shatters the horrific as if it were a vessel of glass with the deadly precision of a rapier thrust. He has a comforting way with clients who come to him for help, for he is wise enough to know that the most fatal error a victim of dark and mysterious forces can make is to doubt his own sanity at the start. He questions nothing that he has been told until every aspect of a strangeness has been explored in depth."

1970s

In 1970, Brennan married the former Doris M. Philbrick, who was herself a published poet. Three of her poems are included in Brennan's volume Creep to Death (1981). He also became a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, a society founded by fellow author Luther Norris in honor of August Derleth's sleuth Solar Pons.

A second collection of Leffing tales, containing eight stories, was published in 1977 as Chronicles of Lucius Leffing. The introduction to this volume by Frank Belknap Long recounts his several meetings with Brennan over the years. Long says of Brennan that he was a "storyteller of exceptional gifts who trusts his own creation right up to the hilt" and that "no present-day writer of fantasy conforms, in quite so miraculous a way, to the most fascinating of literary legends - that of the cultivated poet-philosopher-scholar who explores literature's most adventurous byways, in thrall to the darkly mysterious and the subtly terrifying".

The 1978 poetry collection As Evening Advances was a slim chapbook containing 31 poems including two reprints ("The Old Man," first collected in Nightmare Need and originally appearing in The New York Herald Tribune (1959); and "Maelstrom of Stars," first collected in The Wind of Time (1961) and originally appearing in The New York Times [1960]). The balance of content was reprinted from various horror genre fanzines, mainstream poetry journals, or original to the collection.

Brennan was the first recipient of the International Clark Ashton Smith Poetry Award 1978 for Life Achievement. (This award was created by Frederick J. Mayer and awarded yearly at the Fantasy Faire Convention in Southern California until the passing of co-founder William "Bill" Crawford in 1985).

The third Lucius Leffing book was the short novel Act of Providence (1979), set in and around the events of the First World Fantasy Convention, convened in Providence, Rhode Island, on Halloween weekend 1975.

1980s

In 1980, many of Brennan's classic horror stories were collected in the paperback-only collection The Shapes at Midnight, with an introduction by Stephen King.

The 1981 poetry collection Creep to Death assembled an even-handed blend of 84 poems by Brennan, many culled from the pages of Essence and Macabre, and various contemporary semi-pro genre magazines of the day, including Bleak December, Cross Plains, Myrddin, Nyctalops, Weirdbook, Whispers, and the one-off collaboration Toadstool Wine (1975). The collection concludes with a brief showcase (three poems) by his wife, Doris Philbrick Brennan. The author biography to this volume indicates that Brennan was assembling work for five further volumes, several of which eventuated. Two did not - these were Make Mine Macabre, a collection drawn from the author's pioneer magazine Macabre; and Lucius Leffing, Supernatural Sleuth, the collected supernatural adventures of his favourite detective.

In 1982, the short hardboiled detective novel Evil Always Ends made its hardcover debut at the 1982 World Fantasy Convention, at which tribute was paid to Brennan as Guest of Honor. Brennan also won the Convention Award at this convention, along with Roy Krenkel. [3]

In 1984, Twilight Zone magazine featured a seven-page spread of Brennan's poems with illustrations -- probably the largest such periodical coverage in the history of the fantastic poetry genre.

1985's poetry collection Sixty Selected Poems represents the gamut of Brennan's poetic work, from poems published in his first collection up until the date of publication.

Nineteen eighty-six saw the publication of The Borders Just Beyond, a collection of 24 macabre stories.

Death

Brennan died, aged 70, a few months prior to the issuance of his fourth Leffing book, the third collection of short stories to feature the character. The Adventures of Lucius Leffing (1990) contains another 13 adventures of the psychic sleuth.

Best-known work and modern influence

"Slime" is Joseph Payne Brennan's best-known story.

Brennan's stories, though scarce and mostly out-of-print today, are widely considered by horror fiction enthusiasts to be classics. His best-known story, "Slime", follows a protoplasmic life form as it ascends from its home deep within the ocean and begins to prey upon coastal residents of a small New England town. Not only has this story been re-published more than any other Brennan story, many modern horror authors seem to have borrowed heavily from it, authors such as Dean Koontz in his novel Phantoms, which features a remarkably similar creature, and Stephen King in his short novellette "The Raft", which also features a blob-like, water-dwelling organism.

Probably the book that borrows most heavily from "Slime", possibly to the point of plagiarism, is Night of the Black Horror (1962) by Victor Norwood (U.K., 1920–1983). This is a novel-length work; but for its first few chapters, the events and many of the descriptions parallel Brennan's work almost paragraph by paragraph, although the precise wording is often changed. After that it follows its own plot-line, separate from Brennan's work. Another work featuring a similar creature is Slimer (1983) by Harry Adam Knight (a pseudonym for John Brosnan and Leroy Kettle). In this case, a group of four people are stranded on an abandoned oil rig where scientific experiments appear to have taken place, creating the blob-like creature that can consume people, whose personalities continue to remain alive inside it. This creature can change shape, and appear as any person it has consumed - which, while borrowing a similar type of creature from "Slime", goes well beyond the scope of the earlier work.

Brennan brought a lawsuit against Paramount for copyright infringement in regards to their release of the film, The Blob (starring Steve McQueen), and apparently received a minor settlement; however, according to a watered-down version of the court proceedings, since the pulp magazine Weird Tales was not named in the suit, Brennan's claims lacked a substantive weight. Les Daniels stated in his book, Living in Fear, that since "Weird Tales was legally defunct, the author has gone virtually unrewarded".

Another acclaimed story by Brennan, "Canavan's Back Yard", deals with a weedy back yard that seems small and unremarkable from the outside, but is found to be so extensive by anyone unfortunate to venture in, that they soon get lost and may never find their way out.

Other famous Brennan stories include "The Calamander Chest", "The Corpse of Charlie Rull", "The Horror at Chilton Castle" and "Levitation". (The latter was adapted for an episode of the television series Tales from the Darkside.)

Acclaimed weird writer Thomas Ligotti revealed in an interview with Erik Angegrauber that when in his twenties he had written Brennan some fan letters (to which Brennan replied) praising his "unabashedly pessimistic" poetry.

Common themes and Legacy

Almost all of Brennan's work takes place in or around New England, especially coastal and northwestern Connecticut. Many of Brennan's best tales are set within the environs of New Haven and East Hartland, some within the mythical New England town of Juniper Hill, and feature seemingly semi-autobiographical elements throughout. He often goes to great lengths describing vast stretches of forest, scenery, small towns, and so on. His characters are often reclusive, and stick to these desolate places. As Alan Warren points out, many of Brennan's tales involve ghosts or apparitions that make frightening, unexpected appearances in old houses, hospital rooms, or even, as in 'The Man in Grey tweeds", on the highway.

In his poetry, he himself identified his main themes as "death, loss, the mystery of time, Nature".

Critics have varied in their responses to Brennan's output. Alan Warren considers that almost singlehandedly, he continued the Weird Tales tradition of well-wrought and atmospheric Gothic horror that seemed moribund for many years until Stephen King, and others employing many of the same methods, arrived on the scene. Warren credits Brennan with being able to put the horror right in front of the reader's face and suggests that "part of this is due to Brennan's simple style: his horrors are vivid because they stand out in sharp relief, against his homespun, small-town scenes." For Warren, "Brennan's tales often succeed because they are written with conviction, deliberately understated, and are often genuinely frightening."

Stephen King notes in his appreciative introduction to Shapes at Midnight - "you will find nothing flashy in his work...Brennan writes in what E.L. White called 'the plain style', a style which is as modest and self-effacing as Joe Brennan is himself...but for all of that, it is a sturdy style, capable of wielding enormous power when it is used well."

By contrast, S.T. Joshi writes that Brennan has "the ability to devise a clever supernatural idea but an utter deficiency of literary talent to execute it competently. The hallmark of Brennan's work is an almost childishly simple, unadorned prose that might be thought to facilitate the subtle incursion of the weird; but in reality this flatness of style renders his conceptions preposterous and absurd because of an insufficiency of atmospheric preparation." Joshi does consider that "Brennan is probably a better poet than a fiction writer, and his simplicity of utterance can be highly effective in short, pungent poems of fantasy and terror. Arkham House's Nightmare Need (1964) is well worth seeking out, as is the later Sixty Selected Poems (1985)."

Stefan Dziemanowicz comments of the collection Nine Horrors and a Dream that "All the stories in the book are notable for their simple, unaffected style, and their depiction of ordinary suburban and rural people contending with eruptions of the supernatural in their everyday lives." He concludes that "The timeless themes of his weird tales made him an important bridge between the pulp and the modern horror era. He was also a pioneer in horror's specialty press phenomenon".

Works

• Heart of Earth. (Prairie City, Illinois: The Decker Press, 1950); [James A. Decker]. Verse.
• Essence. (New Haven, Connecticut: The Author). Poetry journal, 1950 - 1977, 47 issues, I - XLVII.
• A Select Bibliography of H. P. Lovecraft. (N.P.: The Author, 1952); expanded edition as H. P. Lovecraft: A Bibliography. (Washington, D.C.: Biblio Press, 1952).
• The Humming Stair. (Denver, Colorado: Big Mountain Press, 1953); [Alan Swallow]. Verse.
• H. P. Lovecraft: An Evaluation. (New Haven, Connecticut: Macabre House, 1955). 75 copies issued.
• Macabre. (New Haven, Connecticut: The Author). Fiction journal, 1957 - 1976, 23 issues, I - XXIII.
• "20,000 Feet Over History". (American Airlines, 1958).
• Nine Horrors and a Dream. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1958). August Derleth. (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, [rpt]., 1962).
• The Dark Returners. (New Haven, Connecticut: Macabre House, 1959); [Donald M. Grant]. Limited to 150 signed & numbered copies; not issued in d.j.
• The Wind of Time. (Place of Hawks, Sauk City, Wisconsin: Hawk & Whippoorwill Press, 1961); [August Derleth]. Verse.
• Scream at Midnight. (New Haven, Connecticut: Macabre House, 1963); [Donald M. Grant]. 250 copies; not issued in d.j.
• Nightmare Need. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1964); [August Derleth].
• A Sheaf of Snow Poems. (Hamden, Connecticut: Pendulum Press, 1973). Verse.
• The Casebook of Lucius Leffing. (New Haven, Connecticut: Macabre House, 1973); published by Donald M. Grant.
• Stories of Darkness and Dread. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1973); [August Derleth].
• Death Poems. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Pilot Press Books, 1974); [L. Eric Greinke]. Verse.
• Edges of Night. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Pilot Press Books, 1974); [L. Eric Greinke]. Verse.
• The Chronicles of Lucius Leffing. (West Kingston, Rhode Island: Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc., 1977). Introduction by Frank Belknap Long.
• The Riddle. (Warren, Ohio: Fantome Press (C. M. James), 1977. Poem; chapbook.
• As Evening Advances. (Huntsville, Alabama: Crystal Visions Press, 1978); [Charles W. Melvin]. Limited to 400 numbered copies. Verse.
• Webs of Time. (New Haven, Connecticut: Macabre House, 1979); 500 copies. Introduction by Frederick J. Mayer.
• Act of Providence. (Co-authored with Donald M. Grant). West Kingston, Rhode Island: Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc., 1979.
• The Shapes of Midnight. (New York, New York: Berkley Books, 1980). Introduction by Stephen King.
• Creep to Death. (West Kingston, Rhode Island: Donald M. Grant, 1981). Verse.
• Evil Always Ends. (West Kingston, Rhode Island: Donald M. Grant, 1982). Limited to 750 copies signed by both author and artist. Novella.
• Sixty Selected Poems. (Amherst, New York: The New Establishment Press, 1985); [W. Paul Ganley].
• The Borders Just Beyond. (West Kingston, Rhode Island: Donald M. Grant, 1986). Limited to 750 copies signed by the author.
• Look Back on Laurel Hills. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Jwindz Publishing, 1989); [Dwayne H. Olson]. Verse.
• The Adventures of Lucius Leffing. (Hampton Falls, New Hampshire: Donald M. Grant, 1990). Limited to 1000 copies numbered and signed by both author and artist). Introduction by Jack L. Chalker.
• The Feaster From Afar: The Selected Weird Tales of Joseph Payne Brennan, Volume One. Rio Rancho, NM: Midnight House, 2008. Edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz and John Pelan. This was to have been a four-volume set of Brennan's tales, but Midnight House (as of 2015) has published no further volumes in the series.

Poetry: Anthology appearances and periodical contributions

• The Albemarle Book of Modern Verse, Vol. 2. London: J. Murray, 1961. Compiled by F. E. S. Finn
• ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE. Atlanta, GA: Unnameable Press, 1986. Edited by David D. Deyo, Jr.
• Amaranthus. Grand Rapids, MI: Pilot Press Books. Edited by L. Eric Greinke
• The American Scholar. Washington, D. C.: The United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. Edited by Hiram Haydn
• American Vanguard-1956. New York: Cambridge Publishing Company. Edited by J. Ernest Wright and Frederic Morton, with a preface by Joseph Kramm
• American Weave. Cleveland, Ohio. Edited by Loring Williams and Alice Crane Williams
• Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1958. New York: The Schulte Publishing Company, 1959. Edited by William Stanley Braithwaite and Margaret Haley Carpenter
• The Arkham Collector. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, Publishers. Edited by August Derleth
• ARX Literary Monthly. Austin, TX: Summit Press. Edited by Bill Brooks
• Astral Dimensions. Staatsburg, NY. Edited by Chris Marler and Mark Jacobs
• The Beloit Poetry Journal. Beloit, WI. Edited by Chad Walsh and Robert H. Glauber
• BEST POEMS OF 1956: Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards, 1957. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 9th Annual Issue
• Beyond The Fields We Know. No. 1, Autumn 1978. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Triskell Press. Edited and Published by Charles de Lint.
• Bitterroot. Spring Glen, NY. Edited and Published by Menke Katz
• Bleak December. Coloma, WI. Edited and Published by Jim Dapkus
• Blue Unicorn. Kensington, CA. Edited by Ruth Iodice, B. Jo Kinnick, Harold Witt, and Daniel J. Langton.
• Borderland. Markham, Ontario, Canada: Artimus Publications. Published by Raymond Alexander and Edited by R. S. Hadji
• Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards 1955. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1955. 7th Annual Issue
• Brown Penny Review. Michigan. Edited and Published by L. Eric Grienke
• The Capital Times. Madison, WI. Regional Newspaper.
• The Carolina Quarterly. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Edited by Harry R. Snowden, Jr.
• THE CAT HATER'S HANDBOOK or The Allurophobe's Delight. New York: The Dial Press, 1963. Edited by William Cole with illustrations by Tomi Ungerer
• A CELEBRATION OF CATS. New York: Paul S. Eriksson, Inc., October 1974. Compiled and Edited by Jean Burden
• Chicago Review. Chicago, IL: Published at the University of Chicago. Edited by Joseph Lobenthal
• The Christian Science Monitor. Boston, MA. The Home Forum Column
• The Chronicle: The Official College Publication. New Haven, CT: Junior College of Commerce (later named Quinnipiac College)
• Commonweal. New York: Commonweal Publishing Company. Edited by James O'Gara and Published by Edward S. Skillin. John Fandel was the poetry editor, also, later, Rosemary Deen and Marie Ponsot
• COMPASS. The Verse Journal. Prairie City, IL: The Decker Press. Edited and Published by James A. Decker. Later issues were edited by Chad Walsh and Robert H. Glauber
• Connecticut Artists. New Haven, CT: The Artists' Gallery
• Connecticut Fireside Magazine and Review of Books. Hamden, CT: Albert E. Callan
• Cross Plains. Yorba Linda, CA: Edited and Published by George T. Hamilton. A fanzine dedicated to the memory of Robert Ervin Howard
• The Diamond Anthology. A Poetry Society of America Anthology. Cranbury, NJ: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1971. Edited by Charles Angoff, Gustav Davidson, Hyacinthe Hill, and A. M. Sullivan
• Different. Rogers, AR: Avalon World Arts Academy. Edited and Published by Lilith Lorraine
• Eerie Country. Amherst Branch, Buffalo, NY: Weirdbook Press. Edited and Published by W. Paul Ganley
• Eleven. Hempstead, NY: Hofstra University. Edited by Jacques Jean
• Epos. Lake Como, FL. Edited and Published by Will Tullos and Evelyn Thorne
• Escape! Huntsville, AL: Crystal Visions Press. Edited and Published by Charles W. Melvin
• ESSENCE. New Haven, CT: Edited and Published by Joseph Payne Brennan
• Etchings & Odysseys. A Tribute to the Weird. Duluth, MN: MinnCon Publications
• EVERY CHILD'S BOOK OF VERSE. New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1968
• The 2nd Falcon's Wing Press Anthology [Unconfirmed]. The Brennan appearances mentioned in a letter to August Derleth (30 June 1960), that were to have been published by Falcon's Wing Press, may have been published in The Various Light (1964) after great delay, and unfortunately, after the death of Leah Bodine Drake. Brennan does not appear in VOIX PRISMATIQUES/PRISMATIC VOICES: An International Anthology of Distinctive New Poets. Indian Hills, CO.: Falcon's Wing Press, December 1958, edited by Charles Arthur Muses
• Fantasy & Terror. Uncasville, CT. Published by Richard H. Fawcett and Edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. (Early issues originally out of Zenith, WA).
• Fantasy Crossroads. Lamoni, IA: Stygian Isle Press. Edited by Jonathan Bacon
• Fantasy Review (formerly Fantasy Newsletter). Boca Raton, FL: Florida Atlantic University.
• Fantome Press. Warren, Ohio. Editor and Publisher, C. M. James.
• FIRE AND SLEET AND CANDLELIGHT: New Poems of the Macabre. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House Publishers, 1961. Edited by August Derleth
• The First World Fantasy Awards. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, inc., 1977. Edited by Gahan Wilson.
• FIVE CONNECTICUT POETS. Hamden, CT: Fireside Press, 1975. Edited and Published by A. E. Callan. Featuring the work of Wally Swist, Richard Geller, Gerene Freeman, Robert Shaw, and Joseph Payne Brennan
• Flame. Floral Park, Long Island, NY (and later, Alpine, TX). Edited by Lilith Lorraine. Printed at the Press of Villiers Publications, Ltd., Holloway, London, England
• FRESCO. The University of Detroit Quarterly. Detroit, MI. Edited by Gary Woditsch, Steve Eisner, and Jerome Mazzaro
• Frog Fandango. Milton, Queensland, Australia: Jacaranda, 1979. Edited by Barbara A. Sullivan
• The Georgia Review. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press
• THE GOLDEN QUILL ANTHOLOGY FOR 1958. Francestown, New Hampshire: The Golden Quill Press, 1959. Edited by George Abbe, Gustav Davidson, and Loring Williams
• THE GOLDEN YEAR. New York: The Fine Editions Press, 1960
• GREAT OCCASIONS. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1968. Edited by Carl Seaburg
• GRUE Magazine. New York: Hell's Kitchen Productions, Inc., 1986. Edited by Peggy Nadramia
• HPL: A Tribute To Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Birmingham, AL: Meade & Penny Frierson, 1972
• HALLOWEEN THROUGH TWENTY CENTURIES. New York: Abelard-Schuman, Ltd., 1950. Published by Henry Schuman, Inc. Edited by Ralph and Adelin Linton
• Hawk & Whippoorwill: Poems of Man and Nature. Place of Hawks, Sauk City, WI: Published by Villiers Publications, Ltd., for August Derleth
• Hawk & Whippoorwill Recalled. The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Summer 1973
• Icarus. Riderwood, MD: Icarus Press. Edited by Margaret Diorio
• JAPAN: THEME & VARIATIONS. A Collection of Poems by Americans. Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1959. Edited and Published by Charles E. Tuttle
• Kaleidograph. Dallas, TX: The Kaleidograph Press. Edited by Whitney Montgomery and Vaida Stewart Montgomery
• The Laurel Review. Buckhannon, West Virginia: West Virginia Wesleyan College. Edited by Marjorie Mendenhall Hoffman
• The Library Journal. Philadelphia, PA.: R. R. Bowker Company. Published by Daniel Melcher, and edited by Eric Moon, Shirley Havens, and Margaret E. Cooley. Features a review of Brennan's poetry collection, THE WIND OF TIME, Hawk & Whippoorwill Press, 1961, by Burton A. Robie
• The Literary Magazine of Fantasy and Terror. Zenith, Washington. Edited and published by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• The London Evening Standard, London, England.
• Lynx. Plainview, Texas. Edited by Paul Levine and Margaret Lee Johnson
• MACABRE. New Haven, CT: Macabre House. Edited and Published by Joseph Payne Brennan
• The Magazine of Fantasy & Terror. Uncasville, CT. (Alternating title for Fantasy & Terror)
• Midland Poetry Review. Shelbyville, IN. Edited by Loren Phillips
• Minnesota Fantasy Review. October 1988
• MYRDDIN. Northbrook, IL.: Myrddin Press. Edited & Published by Lawson Hill
• The New England Review/Connecticut Critic. Hamden, CT.
• New Haven Info. New Haven, CT. Brennan edited the VerseCraft column for a time in the 1950s
• NEW MASSES. New York: The New Masses, Inc. (1947)
• NEW POETS: 1948. Prairie City, IL.: The Decker Press. Edited & Published by James A. Decker.
• The New York Herald-Tribune. Week of Verse Column; Brennan appearances from the late 1940s through into the early 1960s
• The New York Times. Brennan appearances in the 1950s and 1960s
• Night Flights (i.e., Myrddin Five). Northbrook, IL.: Myrddin Press. Lawson Hill
• Night Voyages. Edited and Published by Gerald Brown
• NYCTALOPS. Albuquerque, NM.: Silver Scarab Press. Edited and Published by Harry O. Morris, Jr. Assistant Editor in charge of Fiction, Edward P. Berglund
• OMNIUMGATHUM. An Anthology of Verse by Top Authors in the field of Fantasy. Lamoni, IA.: Stygian Isle Press, 1976. Edited by Jonathan Bacon & Steve Troyanovich
• Orange Street Poetry Journal-of the New Haven Poetry Society. New Haven, CT.
• THE OWL BOOK. New York & London: Frederick Warne & Company, Inc., 1970. Edited by Richard Shaw. (Note: Brennan appears only in the British printings)
• The Poet's Pen. Bridgeport, CT. Managing Editor: John Hancock
• The Poetry Chapbook. New York. Published by Gustav Davidson. Editorial Board: Sydney King Russell, Dorothy Quick, and Isabell Harriss Barr
• Prairie Schooner. Lincoln, NE.: University of Nebraska Press. Edited (1955) by Lowry Charles Wimberly. Poetry Editor (1955): Bernice Slote
• The Providence Sunday Journal. Providence, RI. (Possibly Winfield Townley Scott's "New Verse" column)
• Recurrence. A Quarterly of Rhyme. Los Angeles, CA.: Variegation Publishing Company. Edited by Grover Jacoby
• The Saturday Review of Literature. New York: The Saturday Review Associates, Inc. Edited by Norman Cousins. Brennan appears in the Phoenix Nest column
• SHRIEKS AT MIDNIGHT: Macabre Poems, Eerie and Humorous. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1969. Edited by Sara Brewton and John E. Brewton. Drawings by Ellen Raskin
• THE SHUTTERED ROOM AND OTHER PIECES. Sauk City, WI.: Arkham House Publishers, 1959. Compiled by August Derleth
• Southern Poetry Journal (believed to be mistaken for the Southern Poetry Review)
• Southern Poetry Review. Raleigh, NC.: North Carolina State University. Edited by Guy Owen
• STARLANES. The International Quarterly of Science Fiction Poetry. Ferndale, MI. Edited and Published by Orma McCormick and Nan Gerding
• STAR*LINE. Newsletter of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Cambridge, MA. Edited by Elissa Malcoln. Asst. Editor: Robert Frazier. Features a review by Suzette Haden Elgin of Brennan's poetry collection WEBS OF TIME (1979). Without a doubt the worst, and most inept, review of Brennan's work to date
• The Step Ladder. Galesburg, IL. Published by the Order of Book Fellows. Edited by Benjamin B. Richards
• TALES BY MOONLIGHT II. New York: TOR Books, July 1989. Edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• TOADSTOOL WINE. A Collection of Fantasy and Horror from Six Independent Magazines. Amherst Branch, Buffalo, New York, October 1975. Published by W. Paul Ganley. Sampling from Fantasy & Terror (Jessica Amanda Salmonson); Moonbroth (Dale Donaldson); Space & Time (Gordon Linzner); Weirdbook (W. Paul Ganley); Whispers (Stuart David Schiff); and Wyrd (Brian Crist)
• TODAY THE STARS. Alpine, TX.: Different Press. Avalon Poetry Anthology, 1960. Compiled by Lilith Lorraine
• The Twilight Zone Magazine. New York: TZ Publications, Inc. Editor-in-Chief: T.E.D. Klein
• The University of Kansas City Review (also The University Review-Kansas City). Kansas City, MO. Edited by Alexander P. Cappon
• Variegation. A Free Verse Quarterly. Los Angeles, CA.: Variegation Publishing Company. Edited by Grover Jacoby
• THE VARIOUS LIGHT. An Anthology of Modern Verse in English. Lausanne, Switzerland: The Aurora Press, 1964. Edited by Leah Bodine Drake and Charles Arthur Muses.
• VOICES. A Journal of Poetry. Portland, ME. Edited by Harold Vinal
• Weirdbook. Amherst Branch, Buffalo, New York: Weirdbook Press. Edited and Published by W. Paul Ganley. (Earlier issues published from Chambersburg, PA)
• Weird Tales. Philadelphia, PA: Terminus Publishing Company, Inc. Publisher: Warren Lapine. Editors: George H. Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer
• WHEN THE BLACK LOTUS BLOOMS. Atlanta, GA.: Unnameable Press, 1990. Edited by Elizabeth A. Saunders. With an introduction by Robert R. McCammon
• Whispers. Fayetteville, NC. Edited and Published by Stuart David Schiff
• Wisconsin Academy Review, Spring 1960. Walter E. Scott mentions Brennan along with a few poetry lines
• The Wisconsin Athenaean.
• Wisconsin Poetry Magazine. Wauwatosa, WI. Edited by Clara Catherine Prince
• Wisconsin Review. University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.
• The World Fantasy Convention 1982 [Program booklet]. Ephrata, PA.: Science Press, 1982. Edited by Kennedy Poyser
• Writers Festival Anthology. Milford, CT.: The Taylor Library, 1961
• Yale Literary Magazine. New Haven, CT.

Fiction: Anthology appearances and periodical contributions

• 2-Gun Western. [Pulp magazine]. New York: Stadium Publishing Corporation
• The 4th Pan Book of Horror Stories. London: Pan Books, 1963. Selected by Herbert van Thal
• After Midnight. New York: TOR Books, April 1986. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• Acolytes of Cthulhu. Minneapolis, MN: Fedogan & Bremer, 2001. Edited by Robert M. Price
• Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology, Volume 1. New York : Davis Publications, 1976. Edited by Eleanor Sullivan
• Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Sampler, Fall 1966. H. S. D. Publications
• The Bank Street Book of Creepy Tales. New York: Pocket Books, September 1989. Edited by Howard Zimmerman, Seymour Reit, and Barbara Brenner. Illustrated by Lee Moyer
• Best Western. [Pulp magazine]. New York: Stadium Publishing, March 1956. Edited by Robert O. Erisman.
• Big Book Western. [Pulp magazine]. Kokomo, IN: Popular Publications
• The Complete Masters of Darkness. Underwood/Miller, 1991. Edited by Dennis Etchison
• The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia. Stephen J. Spignesi. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1991.
• Dark Mind, Dark Heart. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1962. Edited by August Derleth
• Dark Mind, Dark Heart. London: Mayflower Books, Ltd., 1963; 1966. Rpt.
• Dark Things. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1971. Edited by August Derleth
• Death. New York: Playboy Paperbacks, August 1982. Edited by Stuart David Schiff
• Demons! Fantastic Tales of Devilish Delights. New York: Ace Books, July 1987. Edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
• The Disciples of Cthulhu. New York: DAW Books, October 1976. Edited by Edward P. Berglund
• The Disciples of Cthulhu. Oakland, CA: Chaosium, February 1996. Edited by Edward P. Berglund. Brennan only appears in the Second Revised Edition
• The Dodd/Mead Gallery of Horror. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1983. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• Doom City. The Second Chronicles of Greystone Bay. New York: TOR Books, December 1987. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• Dracula's Guest and Other Stories. Middletown, CT: Xerox Education Publications, Inc., 1972. Edited by Vic Ghidalia
• Dying of Fright: Masterpieces of the Macabre. New York: Scribner's, 1976. Edited by Les Daniels. Illustrated by Lee Brown Coye
• Eerie, Weird, and Wicked. Nashville/New York: Thomas Nelson, 1977. Edited by Helen Hoke
• Esquire. Chicago: Esquire, Inc., February 1954
• Etchings & Odysseys: A Tribute To The Weird. Duluth: MinnCon Publications, 1973. Edited by Eric Carlson & John Koblas
• Fantasy Crossroads. Lamoni, Iowa: Stygian Isle Press, March 1977. Edited by Jonathan Bacon
• Fantasy Macabre. Uncasville, Connecticut: Richard H. Fawcett. Number 5, 1985. Edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• Fifteen Western Tales. [Pulp magazine].
• The First Chronicles of Greystone Bay. New York: TOR Books, October 1985. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• The Freak Show. London: Corgi, 1971. Edited by Peter Haining
• Ghastly, Ghoulish, Gripping Tales. New York: Franklin Watts, 1983. Selected by Helen Hoke
• Ghor, Kin-Slayer: The Saga of Genseric's Fifth-Born Son. West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, August 1997. Chapter III of a Robert E. Howard fragment-round robin tale
• Ghosts and Ghastlies. New York: Franklin Watts, 1976. Selected by Helen Hoke
• The Goblins At The Bathhouse. New York: Caedmon, 1978. "The Calamander Chest". Performance by Vincent Price
• Peter Haining Presents: The Freak Show. London: Rapp & Whiting Ltd., 1970
• Peter Haining Presents: The Freak Show. Nashville/New York: Thomas Nelson, 1972. Rpt.
• The Haster Cycle. Oakland, CA: Chaosium, February 1997. Introduction and prefaces by Robert M. Price. Brennan only appears in the 2nd edition
• Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1968. Edited by Henry Mazzeo. Drawings by Edward Gorey
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories My Mother Never Told Me. New York: Dell, November 1965
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories Not For The Nervous. New York: Random House, 1965
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories Not For The Nervous. New York: Dell, October 1966; March 1968; September 1971. Rpts.
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories To Stay Awake By. New York: Random House, 1971
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories To Stay Awake By. New York: Dell, September 1973
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories To Be Read With The Door Locked. New York: Random House, 1975
• Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology. New York: Davis Publications, Fall-Winter 1978. Edited by Eleanor Sullivan
• Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum. New York: Random House, 1965
• Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Riviera Beach, Florida: H. S. D. Publications.
• Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. [British] Alex White & Company, Ltd., July 1967. 2nd Series
• Alfred Hitchcock's Stories To Be Read With The Door Locked, Book 2. Great Britain: Hodder & Stoughton, Coronet Books, 1979
• Alfred Hitchcock's Tales To Keep You Spellbound. New York: The Dial Press, 1976. Edited by Eleanor Sullivan
• Alfred Hitchcock's Tales To Make Your Blood Run Cold. New York: The Dial Press, 1978. Edited by Eleanor Sullivan
• Horror-7. London: Corgi, 1965. Edited by Frederick Pickersgill
• The Ithaqua Cycle: The Wind-Walker of the Icy Wastes: 14 Tales. Oakland, CA: Chaosium, July 1998. Selected and introduced by Robert M. Price
• Living In Fear: A History of Horror in the Mass Media. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975. Edited by Les Daniels
• Living In Fear: A History of Horror in the Mass Media. New York: Da Capo Press, 1983. Edited by Les Daniels. Rpt.
• Macabre. New Haven, CT. Edited & Published by Joseph Payne Brennan
• Mad Scientists: An Anthology of Fantasy & Horror. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1980. Edited by Stuart David Schiff
• Magazine of Horror. New York: Health Knowledge, Inc., Robert A. W. Lowndes, Editor. January 1965 & Summer 1967
• Masked Rider Western. [Pulp magazine]. New York: Better Publications, February 1950.
• Masters of Darkness II. New York: TOR Books, January 1987. Edited by Dennis Etchison
• Midnight. New York: TOR Books, October 1985. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• Midnight Sun 4. Columbus, Ohio: Gary Hoppenstand. August 1976
• The Monster Book of Monsters: 50 Terrifying Tales. New York: Bonanza Books/Xanadu Publications, Ltd., 1988. Selected by Michael O'Shaughnessy
• Monsters, Monsters, Monsters. New York: Franklin Watts, 1975. Selected by Helen Hoke
• Mystery Stories I. Edited by James Higgins. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1973
• Mystic Magazine. Evanston, Illinois: Palmer Publications, Issue #2, January 1954
• Nameless Places. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1975. Edited by Gerald W. Page
• New Haven Advocate-New Haven's News & Arts Weekly. New Haven, CT: New Mass Media, Inc., October 28-November 3, 1993
• Night Chills. New York: Avon Books, November 1975. Edited by Kirby McCauley
• Night Visions 2. Niles, Illinois: Dark Harvest, 1985. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• Night Visions: Dead Image. New York: Berkley Books, September 1987. Edited by Charles L. Grant. [Reprint of Night Visions 2]
• Over the Edge. New Stories of the Macabre. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1964. Edited by August Derleth
• Over the Edge. London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1967. Edited by August Derleth. Rpt.
• Over the Edge. London: Arrow, 1976. Edited by August Derleth
• Pinnacle. Toledo, Ohio: Edited & Published by Elise Pinkerton Stewart. Autumn 1960
• The Satyr's Head & Other Tales of Terror. London: Corgi Books, 1975. Edited by David A. Sutton
• Selections from the Pan Book of Horror Stories #4. New York: Berkley Medallion Books, November 1970. Edited by Herbert van Thal
• The Seventh Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. Glasgow, Scotland: Fontana, 1971. Selected by Robert Aickman
• Shadows 7. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1984. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• Shadows 7. New York: Berkley Books, February 1987. Edited by Charles L. Grant. Rpt.
• Shadows 9. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1986. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• Shadows 9. New York: Berkley Books, May 1988. Edited by Charles L. Grant
• The Shape Under The Sheet: The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia. Woodstock, Georgia: The Overlook Connection Press, 1991. Edited by Stephen J. Spignesi
• Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. New York: Renown Publications
• Sixty-Five Great Tales of Horror. London: Octopus Books, Ltd., 1981. Edited by Mary Danby
• Spectre 1: A Collection of Ghost Stories. London: Abelard-Schuman, 1973. Edited by Richard Davis
• Strange Beasts & Unnatural Monsters: 13 Great Stories of the Macabre. Greenwich, CT: A Fawcett Crest Book, 1968. Selected and with an introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern
• Tales from the Darkside: Volume One. New York: Berkley Books, October 1988. Edited by Mitchell Galin and Tom Allen
• Texas Western. [Pulp magazine]. Kokomo, IN: Standard Magazines, Inc.
• These Will Chill You: Twelve Terrifying Tales of Malignant Evil. New York: Bantam Books, February 1967. Selected by Lee Wright & Richard G. Sheehan
• Thirteen Tales of Terror. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1977. Edited by Les Daniels and Diane Thompson
• Thrillers and More Thrillers. New York: Random House, 1968. Selected by Robert Arthur. Illustrations by Saul Lambert
• Thrillers and More Thrillers. New York: Windward Books/Random House, October 1973. Selected by Robert Arthur. Illustrations by Saul Lambert. Rpt.
• A Tide of Terror: An Anthology of Rare Horror Stories. New York: Taplinger, 1972. Edited by Hugh Lamb
• Travellers By Night. An Anthology of New Horror Stories. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1967. Edited by August Derleth
• Travellers By Night. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1968. Edited by August Derleth. Rpt.
• Triple Western. [Pulp magazine]. Kokomo, IN: Best Publications, Inc.
• The Twilight Zone Magazine. New York: TZ Publications, May/June 1984. Editor-In-Chief: T. E. D. Klein
• Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters. New York: Curtis Publishing, 1974. Edited by Roger Elwood
• WT50: A Tribute to Weird Tales. WEIRD TALES 50. Oak Lawn, Illinois: Robert Weinberg, 1974
• Weird Tales. New York. Edited by Dorothy McIlwraith. July 1952; March 1953; July 1953; January 1954
• Weird Tales #2. New York: Kensington Publishing/Zebra Books, Spring 1981. Edited by Lin Carter
• Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors. New York: Bonanza Books, 1988. Edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, and Martin H. Greenberg. With an introduction by Robert Bloch
• Weirdbook. Chambersburg, PA: W. Paul Ganley, #1, April 1968; #2, March 1969; #23/24, 1988; and combined with Whispers 30, April 1997
• Weird Worlds. New York: Scholastic Magazines, Number 6, 1980
• Western Novels & Short Stories. [Pulp magazine]. New York: Newsstand Publications. Edited by Robert O. Erisman
• Western Short Stories. [Pulp magazine]. New York: Interstate Publishing Corporation/Stadium Publishing. Edited by Robert O. Erisman
• Western Story Magazine. [Pulp magazine]. Kokomo, Indiana: (Popular) New Publications, October 1952
• When Evil Wakes: A New Anthology of the Macabre. London: Souvenir Press, 1963. Edited by August Derleth
• When The Black Lotus Blooms. Atlanta, Georgia: Unnameable Press, 1990. Edited by Elizabeth A. Saunders. With an introduction by Robert R. McCammon
• Whispers. Fayetteville, North Carolina: Edited & Published by Stuart David Schiff, July 1973; June 1975; combined with Weirdbook 30, April 1997
• Whispers: An Anthology of Fantasy & Horror. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1977. Edited by Stuart David Schiff
• Whispers. New York: Jove Publications, February 1979. Edited by Stuart David Schiff. Rpt.
• Whispers II. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1979. Edited by Stuart Davis Schiff
• Whispers II. New York: Jove Publications, November 1987. Edited by Stuart David Schiff
• The World Fantasy Convention 1982 Program Booklet. Ephrata, PA: Science Press, 1982. Edited by Kennedy Poyser
• Yankee Witches. Augusta, Maine: Lance Tapley, 1988. Edited by Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg, and Frank D. McSherry, Jr. Illustrated by Peter Farrow
• The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series IV. New York: DAW Books, November 1976. Edited by Gerald W. Page
• The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series V. New York: DAW Books, July 1977. Edited by Gerald W. Page

Brennan's fiction has been widely reprinted in Great Britain and in several foreign languages, including Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Swedish, Vietnamese, and Welsh. Additionally, several Brennan stories have been adapted for the visually and hearing impaired, although a listing of these is incomplete. The novelette "Slime" has been available in a Braille format for several decades.

Introductions by Brennan

Brennan provided introductions fort the following poetry volumes: Fred C. Adams, A Bagwyn's Dozen (1974). Mary Elizabeth Counselman. The Face of Fear and Other Poems (1984)

Radio, television, and film

• Thriller [Television adaptation], aired 16 April 1962. The Lethal Ladies episode presented "Good-Bye, Mr. Bliss" as "Good-Bye, Dr. Bliss", and "The Pool" as "Murder On The Rocks". Thriller also considered using "Apprehension" but apparently determined that it would be difficult to effectively adapt to performance media.
• Tales from the Darkside [Television adaptation, 1984], presented "Levitation".
• Italiana Radio Televisione adapted the stories, "The Calamander Chest", "The House On Stillcroft Street", "Levitation", and "Long Hollow Swamp" for broadcast in 1982.
• "Zombique" was adapted for radio and presented on THE HITCHCOCK HALF-HOUR airing on South African Broadcasting, 1981.
• "The Calamander Chest" was recorded by Caedmon Educational Recordings in 1978 with a performance by Vincent Price. This tale is Side 2 on the LP recorded album (or "B" side on cassette) The Goblins At The Bathhouse, which is the title of Ruth Manning-Sanders tale on the "A" side. This tale was also recorded by Houghton-Mifflin in 1973 for the Mystery Stories Listening Library, as a companion format to MYSTERY STORIES 1, edited by James Higgins. This recording can be accessed at Video on YouTube
• Supposedly, Brennan was recorded reading selected poems ("Heart of Earth"; "Black October"; "When Yellow Leaves"; "Return of the Young Men"; "The Closer Light"; and "Lines To H. P. Lovecraft") during a "Meet The Authors" gathering at the First World Fantasy Convention held in Providence, Rhode Island, October 31 - November 2, 1975. Thus far this is unsubstantiated.
• Brennan was recorded as part of a panel discussion with several other authors at the First World Fantasy Convention, 1975. Some of this discussion appeared that year on a flexi-disc inserted into the fanzine Myrddin 3. The full recording can be accessed at [4]

Awards

• Hartshorne Award for 1957. Wisconsin Poetry Magazine.
• Leonora Speyer Memorial Award 1961, for "New England Vignette". The Poetry Society of America.
• International Clark Ashton Smith Poetry Award 1978, (first recipient) awarded for Life Achievement. (An award created by Frederick J. Mayer and awarded yearly at the Fantasy Faire Convention in Southern California until the passing of co-founder William "Bill" Crawford in 1985).
• At the Eighth World Fantasy Convention 1982, held in Brennan's home town of New Haven, Connecticut, Brennan was awarded a Special Convention Award for Life Achievement, along with artist/illustrator, Roy Krenkel. The winner of the Life Achievement Award for 1982 went to Italo Calvino.
• Brennan received numerous awards in poetry from various literary journals including Kaleidograph, and others.

See also

• List of horror fiction writers

Further reading

• Anderson, James. "Joseph Payne Brennan: An Interview". Fantasy Review 7, No 9 (Whole No 72)(October 1984), 9-10. Also prints three of Brennan's poems from the collection Creep to Death - "Sea Grotto", "Winter Dusk" and "Summation".
• Blue, Tyson. "Joseph Payne Brennan"(interview) in Blue, Observations from the Terminator: Thoughts on Stephen King and Other Modern Masters of Horror Fiction. [publication details to be added].
• Brennan, Joseph Payne. "Author's Note to "Zombique". In Dennis Etchison (ed) Masters of Darkness II NY: Tor, 1988.
• Brennan, Joseph Payne. "Joseph Payne Brennan In Brief: An Autobiography".August Derleth Society Newsletter 2, No 1 (1978), (6-7).
• Brennan, Joseph Payne. "My Skirmish with Weird Tales". In Robert Weinberg (ed)WT50: A Tribute to Weird Tales. (Weinberg, 1974). Reprint in John Pelan and Jerard Walters (eds). Conversations with the Weird Tales Circle. Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press, 2009, pp. 334-39.
• Crawford, Gary. "Joseph Payne Brennan" in Jack Sullivan (ed). The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural NY: Viking Penguin, 1986, p. 52
• Dziemianowicz, Stefan. "Darkness Come to Life: The Weird Fiction of Joseph Payne Brennan". Studies In Weird Fiction 9 (Spring 1991), pp. 18-26. "
• Dziemianowicz, Stefan. "Joseph Payne Brennan" in S.T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemianowicz (eds), Superntural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia'. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2005, pp. 157–59.
• Eng, Steve. "Three Poets of Horror: Tierney, Breiding and Brennan: Joseph Payne Brennan: Bard of Black Decembers" in Darrell Schweitzer (ed) Discovering American Horror Fiction II. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1988, pp. 139–53.
• Grant, Donald M. "Joseph Payne Brennan: Quiet Achiever". The World Fantasy Convention (Program Booklet) 1982, pp. 36–37. Accompanied by two pieces by Brennan: My Ghosts of Old New Haven (p. 38; nonfiction) and "Queen of the Dead" (Kerza; 13-18, 62-64; story), and six poems and two haiku by Brennan. Additionally, Brennan compiled a brief "catalogue" of rare books (pp. 73–75) on display at the Sterling Memorial Library (New Haven at Yale) assembled in conjunction with the World Fantasy Convention 1982, convened at the Park Plaza Hotel.
• Larson, Randall D. "Joseph Payne Brennan and the Classic Tradition of Horror" in Darrell Schweitzer (ed) Discovering Classic Horror Fiction I. CA: Borgo Press, 1992.
• Larson, Randall. "Joseph Payne Brennan: Old Cities and the Stream of Time" (interview). Threshold of Fantasy: A Magazine of Fantastic Literature No 1 (Spring 1982), pp. 4–13.
• Murray, Will. "Joseph Payne Brennan Interviewed" in John Pelan and Jerard Walters (eds). Conversations with the Weird Tales Circle. Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press, 2009, pp. 330–33.
• Spignesi, Stephen J. "Joseph Payne Brennan: A Living Legend is Dead." in Spignesi, The Shape Under the Sheet: The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia. Ann Arbor, MI: Popular Culture, 1991, pp. 761–63.
• Warren, Alan. "American Gothic: Joseph Payne Brennan" in Darrell Schweitzer (ed) Discovering American Horror Fiction II. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1988, pp. 108–113.

External links

• Joseph Payne Brennan at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Occult Detectives 15: Lucius Leffing [5]
• Checklist of issues, Macabre magazine (contents not given) [6]
• Description of Joseph Payne Brennan Papers [7]
• Essay by Brennan on poet David Park Barnitz [8]
• Review of The Feaster from Afar [9]