Karl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 13 October 1994) was an award-winning American writer, poet, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He wrote numerous dark fantasy and horror stories. As an editor, he created a three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction restored to its original form as written, and edited the long-running and genre-defining Year's Best Horror and Fantasy series. His Carcosa publishing house issued four volumes of the best stories by some of the major figures of the Golden Age pulps. He is possibly best known for his creation of the long-running series of stories featuring Kane, the Mystic Swordsman.
His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into Whose Hands". He described his world view as nihilistic, anarchistic and absurdist, and claimed, not entirely seriously, to be related to "an opera composer named Richard". Wagner also admired the cinema of Sam Peckinpah, stating "I worship the film The Wild Bunch".
Read more about Karl Edward Wagner: Biography, Published Works
Famous quotes containing the words karl, edward and/or wagner:
“a big picture of K. Marx with an axe,
“Where I cut off one it will never grow again.”
O Karl would it were true
I’d put my saw to work for you
& the wicked social tree would fall right down.”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)
“Oh, a capital ship for an ocean trip,
Was the Walloping Window Blind;
No gale that blew dismayed her crew
Or troubled the captain’s mind.”
—Charles Edward Carryl (1841–1920)
“... our lives are like soap operas. We can go for months and not tune in to them, then six months later we look in and the same stuff is going on.”
—Jane Wagner (b. 1935)