The start of your obsession

[doug]

Hey All,

which books started your love of/obsession with Horror?
and what gets the kids started today?

I discovered horror and the supernatural in written form back in the late 60s. I must of been only 9 or so. Our school library had all of the Alfred Hitchcock (Robert Arthur editied) horror anthlogies. Arthur's own anthology "Ghosts and more Ghosts", Henry Mazzeo's "Hauntings"Tales of the Supernatural, 2More Tales to Tremble By" and of course Poe. These were almost all "Classic" stories that have been reprinted a zillion times. Back then though, these were mind blowning, eye opening and life changing.

Look at these contents.......

Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful:

Let's haunt a house / Manly Wade Wellman --
The Wastwych secret / Constance Savery --
Jimmy takes vanishing lessons / Walter R. Brooks --
The mystery of Rabbit Run / Jack Bechdolt --
The forgotten island / Elizabeth Coatsworth --
The water ghost of Harrowby Hall / John Kendrick Bangs --
The Red-Headed League / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle --
The treasure in the cave / Mark Twain --
The mystery in Four-and-a-Half Street / Donald and Louise Peattie.


Alfred Hitchock's Monster Museum
1 · The Day of the Dragon ·Guy Endore · nv Blue Book Jun ’34
29 · The King of the Cats · Stephen Vincent Benet· ss Harper’s Bazaar Feb ’29
46 · Slime · Joseph Payne Brennan · nv Weird Tales Mar ’53
73 · The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles · Idris Seabright · ss F&SF Oct ’51
79 · Henry Martindale, Great Dane · Meriam Allen deFord · ss Beyond Fantasy Fiction Mar ’54
95 · The Microscopic Giants ·Paul Ernst · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’36
114 · The Young One · Jeromes Bixby nv Fantastic Apr ’54
144 · Doomsday Deferred · Will F. Jenkins · ss The Saturday Evening Post Sep 24 ’49
162 · Shadow, Shadow, on the Wall · Theodore Sturgeon · ss Imagination Feb ’51
174 · The Desrick on Yandro Manly Wade Wellman · ss F&SF Jun ’52
188 · The Wheelbarrow Boy · Richard Parker · ss Lilliput Oct ’50
193 · Homecoming · Ray Bradbury· ss Mademoiselle Oct ’46

Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery
Miss Emmeline Takes Off (Walter Brooks)
The Valley of the Beasts (Algernon Blackwood)
The Haunted Trailer (Robert Arthur)
The Upper Berth (F. Marion Crawford)
The Wonderful Day (Robert Arthur)
The Truth About Pyecraft (H.G. Wells)
Housing Problem (Henry Kuttner)
In A Dim Room (Lord Dunsany)
Obstinate Uncle Otis (Robert Arthur)
The Waxwork (A.M. Burrage)
The Isle of Voices (Robert Louis Stevenson)

More Tales to Tremble By
The Red Lodge, by H. R. Wakefield.
Sredni Vashtar, by Saki.
Thurnley Abbey, by P. Landon.
"God grante that she lye stille", by C. Asquith.
The voice in the night, by W. H. Hodgson.
The extra passenger, by A. Derleth.
Casting the runes, by M. R. James.
The book, by M. Irwin.

Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural
The lonesome place, by A. Derleth.
--In the vault, by H.P. Lovecraft.
--The man who collected Poe, by R. Bloch.
--Where angels fear, by M.W. Wellman.
--Lot no. 249, by A.C. Doyle.
--The haunted dolls' house, by M.R. James.
--The open door, by Mrs. Oliphant.
--Thus I refute Beelzy, by J. Collier.
--Levitation, by J.P. Brennan.--The ghostly rental, by H. James.
--The face, by E.F. Benson.
--The whistling room, by W.H. Hodgson.
--The grey ones, by J.B. Priestley.--The stolen body, by H.G. Wells.
--The red lodge, by H.R. Wakefield.
--The visiting star, by R. Aickman.
--Midnight express, by A. Noyes.

No realize that I was only in the 2nd or 3rd grade and had to argue with the librarian to be allowed to borrow these books. I took them home so many times that I alsmost considered these books to be my own property! To top this off we had the "Scholastic Book club" offering us H P Lovercraft and all of those wonderful "True" folktale" collections put together by Bernhardt J. Hurwood especialy put together for the book club collectiong tons of Werewolf, Vampire, demon and GHOUL!! Stories.
How could I not become an addict with all of these wonderful stories at my disposal?
So what gets kids started today. Back then these were all considered " Childrens stories"!!!
and what has been an amazing side effect is that I consider all of these different writing styles to be completely "normal". I've seen quite a few complaints on the Internet lately from younge folks that most of these arthurs are all but unreadable because of their old fashioned writing styles. I was blessed with getting to learn to read from stories by James, Hodgeson, Poe, Wells, Lovecraft, Blackwood ect. What do kids have today? Goosebumps? do shool libraries even dare stock stuff like this? I don't know and I find it terribly sad if they don't

[dem bones]

It really started for me with books i was loaning from Cubitt Town Library in the mid -'eighties supplemented with stuff found in two brilliant local junkshops.

M. G. Lewis - The Monk
Peter Haining -The Penny Dreadful, Gothic Tales Of Terror and Terror! A History Of Horror Illustrations From The Pulp Magazines
Hugh Lamb's Gaslit Nightmares, Victorian Tales Of Terror, and Wave Of Fear
E. S. Turner - Boys Will Be Boys: The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton, et. al
Mary Danby's 65 Great Spinechillers
Christine Campbell Thomson - Not At Night (the Arrow Paperback, not the 1925 original. That came along much later)
Elsie Lee's The Masque Of The Red Death (novelisation of the Corman film)
Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast
Michel Parry - Reign Of Terror Vol 2.
Herbert Van Thal - Pan Book Of Horror Stories Vols 1, 2, 3, 14 and 15 (the latter of which i detested!)
Brian McNaughton - Satan's Mistress
The Best Of Misty (Monthly reissue of the superlative girls' comic).

And then some fool at work told me about this place on the Holloway Road called Fantasy Centre ......

[cauldronbrewer]

The author who first sparked my interest in horror was Edgar Allan Poe. I vividly remember reading "The Masque of the Red Death," "Hop-Frog," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Black Cat," and "The Pit and the Pendulum" in 6th grade. We also read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," and I'll never forget that experience.

In high school, I moved on to H. P. Lovecraft and read every story that he ever wrote (I think that's a good age to read his work). In college, I read a fair amount of Algernon Blackwood, and afterward I started to read James Sheridan Le Fanu's stories and Shirley Jackson's novels.

What started my obsession with horror, however, was reading a series of anthologies, some edited by Marvin Kaye and others by the Martin Greenberg/Robert Weinberg/Stefan Dziemianowicz collective:

Marvin Kaye
Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural
Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown
Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Dies
Ghosts
Haunted America
Devils & Demons
Witches & Warlocks
Don't Open This Book

Martin Greenberg, Robert Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz, & Co.
Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors
Rivals of Weird Tales
Weird Vampire Tales
Sea-Cursed
Nursery Crimes
Girl's Night Out
Nightmare: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
Famous Fantastic Mysteries
A Treasury of American Horror Stories
A Taste for Blood
Tales of the Occult
100 Wild Little Weird Tales
100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories
100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories
100 Creepy Little Creature Stories
100 Twisted Little Tales of Torment
100 Tiny Tales of Terror
100 Fiendish Little Frightmares

[and more--these folks edited a lot of anthologies]

[mattofthespurs]

The answer is simple.
Pan book of Horror Stories number 7.
That book sat at the end of my brother's bookshelf and the shambling, silouetted man on it used to scare me every night (I was 8, he was 16).

Finally I got the guts to take it down from the shelf and actually read it and from then onwards I was hooked.

Where I lived, Enfield in North London, there was (and still is) a book stall in the middle of the town market (which is open on Thursdays and Saturdays) where I managed to but nearly all of the volumes to date (around about 14). The remaining three I was bought fro Christmas when I was about 11.

Since then I have been on a mission to buy and read as many horror anthologies as I possibly could. Could not tell you how many I have but it's over 200 I would guess (conservatively, at that).

I still love the PboH's and it still is the core of my collection and what led me to here in the first place.

That PboH's number 7 has a lot to answer for.

[Jojo Lapin X]

It is not an obsession! I can quit whenever I choose to!

[andydecker]

As a kid I was more into sf, I can vividly remember how much excitement tv like the Cybernaut-episode of The Avengers generated in school.

A few years later - I must have been 11 or so - a friend from school talked glowingly about one of the first Vampire Horror Roman which was published about the time. In the holidays I managed to get my paws on a cheap collection made for supermarkets. These things were always three issues which the publisher got back from the newsstands - they were returnable - which they stappled together, slapped a cheap new cover on and sold it for the price of two new issues.

It was the no 1 of VHR, a german original and two novels by french writer B R Bruss. I don´t know if he ever was published in Britain, but he wrote some terrific novels. As I am a packrat I still own these novels.

But the biggest influence was actually Stoker´s Dracula which I got from the library a bit earlier, I think, because I wasn´t allowed to see the movie ;D . My parents were rather strict about this. No tv this late. The novel was a revelation. (The movie which I only saw decades later not so much. Still don´t understand its influence) But maybe this would have been a phase if not a neighbour gifted my with a box of second hand paperbacks, mostly fantasy. This introduced me to writers like Howard, Burroughs and Alan Burt Akers, another revelation.

When I started with my first job learning the trade of a bookseller a short time later with 16, I began reading all genres. I could read a lot for free or got a good discount. There was next to no horror published for the bookmarket, but plenty of sf and crime. We had two shelves of imported british novels at the store, and the originals started to interest me when I read somewhere that the translations of Mickey Spillane - which at the time I was deeply into - were often quite censored. I took one original home, but gave up quickly. My school english wasn´t up to the task.

Thankfully I was also a big comic fan, and I stumbled about Marvel comics and especially Vampirella at the international bookstore at the trainstation. Also they had racks of Nick Carter which I devoured in its translations. Here was the original- and even better novels which were new. And racks of Beeline

The comic-books really tought me reading English - never underestimate the lure of some boobs and horror in comics This kind of distribution has since long gone the way of the dodo sadly. But it was the start of my collection. Warren Publishing had this great merchandising store. I discovered the Robert Lory Dracula novels which translations I also had devoured - I still have a soft spot for all things Dracula - , and there were a few which the german publisher had omitted. I had to have them, so I ordered them. At the time - 77 or 78 - international ordering was rather complicated, but it was impossible to get them through other channels. But the service of this store was great. After two month or so I had my Dracula novels. The world really has gotten much smaller since then.

Hm ... considering all, I guess have to mostly blame Dracula

[noose]

I'm only going to talk about one book that planted the seed. It was this one:

and I was 8 when I owned it:

and this picture freaked me out, but didn't stop me from drawing it over and over.

So before the Armada's, Pans, Fontanas and all those other books that have come to pass since, Mr Poe is to thank for many sleepless nights.

[cauldronbrewer]

Ah, Andy's post reminded me that I also meant to mention reading Dracula as a youngster. I was riveted by the early Jonathan Harker chapters. I found the next section hard going, however, until Renfield showed up with his flies, spiders, and so on.

Specifically, this is the edition that I read:

It was my mother's copy. She was quite broad-minded in terms of what I was allowed to read as a child, partly in reaction to her own experience growing up during the anti-comic book hysteria that took place during the 1950s in the U.S.

As for Doug's other question--where today's youngsters will learn about the great horror of the past--I don't know. Right now, my son won't even be in the same room as my Mammoth Books (of Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, Frankenstein, Monsters, and New Terror) because of the "scary animals" on the spines (in his defense, he only recently turned three; I put them in a closet so that he would come back into my office). I guess I'm optimistic, however. "Speculative fiction" as a broad category seems as popular as ever, and maybe all those Harry Potter and sparkly vampire books will be the new gateway drugs. I do think that some of the best contemporary horror fiction is being published in the "Young Adult" category, and when I go in the children's sections of bookstores I see plenty of horror-themed books, comics, graphic novels, and manga--some of which look pretty intriguing to me. So maybe the kids will be alright.

[doug]

Jan 28, 2012 19:44:15 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

It is not an obsession! I can quit whenever I choose to!

Yeah, right!
That's what we all say!

[doug]

Jan 28, 2012 13:53:15 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

The author who first sparked my interest in horror was Edgar Allan Poe. I vividly remember reading "The Masque of the Red Death," "Hop-Frog," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Black Cat," and "The Pit and the Pendulum" in 6th grade. We also read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," and I'll never forget that experience.

In high school, I moved on to H. P. Lovecraft and read every story that he ever wrote (I think that's a good age to read his work). In college, I read a fair amount of Algernon Blackwood, and afterward I started to read James Sheridan Le Fanu's stories and Shirley Jackson's novels.

What started my obsession with horror, however, was reading a series of anthologies, some edited by Marvin Kaye and others by the Martin Greenberg/Robert Weinberg/Stefan Dziemianowicz collective:

Marvin Kaye
Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural
Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown
Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Dies
Ghosts
Haunted America
Devils & Demons
Witches & Warlocks
Don't Open This Book

Martin Greenberg, Robert Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz, & Co.
Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors
Rivals of Weird Tales
Weird Vampire Tales
Sea-Cursed
Nursery Crimes
Girl's Night Out
Nightmare: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
Famous Fantastic Mysteries
A Treasury of American Horror Stories
A Taste for Blood
Tales of the Occult
100 Wild Little Weird Tales
100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories
100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories
100 Creepy Little Creature Stories
100 Twisted Little Tales of Torment
100 Tiny Tales of Terror
100 Fiendish Little Frightmares

[and more--these folks edited a lot of anthologies]

I have most of the Marvin Kaye anthologies. He's also the new publisher of "Weird Tales". The first issue under his control is coming out in February I believe. Are the Barnes & Noble "100" collections mostly "Weird Tales" reprints or do the stories also come from other sources?

[cauldronbrewer]

Jan 29, 2012 8:52:24 GMT doug said:

Are the Barnes & Noble "100" collections mostly "Weird Tales" reprints or do the stories also come from other sources?

The stories in 100 Wild Little Weird Tales all come from the magazine. The stories in the other "100" books come from a wide range of sources and times.

By the way, 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror stories includes "Where Did She Wander," which is the story that got me hooked on Manly Wade Wellman's work (and also happens to be the last story that he ever wrote).

[blackmonk]

I don’t think it was books that started me off. I was a Christmas gift off an uncle and it was the Aurora monster kit of The Mummy. This was in the 60s so it was the long slim rectangular box, not the later reissues in the square box and with luminous plastic. I was awe struck. My parents were pissed off because I shoved the expensive gift they’d got me aside and stared at the Aurora box. I even got excited reading the assembly instructions especially when they warned of the cursed symbols on one of the parts! Over the following years I avidly sought out other kits which were available in most toy shops in those days - Dracula, Frankenstein, The Forgotten Prisoner, Hunchback, Wolfman and I even got the working Guillotine! Other great brain-altering moments included being handed a Heironymous Bosch coffee table book by my auntie while I waited for her in the local library where she worked. Getting Denis Gifford’s Movie Monsters – the studio vista/Dutton pictureback as a birthday present – still have it. Offering to do the house chores in exchange for staying up and watching the Universal double bills that regularly played on tv. I recall being in trouble for not cleaning the shit out of my guinea pigs’ hutch and as punishment I wasn’t allowed to watch The Trollenberg Terror. I sulked and moaned and stamped my feet on each stair as I was sent up to bed. A true low point in my life, especially when all my mates gloated about its brilliance at primary school the following day. It sounded like the greatest horror movie ever, and I’d missed it! I also saw a few episodes of Mystery and Imagination which scared the crap out of me especially one about a leper and another (I think) featuring a deaths head moth. I’m pretty sure when it came to fiction it was The Execution of Damiens in The Third Pan Book of Horror Stories that I snuck a look at when a neighbour let my dad borrow it. Nothing has changed apart from the fact that I can watch whatever films I want these days!

[doug]

Jan 29, 2012 12:35:47 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Jan 29, 2012 8:52:24 GMT doug said:

Are the Barnes & Noble "100" collections mostly "Weird Tales" reprints or do the stories also come from other sources?

The stories in 100 Wild Little Weird Tales all come from the magazine. The stories in the other "100" books come from a wide range of sources and times.

By the way, 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror stories includes "Where Did She Wander," which is the story that got me hooked on Manly Wade Wellman's work (and also happens to be the last story that he ever wrote).

Thanks! My first Wellman was The Desrick on Yandro in Monster museum.

take care.
Doug

[doug]

Jan 29, 2012 14:12:07 GMT blackmonk said:

I don’t think it was books that started me off. I was a Christmas gift off an uncle and it was the Aurora monster kit of The Mummy. This was in the 60s so it was the long slim rectangular box, not the later reissues in the square box and with luminous plastic. I was awe struck. My parents were pissed off because I shoved the expensive gift they’d got me aside and stared at the Aurora box. I even got excited reading the assembly instructions especially when they warned of the cursed symbols on one of the parts! Over the following years I avidly sought out other kits which were available in most toy shops in those days - Dracula, Frankenstein, The Forgotten Prisoner, Hunchback, Wolfman and I even got the working Guillotine! Other great brain-altering moments included being handed a Heironymous Bosch coffee table book by my auntie while I waited for her in the local library where she worked. Getting Denis Gifford’s Movie Monsters – the studio vista/Dutton pictureback as a birthday present – still have it. Offering to do the house chores in exchange for staying up and watching the Universal double bills that regularly played on tv. I recall being in trouble for not cleaning the shit out of my guinea pigs’ hutch and as punishment I wasn’t allowed to watch The Trollenberg Terror. I sulked and moaned and stamped my feet on each stair as I was sent up to bed. A true low point in my life, especially when all my mates gloated about its brilliance at primary school the following day. It sounded like the greatest horror movie ever, and I’d missed it! I also saw a few episodes of Mystery and Imagination which scared the crap out of me especially one about a leper and another (I think) featuring a deaths head moth. I’m pretty sure when it came to fiction it was The Execution of Damiens in The Third Pan Book of Horror Stories that I snuck a look at when a neighbour let my dad borrow it. Nothing has changed apart from the fact that I can watch whatever films I want these days!

I was so crazy about those old Aurora Kits (also the smaller boxes) that i even cut up one of my comics just so I could keep the full page ad in my wallet!

Take care.
Doug

[Shrink Proof]

In my case I think it started one Xmas when I was about 10 or 11. Somebody bought me a copy of "Tales of the Mysterious & Macabre" by Algernon Blackwood. Loved it & went on to read most of his other stuff. For several years afterwards I then chased up lots of the "classic" stuff, together with a fair weight of 70s pulp, (but was underwhelmed by Lovecraft - some neat ideas, but he didn't just construct sentences, he left the scaffolding behind afterwards).

Then I got into all manner of other things & lapsed for a couple of decades until I won a competition in The Guardian in the mid-90s, collecting a copy of "Darklands", edited by Nicholas Royle. This got me into the more modern stuff, and I've been acquiring books old & new ever since.

Since then I haven't looked back. But actually that's because I'm worried what's behind me...