ligotti started his career as a published writer in the early 1980s with a number of short stories published in various american small press magazines. he was contributing editor to "grimoire" from 1982 to 1985. in 2015, ligotti's first two collections, "songs of a dead dreamer" and "", were republished in one volume by penguin classics as "songs of a dead dreamer and grimscribe". michael calia of "the wall street journal" wrote of the reprint that "horror writer thomas ligotti is about to enter the american literary canon. penguin classics published a volume of mr. ligotti’s short stories, making him one of 10 living writers, including thomas pynchon and don delillo, among the hundreds the imprint has published in the u.s." ligotti's work received high praise following the publication from the likes of "the new york times book review", the "los angeles review of books"," the washington post", and" the new yorker". terrence rafferty contrasts ligotti with stephen king, observing, "king, the great entertainer, needs the story as the comedian needs the joke, and when he can’t quite deliver it he dies (in the comedian’s sense). king is a master of horror, though. when inspiration fails, he has the technique to fake it. thomas ligotti is a master of a different order, practically a different species. he probably couldn’t fake it if he tried, and he never tries. he writes like horror incarnate."