Clive Barker turns 74 on October 5. For many readers and film fans, his name immediately conjures Hellraiser, Pinhead and a mysterious puzzle box.
But another story deserves remembering on his birthday: the two gay men he refused to let publishing pressure erase.
Early in his career, Barker wrote In the Hills, the Cities, a horror story featuring two male lovers. In an interview preserved on his official website, he recalled being advised against publishing it because its sexual content could reveal his own sexuality and alienate readers.
One proposed solution was to change the gender of a character, turning the pair into a man and a woman. Barker rejected that suggestion.
He revisited the publishing dispute in a September 4 interview with Rue Morgue. When the publisher demanded that certain stories be excluded, he withdrew his books. These were his first books, and he understood that refusing could cost him the opportunity.
The publisher returned asking for two sentences from In the Hills, the Cities to be removed. Again, Barker refused. The work was ultimately published.
That decision mattered beyond one argument over a manuscript. Gay men and their desire had a place in Barker’s fiction, alongside the unsettling transformations, unfamiliar worlds and outsiders that became central to his work.
His birthday also arrives during a new period of creativity. In a statement accompanying Library of the Dead, Barker said he was celebrating his recovery after ill health and generating new work.
The project comprises three collections planned for 2027, bringing together new and previously published writing. It marks a return to the short horror fiction associated with his Books of Blood.
There is another imminent return to his universe. Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival launches October 8 as a first-person horror game, with Doug Bradley returning to voice Pinhead.
For Barker, turning 74 comes with more worlds to explore. For gay readers, it is also a chance to celebrate a writer who took a risk when he was just beginning—and kept his two male lovers in the story.
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