John Crowley (born Dec 1, 1942) is an American author of fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction. He has also written essays. Crowley is best known as the author of Little, Big (1981), a work which received World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and has been called "a neglected masterpiece" by Harold Bloom, and his Ægypt series of novels which revolve around the same themes of Hermeticism, memory, families and religion. Some of his non-fiction writing has appeared bimonthly in Harper's Magazine in the form of his "Easy Chair" column, which ended in 2016. His first published novels were science fiction: The Deep (1975) and Beasts (1976). Less