Essential Horror Anthologies

[Connavar]

I'll second the suggestion of Campbell. By no means are all of his tales supernatural, nor are all of them the very best; but a substantial amount are both, and he is one of the best writers in the field going -- right up there with Ligotti, Klein, and a select handful of others.

I have heard Ligotti mentioned several times, i would like to read him.

As about your last post i dont mind antholgies with both classic and modern it would be good to read both at the same time.

What i would like know most which authors of Campbell type that are really good in the genre and not uber famous ones like King,Barker that i have alread read.

Then i can look for an anthologie with several of these authors you guys recommend.

 

[j d worthington]

Just a handful of suggestions at this point; I'll try to come up with some others later (though others will no doubt have a better list of modern horror than I):

Charles L. Grant -- a writer of "quiet" horror; which isn't to say there isn't occasional violence in his work, but it's generally either minimal or incidental, rather than the thrust of the work, which is more (to use Poe's phrase) "of the soul"

Dan Simmons -- both with his novels and short stories, he's written some superb modern horror

Brian Lumley -- very uneven, but a lot of people like his work; I think that at times he's really quite good, at others, pure pulp... but I do enjoy his work for all that

Caitlin R. Kiernan -- though occasionally her use of language drives me up the wall, she really is superb at evoking an eerie, dreamlike terrific atmosphere

Joe R. Landsdale -- multitalented and someone who doesn't stick to any particular genre, but whose work is very distinctive and memorable

Basil Copper -- again, uneven; but at his best, extremely evocative and unsettling, often understated and gets under your skin slowly...

Russell Kirk -- one of the best exponents of the classic ghost story of the later 20th century

 

[Connavar]

Thats perfect

Joe R.Landsdale i read a library book that was dark,comic Noir/suspense novel. Real impressing writing.

I saw he won 7 Bram Stroker awards and Davis_D recommended his zombie novel that im thinking about getting.

 

[w h pugmire esq]

The best horror anthology I've read recently was Swamp foetus by Poppy Z Brite.
But in the horror genre, short stories as novels are welcomed. Anything written by Graham Masterton will certainly grap my attention for example.
Since Bags of Bones, Stephen King's writing is very deceiving. Whaterver the name he use, he's always been an hit-and-miss writer but now IMO he's only a miss one.

Actually, SWAMP FOETUS is a collection -- not an anthology. I have a place in me old heart for the anthologies of Peter Haining, which served, when I was living in Ulster, as my introduction to weird fiction. I've lost most of them over the decades. Just a fortnight ago I order'd a hardcover copy of Doctor Caligari's Black Book, and I love it! Anyway, it's one of my little "author things" that we call "collections" and "anthologies" by their proper names.

 

[heretics fork]

The Dark Descent ed by Hartwell is a great antho featuring everyone from LeFanu to Barker. Big ol' chunky book. It's a real must have.

I also likeed 999 ed by I think Al Sarrantonio. I would also second whoever mentioned Dark Forces. Additionally just about anything edited by Ellen Datlow will be worth the price of admission.

 

[nomadman]

The Dark Descent ed by Hartwell is a great antho featuring everyone from LeFanu to Barker. Big ol' chunky book. It's a real must have.

I also likeed 999 ed by I think Al Sarrantonio. I would also second whoever mentioned Dark Forces. Additionally just about anything edited by Ellen Datlow will be worth the price of admission.

The Dark Descent is excellent, and possibly one of the largest anthologies ever assembled, as well as one of the most well chosen. Some real gems in there. His companion anthology, Foundations of Fear, is also well worth seeking out, focusing on the novella rather than the short story.

Would also like to recommend the Penguin Book of Witches and Warlocks (ed. Marvin Kaye) which, despite its somewhat childish title and cover image, contains some excellent little pieces, some of which are extremely rare.

 

[j d worthington]

Actually, several of Marvin Kaye's anthologies are well worth having. I would second the Witches & Warlocks, either in the Penguin or the original hardcover edition (which also had several book club printings, often making it fairly easy to find and inexpensive). Those interested may also want to look up Ghosts: A Treasury of Chilling Tales Old and New (1981; also having several bc printings), Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural (or his Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown; ditto), and his anthology of tales from Weird Tales magazine (ditto). Each of these volumes is reasonably hefty, providing a rich banquet of eerie, supernatural, and weird tales of various stripe....

 

[Fried Egg]

I saw many volumes from this apparently extensive series: "Pan Books of Horror".

Are they worth picking up then?

 

[Connavar]

I got sick of never finding any good modern anthologies so i ordered through the library The Anthology of fantasy & the supernatural, which has an impressive list of authors.

 

[dask]

GHOSTLY BY GASLIGHT edited by Sam Moskowitz and the Nortons might be worth checking out.

 

[mortbury]

I saw many volumes from this apparently extensive series: "Pan Books of Horror".

Are they worth picking up then?

I think so.

 

[Lobolover]

The Vault of Evil would be a better place to ask that . Course the owner hates my guts for some reason so don't say I sent you

 

[j d worthington]

The Pan books concentrate more on the physical side of horror than some of the others, but they still have a fairly good quota of fine material.

I would also add that many of the anthologies edited by Hugh Lamb are well worth looking up, though a fair number have been out of print for some time and command fairly high prices in some areas. Others, however, have been brought back into print (albeit sometimes divided into two volumes), and can be found for relatively little. And, of course, if you are patient, it is amazing what you can find....

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/hugh-lamb/

Lamb has tended to specialize in searching out obscure and sometimes almost unknown little gems and oddments from the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century journals; being responsible for reviving at least some of the works of many a near-forgotten dabbler (and sometimes master) in the form....

 

[Alex Davis]

Pan have just re-released the original Pan Book of Horror - managed to pick one up at this year's FantasyCon event. Still has the original cover and everything...

 

[dlsevern]

So far for me it has to be "My Favorite Horror Story" edited by Mike Baker and Martin H. Greenberg

It has classic and modern writers alike(Lovecraft, Bierce, Hawthorne, King, Bloch, Rampo, etc).

 

[J Riff]

It's quiet in here, needless to say, without JD. Anybody read anything horrifying lately? I mean besides the phone bill.

 

[dask]

I just finished Boswell's JOURNAL OF LONDON and when he ran into "the big monstrous whore on the Strand" I was quite frightened.

 

[D_Davis]

Picked this up yesterday:

Has a ton of great stuff in it, including multiple stories from Lansdale, Ligotti, Wellman, Bierce, Lovecraft, Smith, and many, many more. Totally worth tracking down.

 

[blacknorth]

Anyone been through the brief New Writings in Horror and the Supernatural series? I think there were only two (the companion series New Writings in sf ran for many, many years), but there is some very good material in there, including an interesting early story by Robert Holdstock, The Darkness.

 

[Randy M.]

Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural ed. Herbert Wise & Phyllis Cerf
The Dark Descent ed. David Hartwell

After those essential anthologies covering the whole of ghost/horror fiction get a bit sparse on the ground. There are other significant anthologies, like theones mentioned here earlier, Frights and Dark Forces by Kirby McCauley.

Recently Otto Penzler, a noted mystery anthologist, has been pulling together horror anthologies: The Vampire Archives and Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!; from what I've read of the stories included, those are must-haves for those monsters. (The Vampire Archives looks to me to have supplanted Alan Ryan's anthology, Vampires -- it was reissued under other titles, as well -- as the standard volume.)

Ghosts are usually popular, and The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories, The Oxford Book of 20th Century Ghost Stories, both edited by Michael Cox and R. A. Gilbert, are fine anthologies. I haven't read them cover to cover, yet; they're books I enjoy dipping into, which also describes two recent collections of Lovecraftian materials that seem important: The Book of Cthulhu edited by Ross Lockhart and New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird edited by Paula Guran.


I find it easier to come up with a list of essential single-author collections: Start with any sizable, representative collection of the stories of E.T.A. Hoffman, Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, H. G. Wells (a good deal of his s.f. could easily be argued to be horror; Great Tales ... includes two stories by him), Saki, M. R. James, Walter de la Mare, Lovecraft, and Richard Matheson. (I don't mean to suggesst this is a complete list.)

Individual titles I'd suggest,

Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
Hauntings by Vernon Lee
The Collected Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson
Supernatural Tales by Henry James
Kwaidan & Six Chinese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn
The Three Imposters & Tales of Horror and the Supernaturalby Arthur Machen
The Best of Algernon Blackwood
Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier
Northwest Smith by C. L. Moore
Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith
The Travelling Grave by L. P. Hartley
The October Country by Ray Bradbury
Twelve Tales of Suspense and the Supernatural by Davis Grubb
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
Nightmares and Damnations by Gerald Kersh
Alone With the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell
Wormwood by Poppy Z. Brite
The Feesters in the Lake by Bob Leman
Extremities by Kathe Koja
The Two Sams by Glen Hirshberg
The Early Fears by Robert Bloch
Night's Black Agents & You're All Alone by Fritz Leiber
Revelations in Black by Carl Jacobi


Collections I haven't read or haven't finished or that only include a few (but significant) horror stories that strike me as probably essential:
The Howling Man by Charles Beaumont
Who Fears the Devil? by Manly Wade Wellman
The Fantasies of Robert Heinlein
In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner


Randy M.