Oh, thanks so much for making these available, Steve! I remember Justin kindly sent us a scan of quite that most tasteless and utterly incongruous cover to the Mayflower-Dell 1964 edition of the book (and how
Voice From The Grave didn't make the cut astounds me!) which, naturally, I reproduce here for everyone's delectation.
Yes, it was Rog who wondered "how far I'd get reading the actual stories" and I'd go along with you that they're far better listened to. Karloff's lugubrious tones and the never-to-be-underestimated sound effects provide the little sprinkle of magic dust that brings them alive.
more from the paperback:
Tom, Dick And Horror: Three brothers, newcomers Greenville, are initiated into the Wood Pirates, a youth's secret society based in Witch's Wood. To be considered for membership boys must write their names in blood and then tell the assembled what frightens them most. For Tom, it's fire. Dick fears water and Harry cemeteries. Next day their bodies are recovered. "Tom died in the blazing inferno of his jalopy when it fell into Carlyle Canyon. Dick drowned in Stillman Lake a few miles away. And late that evening Harry was found in Grove cemetery, sprawled across a headstone near his family plot ..." The narrator finishes by offering to initiate the reader into the Cemetery Watchers. We are to meet him in Grove cemetery at midnight. Brrr! I'll take a rain-check, etc.
Defilers Of The Tomb: Egypt. Jonathan Jenkins and his archaeological party are bumped off one by one after discovering a pyramid on a par with that of King Tutankhamun's. the mummy walks and Jenkins is bandaged and enshrined in his place.
Portrait In Hell: Robert Raeburne, an English master, toils over a portrait of Satan giving the arch-fiend his own face. Delighted with his creation he titles it "Blasphemy In Paint". When they break down his door the following morning, they discover his body, but ...
Children Of The Devil: Innisfree, Ireland. Astra Vale is an ugly child until, at the age of twelve, she meets the silent man who invokes the powers of darkness over her. Thereafter she is "the loveliest woman who ever lived". A year after her marriage to Tom Reilly she bears him a grotesque son and receives a second visit from the dark stranger who mockingly informs him she's the mother of Satan's child. Astra knows what she must do to put matters right. she kills the baby with sewing shears then repeatedly drives them into her own face.
Theda Is Death: Carlos Luga, a steward on the freighter Caledonia, is approached nightly by a tall dark man requesting a light for his cigarette. When he's transferred to the passenger ship Theda the same thing happens. Worse, Luga discovers that the man has his own face! He strangles his doppelganger, killing them both.
Say Goodnight To Mr. Sporko: Little William Weltes sneaks downstairs to spy on his parents and their guests. He witnesses a wild party in full swing attended by strange people in weird clothes, skull-faced and spectral like they belong in the graveyard. he never sees his mum and dad again. Were they dead all along?
The Phantom Soldier: World War II. sergeant Brown is on reconnaissance duty with ten of his men. A machine gun nest spells the end of his party but the plucky sarge rises from the grave to inform Captain Troy of the Nazi's whereabouts.
Beware Of The Bird: Monah Trent, a spinster on Elm Street, lives alone but for Blue-boy, her pet canary. When Mr. Benning unexpectedly proposes marriage, Blueboy is very upset. On her wedding day he pecks her face and she kills him. When she sees the little bird's corpse she goes insane.
Some Things Shouldn't Be Seen: New York. Hugo James' curiosity gets the better of him and he unwisely investigates the scratching noises coming from Mr. Tarbox's room at a few minutes to midnight every night. Hugo suspects that Mr. Tarbox is a drunk, but he's something far worse, "a hunched, demoniac nightmare creature with claws for hands, blood red lips drawn back in a fiendish leer exposing pointed horrendous teeth. Giant bat wings fanned out from misshapen shoulders ..."
The landlady discovers Hugo's body the following morning.
The Graveyard Nine: The Ravenswood Ravens baseball team put on a dismal performance against the Melville Hawks but at least they have an excuse. They were killed an hour before the game when their team bus crashed through the safety barrier on Melville Bridge and plunged into the river.
Just Inside The Cemetery: Arthur Wingate, well to do lawyer of Morrisville, comes upon two gravediggers "grimly spading the earth into heaping ugly mounds" and wonders who the grave is for. that night he is compelled to return to the cemetery where a coffin awaits him. "Sprawled across the tab in a spidery hand were the words 'ARTHUR WINGATE 1907-1964'. He saw no more. A hideous scream ripped his throat and he pitched forward into the empty box, the lid slamming down behind him, shutting him in."
Nightmare: Bell prison. Lifer John Dag has terrible dreams in which a pair of thick, calloused lumpy hands throttle the life from him. When the prisoner in Cell 13 escapes the nightmare becomes reality.
Beware Of The Bird: Monah Trent, a spinster on Elm Street, lives alone but for Blue-boy, her pet canary. When Mr. Benning unexpectedly proposes marriage, Blueboy is very upset. On her wedding day he pecks her face and she kills him. When she sees the little bird's corpse she goes insane.
Some Things Shouldn't Be Seen: New York. Hugo James' curiosity gets the better of him and he unwisely investigates the scratching noises coming from Mr. Tarbox's room at a few minutes to midnight every night. Hugo suspects that Mr. Tarbox is a drunk, but he's something far worse, "a hunched, demoniac nightmare creature with claws for hands, blood red lips drawn back in a fiendish leer exposing pointed horrendous teeth. Giant bat wings fanned out from misshapen shoulders ..."
The landlady discovers Hugo's body the following morning.
