Elizabeth Lee (ed.) – Spine Chillers

Elizabeth Lee (ed.) – Spine Chillers: an Anthology of Mystery and Horror  (Elek, 1961)

Edgar Allan Poe – The Pit and the Pendulum
Edgar Allan Poe – The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe – Berenice
Charles Dickens  – No. 1 Branch Line, the Signalman
Charles Dickens  – The Trial for Murder (Aka To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt)
Wilkie Collins – A Terribly Strange Bed
Sir Walter Besant & James Rice – The Case of Mr. Lucraft
Ambrose Bierce – A Watcher by the Dead
F. Marion Crawford – The Screaming Skull
E. Nesbit – Man-Size in Marble
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
M. R. James –  The Mezzotint
Arthur Machen – The Novel of the White Powder
H. G. Wells – Pollock and the Porroh Man
H. G. Wells – The Red Room
Edward Lucas White – Lukundoo
E. F. Benson – In the Tube
E. F. Benson – At the Farmhouse
Vincent O’Sullivan – When I Was Dead
Vincent O’Sullivan – The Business of Madame Jahn
Algernon Blackwood – The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York
Oliver Onions – Benlian
Oliver Onions – Phantas
May Sinclair – Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched
William Hope Hodgson – The Voice in the Night
Lord Dunsany – The Bureau d’Echange de Maux
H. Russell Wakefield  – That Dieth Not
H. P. Lovecraft- The Thing on the Doorstep
H. P. Lovecraft – Cool Air
H. P. Lovecraft – The Outsider
L. P. Hartley – A Visitor from Down Under
William Faulkner – A Rose for Emily
Elizabeth Bowen – The Cat Jumps
Pamela Hansford Johnson – Ghost of Honour
Robert Bloch – Catnip
Robert Bloch – Enoch
Muriel Spark – The Portobello Road
Ray Bradbury – Skeleton

Anonymous – Ghost Stories

Anonymous – Ghost Stories   ( Cathay, 1984)

illustrations by Ian McCraig

H. P. Lovecraft – The Music of Erich Zann
Charles Dickens – The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber
M. R. James – A School Story
Oscar Wilde – The Canterville Ghost
Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – The Cat Room
Catherine Crowe – The Monk’s Story
Saki  – Laura
Fritz Leiber – Smoke Ghost
Frederick Marryat – The Phantom Ship
Leon Garfield – An Adelaide Ghost
E. Nesbit – Man-Size In Marble
Hugh Walpole  – A Little Ghost
Rosemary Timperley  – The Mistress in Black
Guy de Maupassant – An Apparition
Penelope Lively  – The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (extract)
Algernon Blackwood – The Occupant of the Room
Jerome K. Jerome  – The Haunted Mill
Elizabeth Le Fanu – The Harpsichord
J. S. Le Fanu – The White Cat of Drumgunniol
W. W. Jacobs – The Three Sisters
Joan Aiken  – Sonata For Harp and Bicycle

Mike Ashley (ed.) – The Darker Sex: Tales of the Supernatural and the Macabre by Victorian Women Writers

Mike Ashley (ed.) – The Darker Sex: Tales of the Supernatural and the Macabre by Victorian Women Writers (Peter Owen, 2009)

Arthur Watts

Emily Bronte – The Palace of Death
Elizabeth Gaskell – The Old Nurse’s Story
Mary E Braddon – The Shadow in the Corner
Charlotte Riddell – Nut Bush Farm
Mary E Penn – The Tenant of The Cedars
Louisa Baldwin – Sir Nigel Otterburne’s Case
Mary Wilkins Freeman – Luella Miller
Violet Quirk – The Three Kisses
Edith Nesbit – The Third Drug
George Elliot – The Lifted Veil
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps – The Presence

thanks to Sara of the very beautiful My Love Haunted Heart blog for providing the details for this one!

Readers Digest – Great Ghost Stories

Readers Digest – Great Ghost Stories (Readers Digest, 1997)

Robert Wheeler & Tony Stone

The Editors – Introduction

Robert Aickman – Ringing The Changes
Cynthia Asquith – The Corner Shop
A. L. Barker – The Whip Hand
Ambrose Bierce – A Tough Tussle
Algernon Blackwood – Transition
Ray Bradbury – The Crowd
Ann Bridge – The Buick Saloon
Rhoda Broughton – The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth
A. M. Burrage – Smee
A. S. Byatt – The July Ghost
B. M. Croker – ‘To Let’
Robertson Davies – The Ghost Who Vanished By Degrees
Walter de la Mare – Seaton’s Aunt
Charles Dickens – No. 1 Branch Line: The Signalman
Lord Dunsany – August Cricket
Elizabeth Fancett – The Ghost Of Calagou
Frederick Forsyth – The Shepherd
Shamus Frazer  – Florinda
Elizabeth Gaskell – The Old Nurse’s Story
Graham Greene – A Little Place Of The Edgware Road
L. P. Hartley – Someone In The Lift
William Hope Hodgson – The Gateway Of The Monster
Thomas Hood – The Shadow Of A Shade
Holloway Horn – The Old Man
Elizabeth Jane Howard – Three Miles Up
Henry James – The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes
M. R. James – The Ash Tree
Rudyard Kipling – The Phantom Rickshaw
Marghanita Laski – The Tower
J. S. le Fanu – Shalken The Painter
Penelope Lively – Black Dog
Alison Lurie – The Highboy
W. Somerset Maugham – The Taipan
Guy de Maupassant – An Apparition
E. Nesbit – Man-size In Marble
Edgar Allan Poe – William Wilson
Alexander Pushkin – The Queen Of Spades
Jean Rhys – I Used To Live Here Once
Robert Louis Stevenson – The Body-snatcher
Bram Stoker – The Judge’s House
Elizabeth Taylor – Poor Girl
H. R. Wakefield – Blind Man’s Buff
Elizabeth Walter – Dual Control
Fay Weldon – Breakages
Oscar Wilde – The Canterville Ghost
Emile Zola – Angeline, or The Haunted House

Blurb:

If you enjoy reading about elusive spirits and uncanny happenings, bizarre hauntings and malevolent ghosts, this is the volume for you. It brings together forty-six of the very best ghost stories ever written.

There are unforgettable classics from the great masters of the ghost story such as M. R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Ambrose Bierce, Edith Nesbit and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Then there are wonderfully macabre tales from world-famous authors such as Charles Dickens, Alexander Pushkin, Guy de Maupassant and Graham Greene, as well as gems from some of today’s best writers including Ray Bradbury, A. S. Byatt, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Penelope Lively, Fay Weldon and Frederick Forsyth.

This is a collection to entertain and intrigue, to terrify and to tantalise … to chill you to the bone. You have been warned!

John Edgell – Ghosts

John Edgell (ed.) – Ghosts (Firefly, 1970)

John Edgell – Introduction

John Edgell – The Funeral
John Edgell – May I Join You?
John Edgell – All Change
John Edgell – Skin Deep
John Edgell – For Appearance’s Sake
John Edgell – The Screaming Skull
John Edgell – The Number Thirteen Bus
John Edgell – Summons From Altica
John Edgell – Nightwatch
John Edgell – Just Married
John Edgell – The Hallowe’en Party
John Edgell – The Last Programme
John Edgell – Old Wine In New Bottles
John Edgell – Dead – And Buried?
John Edgell – Four Twenty-Four Previously
John Edgell – Dead Line
John Edgell – A Night With The Mummies
John Edgell – Purr
John Edgell – The Perfect Murder
John Edgell – Night Flyer
John Edgell – The Invitation
John Edgell – The Diary Of John Pilgrim
John Edgell – Walking On Your Grave
John Edgell – Bookworm
John Edgell – The Summer House On The Lake
John Edgell – Did You See the Window-cleaner?
John Edgell – The Mahogany Wardrobe
John Edgell – The Portrait
John Edgell – Accident Black Spot
John Edgell – Davy Jones
John Edgell – Bones
John Edgell – A Desirable Residence

Ambrose Bierce – a Tough Tussle
E. F. Benson – Caterpillars
Richard Middleton –  On The Brighton Road
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
E & H. Heron – The Story Of The Spaniards, Hammersmith
E. Nesbit – Man-Size In Marble
Vincent O’Sullivan – When I Was Dead
E & H. Heron – The Story Of Yand Manor House
Vincent O’Sullivan – The Business Of Madame Jahn
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
Ambrose Bierce – The Man And The Snake

Anonymous – Tales Of Horror & Mystery

Anonymous – Tales Of Horror & Mystery (Dean, 1993)

Luis Rey

Horror Stories

Roald Dahl – The Landlady
Walter De La Mare – The Riddle
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Ruth Ainsworth – Through The Door
E. Nesbit – Man-Size In Marble
Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
Helen Cresswell – A Kind Of Swan Song
Gene Kemp – The Clock Tower Ghost
Robert Arthur – The Haunted Trailer
Ambrose Bierce – The Stranger
Walter De La Mare – Bad Company
Michael Joseph – The Yellow Cat
W. W. Jacobs – The Well
Saki – Laura
Joan Aiken – The Swan Child
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Brown Hand
H. G. Wells – The Red Room

Mystery Stories

Joan Aiken – The Blade
M. R. James – Lost Hearts
Charles Dickens – The Signalman
Oscar Wilde – The Picture Of Dorian Gray (Extract)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Silver Mirror
Bret Harte – The Stolen Cigar Case
Honore De Balzac – The Mysterious Mansion
Nicholas Fisk – Sweets From A Stranger
Roald Dahl – The Hitch-Hiker
Wilkie Collins – The Dream Woman
Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque Of The Red Death
Karen Blixen – The Sailor Boy’s Tale
Guy de Maupassant – The Horla
Theophile Gautier – The Mummy’s Foot

Blurb:
“It is very seldom that one encounters what would appear to be sheer unadulterated evil in a human face; an evil, I mean, active, deliberate, deadly, dangerous.”

This anthology contains more than thirty spine-chilling stories by contemporary and classic writers, drawing us into a world of ghosts, demons and horrific happenings.

In Walter de la Mare’s Bad Company who is the evil-looking stranger on the Underground who leads us to a frightening discovery? And in Roald Dahl’s The Landlady what sinister secret is the mysterious proprietress of the guesthouse witholding from her unsuspecting guest?

These startling and compelling stories by some of the world’s greatest writers will enthrall readers to the very last page.

The Wordsworth Book Of Horror Stories

The Wordsworth Book Of Horror Stories (Wordsworth Special Editions, 2005)

A. and C. Askew – Aylmer Vance And The Vampire
Honore de Balzac – The Mysterious Mansion
Richard Harris Barham – The Spectre Of Tappington
Ambrose Bierce – The Damned Thing
Miss Braddon – Eveline’s Visitant
A. Clergyman – A Ghostly Manifestation
————-  Correspondence On ‘A Ghostly Manifestation’
Wilkie Collins – A Terribly Strange Bed
Charles Dickens – The Story Of The Bagman’s Uncle
————-  To Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt
————-  The Signalman
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Brazilian Cat
————-  The Ring Of Thoth
————-  The Lord Of Chateau Noir
————-  The New Catacomb
————-  The Case Of Lady Sannox
————-  The Brown Hand
————-  The Horror Of The Heights
————-  The Terror Of Blue John Gap
————-  The Captain Of The Polestar
————-  How It Happened
————-  Playing With Fire
————-  The Leather Funnel
————-  Lot No. 249
————-  The Los Amigos Fiasco
————-  The Nightmare Room
Amelia B. Edwards – The Phantom Coach
Elizabeth Gaskell – The Squire’s Story
W. F. Harvey – The Beast With Five Fingers
R. S. Hawker – The Botathen Ghost
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown
W. H. Hodgson – The Gateway Of The Monster
James Hogg – The Story Of Euphemia Hewit
Violet Hunt – The Prayer
W. W, Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Henry James – The Jolly Corner
M. R. James – A School Story
————-  Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook
————-  Lost Hearts
————-  The Mezzotint
————-  The Ash Tree
————-  Number 13
————-  Count Magnus
————-  ‘Oh, Whistle And I’ll Come To You, My Lad’
————-  The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas
————-  The Rose Garden
————-  The Tractate Middoth
————-  Casting The Runes
————-  The Stalls Of Barchester Cathedral
————-  Martin’s Close
————-  Mr. Humphreys And His Inheritance
————-  The Residence At Whitminster
————-  The Diary Of Mr. Poynter
————-  An Episode In Cathedral History
————-  The Story Of A Disappearance And An Appearance
————-  Two Doctors
————-  The Haunted Dolls House
————- The Uncommon Prayer Book
————-  A Neighbour’s Landmark
————-  A View From A Hill
————-  A Warning To The Curious
————-  An Evening’s Entertainment
————-  There Was A Man Dwelt By A Graveyard
————-  Rats
————-  After Dark In The Playing Fields
————-  Wailing Well
————-  Stories I Have Tried To Write
Rudyard Kipling – The Mark Of The Beast
Perceval Landon – Thurnley Abbey
John Lang  – Fisher’s Ghost
D. H. Lawrence – The Rocking-Horse Winner
J. S. Le Fanu  An Account Of Some Strange Disturbances In Aungier Street
————-  Narrative Of The Ghost Of A Hand
————-  Green Tea
————-  Madam Crowl’s Ghost
————-  Squire Toby’s Will
————-  Dickon The Devil
————-  The Child That Went With The Fairies
————-  The White Cat Of Drumgunniol
————-  Ghost Stories Of Chapelizod
————-  Wicked Captain Walshawe, Of Wauling
————-  Sir Dominick’s Bargain
————-  Ultor De Lacy
————-  The Vision Of Tom Chuff
————-  Stories Of Lough Guir
Lord Lytton – The Haunted And The Haunters
Guy De Maupassant – Vendetta
E. Nesbit – Man-Size In Marble
Howard Pease – In The Cliff Land Of The Dane
Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
————-  The Black Cat
A. M. Pushkin – The Ace Of Spades
Saki (H. H. Munro) – Laura
————-  Sredni Vashtar
Sir Walter Scott – The Tapestried Chamber
————-  Wandering Willie’s Tale
Robert Louis Stevenson – Markheim
————-  Thrawn Janet
Bram Stoker – Dracula’s Guest
Edmund Lenthal Swifte – Ghost In The Tower
William Makepeace Thackeray – The Story Of Mary Ancel
Hugh Walpole – Tarnhelm
Oscar Wilde – The Canterville Ghost

thanks to Severance of Vault for typing the contents!

Wordsworth Editions: Best publisher of the 00’s?

As far as i know they’ve never even been shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award but Wordsworth editions have my nomination for publishers of the decade. The good news is, the good work will continue just as soon as 2010 is upon us with a reprint of James Malcolm Rymer’s Varney The Vampyre in January followed by the James Doig edited anthology, Australian Ghost Stories, the following month.

Blurb
Murderous ghosts, horrific curses and monstrous beings haunt an unforgiving landscape into which travelers stray at their peril. Journey through the dark byways of Australia’s Gothic past in the rare stories gathered in this memorable new collection. Work by acclaimed Australian writers such as Marcus Clarke, Henry Lawson and Edward Dyson appears alongside many lesser-known authors such as Beatrice Grimshaw, Mary Fortune and Ernest Favenc. Many of the stories collected here have never been reprinted since their first publication in 19th and early 20th century periodicals and showcase the richness and variety of the Australian ghost and horror story.

James Doig provides an authoritative introduction full of fresh insights into Australian Gothic fiction with detailed biographical notes on the authors represented.

my pick of those i’ve read to date would include:

M. G. Lewis – The Monk
Mark Valentine (ed) – The Werewolf Pack
David S. Davies (ed.) – The Sexton Blake Casebook
Marjorie Bowen – The Bishop Of Hell
Anonymous – Sweeney Todd
E. Nesbit – Powers Of Darkness
George W. M. Reynolds – Wagner, The Werewolf
William Fryer Harvey – The Beast With Five Fingers
David Blair (ed.) – Gothic Short Stories
Dennis Wheatley – The Devil Rides Out

Happy Christmas and thanks for such a great selection, Derek and skeleton staff!

A Century Of Ghost Stories

Anon [Dorothy M. Thomlinson?] (ed.) – A Century Of Ghost Stories (Hutchinson, 1935)

Many thanks to Richard Humphreys who kindly provided this enchanting dust-jacket scan.

J. Sheridan Le Fanu – The Familiar
J. Sheridan Le Fanu – Green Tea
Cecil Binney – The Saint And The Vicar
Sir Walter Scott – The Tapestried Chamber
Anthony Gittins – Gibbet Lane
Mrs Gaskell – The Old Nurse’s Story
M.R. James – The Residence At Whitminster
M.R. James – A Warning To The Curious
Sir Edward Bulwer- Lytton – The Haunted And The Haunters
Walter De La Mare – The Green Room
Miss Braddon – Eveline’s Visitant
Edith Wharton – Afterward
Ambrose Bierce – The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot
F. Marion Crawford – Man Overboard!
Shane Leslie – In A Glass Dimly
Shane Leslie – The Lord-In-Waiting
Bram Stoker – Dracula’s Guest
E.F. Benson – Expiation
E.F. Benson – Pirates
Algernon Blackwood – The Woman’s Ghost Story
Percival Landon – Thurnley Abbey
Oliver Onions – The Rosewood Door
Vernon Lee – The Virgin Of The Seven Daggers
Mrs Oliphant – The Library Window
Ann Bridge – The Song In The House
Violet Hunt – The Operation
Ex-Private X – The Sweeper
Ex-Private X – The Running Tide
W.L. George – Perez
——————–
R. H. Barham – The Spectre Of Tappington
Amelia B. Edwards – The Phantom Coach
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Grey Champion
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown
Wilkie Collins – The Dream Woman
Frederick Marryat – The Werewolf
Charles Dickens – The Story Of The Bagman’s Uncle
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
Edgar Allan Poe – Berenice
Frederich Von Schiller – The Ghost-Seer
Alan Cunningham – The Haunted Ships
Ludwig Tieck – The Klausenburg
R. S. Hawker – The Bothanon Ghost
George Eliot – The Lifted Veil

A Century Of Ghost Stories (1936) is a much extended edition of the previous year’s Fifty Years Of Ghost Stories which includes only the stories listed above the dotted line (i.e., from Le Fanu’s The Familiar through to W. L. George’s Perez).

Detail from cover of 50 Years Of Ghost Stories provided by All Things Horror

Dorothy L Sayers – Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: 2nd Series

Dorothy L Sayers (ed.) –  Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: 2nd Series (Gollancz, July, 1931)

Help! Cover Wanted!

Dorothy L. Sayers – Introduction

1. Detection & Mystery (25 stories by Sayers, M. P. Shiel, H. C. Bailey, Robert Barr, Mrs. Belloc Lowdnes & Co.)

2. Mystery and Horror:

A.J. Alan – My Adventure in Norfolk
Stacy Aumonier – Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty
R. H. Barham – The Leech of Folkestone
Max Beerbohm – A.V. Laider
E.F. Benson – The Room in the Tower
J.D. Beresford – Cut-Throat Farm
Ambrose  Bierce – The Damned Thing
Algernon Blackwood – Secret Worship
Mrs. E. Bland  (Edith Nesbit) – No. 17
Douglas G. Browne – The Queer Door
A.M. Burrage – The Waxwork
Wilkie Collins – Mad Monkton
Alan Cunningham – The Haunted Ships
Clemence Dane – The King Waits
Walter de la Mare – The Tree
S.L. Dennis – The Second Awakening of a Magician
Charles Dickens – No.1 Branch Line: The Signalman
Ford Madox Ford – Reisenberg
Violet Hunt – The Prayer
W.F. Harvey – The Beast With Five Fingers
Holloway Horn – The Old Man
W.W. Jacobs – The Well
Edgar Jepson – The Resurgent Mysteries
J.S. Le Fanu – Mr. Justice Harbottle
E. Bulwer-Lytton – The Haunted and the Haunters
Arthur Machen – The Great Return
Frederick Marryat – The Story of the Greek Slave
John Masefield – Anty Blight
John Metcalfe – The Double Admiral
Mrs. Oliphant – The Library Window
Barry Pain – Rose,  Rose
Eden Phillpotts – The Iron Pineapple
Edgar Allan Poe – Berenice
Sir A. Quiller-Couch – The Roll-Call of the Reef
Naomi Royde-Smith – Mangaroo
Saki – Sredni Vashtar
Mary Shelley – The Mortal Immortal
M. P. Shiel – The Primate of the Rose
Henry Spicer – Called to the Rescue
Hugh Walpole – The Enemy
H. G. Wells – The Inexperienced Ghost
Edward Lucas White – Lukundoo