FORGOTTEN BOOKS #187: THE BIG BOOK OF GHOST STORIES Ed. Otto Penzler


Jeff Meyerson, Patti Abbott, and I read a short story each day. Occasionally, I read literary short stories. But I’m also a fan of Otto Penzler’s THE BIG BOOK OF ADVENTURE STORIES, THE BLACK LIZARD BIG BOOK OF PULPS, THE BLACK LIZARD BIG BOOK OF BLACK MASK STORIES, and now THE BIG BOOK OF GHOST STORIES. These door stoppers, over 1000 pages long, are wonderful collections. Yes, there is the occasional clunker, but Otto keeps the quality fairly high. With nearly a 100 short stories per volume, it takes me about three months to work my way through one of these massive tomes, but the entertainment and value can’t be beat.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
BUT I’M NOT DEAD YET
Conrad Aiken: Mr. Arcularis
William Fryer Harvey: August Heat

I’LL LOVE YOU—FOREVER (OR MAYBE NOT)
Ellen Glasgow: The Shadowy Third
Ellen Glasgow: The Past
David Morrell: But At My Back I Always Hear
O. Henry: The Furnished Room
Paul Ernst: Death’s Warm Fireside
Andrew Klavan: The Advent Reunion
R. Murray Gilchrist: The Return
Rudyard Kipling: The Phantom Rickshaw
Ambrose Bierce: The Moonlit Road
Lafcadio Hearn: The Story of Ming-Y
Lafcadio Hearn: Yuki-Onna

THIS OLD HOUSE
Amyas Northcote: Brickett Bottom
E. F. Benson: How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery
G. G. Pendarves: Thing of Darkness
Edward Lucas White: The House of the Nightmare
Hector Bolitho: The House on Half Moon Street
Dick Donovan: A Night of Horror
Vincent O’sullivan: The Burned House

KIDS WILL BE KIDS
Rosemary Timperley: Harry
Michael Reaves: Make-Believe
A. M. Burrage: Playmates
Ramsey Campbell: Just Behind You
A. E. Coppard: Adam And Eve and Pinch Me
Steve Friedman: The Lost Boy of the Ozarks

THERE’S SOMETHING FUNNY AROUND HERE
Mark Twain: A Ghost’s Story
Donald E. Westlake: In At The Death
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Ghost of Dr. Harris
“Ingulphus”: The Everlasting Club
Isaac Asimov and James Maccreigh: Legal Rites
Albert E. Cowdrey: Death Must Die
Frank Stockton: The Transferred Ghost
Oscar Wilde: The Canterville Ghost

A NEGATIVE TRAIN OF THOUGHT
August Derleth: Pacific 421
Robert Weinberg: The Midnight El

STOP—YOU’RE SCARING ME
Frederick Cowles: Punch and Judy
Henry S. Whitehead: The Fireplace
H. F. Arnold: The Night Wire 400
Fritz Leiber: Smoke Ghost 406
Wyatt Blassingame: Song of the Dead

I MUST BE DREAMING
Wilkie Collins: The Dream Woman 437
Washington Irving: The Adventure of the German Student

A SÉANCE, YOU SAY?
Joseph Shearing: They Found My Grave
Edgar Jepson: Mrs. Morrel’s Last Séance
Joyce Carol Oates: Night-Side

CLASSICS
M. R. James: “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad”
W. W. Jacobs: The Monkey’s Paw
W. W. Jacobs: The Toll-House
Edith Wharton: Afterward
Willa Cather: Consequences
Cynthia Asquith: The Follower
Cynthia Asquith: The Corner Shop
H. P. Lovecraft: The Terrible Old Man
Erckmann-Chatrian: The Murderer’s Violin
Saki: The Open Window
Saki: Laura
Fitz-James O’Brien: What Was It?
Alexander Woollcott: Full Fathom Five
H. R. Wakefield: He Cometh and He Passeth By
Perceval Landon: Thurnley Abbey

THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
Algernon Blackwood: The Woman’s Ghost Story
Victor Rousseau: The Angel of the Marne
Olivia Howard Dunbar: The Shell of Sense
Marjorie Bowen: The Avenging of Ann Leete

BEATEN TO A PULP
Greye La Spina: The Dead-Wagon
Urann Thayer: A Soul with Two Bodies
Arthur J. Burks: The Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee
Thorp Mcclusky: The Considerate Hosts
Cyril Mand: The Fifth Candle
August Derleth and Mark Schorer: The Return of Andrew Bentley
M. L. Humphreys: The Floor Above
Manly Wade Wellman: School for the Unspeakable
A. V. Milyer: Mordecai’s Pipe
Julius Long: He Walked by Day
Dale Clark: Behind the Screen

MODERN MASTERS
M. Rickert: Journey into the Kingdom
H. R. F. Keating: Mr. Saul
Chet Williamson: Coventry Carol

17 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN BOOKS #187: THE BIG BOOK OF GHOST STORIES Ed. Otto Penzler

  1. Todd Mason

    Yes, that’s a pretty impressive mix of the great to the readable, the chestnuts to mild obscurity. Remarkable how many folks haven’t had the wit, in similar circumstances of late, to include “Smoke Ghost” by Fritz Leiber, which would be a game-changer on a level that even Leiber’s literary mentor Lovecraft couldn’t match; CONJURE WIFE similarly. Leiber’s fellow Lovecraft Circle young’n, Robert Bloch, also slapped the world pretty hard a few times, most obviously with PSYCHO and “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.”

    I”ve recently picked up one of the two volumes of the John Pelan CENTURY and the VanderMeers’ THE WEIRD, which are also bugcrushers you might dig for similar reasons…

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Great minds think alike, Todd. I have John Pelan’s CENTURY and VanderMeer’s THE WEIRD sitting in my AMAZON cart. If I don’t go over-budget at BOUCHERCON next week, I’ll return home and click the BUY button. You’re right about Leiber’s “Smoke Ghost” classic! The marketing strategy for these massive collections is to give the widest possible range of stories that might appeal the to reading audience.

      Reply
  2. Todd Mason

    Women underrepresented here. Ah well. And it can’t hurt to mention “James MacCreigh” was the primary pseudonym of Frederik Pohl in the early years of his post-war literary agenting. “Legal Rites” was the only Asimov or Pohl story in WEIRD TALES, I believe…though I suppose Pohl could theoretically still see another story in the current inpulpation.

    Reply
  3. Jeff Meyerson

    I agree with you about Otto’s big volums of stories. Will have to check this one out now that I finally finished the 800 page Updike collection.

    I once did a paper on Ellen Glasgow and read a lot of her novels, her autobiography and half a dozen books about her work (by Louis Auchincloss, among others) but never read any of her short stories.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      I’ve read some of Ellen Glasgow’s novels, Jeff. Her novel, IN THIS OUR LIFE, won a Pulitzer Prize for Best Novel of 1941. Like you, I haven’t read any of her short stories. But I will…

      Reply
  4. Sergio (Tipping My Fedora)

    That is a pretty impressive lost though I’ve with Todd on the wonderful Leiber titles. I love the sticker on the book cover advertising it as ‘the most complete’ – I supposed ‘longest’ didn;t have the same ring to it …

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      THE BIG BOOK OF GHOST STORIES is the biggest (and I suppose most complete) collection of ghost stories that I’ve ever seen, Sergio. As Todd pointed out, Otto Penzler’s massive tomes are a bit of a grab-bag: something for everybody.

      Reply
    1. george Post author

      Today was my last day for Physical Therapy, Drongo. My right knee now has total extension, can bend to 107 degrees, and I leg pressed 136 lbs. on the Leg Press machine. I’m good to go. Yes, I still have some swelling in my new knee. I still have some balance issues that I have to work on, but all in all the total knee replacement recovery went very, very well. Now that the Real Refs will be calling Sunday’s NFL games, let’s see how much rust is one them.

      Reply
  5. Drongo

    1. George, glad to hear the recovery went well.

    2. I think the Real Refs did a solid job in Browns/Ravens game last night.

    3. THE BIG BOOK OF GHOST STORIES is quite an overwhelming brew of old standards, newer stuff, and a few authors I’m not familiar with. It would seem to be a good collection for a newbie to start with. Nice choice.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Thanks for your Good Wishes, Drongo! Recovery went well because I listened to my doctors and my physical therapists and my wife. The Real Refs are vastly superior to the high school refs and Lingerie League refs that the NFL cynically employed. I would recommend any of the Otto Penzler volumes, Drongo. There’s plenty of value and entertainment in those thick volumes.

      Reply
  6. Todd Mason

    The NOT AT NIGHT volumes would be similarly large, but perhaps not larger…and they, like the hardcover omnibuses of Karl Edward Wagner’s YEAR’S BEST annuals, aren’t all devoted to ghost stories, but mix in various other sorts of horror fiction…

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      On the health front, Todd, the second total knee replacement surgery and recovery went well. Of course, I’m impatient to be totally healthy and to be rid of the nagging swelling of my leg and foot. My doctors assure me that those problems will be resolved “in time.” But, I’m now cleared to walk around without the cane. My physical therapists suggest that I use the cane if I’m going to be in a crowd. The cane would act as a prop to keep people from jostling me.

      Reply

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