Joseph Vernon Shea (1912–1981) was an American writer of horror, fantasy, poetry, and essays; and a correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and August Derleth.

According to an obituary published in a 1981 issue of Crispin Burnham's Eldritch Tales, Shea's father had been a friend of such famous stage magicians as Howard Thurston, Hermann the Great, Houdini and Blackstone.

H. P. Lovecraft: Letters to J. Vernon Shea, Carl F. Strauch, and Lee McBride White.

He was a long-time member of the "Esoteric Order of Dagon" Amateur Press Association at the time of his sudden accidental death.

[5] Some of this material was gathered in a small-press booklet, In Search of Lovecraft (West Warwick, Rhode Island: Necronomicon Press, 1991).