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Challenging question for you all.


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Hello everyone!

 

Please assist me in finding this book. I've read it as a child, but have not seen it since, and cannot even remember the name of it. I remember that it was a hardcover book, maybe written in the late 80's, early 90's, perhaps? It was a very adult book, not 'explicit' but the ghost stories therein were not really meant for someone my age, at the time I was 11, quite a tender age.

 

The cover of the book was black, the side of the book had a ghostly woman at the bottom of it. There were quite a few excellent stories within this book, but only two come readily to my mind. One was Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Camilla' and another was 'Death In a School-Room (A Fact)', by Walt Whitman. If I remember correctly, beneath the paper sheath that contains the book, the book is blue. Relatively thick, about 500-700 pages, perhaps? And I'm afraid that this is all I know, since I've not seen the book since I was 12, about 14 years ago.

 

Those who might be able to assist will have my most extreme gratitude.

 

Thanks in advanced!

Edited by Chrissy
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The book might have been Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural. It has the two stories you mentioned in it - though it's possible they are also in other anthologies of course.

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With a bit of Googling, I found on another forum the list of contents of the book mentioned by BelleS above - seeing some of the other stories contained within may confirm it.

 

Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural ed. Marvin Kaye (SFBC #5144, May ’85 [Apr ’85], $6.98, 623pp, hc); Anthology of 53 stories and poems by writers ranging from Bram Stoker and Poe to Walt Whitman and Tennessee Williams, with more recent authors represented as well.

 

xiii · Introduction: In Search of Masterpieces · Marvin Kaye · in

 

3 · Dracula’s Guest [Dracula] · Bram Stoker · ss Dracula’s Guest, London: Routledge, 1914; written in 1897 as part of Dracula, this chapter was omitted from the published book for reasons of length.

14 · The Professor’s Teddy Bear · Theodore Sturgeon · ss Weird Tales Mar ’48

24 · Bubnoff and the Devil · Ivan Turgenev & Marvin Kaye, adapt. · ss Fiends and Creatures, ed. Marvin Kaye, Popular Library, 1975

31 · The Quest for “Blank Claveringi” · Patricia Highsmith · ss The Saturday Evening Post Jun 17 ’67; revised from “The Snails”.

44 · The Erl-King · Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe · pm *; English adaption by Marvin Kaye

46 · The Bottle Imp · Robert Louis Stevenson · nv New York Herald Feb 8-Mar 1, 1891

71 · A Malady of Magicks [Ebenezum] · Craig Shaw Gardner · ss Fantastic Oct ’78

86 · Lan Lung [expanded from “Dragon...Ghost”] · M. Lucie Chin · nv Ares #1 ’80; restored version

106 · The Dragon Over Hackensack · Richard L. Wexelblat · pm *

107 · The Transformation · Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley · ss The Keepsake, 1831, 1830

122 · The Faceless Thing · Edward D. Hoch · ss Magazine of Horror Nov ’63

129 · The Anchor · Jack Snow · ss Dark Music and Other Spectral Tales, Herald, 1947

134 · When the Clock Strikes · Tanith Lee · ss Weird Tales #1, ed. Lin Carter, DAW, 1981

149 · Oshidori · Lafcadio Hearn · vi Kwaidan, Houghton Mifflin, 1904

151 · Carmilla [Martin Hesselius] · Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu · na The Dark Blue Dec, 1871 (+3)

214 · Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory · Orson Scott Card · nv Chrysalis 4, ed. Roy Torgeson, Zebra, 1979

229 · Lenore · Gottfried August Bürger · pm, 1773; English adaption by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

237 · The Black Wedding · Isaac Bashevis Singer; trans. by Martha Glicklich · ss The Spinoza of Market Street, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1958

245 · Hop-Frog · Edgar Allan Poe · ss The Flag of Our Union Mar 17, 1849

254 · Sardonicus · Ray Russell · nv Playboy Jan ’61

286 · Graveyard Shift [“The Faces”] · Richard Matheson · ss Ed McBain’s Mystery Book #1 ’60

291 · Wake Not the Dead · Johann Ludwig Tieck · nv Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations, Vol. 1, ed. Anon., London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1823

314 · Night and Silence · Maurice Level · ss Pan Jan ’22; Weird Tales Feb ’32

321 · Flies · Isaac Asimov · ss F&SF Jun ’53

328 · The Night Wire · H. F. Arnold · ss Weird Tales Sep ’26

335 · Last Respects · Dick Baldwin · ss Brother Theodore’s Chamber of Horrors, ed. Marvin Kaye, Pinnacle, 1975

340 · The Pool of the Stone God [as by W. Fenimore] · A. Merritt · ss The American Weekly Sep 23 ’23

344 · A Tale of the Thirteenth Floor · Ogden Nash · pm F&SF Jul ’55

348 · The Tree · Dylan Thomas · ss Adventures in the Skin Trade, New Directions Publishing Corp., 1955

355 · Stroke of Mercy · Parke Godwin · ss Twilight Zone Sep ’81

374 · Lazarus · Leonid Andreyev · ss, 1906; Weird Tales Mar ’27

393 · The Waxwork [as by Ex-Private X] · A. M. Burrage · ss Someone in the Room, Jarrolds, 1931

404 · The Silent Couple · Pierre Courtois; trans. by Faith Lancereau & Marvin Kaye · ss Le Figaro Illustre, 1826

408 · Moon-Face · Jack London · ss The Argonaut Jul 21 ’02

413 · Death in the School-Room (A Fact) · Walt Whitman · ss, 1841

419 · The Upturned Face · Stephen Crane · ss Ainslee’s Mar 5 ’00

423 · One Summer Night · Ambrose Bierce · vi Cosmopolitan Mar ’06

425 · The Easter Egg · H. H. Munro · ss The Complete Short Stories of Saki, Viking Press, 1930

429 · The House in Goblin Wood [as by Carter Dickson; Sir Henry Merrivale] · John Dickson Carr · nv EQMM Nov ’47

448 · The Vengeance of Nitocris [as by Thomas Lanier Williams] · Tennessee Williams · ss Weird Tales Aug ’28

459 · The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew · Damon Runyon · ss Adventure Mar ’11

472 · His Unconquerable Enemy [“The Rajah’s Nemesis”] · W. C. Morrow · ss The Argonaut Mar 11, 1889; Weird Tales Aug ’29

481 · Rizpah · Alfred Tennyson, Lord · pm

486 · The Question [“The Question My Son Asked”] · Stanley Ellin · ss EQMM Nov ’62

497 · The Flayed Hand · Guy de Maupassant · ss, 1875

502 · The Hospice · Robert Aickman · nv Cold Hand in Mine, Scribner’s, 1975

533 · The Christmas Banquet · Nathaniel Hawthorne · ss United States Magazine and Democratic Review Dec, 1843

549 · The Hungry House · Robert Bloch · ss Imagination Apr ’51

566 · The Demon of the Gibbet · Fitz-James O’Brien · pm

568 · The Owl · Anatole Le Braz; trans. by Faith Lancereau · ss

575 · No. 252 rue M. Le Prince · Ralph Adams Cram · ss Black Spirits and White, Stone & Kimball: Chicago, 1895

588 · The Music of Erich Zann · H. P. Lovecraft · ss The National Amateur Mar ’22; Weird Tales May ’25

596 · Riddles in the Dark (Original Version) [Chapter 5 of The Hobbit] · J. R. R. Tolkien · ex London: Allen & Unwin, 1937

609 · Afterword: Is Terror a Dying Art? · Marvin Kaye · aw

615 · Miscellaneous Notes · Marvin Kaye · bi

619 · Selected Bibliography · Marvin Kaye · bi

 

If it is the book there are lots of second-hand copies of it from Amazon.co.uk (or .com if you're in the US). :)

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