Thomas Ligotti
I canti di un sognatore morto

In today's horror literature, often dominated by the sprawling novels of renowned bestselling authors like Stephen King and Anne Rice, the name of Thomas Ligotti stands out. He is an American writer born in Detroit in 1953.

Ligotti is characterized by the extreme originality of his prose, very refined and almost pictorial: he himself highlights the importance of visual arts among his influences. Indeed, when reading his stories, one often encounters references to artists who have chosen the macabre and the grotesque to shape their own nightmares, such as Breughel and Ensor. As for literary influences, Ligotti does not deny his debt to masters of the genre like Edgar Allan Poe (from whom he inherited the refined taste for style filled with decadent aesthetic symbolism) and H.P. Lovecraft, with whom he shares the nightmarish view of reality. His literary references are nonetheless eclectic and vast, including authors like Borges, Kafka, Nabokov, and our own Leopardi, a writer highly appreciated by Ligotti for his "cosmic pessimism."

An extremely original author, unlike many of his colleagues, he has chosen the short story format to shape and mold his poetic visions, which have a close correlation with the world of dreams and nocturnal life. While the choice to focus on short stories may hinder the fame of the Detroit writer, who unfortunately is not yet as well-known as he deserves, it only confirms the essentially artistic nature of his work. In this sense, it is not surprising that he came to the attention of David Tibet, the leader of the musical group Current 93. Tibet is a fan and publisher of gothic fiction and is also strongly drawn to the call of the dream world. Ligotti will collaborate with David Tibet on several occasions, particularly on Current 93's albums I Have a Special Plan for This World and In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land.

The first, legendary volume of stories, Songs of a Dead Dreamer from 1985, originally released in just 300 copies, exemplifies his singular conception of the art of storytelling: the plot often gives way to atmosphere, thus projecting the reader into a surreal world populated by puppets and masks, dominated by a mad and delirious reality that hides behind the appearances of everyday life. The protagonists of his stories are unaware victims of this nightmarish dimension and frequently cannot resist the pull to surrender to the horror of what they recognize as the true essence of reality, namely, the reality suggested by dreams.

Stories like "The Lost Art of Twilight," a remarkable treatment of the vampire theme; "Masquerade of a Dead Sword: A Tragedy"; "The Mystics of Muelenburg"; and "The Greater Festival of Masks" are little gems revealing the unique art of this writer, showcasing a sort of theatrical parade of masks and mannequins that guide us through the dark meanders of an evil reality. In "The Music of the Moon," the unfortunate protagonist listens to haunting notes, evoked in an abandoned building, by dark musicians of the shadows that seem to perform a cosmic music closely related to what is described by H.P. Lovecraft in "The Music of Erich Zann."

Considered by critics as the successor to Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, in reality, his art lives with a life of its own and evokes nightmares that stem from a personality extremely sensitive to capturing the echoes of a dark universe that he evidently feels very close. Winner of three Bram Stoker Awards, he was unfortunately discovered only recently in Italy, where, before the publication of his first anthology of stories (I Canti di un Sognatore Morto – Elara, 2008 - 2014), only scattered stories in various anthologies and fanzines could be found. In reality, it was the television series True Detective that gave him some popularity in recent times. Nick Pizzolatto has admitted in some interviews to being influenced by Ligotti and, in particular, by one of his non-fiction works, the long essay on philosophical pessimism The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, published in 2010. It is an unusual volume in which the American writer analyzes crucial issues such as the possibility of the self-destruction of the human race and the meaning of being human. Specifically, he cites several philosophers for him very important, some well-known like Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche and others more obscure like Michelstadter and the Norwegian Zapffe. The hope is that this is just the beginning of a much-needed rediscovery of Thomas Ligotti in our country. But with great pleasure, I learn that on October 20, the collection "Teatro Grottesco" will be released by Il Saggiatore! Truly wonderful news.

Essential Bibliography
Songs of a Dead Dreamer (1985-1989)
Grimscribe (1991)
Noctuary (1994)
The Nightmare Factory (1996)
Death Poems (2004)
Teatro Grottesco (2006)

Essential Italian Bibliography
"Are you out there, Thomas Ligotti?" by Andrea Bonazzi; "L’angelo della signora Rinaldi" – translation by Andrea Bonazzi: Necro, year I, number IV, Cagliostro E-Press, Cassino November 2007
"Thomas Ligotti e l’orrore sovrannaturale" by Andrea Giusto; "Les Fleurs": Hypnos – Rivista di letteratura e fantastico, number I 2007)
I Canti di un Sognatore Morto (Perseo Libri – Elara, 2008 - 2014)

Musical collaborations with Current 93
In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land (1997)
I Have a Special Plan for This World (2000)
This Degenerate Little Town (2001)

http://www.ligotti.net/