Brit Horror anthologies between the wars

[dem bones]

Am making no claims that this is by any means a complete listing of British Horror & Supernatural anthologies between the two World Wars because I invariably overlook a dozen glaringly obvious titles (plus loads I've never heard of) when attempting these things, but it can always be fleshed out and amended as we go along. Enough here to illustrate that this was the first golden age (compare it to the rather piss-poor post-WWII - 1960 selection). We'll sneak in the Anonymous Uncanny Stories (Pearson, 1916) as it's related to the first entry.

• Anon - More Uncanny Stories (Pearson, 1918)
  
• Adam L. Gowans – Famous Ghost Stories by English Authors (Gowans & Grey, 1919)
  
• Ernest Rhys & M. Larigot - The Haunted And The Haunters (Donald O'Connor, 1921)
  
• Vere H. Collins – Ghosts and Marvels: A Selection Of Uncanny Tales from Daniel Defoe to Algernon Blackwood (H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1924)
  
• C. A. Dawson Scott & Ernest Rhys (eds.) - Twenty And Three Stories: By Twenty And Three Authors (Thornton Butterworth, 1924)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - Not At Night (Selwyn & Blount, October, 1925)
  
• Cynthia Asquith - The Ghost Book (Hutchinson, 1926)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - More Not At Night. (Selwyn & Blount, Sept. 1926)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - You'll Need A Night Light (Selwyn & Blount, Sept, 1927)
  
• C. A. Dawson Scott & Ernest Rhys - Tales Of Mystery: Startling Stories Of The Supernatural (Hutchinson, 1927)
  
• Vere H. Collins – More Ghosts and Marvels: A Selection Of Uncanny Tales from Sir Walter Scott to Michael Arlen (H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1927)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - Gruesome Cargoes (Selwyn & Blount, July 1928)
  
• Cynthia Asquith - The Black Cap: New Stories of Murder and Mystery (Hutchinson, 1928)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - By Daylight Only (Selwyn & Blount, October, 1929)
  
• Cynthia Asquith - Shudders (Hutchinson, 1929)
  
• Dorothy L. Sayers - Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, 1st Series, (Gollancz, 1929)
  
• Harrison Dale - Great Ghost Stories (Herbert Jenkins, 1930)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - Switch On The Light (Selwyn & Blount, April, 1931)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - At Dead Of Night (Selwyn & Blount, Nov. 1931)
  
• Cynthia Asquith - When Churchyards Yawn (Hutchinson, 1931)
  
• Colin de la Mare - They Walk Again: An Anthology Of Ghost Stories (Faber & Faber, 1931)
  
• Montague Summers - The Supernatural Omnibus (Gollancz, 1931)
  
• Dorothy L. Sayers - Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, 2nd Series, (Gollancz, 1931)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Creeps: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1932)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Shudders: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1932)
  
• Anon - Ghost Stories & Other Queer Tales (Pearson, 1932)
  
• Harrison Dale - More Great Ghost Stories (Herbert Jenkins, 1932)
  
• [T.I. Fytton-Armstrong] - Strange Assembly (Unicorn, 1932)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - Grim Death (Selwyn & Blount, Aug, 1932)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - Keep On The Light (Selwyn & Blount, July, 1933)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Shivers: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1933)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Horrors: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1933)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Terrors : A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1933)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Quakes: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1933)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Nightmares: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1933)
  
• [T. I. Fytton-Armstrong] - Full Score (Rich & Cowan, 1933)
  
• Marjorie Bowen - Great Tales Of Horror (Bodley Head, 1933)
  
• Montague Summers - Victorian Ghost Stories (Fortune, 1933)
  
• Anon - The Evening Standard Book Of Strange Stories (Hutchinson, n.d. 1934)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Panics: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1934)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Powers Of Darkness: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1934)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Monsters: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1934)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - Terror By Night (Selwyn & Blount, Aug., 1934)
  
• Hugh Walpole (ed.) - A Century Of Creepy Stories (Hutchinson, n.d.: 1934)
  
• Anon - A Century Of Thrillers: From Poe To Arlen (Odhams, 1934)
  
• [T.I. Fytton-Armstrong] - New Tales Of Horror By Eminent Authors (Hutchinson, 1934)
  
• Dorothy L. Sayers - Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, 3rd Series, (Gollancz, 1934)
  
• Anon [Violet Torlesse Murray?] - Fifty Masterpieces Of Mystery (Odhams Press, n.d.)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Thrills: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1935)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - The Creeps Omnibus (Philip Allan, 1935)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Tales Of Fear : A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1935)
  
• H Douglas Thompson - The Great Book of Thrillers (Odhams, 1935)
  
• [T.I. Fytton-Armstrong] - Thrills, Crimes & Mysteries (Associated Newspapers, n.d., 1935)
  
• Anon - A Century Of Thrillers: Second Series (Odhams, 1935)
  
• Dennis Wheatley (ed.) - A Century Of Horror Stories (Hutchinson, 1935)
  
• Anon - 50 Years of Ghost Stories (Hutchinson, 1935)
  
• Cynthia Asquith - My Grimmest Nightmare (Allen Unwin, 1935)
  
• Marjorie Bowen - More Great Tales Of Horror (John Lane, 1935)
  
• Dennis Wheatley - A Century Of Horror (Hutchinson, 1935)
  
• [T.I. Fytton-Armstrong] - (ed.) - Masterpiece Of Thrills (Daily Express, n.d. 1936)
  
• [T.I. Fytton-Armstrong] - Crimes, Creeps & Thrills (Eric Grant, n.d., 1936)
  
• Anon - A Century Of Ghost Stories (Hutchinson, 1936)
  
• J. M. Parrish & John R. Crossland (eds.) - The Mammoth Book Of Thrillers, Ghosts & Mysteries (Odhams, 1936)
  
• [T.I. Fytton-Armstrong] - Thrills (Associated Newspapers, 1936)
  
• Montague Summers - The Grimoire & Other Supernatural Stories (Fortune, 1936)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Tales Of Death : A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1936)
  
• [Charles Lloyd Birkin] - Tales Of Dread: A Collection Of Uneasy Tales (Philip Allan, 1936)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - Nightmare By Daylight (Selwyn & Blount, April 1936)
  
• Christine Campbell Thomson - Not At Night Omnibus (Selwyn & Blount, Apr. 1937)
  
• Hugh Walpole (ed.) - A Second Century of Creepy Stories (Hutchinson, 1937)
  
• Anon - Fifty Masterpieces Of Mystery (Odhams, 1937)
  
• Anon - Second Book Of Strange Stories (Hutchinson, 1937?)
  
• Anon - The Evening Standard Second Book Of Strange Stories (Hutchinson, 1937)
  
• Anon - Fifty Strangest Stories Ever Told (Odhams, 1937)
  

Three close but no cigar efforts:

• Ernest Rhys & C. A. Dawson Scott - Thirty And One Stories: By Thirty And One Authors (Thornton Butterworth, 1923); includes H. G. Wells' The Door In the Wall, A. E. Coppard's Clorinda Walks In Heaven and John Russell's The Price Of The Head. Many of the authors - May Sinclair, Perceval 'Thurnley Abbey' Langdon, Quiller-Couch, Clemence Dane, etc - are well known to us for their excursions into horror and the supernatural and, once i've familiarised myself with these stories (don't hold your breath), Thirty & One may even be promoted to the list proper. Full contents on thread for same editors' "New Terror" collection,Twenty & Three of the following year.
  
• Cynthia Asquith - The Treasure Cave: A Book Of New Prose And Verse (Jarrolds, 1928); Illustrated children's collection; includes Walter De La Mare's The Game At Cards, Eleanor Farjeon's Elsie Piddock Skips In Her Sleep and Arthur Machen's Johnny Double, possibly even more?
  
• Anon - Fireside Omnibus (Hutchinson, 1938). Primarily a celebration of Christmas, includes E. F. Benson's The Room In The Tower, Dickens' A Christmas Carol and Bruce Graeme's The Haunted House which may or may not live up to its title, plus others of potential interest. allthingshorror kindly provides a list of contents here, posting a cover scan earlier on the same thread.
  

Huge big presumption to expect anybody to actually trawl through that lot, but if so, can you think of any more? Please don't mention American ones or I'll scream.

[lemming13]

I'd like to offer my sincere thanks to dem and all the other bibliophiles of the Vault for these wonderful lists - I'm using this as a shopping list for my Kindle. Just started on The Haunted and the Haunters, and it's epic!

[dem bones]

That's a thought; i wonder how many of these are available to download? Doubt the mighty Not At Nights and creepy Creeps are available yet but if you find 'em, please let us know. started a thread for that super-size The Haunted And The Haunters a while back, but as yet, no takers.

Thank you for the kind words, lem. "Bibliographers" is a huge improvement on what our adoring public have called us in the past, I can tell you ....

[lemming13]

Well, I have trawled through the list and I regret that Birkin and Thomson won't be public domain for years, as far as I can tell. Most of Cynthia Asquith should be freely available next year, though. The Sayers and Summers anthologies ought to be already, but I think reprints in the 70s may have put them back in copyright. The Black Cap is available here:
www.archive.org/details/blackcapnewstori00asquuoft The archive has it in a lot of formats including pdf and Kindle, one-click downloads. www.horrormasters.com/Collections/SS_Col_Ghost1.htm This links to Famous Ghost Stories, but as a standard read-online text; you need to save it in some other format yourself to use it as a Kindle file, which is very easy.
www.uwlax.edu/murphylibrary/departments/Skeeters.html This is a collection held by the University of Wisconsin, which hasn't yet been uploaded, but most American universities are placing their public domain possessions online, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed this will be made available at some point soon. I'm actually compiling a DIY anthology or two from some material collected from the public domain files, so I can enjoy just my favourites: so far I have one on the theme of sea stories, and one on subterranean horror. Suggestions for public domain stories to add are always welcome.

[dem bones]

I'd suggest that when you have enough stories for each, you contact Derek at Wordsworth. perhaps you should start a thread for vintage sea horror suggestions in the DIY anthology section?

A year early for this listing and I believe it was first published in the US, but Frederick Stuart Greene's The Grim 13 (1917) is available from Horrormasters and elsewhere - we've a not particularly enlightening thread devoted to it here. Can vouch for the editor's own contribution, The Black Pool. Haven't got around to the rest yet.