Helen Hoke ed. Creepies

[allthingshorror]

Franklin Watts (1978)


Bill Prosser

CONTENTS:

The Bitter Years - Dana Lyon
The Judges House - Bram Stoker
Witch - Marian Lines
Natterjack - Mary Danby
Meshes of Doom - Neville Kilvington
Carlton's Feather - Eric Ambrose
The Moon-Bog - H P Lovecraft
The Dancing Partner - Jerome K Jerome

[bushwick]

I remember getting a Helen Hoke anthology out from the library when I was a kid. There was a story in there that really scared me. I believe it was called It? It actually came with an editorial warning due to its scariness, I seem to remember. Any ideas Johnny? It described this indescribable being that was 'never born', seemed quite freaky to a young mind...would like to read it again.

[allthingshorror]

Don't hold me to this -it could be from either Monsters, Monsters, Monsters,(1974) or Demons Within: And Other Disturbing Tales (1977) - but I'm not really sure.

Creepies is the only one of Helen's I have now, which is a shame, cos she always put together great anthologies.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Good to see this one again, Johnny. I borrowed it from the library as a kid & remember the cover & the 'Natterjack' story, but have been unable to remember the title for years. Thanks for posting it, I'll try my library's catalogue & see if any on the system still have it.

I also remember one, which I think was in the same series (likely a one word title), which contained a story about an apazauca spider, travelling with its mate. When one spider was killed, the other one came out of hiding & struck. Any ideas what the anthology may be?

[Steve]

Helen Hoke was a great example of what we often talk about when discussing these kinds of books, she put together anthologies aimed at the younger reader but didn't treat her audience like kids. That is, she'd include stories by authors you'd also find in collections aimed at a more adult market. The inclusion of "Natterjack" and "Meshes of Doom" in Creepies, as shown above, is significant. She'd often draw on the Fontana and Pan Horrors for material. This meant that, rather than presenting children with watered- down, sanitised versions, she helped introduce children to real horror stories at an age when their imaginations were most receptive.

Bush, Theodore Sturgeon's "It" was in Weirdies, Weirdies, Weirdies - that could be the one you're after.

[allthingshorror]

Jul 13, 2009 12:48:10 GMT Steve said:

.

Bush, Theodore Sturgeon's "It" was in Weirdies, Weirdies, Weirdies - that could be the one you're after.

That's the one - good spot Steve.

[bushwick]

Thanks steve, that's gotta be it. I'll put it on my list.

[stephenbacon]

Wow - I just slipped through a wormhole, back to the early 80s.

You've no idea how nostalgic that cover looked to me. In fact, there's a story I've been looking for for years (about something horrible that grew in a garden) that I think might be in a similar Helen Hoke anthology. I'll be doing my best to track them down.

Anyone know what other titles were in the series? I'm assuming they were all reprints.

[allthingshorror]

Witches, Witches, Witches (1958)
Dragons, Dragons, Dragons (1972)
Monsters, Monsters, Monsters (1974)
Spooks,spooks,spooks (1975)
Weirdies, Weirdies, Weirdies: A Horrifying Concatenation of the Super-Sur-Real or Almost or Not-Quite Real (1975)
Demons Within: And Other Disturbing Tales (1977)
Eerie, Weird and Wicked (1977)
Creepies, Creepies, Creepies: A Covey of Quiver-And-Quaver Tales (1977)
Haunts, Haunts, Haunts (1977)
Terrors, Torments and Traumas (1978)
Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers (1979)
Terrors, Terrors, Terrors: Terrific Triples (1979)
A Chilling Collection (1980)
Sinister, Strange and Supernatural (1980)
More Ghosts, Ghosts, Ghosts (1981)
Mysterious, Menacing and Macabre (1981)
Tales of Fear and Frightening Phenomena (1982)
Demonic, Dangerous and Deadly (1983)
Ghastly, Ghoulish, Gripping Tales (1983)
Uncanny Tales of Unearthly and Unexpected Horrors (1983)
Spirits, Spooks, and Other Sinister Creatures (1984)
Venomous Tales of Villainy and Vengeance (1984)
Horrifying and Hideous Hauntings (1986)
Nurses, Nurses, Nurses (2000)

[jamesdoig]

Helen Hoke (ed), Ghostly, Grim and Gruesome, Dent 1976

Contents

Winston Graham, The Basket Chair
Denys Val Baker, The Face in the Mirror
H.G. Wells, The Flowering of the Strange Orchid
C.B. Gilford, The Forgiving Ghost
Miriam Allen deFord, Gone to the Dogs
William Hope Hodgson, The Horse of the Invisible
Kingsley Amis, Mason's Life
Rosemary Timperley, The Peg-Doll
Joan Aiken, The Sale of Midsummer
T.H. White, The Troll
Leo Tolstoy, The Porcelain Doll
Elizabeth Jane Howard, Three Miles Up

[jamesdoig]

If it contained It, it may have been Weirdies (1973), "A Horrifying Concatenation of the Super-sur-real or Almost or Not-quite Real".

Contents

C.S. Lewis, A Creature Imagined
John B.L. Goodwin, The Cocoon
A.J. Alan, The Hair
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Brown Hand
H.P. Lovecraft, The Nightmare Lake
Stephen Grendon, Mrs Manifold
H.P. Lovecraft, The Ancient Track
F.H. Lee, The Monster of Baylock
John Wyndham, Phase Two
H.P. Lovecraft, The Night Crawlers
H.P. Lovecraft, The Howler
Franz Kafka, A Crossbreed
Robert Blair, The Mansions of the Dead
H.P. Lovecraft, Hallowe'en in a suburb
Patricia Highsmith, The Quest for Blank Claveringi
August Derleth & H.P. Lovecraft, Wentworth's Day
E.M. Nakuina, The Shark-man Nanaue
Edmund Spencer, The Monster
F. Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth
Fitz-James O'Brien, What Was It?
Theodore Sturgeon, It

[woofb]

Thanks to this thread and a question on whatwasthatbook.com, I now know that "the enormous moth story" was John Goodwin's Cocoon as collected by Helen Hoke in Weirdies, Weirdies, Weirdies. 

It's been a popular and much-anthologised story since the 1940s, which at least explains why it stuck in my brain and I never managed to forget it, however hard I tried...