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Poole, W Scott

(1971- ) US academic and author whose studies in horror (see Horror in SF) include Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror (2014), a study of the actor Vampira (real name Maila Nurmi), most famous in an sf context for her appearance in Edward D Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1958); In the Mountains of Madness: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of H P Lovecraft (2016); and Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror (2016), in which he argues that the conventions and Icons of traditional horror fed the imaginations of those who experienced the genocidal trauma of World War One, the visceral obscenities of the conflict inspiring new and transmogrifying uses of that traditional iconography. Here and in his earlier work, Poole is clear-headed and articulate, though his conspicuous attempt to appeal to a popular audience causes some repetition and overconfident generalization. [JC]

W Scott Poole

born 1971

works (selected)

Satan in America: The Devil we Know (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009) [nonfiction: hb/]
Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2011) [nonfiction: pb/Natalya Balnova]
Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror (Berkeley, California: Counterpoint Press/Soft Skull Press, 2014) [nonfiction: pb/Charles Brock]
In the Mountains of Madness: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of H P Lovecraft (Berkeley, California: Counterpoint Press/Soft Skull Press, 2016) [nonfiction: H P Lovecraft: pb/]
Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror (Berkeley, California: Counterpoint Press/Soft Skull Press, 2016) [nonfiction: World War One: hb/Jaya Miceli]

links

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 01:34 am on 12 April 2026.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/poole_w_scott>