TOR! Horror in the 'eighties.

[dem bones]

TOR: horror paperbacks in the eighties

"Horror tells stories at a particular depth that is full of resonance. Anybody who tries to do what Tor is doing and publishes the best that's going ought to do very very well with it and ought to also continue to widen the field." - Peter Straub, quoted on the back of the TOR Horror Sampler, 1986

I was leafing through the Tor Horror Sampler, wondering at the degree of masochism required to sample random extracts from thirteen novels, got to scribbling and .....

It's a bit .... rudimentary. The earliest i've seen is Quarrel With The Moon, so that seemed a good place to start.
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]

]

1982

J. C. Conaway - Quarrel With The Moon
Graham Masterton - The Wells Of Hell
Lyn Phillips - The Game
Alan Ryan - The Kill

1983

Jay Davis & Don Davis - Bring On The Night
John Farris - Shatter
K. W. Jeter - Soul Eater
Christopher Pike - The Seasons Of Passage
Alan Ryan - Dead White

1984

Ramsey Campbell - Incarnate
Nora Lofts - The Claw
Graham Masterton - Ikon
Graham Masterton - The Pariah
Kathryn Ptacek - Shadow Eyes
Alan Ryan - Cast A Cold Eye

1985

F. W. Armstrong - The Changing
Ramsey Campbell - Dark Companions
Ramsey Campbell - The Doll Who Ate His Mother
Ramsey Campbell - The Face That Must Die
Ramsey Campbell - The Nameless
John Farris - The Fury
John Farris - The Minotaur
Charles L. Grant (ed.) - Midnight
Charles L. Grant (ed.) - Greystone Bay
Graham Masterton - Condor
Kathryn Ptacek - Blood Autumn
'Jay Ramsay' - Night of the Claw
Jessica A. Salmonson (ed) - Tales By Moonlight
Al Sarrantonio - Totentanz
John M. Skipp & Craig Spector - Fright Night

]

1986

Anon - TOR Horror Sampler
Robert Bloch - Night Of The Ripper
Robert Bloch - Night World
Ramsey Campbell - Obsession
Suzy McKee Charnas - The Vampire Tapestry
Maggie Davis - Forbidden Objects
Peter Delacorte - Levantine
Elizabeth Engstom - When Darkness Loves Us
Dennis Etchison (ed.) - Masters Of Darkness
John Farris - All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By
John Farris - Son of the Endless Night
John Farris - Wildwood
Charles L. Grant (ed.) - After Midnight
Charles L. Grant - The Orchard
Stephen Laws - Ghost Train
Richard Laymon - Night Show
Graham Masterton - Death Trance
Andrew Neiderman - Love Child
William Nelling jnr. - Brujo
Kathryn Ptacek - Kachina
Kathryn Ptacek - Shadow Eyes
Dan Simmons - Song Of Kali
Sheri S. Tepper - Blood Heritage
R. R. Walters - Ladies In Waiting
Chet Williamson - Soulstorm
T. M. Wright - The Waiting Room

]

]

1987

F. W. Armstrong - The Devouring
Robert Bloch - American Gothic
Ramsey Campbell - Cold Print
Ramsey Campbell - The Hungry Moon
Lisa W. Cantrell - The Manse
Jeanne Van Buren Dann & Jack M. Dann (eds.) - In The Field Of Fire
Al Dempsey - Dog Kill
John Farris - Catacombs
John Farris - Nightfall
John Farris - The Uninvited
Charles L. Grant - For Fear Of The Night
Charles L. Grant - The Hour of the Oxrun Dead
Charles L. Grant - The Pet
Charles L. Grant - The Sound of Midnight
Linda Crockett Gray - Scryer
K. W. Jeter - Dark Seeker
K. W. Jeter - Martis
Lee Killough - Blood Hunt
Stephen Laws - Spectre
Richard Laymon - Tread Softly
Graham Masterton - The Manitou
Graham Masterton - Revenge of the Manitou
John R. Maxim - Platforms
Paul Preuss - Human Error
Tony Richards - The Harvest Bride
Fred Saberhagen - An Old Friend Of The Family
Whitney Strieber - Cat Magic
Karl E. Wagner - Why Not You And I?
T. M. Wright - Strange Seed

]

]

1988

Robert Bloch - Firebug
Robert Bloch - The Kidnapper
Ramsey Campbell (ed.) - Fine Frights: Stories that Scared Me
R. Chetwynd Hayes - The Grange
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Other Side
Les Daniels - Yellow Fog
D. J. Donaldson - Cajun Nights
Gardner R. Dozois & Susan Casper (eds.) - Ripper!
Dennis Etchison (ed.) - Masters Of Darkness II
Elizabeth Engstrom - Black Ambrosia
Ken Eulo - The House Of Caine
John Farris - Scare Tactics
John Farris - Sharp Practice
Stephen Gallagher - Valley Of Lights
Charles L. Grant - The Grave
Charles L. Grant - The Last Call of Mourning
Linda Crockett Gray - Tangerine
Lee Killough - Bloodlinks
Richard Laymon - Flesh
Brian Lumley - Necroscope
Graham Masterton - Charnel House
Graham Masterton - Death Dream
Graham Masterton - The Djinn
Daniel Rhodes - Next, After Lucifer
David J. Schow - The Kill Riff
David J. Schow (ed.) - Silver Scream
Lisa Tuttle - Gabriel
Chet Williamson - Lowland Rider
T. M. Wright - The Island
T. M. Wright - The People of the Dark
T. M. Wright - The Playground
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - Hôtel Transylvania
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - The Palace

]

]

1989

Scott Baker - Webs
Robert Bloch - Fear and Trembling
Robert Bloch - Lori
Robert Bloch - Psycho
Robert Bloch - Psycho II
Ramsey Campbell - The Influence
Ramsey Campbell - The Parasite
Lisa W. Cantrell - The Ridge
Hugh B. Cave - Disciple Of Dread
Jay Davis & Don Davis - Sins Of The Flesh
Stephen Gallagher - Oktober
Charles L. Grant - The Bloodwind
Charles L. Grant - Dialing the Wind
Linds Gray - Siren
John Farris - The Axeman Cometh
Mercedes Lackey - Burning Water
Brian Lumley - Necroscope II: Vamphyri!
Brian Lumley - Necroscope III: The Source
Graham Masterton - Mirror
Graham Masterton (ed.) - Scare Care
Thomas F. Monteleone - Fantasma
Kathryn Ptacek (ed.) - Women Of Darkness
Daniel Rhodes - Adversary
Fred Saberhagen - The Dracula Tape
Fred Saberhagen - The Holmes-Dracula File
Jessica A. Salmonson - Tales By Moonlight 2
Lisa Tuttle - Familiar Spirit
Kelley Wilde - The Suiting
Chet Williamson - Ash Wednesday
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - Blood Games

Corrections/ additions most welcome!

[Jojo Lapin X]

The title novella of Elizabeth Engstrom's WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US is the sensational tale of a pregnant bride who falls down a disused well on her wedding night and is unable to get out again. It is a kind of generational saga, and I remember it as a masterpiece. What happened to Elizabeth Engstrom?

[cauldronbrewer]

May 24, 2012 20:00:05 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

The title novella of Elizabeth Engstrom's WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US is the sensational tale of a pregnant bride who falls down a disused well on her wedding night and is unable to get out again. It is a kind of generational saga, and I remember it as a masterpiece. What happened to Elizabeth Engstrom?

This story, also included in David G. Hartwell's Foundations of Fear, disturbed me as few other horror stories have ever done. It still haunts me.

[noose]

This is probably the daftest thing I've ever said, but I stay well clear from collecting TOR books. Can't stand the style, illustrations and general feel of them - even though the contents may be top notch. The very few I do have are relegated to a dark corner where only the mice live...

And I still don't know for why I don't like them.

[dem bones]

May 24, 2012 20:13:23 GMT @noose said:

This is probably the daftest thing I've ever said, but I stay well clear from collecting TOR books. Can't stand the style, illustrations and general feel of them - even though the contents may be top notch. The very few I do have are relegated to a dark corner where only the mice live...

And I still don't know for why I don't like them.

The embossed covers used to get on my tits, but think of what was to come and you realise we were being spoilt rotten. As to the contents, from my limited experience i'd say they'd have to rank amonmg the dayy's best: original novels and collections, worthy reprints and several killer anthologies including Hartwell's massive The Dark Descent (1987), only omitted from list on the grounds its a hardcover. Maybe they could've worked harder on the blurbs. How's this for a spoiler at back of Robert Bloch's "novel of psychiological horror", The Kidnapper:

He thinks he's found it. He's going to kidnap Shirley Mae Warren, daughter of a wealthy banker and industrialist. The $200,000 ransom will get Collins his new start.
He can't do it alone. He'll need help. First, Shirley Mae's nanny, Mary - for her, Collins is the perfect lover. Then, a driver and front man - the man Collins calls his best friend.
The plan goes wrong. The child dies. And Collins sacrifices all - friend, lover-to save himself.


Here's the lowdown on:

Anon (ed.) - TOR HORROR SAMPLER (1986)

Carol Russo

introduction

John Farris - Wildwood
T. M. Wright - The Waiting Room
Graham Masterton - Death Trance
Chet Williamson - Soulstorm
R. R. Walters - Ladies In Waiting
Stephen Laws - Ghost Train
Richard Laymon - Night Show
Maggie Davis - Forbidden Objects
Andrew Neiderman - Love Child
William Nelling jnr. - Brujo
Charles L. Grant - The Orchard
Dan Simmons - Song Of Kali
K. W. Jeter - Night Vision

Blurb:
Horror tells stories at a particular depth that is full of resonance. Anybody who tries to do what Tor is doing and publishes the best that's going ought to do very very well with it and ought to also continue to widen the field." — Peter Straub

A chilling novel by the bestselling author of The Fury and Son of the Endless Night: WILDWOOD by John Farris
Look into nightmare with the author of A Manhattan Ghost Story: THE WAITING ROOM by T. M. Wright
The bestselling author of The Manitou offers a frightening tale of old dark gods:
DEATH TRANCE by Graham Masterton
The house was haunted—by the souls of the evil dead! SOULSTORM by Chet Williamson
Imprisoned for centuries in paint and canvas, the women wanted freedom—and revenge: LADIES IN WAITING by R. R. Walters
The lord of death rules the tracks in this terrifying novel: GHOST TRAIN by Stephen Laws
A horror movie becomes horrifyingly real in this novel by the author of the bestselling The Cellar. NIGHT SHOW by Richard Laymon
A stunning debut in the bestselling tradition of Peter Straub: FORBIDDEN OBJECTS by Maggie Davis
Insanity awaits a young woman in this new chiller by the bestselling author of Pin: LOVE CHILD by Andrew Neiderman
A peaceful island is transformed into a blood-soaked death-ground: BRUJO by William Relling, Jr.
Visit Oxrun Station with the master of terror, the bestselling author of The Nestling: THE ORCHARD by Charles L. Grant
Terror stalks Calcutta's streets: SONG OF KALI by Dan Simmons
The new masterpiece of horror by the author of Soul-Eater: NIGHT VISION by K. W. Jeter

[cauldronbrewer]

May 24, 2012 20:13:23 GMT @noose said:

This is probably the daftest thing I've ever said, but I stay well clear from collecting Tor books. Can't stand the style, illustrations and general feel of them - even though the contents may be top notch. The very few I do have are relegated to a dark corner where only the mice live...

And I still don't know for why I don't like them.

I find the Tor trade paperbacks from the 1990s and beyond more aesthetically pleasing than the mass market paperbacks. Good lineup there, too--for example, Fritz Leiber's The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich, Ramsey Campbell's Alone with the Horrors, Gahan Wilson's The Cleft and Other Tales, Robert Bloch's Once Around the Bloch, and a slew of Richard Matheson books. Plus, there are the highly similar Orb books, such as Leiber's Dark Ladies.

[ramseycampbell]

May 24, 2012 20:13:23 GMT @noose said:

This is probably the daftest thing I've ever said, but I stay well clear from collecting TOR books. Can't stand the style, illustrations and general feel of them - even though the contents may be top notch. The very few I do have are relegated to a dark corner where only the mice live...

And I still don't know for why I don't like them.

No surprise that I do...

[dem bones]

May 25, 2012 6:08:19 GMT ramseycampbell said:

May 24, 2012 20:13:23 GMT @noose said:

This is probably the daftest thing I've ever said, but I stay well clear from collecting TOR books. Can't stand the style, illustrations and general feel of them - even though the contents may be top notch. The very few I do have are relegated to a dark corner where only the mice live...

And I still don't know for why I don't like them.

No surprise that I do...

Robert Bloch, Charles L. Grant and Graham Masterton had little to complain about either, and i'm glad they took a chance on Ronald "too British" Chetwynd-Hayes. Could be that i was looking in the wrong places, but i'd been searching for Bloch's The Kidnapper and Fred Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape and Holmes-Dracula File with zero success until TOR obliged with their reprints. i adore Les Daniels' Don Sebastian series even more than i detest Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Comte Saint Germain and all those other sympathetic vampires soon to come to prominence. For some inexplicable reason, i never could get into Greystone Bay and missed Kathryn Ptacek's Women Of Darkness altogether but the other anthologies - Fine Frights, Masters Of Darkness, Ripper!, Silver Scream and the loopy, lopsided charity antho Scare Care - are a treat.

It looks like there should be a lot more from 1980 - 1984, but i think they were primarily a fantasy & SF publisher to begin with?

May 24, 2012 23:09:59 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

I find the Tor trade paperbacks from the 1990s and beyond more aesthetically pleasing than the mass market paperbacks. Good lineup there, too--for example, Fritz Leiber's The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich, Ramsey Campbell's Alone with the Horrors, Gahan Wilson's The Cleft and Other Tales, Robert Bloch's Once Around the Bloch, and a slew of Richard Matheson books. Plus, there are the highly similar Orb books, such as Leiber's Dark Ladies.

i might have a crack at compiling a nineties listing (unless somebody else fancies a go?). The embossed cover achieved some kind of nadir with their eyeball-abusing effort for Robert Bloch's Psycho House.

[Craig Herbertson]

I'm on the Johnny team here. I can't quite put my finger on why the Tor covers leave me cold. There seems to be some sort of empathetic distance. They're cold without being chilling. I feel no identification with the victims because they don't look real or indeed unreal but somewhere in between. The traditional venues for horror - the haunted mansion, the circus fairground, puppet stage don't give the impression that anyone but a spick and span squeaky clean monster would lurk there - possibly on a plastic covered seat.

[andydecker]

Here are a few additions:

1981

Charles L. Grant - The Grave






1983

Ramsey Campbell - Incarnate



1984

T.M.Wright - A Manhattan Ghost Story

1985

Graham Masterton - Picture of Evil
T.M.Wright - People of the Dark

1986

Maxine O´Callaghan - The Bogeyman
Andrew Neiderman - Love Child

1987

Joe R. Landsdale - The Nightrunners
Chet Williamson - Ash Wednesday
Raymond Hardie - Abyssos
Clare McNally - Somebody Come and Play
Thomas F. Monteleone John DeChancie - Crooked House
Thomas F. Monteleone - The Magnificent Gallery
Seth Pfefferle - Stickman
William F. Relling Jr. - New Moon
David Hagberg - Last come the Children


1988

Ríchard Christian Matheson - Scars and other distinguishing marks




Tor was kind of weird. On the one hand they really enforced the notion being the upmarket publisher for literary horror fiction, which brought a lot of boring and pretentious crap on the market. Still they also published Lumely or Landsdale, which both at the time could just as easy have been Zebra authors.

Just look at the Grant covers. They are just a step above a Gothic in terms of marketing.


I can start a list of the 90s. Don´t have a lopt of the books though.

[dem bones]

much obliged to you, andy. four of those covers are new to me, can't see much wrong with them myself. This next was always a favourite.

Karl E. Wagner - Why Not You And I? (TOR, 1987)

J. K. Potter

Blurb:

"Wagner is always a fascinating writer ... his tales of ancient evils working on the present are brilliantly modern" — The Washington Post

The World Of Karl Edward Wagner

Where body shops deal in more than auto-mobiles, a writer learns the deadly truth about bestsellerdom, and a loving healer's kindly care conceals... hell.

"He knows exactly what he's doing; he's scary, entertaining, and knowledgeable" - Peter Straub

"The most sophisticated and least adolescent of current horror writers; ... he openly confronts the power in sexual fear and the manipulation of desire." — Heavy Metal

This one, i thought we might have found the 'porno werewolf novel' Dr. Terror was after, but alas, no red nail varnish and the girl's name ain't Lupita.

J. C. Conaway - Quarrel With The Moon (TOR, Apr. 1982)

Blurb
WORSE THAN ANY NIGHTMARE
It began with the bones. Strange remains of a creature almost human....

Josh Holman at the New York Institute of Anthropology could not believe his eyes. He seemed to be staring at a new kind of missing link!

The remains had come from the mountains of West Virginia. Josh would investigate. And with him would go his lady, beautiful Cresta Farraday, taking a vacation from her career as a top fashion model, hoping to revitalize her relationship with Josh.

But the strange bones were the least of it. Before Josh and Cresta arrived in West Virginia, three people would die. Horribly....

And they were only the first.
Something in the mountains was hungry.
Something that craved human flesh.
Something that had a QUARREL WITH THE MOON

[Jojo Lapin X]

May 24, 2012 20:00:05 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

The title novella of Elizabeth Engstrom's WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US is the sensational tale of a pregnant bride who falls down a disused well on her wedding night and is unable to get out again. It is a kind of generational saga, and I remember it as a masterpiece. What happened to Elizabeth Engstrom?

I just reread "When Darkness Loves Us." Ok, so she does not fall into a well, exactly, and it is not on her wedding night. I rarely remember plot details even of works that really impressed me, just the mood they put me in. In this case, the mood is certainly there also on a second reading. This is a very unusual story, told effortlessly and straightforwardly. I remember also reading her novel BLACK AMBROSIA, but it was not quite as sensational.

[doug]

Jun 10, 2012 18:24:12 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

May 24, 2012 20:00:05 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

The title novella of Elizabeth Engstrom's WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US is the sensational tale of a pregnant bride who falls down a disused well on her wedding night and is unable to get out again. It is a kind of generational saga, and I remember it as a masterpiece. What happened to Elizabeth Engstrom?

I just reread "When Darkness Loves Us." Ok, so she does not fall into a well, exactly, and it is not on her wedding night. I rarely remember plot details even of works that really impressed me, just the mood they put me in. In this case, the mood is certainly there also on a second reading. This is a very unusual story, told effortlessly and straightforwardly. I remember also reading her novel BLACK AMBROSIA, but it was not quite as sensational.

If I remember correctly she is pregnant, and recently married and ends up getting accidently locked up in a cave the doesn't get re-opened for years. Isn't this in one of the David Hartwell antholgies? Or am I just confused?

Take care.
Doug

[Jojo Lapin X]

Jun 11, 2012 6:23:49 GMT doug said:

If I remember correctly she is pregnant, and recently married and ends up getting accidently locked up in a cave the doesn't get re-opened for years. Isn't this in one of the David Hartwell antholgies? Or am I just confused?

No, that is the one.

[Dr Strange]

May 24, 2012 20:00:05 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

What happened to Elizabeth Engstrom?

Seems she runs a "Love and Mercy Ministry" in Oregon and writes on theology under her married name Liz Cratty, though she still writes fiction as Elizabeth Engstrom (her last novel, Guys Named Bob, was published in 2018 and seems to be some sort of crime/thriller I think). Her religious beliefs seem to come from something called The Urantia Book, which wikipedia tells me "originated in Chicago sometime between 1924 and 1955", "aims to unite religion, science, and philosophy", and "is written as if directly presented by numerous celestial beings appointed to the task of providing an 'epochal' religious revelation". There is a video from 2014 of her speaking about this stuff on YouTube.