{"product_id":"the-big-book-of-ghost-stories-isbn-9780307474490","title":"The Big Book of Ghost Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eOver a thousand pages of haunted—and haunting—ghost tales: t\u003c\/b\u003ehe most complete collection of uncanny, spooky, creepy tales ever published! Edited and with an introduction by Otto Penzler. Including stories by Joyce Carol Oates, Rudyanrd Kipling, Isaac Asimov, James MacCreigh, and many more! Featuring eerie vintage ghost illustrations. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe ghost story is perhaps the oldest of all the supernatural literary genres and has captured the imagination of almost every writer to put pen to the page. Here, Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler has followed his keen sense of the supernatural to collect the most chilling and uncanny tales in the canon. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese spectral stories span more than a hundred years, from modern-day horrors by Joyce Carol Oates, Chet Williamson and Andrew Klavan, to pulp yarns from August Derleth, Greye La Spina, and M. L. Humphreys, to the atmospheric Victorian tales of Rudyard Kipling, Edith Wharton, and H. P. Lovecraft, not to mention modern works by the likes of Donald E. Westlake and Isaac Asimov that are already classics. Some of these stories have haunted the canon for a century, while others are making their first ghoulish appearance  in book form.  Whether you prefer possessive poltergeists, awful apparitions, or friendly phantoms, these stories are guaranteed to thrill you, tingle the spine, or tickle the funny bone, and keep you turning the pages with fearful delight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncluding such classics as “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Open Window” and eerie vintage illustrations, and also featuring haunted mansions, midnight frights, lovers from beyond the grave, rapping, tapping, wailing shades, and ghosts, ghouls, and specters galore! AlsoFeaturing haunted mansions, midnight frights, lovers from beyond the grave, rapping, tapping, wailing shades, and ghosts, ghouls, and specters galore!BUT I’M NOT DEAD YET\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eConrad Aiken: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMr. Arcularis \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilliam Fryer Harvey: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eAugust Heat \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI’LL LOVE YOU—FOREVER (OR MAYBE NOT)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEllen Glasgow: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Shadowy Third \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEllen Glasgow: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Past \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Morrell: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBut At My Back I Always Hear\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eO. Henry: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Furnished Room \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul Ernst: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eDeath’s Warm Fireside \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAndrew Klavan: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Advent Reunion \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eR. Murray Gilchrist: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Return \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRudyard Kipling: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Phantom Rickshaw \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmbrose Bierce: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Moonlit Road \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLafcadio Hearn: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Story of Ming-Y \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLafcadio Hearn: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eYuki-Onna \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTHIS OLD HOUSE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmyas Northcote: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrickett Bottom \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eE. F. Benson: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow Fear Departed from the Long Gallery \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eG. G. Pendarves: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThing of Darkness \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEdward Lucas White: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe House of the Nightmare \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHector Bolitho: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe House on Half Moon Street \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDick Donovan: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Night of Horror \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVincent O’sullivan: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Burned House \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eKIDS WILL BE KIDS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRosemary Timperley: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eHarry \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Reaves: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMake-Believe \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA. M. Burrage: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlaymates \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRamsey Campbell: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eJust Behind You \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA. E. Coppard: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eAdam And Eve and Pinch Me \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteve Friedman: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lost Boy of the Ozarks \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTHERE’S SOMETHING FUNNY AROUND HERE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMark Twain: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Ghost’s Story \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDonald E. Westlake: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eIn At The Death \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNathaniel Hawthorne: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Ghost of Dr. Harris \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Ingulphus”: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Everlasting Club \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIsaac Asimov and James Maccreigh: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLegal Rites \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlbert E. Cowdrey: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eDeath Must Die \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrank Stockton: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Transferred Ghost \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOscar Wilde: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Canterville Ghost \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA NEGATIVE TRAIN OF THOUGHT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAugust Derleth: \u003c\/b\u003ePacific 421 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobert Weinberg: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Midnight El \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSTOP—YOU’RE SCARING ME\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrederick Cowles: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003ePunch and Judy \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHenry S. Whitehead: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Fireplace \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eH. F. Arnold: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Night Wire 400\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFritz Leiber: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSmoke Ghost 406\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWyatt Blassingame: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSong of the Dead \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI MUST BE DREAMING\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilkie Collins: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Dream Woman 437\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWashington Irving: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Adventure of the German Student \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA SÉANCE, YOU SAY?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoseph Shearing: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThey Found My Grave \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEdgar Jepson: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMrs. Morrel’s Last Séance \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoyce Carol Oates: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNight-Side \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCLASSICS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eM. R. James: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad” \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eW. W. Jacobs: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Monkey’s Paw \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eW. W. Jacobs: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Toll-House \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEdith Wharton: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eAfterward \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilla Cather: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eConsequences \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCynthia Asquith: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Follower \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCynthia Asquith: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Corner Shop \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eH. P. Lovecraft: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Terrible Old Man \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eErckmann-Chatrian: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Murderer’s Violin \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSaki: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Open Window \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSaki: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLaura \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFitz-James O’Brien: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat Was It? \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlexander Woollcott: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eFull Fathom Five \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eH. R. Wakefield: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eHe Cometh and He Passeth By \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePerceval Landon: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThurnley Abbey \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTHE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlgernon Blackwood: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Woman’s Ghost Story \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVictor Rousseau: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Angel of the Marne \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOlivia Howard Dunbar: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Shell of Sense \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarjorie Bowen: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Avenging of Ann Leete \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBEATEN TO A PULP\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGreye La Spina: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Dead-Wagon \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eUrann Thayer: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Soul with Two Bodies \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eArthur J. Burks: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThorp Mcclusky: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Considerate Hosts \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCyril Mand: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Fifth Candle \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAugust Derleth and Mark Schorer: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Return of Andrew Bentley \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eM. L. Humphreys: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Floor Above \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eManly Wade Wellman: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSchool for the Unspeakable \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA. V. Milyer: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMordecai’s Pipe \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJulius Long: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eHe Walked by Day \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDale Clark: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBehind the Screen \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMODERN MASTERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eM. Rickert: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eJourney into the Kingdom \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eH. R. F. Keating: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMr. Saul \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChet Williamson: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eCoventry Carol \u003c\/i\u003e\"Volumes of frightfulness. . . . No one should go through life (let alone death) without experiencing W.W. Jacobs’s 'The Monkey’s Paw,' Perceval Landon’s 'Thurnley Abbey,' Ambrose Bierce’s 'The Moonlit Road' and M.R. James’s 'Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad.' But Penzler also includes many stories that should be equally well known. This year, for instance, I read for the first time Ellen Glasgow’s 'The Shadowy Third'.\"\u003cbr\u003e    —\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If you enjoy, as I have since childhood, a great ghost story well told, this book is required reading.\"\u003cbr\u003e    —\u003ci\u003ePaste Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Wonderful. . . . A list on your computer is one thing. A big, fat, juicy, paperback anthology like this is something else altogether.\"\u003cbr\u003e    —\u003ci\u003eThe Buffalo News\u003c\/i\u003e (editor's choice)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jam packed with enough classic horror and otherworldly stories to keep you having nightmares through the month of October. . . . This collection of short stories coupled with eerie vintage illustrations is a must-have for the nightstand. The only thing that can make it better is a flashlight under the covers.\"\u003cbr\u003e    —\u003ci\u003eThe Long Island Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"This mountain-sized omnibus contains every wrinkle of the form you could ever want. . . . There’s enough in this volume to please both dilettantes and devotees among ghost story readers.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e  —Publishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Penzler has done an excellent job of collecting interesting, unnerving, and fascinating stories as well as providing nifty tidbits in the introductions. Reading most of these stories just before trying to sleep, though, is not recommended.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e   —Booklist\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eOTTO PENZLER is the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City. He was publisher of \u003ci\u003eThe Armchair Detective\u003c\/i\u003e, the founder of the Mysterious Press and the Armchair Detective Library, and created the publishing firm Otto Penzler Books. He has twice received the Edgar Award, for \u003ci\u003eThe Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives,\u003c\/i\u003e as well as the Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his many contributions to the field. He is the editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps\u003c\/i\u003e, which was a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller, and several more Vintage Crime\/Black Lizard anthologies, including \u003ci\u003eThe Big Book of Black Mask Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries, The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Big Book of Jack the Ripper. \u003c\/i\u003eHe is also the series editor of\u003ci\u003e The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year\u003c\/i\u003e. His other anthologies include \u003ci\u003eMurder for Love\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMurder for Revenge\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMurder and Obsession\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Mystery Stories of the Century.\u003c\/i\u003e He wrote \u003ci\u003e101 Greatest Movies of Mystery \u0026amp; Suspense\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in New York City.\u003ci\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e By Otto Penzler\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Tales of the supernatural have been a fixture of the storytelling tradition since preliterate times, and the most popular form they have taken is the ghost story. This should not be at all surprising, as the fear of death and its aftermath has abided in the breasts of humans ever since they became cognizant of what it meant to no longer be alive in the manner in which it is traditionally understood. Animals, down to the most primitive invertebrates, share this fear without precisely being aware of what it means in a conscious sense, but they nonetheless do all they can to stay alive. The question of what follows the extinguishing of life probably does not keep mosquitoes or squirrels awake at night, but more than a few \u003ci\u003ehomo sapiens\u003c\/i\u003e have pondered their uncertain futures with trepidation in the dark of night.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e All cultures on the planet have superstitions about the dead returning as spirits or -phantoms—-belief systems memorialized in drawings and writings from the very beginnings of civilization. In the Egyptian \u003ci\u003eBook of the Dead,\u003c\/i\u003e departed people are shown to return, not merely looking as they did in life, but dressed in similar garments. Therefore, apparently not only do dead people have the ability to materialize, making themselves visible again after they are gone, but so do textiles, leather, and metal.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e In the Bible, the story of King Saul calling on the Witch of Endor to summon the spirit of Samuel has been recorded, as have the questions surrounding whether Jesus after his resurrection was a living being or a ghost. From ancient texts in Greek mythology, various types of ghosts are described in Homer’s \u003ci\u003eIliad \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOdyssey,\u003c\/i\u003e and Romans, notably Plutarch and Pliny the Younger, wrote about haunted houses.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Literature of all eras abounds in ghosts stories. William Shakespeare often used ghosts in his plays, most famously in \u003ci\u003eHamlet \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMacbeth,\u003c\/i\u003e and Charles Dickens wrote the greatest pure ghost story of all time in \u003ci\u003eA Christmas Carol. \u003c\/i\u003eOthers among the world’s greatest authors who have written in the genre include Ben Jonson, Horace Walpole, Jane Austen, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Guy de Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Edward -Bulwer--Lytton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde, Willa Cather, F. Scott -Fitzgerald—-well, -really too many to continue.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e What is the great attraction of supernatural fiction in general, and the ghost story in particular? From the time of childhood, we have a fear of the dark (and rightly so, as we don’t know exactly what is lurking out there, wrapped in the black cloak of invisibility). Although it frightens them, children still love to hear scary stories at bedtime; just consider such fairy tales as Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood. We never outgrow our love of fairy tales, even if in adulthood they take a more complex form as stories about vampires, serial killers, werewolves, or terrorists.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Ghost stories may be told in many different tones and styles, ranging from the excruciatingly horrific to the absurdly humorous. Ghosts, after all, may have widely divergent goals. Some return from the dead to wreak vengeance; others want to help a loved one. Some are the spirits of people who were murdered or committed suicide and so could not rest because their time officially had not yet come and therefore walked the earth instead of stretching out comfortably in their graves. Some were playful, enjoying the tricks and pranks their invisibility allowed them, while others delighted in their own cruelty, committing acts of violence and terror for the sheer inexplicable pleasure of it.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e All these ghosts, and more, appear in this volume. You will meet ghosts who frighten you, who make you laugh, and for whom you will feel sorry. And they are true ghosts. I have tried to remain true to the notion that ghosts are spirits or specters of the dead. Some stories that frequently have appeared in other ghost story anthologies have nothing at all to do with ghosts. They may be trolls, or evil plants, vile fungi, monsters, or other creatures of that ilk. Rightly or not, I have attempted to be a bit of a -narrow--minded purist about it all, not that it created a problem. There have been an astonishing number of outstanding ghost stories written by some of the finest authors who ever dared allow their dark creations to be set down on paper. It has been a confounding challenge to select the stories for this, the biggest collection of ghost stories ever compiled. It was tempting to include all the great classics but that would have filled to overflowing even this gigantic tome. It was equally tempting to stuff the pages with -little--known stories, often every bit the equal of the cornerstone titles, but it is impossible to attempt to produce the definitive collection of ghost stories and omit M. R. James, Algernon Blackwood, H. P. Lovecraft, or Edith Wharton. Although I admire some of the supernatural tales of Henry James, especially “The Turn of the Screw,” he won’t be found here because that novella has been anthologized to death, is easy to find elsewhere, and is so long that a -half--dozen other stories would have had to be sacrificed. Putting together an anthology is not a pure science, so there are contradictions galore. I’ve included “The Monkey’s Paw,” for example, which has also been anthologized to the point of being a cliché. Still, it’s short, -didn’t use up too much space, and it is lively (unlike dear old Henry -James—-no offense). To make up for the very familiar stories, I’ve included some that you’ve never seen before, several of which appear in book form for the very first time. The Golden Age of the ghost story (the late Victorian and Edwardian eras) is fully represented, and so is the Golden Age of the pulp magazines (the 1920s and 1930s), while the contemporary masters have not been ignored.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Whether this collection is best enjoyed next to a summer campfire or a winter fireplace is up to you. On the other hand, it is so enormous that it may endure through several seasons. Whenever you read it, I hope you have a shiveringly good time with it. After all, in the dead of night, who would not believe in ghosts?\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Although I read more than a thousand stories to find and identify those that I hope you will most enjoy, it would not have been possible to compile such a comprehensive and -wide--reaching volume without the invaluable assistance of those who know a great deal more than I do. Sincere, if hopelessly inadequate, thanks are owed to Robert Weinberg, John Pelan, Chris Roden, Gardner Dozois, Joel Frieman, Harlan Ellison, John Knott, and those I’m forgetting who so freely and generously offered their assistance and expertise.","brand":"Vintage Crime\/Black Lizard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302267375845,"sku":"NP9780307474490","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307474490.jpg?v=1767738359","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-big-book-of-ghost-stories-isbn-9780307474490","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}