Best Horror Short Story Collection

[Davelectro]

Hey all! Love the forum it's awesome.

I don't know if this has been done to death, but would anyone be interested in making your own anthology/collection book? You can list however many as you wish, 20, 30, 40, 50 more. I'd really like to see the cream of the crop for the knowledgeable folks here on the forum!

List your absolute best, no rules, as many tales from single authors as you'd like, novellas, it's all good.

I don't have my list yet, will post it before tomorrow!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson (his first published story)

Born of Man and Woman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson

The Lottery - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka

In the Penal Colony - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Davelectro]

Love those choices!

 

[BAYLOR]

Love those choices!

Nightshade and ad Damnations by Gerald Kersh
Adrift on the Haunted Seas The Best Short stories of William Hope Hodgson
Songs of the Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Liggotti
The Shadows At the Bottom of the World by Thomas Liggotti
Cold Print by Ramsey Campbell
In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
The Skull of Marquis De Sade and Other Stories by Robert Bloch
Mysteries of the Worm by Robert Bloch
The Dark Domain by Stephan Grabinski
In A Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu
Three Men in the Dark Tales Terror by Jerome K Jerome by Barry Pain and Robert Barr
The Dead of Night : The Ghost stories of Oliver Onions

 

[BAYLOR]

Also

Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
I have No Mouth but I must Scream by Harlan Ellison
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman
Haunted Castles The Compete Gothic Tales by Ray Russell
Perchance to Dream Selected Stories by Charles Beaumont
From the Heart of Darkness by David Drake
Darks Masques by James Herbert Robert McCammon and Other Modern Masters of Terror edits by J N Williamson

 

[Davelectro]

Nightshade and ad Damnations by Gerald Kersh
Adrift on the Haunted Seas The Best Short stories of William Hope Hodgson
Songs of the Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Liggotti
The Shadows At the Bottom of the World by Thomas Liggotti
Cold Print by Ramsey Campbell
In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
The Skull of Marquis De Sade and Other Stories by Robert Bloch
Mysteries of the Worm by Robert Bloch
The Dark Roman by Stephan Grabinski
In A Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu
Three Men in the Dark Tales Terror by Jerome K Jerome by Barry Pain and Robert Barr
The Dead of Night : The Ghost stories of Oliver Onions

Excellent choices, although I was looking for single stories but that's cool, unless you'd like to include every story from those books - be a bit of a big collection, though

I love Ligotti, Wagner, Bloch, Le Fanu, Campbell, Hodgson & Onions! In fact, I've just gotten Dead of Night and am considering picking up Nightshades.

 

[hitmouse]

@BAYLOR see the original question. Can you pick individual stories from the collections you have listed?

 

[Davelectro]

Also

Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
I have No Mouth but I must Scream by Harlan Ellison
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman
Haunted Castles The Compete Gothic Tales by Ray Russell
Perchance to Dream Selected Stories by Charles Beaumont
From the Heart of Darkness by David Drake
Darks Masques by James Herbert Robert McCammon and Other Modern Masters of Terror edits by J N Williamson

So many authors I dig, we have very similar tastes! Thank you for the input & ty hitmouse.

 

[BAYLOR]

So many authors I dig, we have very similar tastes! Thank you for the input & ty hitmouse.

Stories that Scared Even Me by Alfred Hitchcock This one contains a number really good stories. Camera Obscura by Basil Copper, It by Theodore Sturgeon . It also contain a story Gerald Kersh Men Without Bones .

 

[BAYLOR]

So many authors I dig, we have very similar tastes! Thank you for the input & ty hitmouse.

Karl Edward Wager Las created one my favorite fans character Kane the Mystic Swordsman 5 book in the series my favorite is Bloodstone. There lots of dark Horror in that series.

 

[Davelectro]

Stories that Scared Even Me by Alfred Hitchcock This one contains a number really good stories. Camera Obscura by Basil Copper, It by Theodore Sturgeon . It also contain a story Gerald Kersh Men Without Bones .

My older brothers had loads of horror fiction lying around, including this Hitchcock book. I tried reading it but was too young to really understand it - I'll try to grab a copy, would love to read it again.

 

[Davelectro]

Well, that was quick! Got a good deal on a hardback version with no dust jacket which is fine by me cause I usually remove them anyway. Thanks for the suggestion, some stories in there on my tbr list, like the ones mentioned, also Fishhead by Irving S Cobb.

 

[BAYLOR]

Well, that was quick! Got a good deal on a hardback version with no dust jacket which is fine by me cause I usually remove them anyway. Thanks for the suggestion, some stories in there on my tbr list, like the ones mentioned, also Fishhead by Irving S Cobb.

Fishhead by Irving Cobb. Id forgot all about that one. that's a great story . I suspect Lovecraft must have read that one .

Clark Anton Smith known for fantasy also wrote Horror too.
The Seed From the Sepulchre
The Return of the Sorcerer
The Vaults of YoH-Vombus

Rim of the Morning Two Tesl of Cosmic Horror by William Sloane contain two novels
1. To Walk the Night
2. The Edge of Running Water

By Robert E Howard

Pigeons From Hell
The Thing On the Rooftop
The Horror From the Mound
Worms of the Earth

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen


Ancient Sorceries by Algernon Blackwood The story to look or in there Is The Willows
The Casting Ruins by M R James The Tiel of this book iOS also the name of one of the stories contained

Vathek by William Beckford fantasy horror novel written in 1786 . It the story of malevolent Caliph named Vathek who wants to posses the secret and truer of the pre admit rules of Earth . But the price is very very steep

 

[BAYLOR]

Bit of typo on the second comment the name of the writer should be CLARK ASHTON SMITH.

 

[BAYLOR]

@BAYLOR see the original question. Can you pick individual stories from the collections you have listed?

Yes, Im well are I didn't read it thoroughly. Sometimes I do that.

 

[Davelectro]

Fishhead by Irving Cobb. Id forgot all about that one. that's a great story . I suspect Lovecraft must have read that one .

Clark Anton Smith known for fantasy also wrote Horror too.
The Seed From the Sepulchre
The Return of the Sorcerer
The Vaults of YoH-Vombus

Rim of the Morning Two Tesl of Cosmic Horror by William Sloane contain two novels
1. To Walk the Night
2. The Edge of Running Water

By Robert E Howard

Pigeons From Hell
The Thing On the Rooftop
The Horror From the Mound
Worms of the Earth

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen


Ancient Sorceries by Algernon Blackwood The story to look or in there Is The Willows
The Casting Ruins by M R James The Tiel of this book iOS also the name of one of the stories contained

Vathek by William Beckford fantasy horror novel written in 1786 . It the story of malevolent Caliph named Vathek who wants to posses the secret and truer of the pre admit rules of Earth . But the price is very very steep

Some excellent suggestions, I am particularly interested in REH at the moment, good call there! I have 'the horror stories of reh' on the way, looking forward to that one.

Funny you mention gg pan - if I was forced to name the one story that has the most seriously ominous atmosphere I've ever experienced, it would be this story. Funny, I can't really put a finger on why it affects me so much - weird.

Thanks for the suggestions, will check them out!

 

[Davelectro]

Oh and the willows is a close second to pan for sheer evil atmosphere!

 

[BAYLOR]

Oh and the willows is a close second to pan for sheer evil atmosphere!

Blackwood wrote great atmospheric stuff, that story was rather influential on Lovecraft . Other writers that may influenced him was first and foremost Edgar Allen Poe . Others includes Abraham Merritt and Francis Steven , Robert W Chambers, Williams Hope Hodgson, Lord Dunsany and Arthur Machen .

The Dark Chamber by Leonard Cline This ws book that Lovecraft has mention being one he liked.

 

[Davelectro]

I'll keep Cline in mind ty, never heard of him!

 

[BAYLOR]

I'll keep Cline in mind ty, never heard of him!

He did other stuff , some of it Pulp none of which ive ever seen. Cline went jail for manslaughter in 1927, was paroled and, died of a heart attack in 1929 .