Reference Book Articles

Anon.  "Robert (Fordyce) Aickman, 1914-1981)."  Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Vol. 72. Detroit: Gale.

Anon. "Robert ( Fordyce) Aickman, 1914-1981."  Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Roger Matuz.  Detroit: Gale.

Anon.  "Robert Aickman."  World Authors 1980-1985.  New York: Wilson, 1991.

A good, brief biographical, bibliographical, and critical essay for the general reader.

Ashley, Mike.  "Robert Aickman."  Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction.  New York:  Taplinger, 1977.

A brief biographical and bibliographical entry.

Clute, John.  "Robert (Fordyce) Aickman, 1914-1981."  The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.  Ed. John Clute and John Grant.  New York: St.Martin's Press, 1997.

Often Aickman's stories express "a manifestation, a psychic portrait, of their [the characters'] failure to understand their own lives.  Having failed to know themselves, his protagonists become frightened unto death by the fragmented images they glimpse across the uncany threshold."

Clute, John.  "Robert Aickman."  Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror. 2 vols. Ed. E.F. Bleiler.  New York: Scribners, 1985.

Shows how Aickman's fiction came out of his mid-life crisis and how his protagonists experience the supernatural as an existential crisis.  Notes the pervasive mystery of the tales, which show how life's mysteries can never be understood.

Colby, Vineta, ed.  "Robert Aickman." World Authors 1980-1985.  New York: H.W. Wilson, 1990.

Cox, Greg.  The Transylvanian Library: A Consumer's Guide to Vampire Fiction.  San Bernardina, CA: Borgo Press, 1993.

A listing for Aickman's vampire story "Pages from a Young Girl's Journal."

Cox, Michael. "Robert Aickman."  A Dictionary of Writers and Their Works. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Crawford, Gary William.  "Robert Aickman."  British Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers since 1960. Vol. 261 of The Dictionary of Literary Biography.  Ed.  Darren Harris-Fain.  Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2002.

A biographical and critical essay that touches on all of the major aspects of Aickman's life and works.

Crawford, Gary William.  "The Modern Masters, 1920-1980."  Horror Literature:  A Core Collection and Reference Guide.  Ed. Marshall B. Tymn.  New York: R.R. Bowker, 1981.

Aickman is given several paragraphs in this historical essay and annotated bibliography of twentieth century horror literature.  Notes the influence of Freud.

Crawford, Gary William.  "Robert Fordyce Aickman, 1914-1981." The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural.  Ed. Jack Sulivan.  New York: Viking, 1986.

An encyclopedia article that touches on the major facets of Aickman's work: the subconscious and its symbols.

Crawford, Gary William.  "The Short Fiction of Aickman."  Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature. Ed. Keith Neilson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1983.  pp.1412-16.

A general survey.

Dziemianowicz, Stefan.  "Contemporary Horror Fiction, 1950-1988."  Fantasy and Horror:  A Critical and Historical Guide to Literature, Illustration, Film, TV, Radio, and the Internet.  Ed. Neil Barron. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999.

Selects just a few of Aickman's books.  Notes that sexuality is often a prelude for horror and death.

Fonseca, Anthony J., and June Pullium, eds.  Hooked on Horror: A Guide to Reading Interests in Horror Fiction.  Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2003.

Notes the subtle horror of Aickman's tales that are "surreal, imagistic nightmares."

Fonseca, Tony.  "Robert Aickman."  Supernatural Literature of the World. Ed. S.T. Josi and Stefan Dziemianowicz.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2005.

Fonseca notes Aickman's concern with time, death, and loss, and emphasizes in particular relationships between the sexes and even same sex ones (in The Late Breakfasters.  Contends that Aickman has similaritues to the writers of "magical realism," such as Salman Rushdie.  Notes also his use of Jungian archetypes.

Hills, C.A.R. "Aickman, Robert Fordyce (1914-1981)." Dictionary of National Biography.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

750 word biography with a portrait.

Joshi, S. T. "Robert Aickman." St. James Guide to Gothic, Ghost and Horror Writers.  Ed. David Pringle.  Detroit:  St. James Press, 1998.

Takes Joshi's usual attitude toward Aickman, which comes from his viewing Aickman through the glasses of H.P. Lovecraft.

Mariconda, Steven J.  "The Haunted House: Robert Aickman."  Icons of Horror and the Supernatural:  An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares. 2 vols.  Ed. S.T. Joshi.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2007.

Discusses only "Meeting Mr. Millar" and "The School Friend" as examples of the haunted house story in Aickman.  Also in this book, see Mike Ashley's "The Sea Creature," which mentions Aickman's "Ringing the Changes" and "The Wine-Dark Sea."

Morgan, Pauline.  "Robert Aickman." Guide to Literary Masters and Their Works.  Salem Press.

A brief biographical and bibliographical survey.

Neilson, Keith. "Contemporary Horror Fiction, 1950-1988."  Horror Literature: A Reader's Guide.  Ed. Neil Barron. New York:  Garland, 1980.

Annotates a number of Aickman's collections, showing how Akckman carried the ghost story into the later half of the twentieth century with a decidedly Victorian stance.

Neilson, Keith.  "Robert Aickman."  Critical Survey of Short Fiction.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1981.  7: 2492.

A very brief entry.

Tuck, Donaold H.  "Robert Aickman."  The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: through 1968.  Chicago:  Advent, 1974.

A brief note about Aickman's life with a listing of all the books published before 1968.