Very saddened to hear that a fellow writer friend of mine, the British horror writer Mark Samuels (known to some of his friends as "Markitty") passed away peacefully in his sleep a few days ago at the age of 56, apparently from a heart attack. I first met him at the Thomas Ligotti Online forums back in 2014 (a few months after I read his THE MAN WHO COLLECTED MACHEN collection, which was also the first book of his I ever read), and we had some very interesting and thought-provoking conversations on there over the years, not just about horror literature (like me, he was a big fan of writers like Lovecraft, Machen, and Ligotti, along with French Decadent types like Huysmans) but also politics and theological matters; he was a devout Catholic and I'm a lapsed Catholic so obviously on some level we recognized kindred spirits in each other... that and the fact that neither of us was above stirring up shit.
In an era where the horror genre is flooded with utter mediocrities and unctuous careerist networkers, he stood out, both in his personality and his work, and I would certainly put him on the same level as a Ligotti or (to cite some of his fellow British horror writers) Ramsey Campbell and Reggie Oliver. What always impressed me about his stories was how he often did a lot with an economy of words: so many horror writers can get lost building up atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere, but his best work had an almost Borges-like succinctness to them and they didn't wear out their welcome, and I never could figure out how he made it look so easy. But as good as his horror novels and short story collections are (and I recommend them highly), I'd also like to mention here his non-horror religious novel A PILGRIM STRANGER, which I feel is sadly overlooked: the ending to it moved me like few other books have ever done.
I'm aware that he was something of a controversial figure on the horror scene, whether because of his sometimes cantankerous personality, his political views (which at times veered into the right-wing/reactionary territory), his tendency to hold a grudge, and his almost Bloy-like tendency to sometimes turn on the people who helped or supported him. Oddly enough, in all the years I knew him, the two of us never had a falling out or even an argument. I myself burned a lot of bridges on the scene defending him back in 2017 (when it was especially fashionable for people to attack him online), but I didn't care because ultimately I felt that, for all his flaws, deep down he had a kind of Old World integrity whereas many of his critics (in my opinion at least) had none.
I know these last few years had been pretty rough for him: he was homeless for a brief spell around 2017 (which partly explained my vehemence for his critics at that time: I don't like to see a man who is down on his luck getting kicked around and spat on, even if the people who were doing it were total nothingburgers), and had numerous health issues (including a bout with ulcers that saw him hospitalized). But despite these setbacks he still kept working at his craft and posting material regularly to his followers on Patreon (to say nothing of getting books published, through presses such as Zagava or the now sadly defunct Chomu Press). I tried to help him out as much as I could, either through subscribing to his aforementioned Patreon account, buying/reading/reviewing his books, and I also contributed a story to the MARKED TO DIE anthology edited by Justin Isis and published by Snuggly Books a few years ago. I think Mark appreciated all this, as he tried to help me out in small ways also: he was kind enough to post a review of one of my novels on Goodreads (one of my only friends to do so, actually), and I was one of the 7 people he signaled out for thanks at the start of his PROPHECIES AND DOOMS essay collection, which made me very happy. He also invited me to contribute a story to an anthology he was editing that was dedicated to Leonid Andreyev: though he liked my story and accepted it, sadly the project as a whole never gained traction and was abandoned... but I'm thankful that at the very least, he got me into Andreyev.
Sadly over the last few years I haven't been in touch with him as often as I should have been... I'm great at returning messages on social media but lousy reaching out to people via e-mail. The last time we interacted was back in June of this year, after I posted a review of Robert Hugh Benson's novel LORD OF THE WORLD on Goodreads: he commented that he had never read the book before (despite wanting to for awhile) and that my review had finally given him the motivation to check it out himself. Recently I was planning on e-mailing him to wish him a Merry Christmas, catch up on old times, and ask him if he ever got around to reading that Benson novel... but now that can't happen, sadly. Requiescat in pace Markitty, you will be missed, but your work will live on...
“The more we are afflicted in this world, the greater is our assurance in the next; the more sorrow in the present, the greater will be our joy in the future.” – St. Isidore of Seville
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