Happy Birthday, Michael McDowell

It seems like few readers discuss Michael McDowell these days, which is a damned shame. He was certainly one of the most talented writers of his generation. McDowell was what some call a writer's writer. He never got the widespread acclaim and popularity that he deserved, but his peers heaped praise upon him. Stephen King especially was an outspoken admirer of McDowell's work.

McDowell was born on June 1st, 1950. Educated at Harvard and with various degrees to his name, he began his publishing year in 1979, just as the great horror boom was gearing up. McDowell's first novel was The Amulet, and he followed it with a succession of very well-received books, which included Cold Moon in Babylon, Katie, Gilded Needles, The Elementals, and Toplin. Toplin is perhaps McDowell's most unusual novel. It is the study of a man who perhaps suffers from obsessive compulsion disorder, with a healthy dose of paranoia. Toplin divided readers; some found it to be challenging and fascinating, while others had difficulty getting into the head of the first person narrative. First published in 1986 in a deluxe hardcover by Scream Press, and later published in the early 90's by Dell, Toplin was certainly ahead of its time. I habitually recommend it to readers who yearn for something different in horror fiction.

Michael McDowell beat Stephen King to the punch with a six-part serial horror novel in 1983 with his Blackwater series. King did the same thing thirteen years later with The Green Mile. I often wondered just how much influence McDowell's Blackwater series had on The Green Mile.

Michael McDowell's fiction was heavy on atmosphere and mood. There was a gothic dread in much of what he wrote. As the 80's progressed and the Splatterpunk rage swept the genre, fewer readers wished to read quiet horror. So McDowell turned to Hollywood and he had a lucrative career in writing for film and television.

McDowell had teleplays produced for various genre shows. His work graced such beloved shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (80's revival), Monsters, Tales from the Darkside, and Tales from the Crypt. He wrote two of the stories in theTales from the Darkside movie. Though there were rewrites, McDowell was chiefly responsible for Beetlejuice. He continued his work with Tim Burton by working on the screenplay to The Nightmare Before Christmas. McDowell's final screen credit is for the adaptation of Stephen King/Richard Bachman's Thinner. That film caught a lot of heat, but I always liked it.

Oddly, the final book published solely by Michael McDowell was a movie tie-in for the film Clue. Sad, he was far too good for that kind of work. I never read it, but I bet he managed to make it entertaining.

Michael McDowell also penned men's adventure novels under various pseudonyms.

Finally, Tabitha King completed McDowell's unfinished novel, Candles Burning, in 2006.

Now that it is becoming popular to reprint classic horror novels in deluxe anniversary-type editions, I'd love to see a publisher bring back some of McDowell's work to print in nice hardcover form. Most of his books were paperback originals.

Michael McDowell would have been 61 years old today, had he not died far too young in 1999. We need more writers like him out there today.