MY FAVORITE HORROR, SUPERNATURAL AND MYSTERY BOOKS (PART 2)

There have been countless horror anthologies published over the years, but one I consider to be the granddaddy of them all, "Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural", a 1,080-page collection of some of the most important stories in supernatural literature. It was first published in 1947, so you won't find anything by Stephen King here. Instead, included are stories by the most famous contributors up until that time, and what a roster it is. There have been 56 (!) editions published over the years, attesting to its enduring longevity. Fortunately, copies are easy to come by and the later editions are reasonably priced.

The book is edited by Herbert A. Wise and Phyllis Fraser. Fraser was a well-known socialite who was married to the publisher, Bennett Cerf, and was related to Rita Hayworth and Ginger Rogers. She made time to write and publish for years.

If you have one tome that contains early horror on your bookshelf, it should be this one. It is a classic in every sense.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction (Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural) • essay by Phyllis Fraser and Herbert A. Wise
• Introduction to the Notes (Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural) • essay by Phyllis Fraser and Herbert A. Wise
• La Grande Bretêche • non-genre • short story by Honoré de Balzac? (trans. of La Grande Bretèche 1832)
• The Black Cat • (1843) • short story by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar • (1845) • short story by Edgar Allan Poe
• A Terribly Strange Bed • (1852) • short story by Wilkie Collins
• The Boarded Window • (1889) • short story by Ambrose Bierce
• The Three Strangers • non-genre • (1883) • novelette by Thomas Hardy
• The Interruption • non-genre • (1925) • short story by W. W. Jacobs
• Pollock and the Porroh Man • (1895) • short story by H. G. Wells
• The Sea Raiders • (1896) • short story by H. G. Wells (variant of The Sea-Raiders)
• Sredni Vashtar • (1910) • short story by Saki
• Moonlight Sonata • (1931) • short story by Alexander Woollcott
• Silent Snow, Secret Snow • (1932) • short story by Conrad Aiken
• Suspicion • non-genre • (1933) • short story by Dorothy L. Sayers
• The Most Dangerous Game • non-genre • (1924) • novelette by Richard Edward Connell [as by Richard Connell]
• Leiningen Versus the Ants • (1938) • novelette by Carl Stephenson (trans. of Leiningens Kampf mit den Ameisen 1937)
• The Gentleman from America • (1924) • short story by Michael Arlen
• A Rose for Emily • non-genre • (1930) • short story by William Faulkner
• The Killers • non-genre • (1927) • short story by Ernest Hemingway
• Back for Christmas • non-genre • (1939) • short story by John Collier
• Taboo • (1939) • novelette by Geoffrey Household
• The Haunters and the Haunted: or, The House and the Brain • novelette by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (variant of The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain 1859)
• Rappaccini's Daughter • [Rappaccini • 1] • (1844) • novelette by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Trial for Murder • (1928) • short story by Charles Dickens (variant of To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt 1865) [as by Charles Allston Collins and Charles Dickens]
• Green Tea • [Martin Hesselius] • (1869) • novelette by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
• What Was It? • (1859) • short story by Fitz-James O'Brien
• Sir Edmund Orme • (1891) • novelette by Henry James
• The Horla, or Modern Ghosts • [Le Horla • 3] • (1910) • novelette by Guy de Maupassant (trans. of Le Horla 1887)
• Was It a Dream? • (1903) • short story by Guy de Maupassant (trans. of La morte 1887)
• The Screaming Skull • (1908) • novelette by F. Marion Crawford
• The Furnished Room • (1904) • short story by O. Henry
• Casting the Runes • (1911) • novelette by M. R. James
• Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad • novelette by M. R. James (variant of "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" 1904)
• Afterward • (1910) • novelette by Edith Wharton
• The Monkey's Paw • (1902) • short story by W. W. Jacobs
• The Great God Pan • (1894) • novella by Arthur Machen
• How Love Came to Professor Guildea • (1897) • novella by Robert Hichens
• The Return of Imray • (1891) • short story by Rudyard Kipling (variant of The Recrudescence of Imray)
• "They" • (1904) • novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• Lukundoo • (1925) • short story by Edward Lucas White
• Caterpillars • (1912) • short story by E. F. Benson
• Mrs. Amworth • (1922) • short story by E. F. Benson
• Ancient Sorceries • [John Silence] • (1908) • novelette by Algernon Blackwood
• Confession • (1921) • short story by Algernon Blackwood and Wilfred Wilson [as by Algernon Blackwood]
• The Open Window • (1911) • short story by Saki
• The Beckoning Fair One • (1911) • novella by Oliver Onions
• Out of the Deep • (1923) • novelette by Walter de la Mare
• Adam and Eve and Pinch Me • (1921) • short story by A. E. Coppard
• The Celestial Omnibus • (1908) • short story by E. M. Forster
• The Ghost Ship • (1912) • short story by Richard Middleton (variant of The Ghost-Ship)
• The Sailor-Boy's Tale • (1942) • short story by Karen Blixen [as by Isak Dinesen]
• The Rats in the Walls • (1924) • novelette by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Dunwich Horror • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1929) • novelette by H. P. Lovecraft