What was the first ghost/horror anthology?

[Dr Strange]

Not at all off-topic, but I couldn't think where else to post this: What was the very first ghost or horror story anthology? I mean a book that collected together stories from different authors (so not, e.g., a periodical or a single-author collection). And did genre-specific short story anthologies even exist before that? From what I can work out, "anthologies" were originally collections of poetry - so who first thought of collecting together short stories from different authors that shared a common theme or genre?

The earliest I've seen online is Dreamland & Ghostland, published by George Redway in Oct. 1887 in 3 volumes, which seems to have collected together stories from various magazines of the time - www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Dreamland_and_Ghostland

I also came across Weird Tales, published in 5 volumes (English, Scottish, Irish, American, and German) by William Paterson & Co. in 1888, and apparently referenced in this cartoon from Punch magazine (Sept. 15, 1888) where it was favourably reviewed -

[jamesdoig]

Apr 11, 2021 0:02:23 GMT Dr Strange said:

Not at all off-topic, but I couldn't think where else to post this: What was the very first ghost or horror story anthology?

It's a good question, and I imagine different people will have different opinions. The earliest listed anthology in Mike Ashley and Bill Contento's Supernatural Index is Tales of the Dead published in 1813, a translation of the 1812 French antho Phantasmagoriana. This was the book Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Byron and Polidori were reading Lake Geneva.

[samdawson]

Apr 11, 2021 0:02:23 GMT Dr Strange said:

I also came across Weird Tales, published in 5 volumes (English, Scottish, Irish, American, and German) by William Paterson & Co. in 1888, and apparently referenced in this cartoon from Punch magazine (Sept. 15, 1888) where it was favourably reviewed -


I have the American one (it looks like this: richarddalbyslibrary.com/products/weird-tales-american). It's small, not much bigger than palm-sized. I think about a year ago it got moved up to the attic to make room for another book

[dem bones]

Apr 11, 2021 1:04:56 GMT jamesdoig said:

Apr 11, 2021 0:02:23 GMT Dr Strange said:

Not at all off-topic, but I couldn't think where else to post this: What was the very first ghost or horror story anthology?

It's a good question, and I imagine different people will have different opinions. The earliest listed anthology in Mike Ashley and Bill Contento's Supernatural Index is Tales of the Dead published in 1813, a translation of the 1812 French antho Phantasmagoriana. This was the book Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Byron and Polidori were reading Lake Geneva.

The Gothic Society published a paperback edition of Phantasmagoriana as Tales of the Dead in 1992. I'm sure there must have been earlier ghost anthologies even if they weren't packaged as such.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Blackwood's Magazine began bringing out selections of its stories from the 1850s onwards. Many were sensational in style and some would have included supernatural elements. Maybe these were the precursors, but I don't really know.

[Dr Strange]

Here's the contents for the 5 volumes of Weird Tales (Paterson & Co. 1888), as given on isfdb.org -

ENGLISH
• The Pythagorean • A. Stewart Harrison
• The Old Man's Tale About the Queer Client • Charles Dickens
• In Defence of His Right • Daniel Defoe
• Sixteen Days of Death • Thomas Littleton Holt
• Adventure in a Forest • Tobias Smollett
• Cader Idris: The Chair of Idris • John Berwick Harwood
• A Skeleton in the House • Edmund Yates
• A Night with a Madman • uncredited
• The Poisoned Mind • A. G. G.
• A Dire Prediction • George Henry Borrow
• The Postponed Wedding • uncredited (variant of Ceubren yr Ellyll or The Bride of Nant Gwrtheyrn)
• The Haunted House of Paddington • Charles Ollier

SCOTTISH
• The Vision of Campbell of Inverawe • Sir Thomas Dick Lauder
• The Tapestried Chamber • Sir Walter Scott
• Highland Snowstorm • John Wilson
• Legend of the Dropping Well • Hugh Miller
• Wandering Willie's Tale (excerpt from Redgauntlet) • Sir Walter Scott
• The Haunted Ships • Allan Cunningham
• The Unknown • John Mackay Wilson
• The Rescue • Robert Dale Owen
• The Witch of Laggan • W. Grant Stewart
• Allan Mactavish's Fishing • Mrs. Gordon

IRISH
• The Lots Upon the Raft • William Cooper
• A Night in a Haunted House: Being a Passage in the Life of Mr. Midas Oldwyche • uncredited
• The Burial of O'Grady • Samuel Lover
• The Lianhan Shee • William Carleton
• The Mountain Pass • Charles Lever
• The Banshee • John Keegan
• Legends of the Banshee • Thomas Crofton Croker (variant of The Banshee of the MacCarthys)
• The Faction Fights • Mr. S. C. Hall and Mrs. S. C. Hall
• The Drunkard's Dream [The Purcell Papers 3] • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
• A Terrible Night • Charles Fenno Hoffman (variant of A Night Adventure in the Alleghanies)
• A Realised Dream • J. B. O'Meara

AMERICAN
• The Pit and the Pendulum • Edgar Allan Poe
• The Headless Horseman • Washington Irving (variant of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
• A Fearful Revenge • Charles Fenno Hoffman (variant of Nights in an Indian Lodge-The Ghost Riders)
• The Wedding Knell • Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Fall of the House of Usher • Edgar Allan Poe
• The Mysterious Guide • Charles Fenno Hoffman (variant of A Night on the Enchanted Mountain)
• The Deserted Diggings • An Old Chum
• "Murder Will Out" • William Gilmore Simms
• A Tale of Mystery • uncredited

GERMAN
• The Severed Hand • Wilhelm Hauff
• The Elementary Spirit • E. T. A. Hoffmann
• The Ghost-Seer (excerpt) • Friedrich von Schiller
• The Fortunes of Martin Waldeck • Sir Walter Scott
• The Klausenburg • Ludwig Tieck
• The Bracelet • Samuel Warren
• The Evil Conscience • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I didn't know what The Evil Conscience was. But a quick look and I can see the name Antonelli, which tells me it's from Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten.
I hope this helps.

[samdawson]

Here are pics of the 1880s Weird Tales, American, with a London Mystery alongside to show how small it is.

ibb.co/SQh5pfC
ibb.co/rmYd8Kr
ibb.co/vXK6QZf

[andydecker]

Always impressive how many different editions there are. This one looks nice and really small. I quite like the cover. Simple but effective.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

It's fun to track the original versions of these tales down. Some are easier than others. A bit of detective work and I bet you can find most of them.
The Tobias Smollett was easy, it is from The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom. Published in 1753.
The Pythagorean is by Archibald Stewart Harrison and was published in Once a Week magazine, Series 1, Volume II. 1860. It can be found, along with some other work by him, here: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Archibald_Stewart_Harrison
A Dire Prediction is by that wonderful teller of Romani tales, George Borrow. It was published as The Prediction, in his collection Tales of the Wild and the Wonderful. The collection I have is dated 1825. The opening line has a tiny alteration from the original. I haven't checked the rest of the text.
I'll do some more when I have the time.
Oh and The Pythagorean was gruesome.
Well done for spotting these Dr Strange!

Edited to say the original of A Dire Prediction begins with a suggestive quote from Shakespeare: "Let’s talk of Graves."

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

The Old Man’s Tale About The Queer Client is from The Pickwick Papers. Chapter 21.  originally published April 1836 to November 1837

In Defence of His Right is from The Secrets of the Invisible World Disclos'd: Or, An Universal History of Apparitions; Sacred and Profane, Under all Denominations; whether Angelical, Diabolical, or Human Souls departed. With a great Variety of Surprising and Diverting Examples, never Publish'd before: Also Shewing How We May Distinguish Between the Apparitions of Good and Evil Spirits, and How We Ought to Behave to Them. 1735. Defoe is using the pseudonym Andrew Moreton.

I'm sure our master librarian Swampirella can point you to good free online versions of many of these if you have difficulties tracking any down.

[Swampirella]

May 17, 2021 11:11:31 GMT 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr said:

I'm sure our master librarian Swampirella can point you to good free online versions of many of these if you have difficulties tracking any down.

You've made my day!

The Secrets of the Invisible World Disclos'd is thankfully free at archive; sounds like a real page-turner

archive.org/details/b30506542

Also, a 1935 edition of The Pickwick Papers, or a 1991 edition that you can borrow/read for an hour a day...

archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.202536/page/n1/mode/2up?q=The+Pickwick+Papers

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Sixteen Days of Death by Thomas Littleton Holt is Chapter XLIV of John Horsleydown, Or, The Confessions of a Thief 1860

Cader Idris: The Chair of Idris by John Berwick Harwood is from Once a Week, Series 1, Volume V 1861 found here: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:John_Berwick_Harwood

A Skeleton in the House by Edmund Hodgson Yates can be found in the collection After Office-hours 1861

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

May 17, 2021 11:40:20 GMT Swampirella said:

May 17, 2021 11:11:31 GMT 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr said:

You've made my day!

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I still can't do quotes right!