Several horror icons whom I admire have died these past several months. I just now learned that David J. Skal (1952 - 2024) died after being hit by a drunk driver in Los Angeles.
I first encountered Skal through his book, The Monster Show.
A self-described "cultural history of horror," his book is informative,
filled with original insights, and well written; a breezy, entertaining
read, mercifully free of academic jargon. The prose is literate yet
accessible to lay readers, the way film criticism should be always.
I later read his Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween,
as part of my research for a class I taught at The Learning Annex about
Halloween haunted houses. It was great preparation for my lecture.
I
only met Skal once, in the fall of 2001, at Burbank's Dark Delicacies
horror bookstore. Several writers were there for a book-signing,
including me and Skal. I had brought The Monster Show for him to sign, which he did. I still prize that book with his inscription.
To my surprise, he bought a copy of my book, Halloween Candy and asked me to sign it. I took it as his way of encouraging a fellow writer and fan who was hardly in his league.
Overall, Skal was a fine historian, a skilled writer, and a gracious man.
