Horror Anthologies

[Critteranne]

What are your favorite horror fiction anthologies? I've bought a few in trade paperback lately because I couldn't find the ones I wanted for my nook.

I'm most interested in collections with newer stories -- they don't have to all be original to the anthology, but it's nice to find stories that are just a couple of years old. Do you prefer theme anthologies (for example, an all-werewolf anthology or an all-zombie anthology)? Or do you prefer non-themed anthologies?

Also, what single author collections are your favorites? Are there any lesser known ones you'd recommend? Any small press single author collections (particularly along the line of the really really cool Ash-Tree Press and Midnight House collections)?

[BenG]

The Dark Descent edited by David Hartwell. It's huge and was split into 3 books for the mass market paperback. I have the one volume trade paperback. It more or less traces the history of horror.
The old Alfred Hitchcock anthologies are great too.

As far as single author collections I would recommend something by Robert Aickman like Cold Hand in Mine or The Wine Dark Sea.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by BenG

The Dark Descent edited by David Hartwell. It's huge and was split into 3 books for the mass market paperback. I have the one volume trade paperback. It more or less traces the history of horror.
The old Alfred Hitchcock anthologies are great too.

I think I have that one somewhere, but I'm afraid to read it because it's so long. An e-book edition would be great because it's so long.

Originally Posted by BenG

As far as single author collections I would recommend something by Robert Aickman like Cold Hand in Mine or The Wine Dark Sea.

Ooh, Aickman. If you are into mailing lists, you would love All Hallows and Horrabin Hall. I learned about Aickman from the people on those groups. And from posts alt.books.ghost-fiction (eek, usenet ) until that group became cursed and desolate. (Looong story)

[J. Strnad]

I'll be watching this thread myself!

Meanwhile, Critteranne, you can download my Risen Short Stories for free. Follow the link below. Five stories of unholy resurrections. They're light reading, more wry than scary, but they're in the genre.

[HamsterRage]

Not to go too far off on a different direction, but the Podcastle podcast is totally killer horror short fiction. An average episode runs about 20-25 minutes, the readers are usually very good and the story selection is amazing. There's one called "Camp" that I'll never get out of my head. Never.

Obviously, it's an audio podcast, so it fits into a different slot in my life than reading but it's about all I need to get enough horror. It should be easy enough to find with Google.

[WillAdams]

There're anthologies of H.P. Lovecraft here on Mobileread.

[Simon Wood]

David Morrell's BLACK EVENING is a must read.

I'd also recommend some of Comet Press' anthologies such as Sick Things and Death Panel.

[emonti8384]

I just spent 2 hours at the book store trying to come up with something but maybe the fine peeps here can help . Okay seriously, I'm looking for horror anthologies that have like, ghost hauntings and along the lines of,"the thing w/o a face."I don't know how to describe what I'm looking for but I'm not into specific genres (werewolves, vampires, ghosts, hauntings) but I do not do zombies or zombie-ridden towns. Sorry! Anywho, I wish they had like a YA version, the independent reader stuff I found was a little too young and the stories were waaaaayyyyy too short-some were only a page long. I loooove the drawings in the Alvin Schwartz's books, lol.
Don't let me waste my money on ebooks I won't read!
Oh yeah, and I'm not into short stories that are 200 pages long;stuff that's 20-30 pages will do; I'm just starting to re-aquaint myself with this genre and I don't want to over-do it.

[cbarnett]

Clive Barker's Books of Blood are an excellent set of horror anthologies too.

[Sparrow]

I liked the Pan Books of Horror Stories edited by Herbert van Thal.

[BenG]

Another good British anthology series was The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. The first 8 books were edited by Robert Aickman.

[lila55]

How about H.P.Lovecraft? Or Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu with his "Ghostly Tales" (also to be had here on MR).

[rakulos]

Splatterpunks by Paul M Sammon - there's a second anthology that I never bought as the first is a bit ummm excessive for my tastes. It contains some very graphic and disturbing short stories - for me at least.

[emonti8384]

Thank you, I'll def check these out. I downloaded all of the ones in MR's library as well as a couple I've been thinking about

I'll let you know how I get on with them.

What does everyone think of the horror stories edited by Ellen Datlow or anything by Peter Haining?

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by emonti8384

What does everyone think of the horror stories edited by Ellen Datlow or anything by Peter Haining?

I generally enjoy Peter Haining's selections.
I used to collect everything by John Wyndham that I could get my hands on - Haining's anthology "The Unspeakable People" was the only source I found for Wyndham's 1935 horror story "The Cathedral Crypt".