Michel Parry – The Devil’s Children

Michel Parry (ed.) – The Devil’s Children: Tales of Demons & Exorcists (Orbit, 1974)

Michel Parry – Introduction

Robert Bloch – Enoch
R. H. Benson – Father Meuron’s Tale
Ramsey Campbell – Vacant Possession
Guy De Maupassant – The Horla
H. P. Lovecraft – The Thing on the Doorstep
August Derleth – Saunder’s Little Friend
Roger Pater – A Porta Inferi
Henry S. Whitehead – The Lips
Richard Matheson – From Shadowed Places
Robert Bloch – The Unspeakable Betrothal
J. A. Cuddon – Isabo
John Collier – The Possession of Angela Bradshaw

Another strong selection, even if many of the better stories are now overfamiliar. Needless to say, The Exorcist was rather popular at the time …

Whitehead wrote some excellent voodoo stories for Weird Tales in the ‘twenties and ‘thirties, and The Lips is arguably his masterpiece (but try Seven Turns In A Hangman’s Rope if you get the chance).  J. A. Cuddon would go on to write lengthy introductions to both the Penguin Book of Horror Stories and the Penguin Book of Ghost Stories in 1984.