Greenberg & Waugh - Back From The Dead

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Martin H. Greenberg & Charles Waugh (ed's.) - Back From The Dead (DAW, March 1991)

Jim Warren

Frank D. McSherry jr. - Introduction: From Death's Other Side

Leonid Andreyev - Lazarus
Robert Arthur - The Rose-Crystal Bell
S. Baring-Gould - Glamr
Ambrose Bierce - Beyond The Wall
Robert Bloch - Mother Of Serpents
Orson Scott Card - The Lost Boys
Erle Stanley Gardner - The Man With Pin-Point Eyes
Cathie Griffith - Grave Error
W. F. Harvey - The Tortoise
Washington Irving - The Adventure Of The German Student
M. R. James - Count Magnus
Jack London - A Thousand Deaths
H. P. Lovecraft - The Outsider
Edgar Allan Poe - Ligeia
Arthur Porges - Mop-Up
Talmage Powell - Charlie
Robert Sheckley - If The Red Slayer
Clark Ashton Smith - The Charnel God
Theodore Sturgeon - It
Manly Wade Wellman - Where The Woodbine Twineth
Edith Wharton - Afterward

From the 'blessing' of Lazarus .... to a Nordic spirit who ravaged the lands on the longest night of the year ... to a thwarted love that would not die .... to a crystal ball that could bring the gift of life renewed, but perhaps at too high a cost ... here are twenty-one cold as the crypt tales of terror from the nightmare worlds of imagination.

includes:

Leonid Andreyev - Lazarus: The further adventures of. He disappears from the Bible after Christ restores him to life, so Andreyev takes up the terrible story of a living dead man, shunned by all and cursed to walk the earth for eternity!

Arthur Porges - Mop Up: Post-Holocaust. The last man encounters the last witch, ghoul and vampire in a churchyard. Convinced that between them they are going to devour him or worse, that old Mother Digby is about to make him her toy boy, he is initially relieved when the animals surround the burial ground. The ghoul is disemboweled and eaten by a lion, the Count staked and the crone burnt alive. But why should the animals be any easier on a human?

Robert Arthur - The Rose-Crystal Bell: This is Arthur's take on The Monkey's Paw and almost brilliant in an Amicus kind of way. As they approach their 20th wedding anniversary, Dr. Mark Williams and wife Edith revisit the old antique shop in Mott Street where he bought her the rose-crystal necklace as a honeymoon present. This time, at her insistence, Mark buys the a broken rose-crystal bell from which the clapper has been deliberately removed as it is said to summon the dead. Of course, the pendant on her necklace fits the ornament and soon the cast are dying and returning with abandon. For each person who returns, however, one must die. Now their son is reported incinerated in a car smash and nothing can persuade Edith against reviving him ....

I said almost brilliant as Arthur pulls his punch at the end and opts for subtle over sheer horror but it's still well worth a read.

Washington Irving - The Adventure Of The German Student: Paris. By the guillotine in the Place de Greve, Wolfgang meets a beautiful woman in black, a diamond-clasped collar her only outward show of prosperity. Wolfgang has dreamt of her for several nights without ever having laid eyes on her before now and he vows to protect her in this friendless and terrifying city. She spends the night in his bed and the sight that greets him next morning ensures that he lives out the rest of his days in a madhouse.

[Johnlprobert]

That cover looks like it was copied from R Chetwynd Hayes' THE NIGHT GHOULS

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Gordon Crabb

I can see where you're coming from, John, and I know which I prefer.

On the subject of Chetwynd-Hayes, I'm thinking of closing the Loughville forum and (screams of 'Nooooooooo-ooooooooh!) incorporating the bulk of it on here as that board just hasn't worked. He should be on here, anyway. I just got to think of a way of doing it that doesn't monopolise the last 20 posts ...

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Sabine Baring-Gould - Glamr: An eleventh century Icelandic saga retold. Thorhall the farmer can find nobody to shepherd the haunted moor until the mysterious Glamr accepts the duty. Fanged, cantankerous and tall as a troll, Glamr frightens everyone but he's good at his work. Comes the Christmas Day when he ignores all warning, sets out in a blizzard and dies. His ghost returns to plague the district

Learning of Thorhall's troubles, Grettir, "the famous hero," makes it his business to rid the district of it's resident vampire/ animated rotting corpse. Whichever party ultimately triumphs, their victory will come at a price.