Karl Edward Wagner’s Favorite Horror Novels

 

As I was looking through some of my old issues of THE TWILIGHT ZONE Magazines I came across a brief article that listed the great author, poet, editor and publisher Karl Edward Wagner’s favorite horror novels in the June/July 1983 issue.  I found the list to be both interesting and comprehensive. I know that after reading the list I’ve added several titles to my “must read” book stack and I think you will too. For example, R.R. Ryan is listed in every category and is obviously an author whose work I need to be more familiar with, and Frederic Brown is listed twice in the Non-Supernatural category. Even more surprising is that Manly Wade Wellman wasn’t found in the list and I know that Wagner was a big fan of his work publishing him twice under his outstanding Carcosa imprint

Wagner divided his choices for favorite horror novels into three categories. Supernatural Horror, Science Fiction Horror and Non-Supernatural Horror.  I hope you find the list below and interesting and informative as I did.

 

I. The Thirteen Best Supernatural Horror Novels:

1.            Hell! Said the Duchess by Michael Arlen

2.            The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr

3.            Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers

4.            Dark Sanctuary by H.B. Gregory

5.            Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg

6.            Maker of Shadows by Jack Mann

7.            The Yellow Mistletoe by Walter S. Masterman

8.            Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin

9.            Burn Witch Burn by A. Merritt

10.            Fingers of Fear by J.U. Nicolson

11.            Doctors Wear Scarlet by Simon Raven

12.            Echo of a Curse by R.R. Ryan

13.            Medusa by E.H. Visiak

 

II. The Thirteen Best Science Fiction Horror Novels:

1.            The Death Guard by Philip George Chadwick

2.            Final Blackout by L. Ron Hubbard

3.            Vampires Overhead by Alan Hyder

4.            The Quatermass Experiment by Nigel Kneale

5.            Quatermass and the Pit by Nigel Kneale

6.            The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck by Alexander Laing

7.            The Flying Beast by Walter S. Masterman

8.            The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock

9.            Land Under England by Joseph O’Neill

10.            The Cross of Carl by Walter Owen

11.            Freak Museum by R.R. Ryan

12.            Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

13.            The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

 

III. The Thirteen Best Non-Supernatural Horror Novels:

1.            The Deadly Percheron by John Franklin Bardin

2.            Psycho by Robert Bloch

3.            Here Comes a Candle by Fredric Brown

4.            The Screaming Mimi br Fredric Brown

5.            The Fire-Spirits by Paul Busson

6.            The Crooked Hinge by John Dickson Carr

7.            The Sorceror’s Apprentice by Hanns Heinz Ewers

8.            Vampire by Hanns Heinz Ewers

9.            Fully Dressed and in His Right Mind by Michael Fessier

10.            The Shadow on the House by Mark Hansom

11.            Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau

12.            The Master of the Day of Judgement by Leo Perutz

13.            The Subjugated Beast by R.R. Ryan

 

Two New Karl Edward Wagner Titles Announced!

Two new titles in the Karl Edward Wagner series has been announced by Centipede Press.

For more information and to reserve your copy click on any of the cover art below.

 

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE by Karl Edward Wagner (Limited Hardcover Edition)

This standard hardcover edition of the stories of Karl Edward Wagner, the first of two volumes, collects the following stories: “The Last Wolf,” “Into Whose Hands,” “More Sinned Against,” “Shrapnel,” “Silted In,” “Lost Exits,” “Endless Night,” “An Awareness of Angels,” “But You’ll Never Follow Me,” “Cedar Lane,” “The Kind Men Like,” “The Slug,” “Did They Get You to Trade?,” “Little Lessons in Gardening,” “A Walk on the Wild Side,” “Passages,” “In the Middle of a Snow Dream,” “Gremlin,” “Prince of the Punks,” “The Picture of Jonathan Collins,” “Locked Away,” “I’ve Come to Talk with You Again,” “Final Cut,” “Brushed Away,” “Old Loves,” and “Lacunae.” The book features illustrations by J.K. Potter printed in black and white. The introduction has photographs of Karl Edward Wagner as well.

WHERE THE SUMMER ENDS by Karl Edward Wagner (Limited Edition Hardcover)

This standard hardcover edition of the stories of Karl Edward Wagner, the first of two volumes, collects the following stories: “In the Pines,” “Sticks,” “The Fourth Seal,” “Where the Summer Ends,” “.220 Swift,” “The River of Night’s Dreaming,” “Beyond Any Measure,” “Neither Brute Nor Human,” and “Blue Lady, Come Back.” It also features a fine afterword by Laird Barron. The book features illustrations by J.K. Potter printed in black and white. The introduction has photographs of Karl Edward Wagner as well.

Book is one of only 500 signed and numbered hardcover copies

A Blast from the Past (Charles Grant)

Do you remember when… ? Unless you are over 40, probably not. There once was a publisher abbreviated by the initials, DAW. This was named after veteran publisher Donald A. Wolheim (1914-1990). Within that publishing empire was another man with a long name that belied his warmth and humanity: Karl Edward Wagner (1945-1994). DAW tapped KEW to do a series of horror anthologies singling out the best dozen or so stories of the previous year. We single out Series Ten, (1982) and Wagner’s choice of Charles L. Grant (1942-2006).

Karl says of Grant, “… born in New Jersey in 1942 … his first story published in 1968, while he was working as a high school teacher. He turned to writing full time in 1975 … Grant draws on the familiar setting of northeastern suburban society … quiet horror.”

The stand out short story was named Every Time I Say I Love You, and had prose you rarely see today. “The sunset bled from shades of blood to shades of dying. … Just before midnight a hand feathered to his shoulder. … Grief had been immersion in freezing clear water. … the grey, the red, the black-an-yellow, the scarlet, the purple … the mass of sludge on the floor rippled …”.

This was the kind of thoughtful, reflective, hard work that Grant put into a short story. Part poetic, part prose, and utilizing language to immerse the reader into all five – and sometimes six senses, it was the type of story kids wanted to read in the late 1970′s and into the 1980′s.

DAW was primarily a vehicle to promote science fiction, a passion for Donald Wandrei from his earliest teenaged years, but he also had a passion for horror. In those early days of the 1930′s, fans fought to keep babes, ray-guns, and bug-eyed monsters out of the stories, and have real characters and real emotion in their fantastic fiction. Science Fiction was all about the future and despite the terror of atomic warfare starting in the 1940′s, there was an air of optimism that we would triumph over our baser nature and survive and triumph to better humanity. However, for the darker pleasures, horror moved further away from gothic and Poe and even Lovecraft and closer to Robert Bloch and Shirley Jackson’s decision to portray horror not from the Id or from the other, but from right next door or in one’s own family.

Grant went on to edit his own award-winning Shadows anthology, running eleven volumes from 1978-1991, as well as being involved in the political life of fantasy with stints in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and as president of the Horror Writers Association.
_____

From this blogger's collection, original cover with Michael Whelan art

‘Through the Walls’ – Ramsey Campbell
‘Touring’ – Gardner Dozois, Jack Dann & Michael Swanwick
‘Every Time I Say I Love You’ – Charles L. Grant
‘Wyntours’ – David G. Rowlands
‘The Dark Country’ – Dennis Etchison
‘Homecoming’ – Howard Goldsmith
‘Old Hobby Horse’ – A.F. Kidd
‘Firstborn’ – David Campton
‘Luna’ – G.W. Perriwills
‘Mind’ – Les Freeman
‘Competition’ – David Clayton Carrad
‘Engaro’ – M. John Harrison
‘On 202’ – Jeff Hecht
‘The Trick’ – Ramsey Campbell
‘Broken Glass’ – Harlan Ellison

For a list of all the in stock Charles L. Grant titles we have in stock click the link below:

Charles L. Grant titles in stock at Miskatonic Books

The World of Gor

No not “gore” although critics may disagree.  After Robert E. Howard single-handedly created the “sword and sorcery” genre (with due apologies to John Carter of Mars and Tarzan) it vanished for a while upon his sad and untimely death.   A few picked up on the theme, and they did so-so, until L Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter had a brainstorm.  Why not bring it back with a vengeance and reinvigorate the fantasy genre.  It was temporarily, though grudgingly, adopted into the then popular science-fiction umbrella.  It was ‘savagely’ popular with eventually Lin Carter, de Camp, John Jakes (later North and South), Bjorn Nynorg, Karl Edward Wagner, and others jumping in to lesser or greater success.

However, in 1966, a literary curiosity appeared.  Totally smashing the popular and growing women’s liberation movement, John Norman created an alternate world story wherein even James Bond might have blushed at the male chauvinist hedonism.  Combining fantasy, science-fiction, magic, myth, and male-hormone-pumping eroticism no one had seen anything this soft-porn and yet well-written.  Tarnsman of Gor transmitted an ordinary person to another world and in that world the man had to fight like Conan, experience alienness like John Carter of Mars, and romanced better than the best Sean-Connery-James-Bond.  Oh, and did we mention the constant belittlement of women who when not parading about harem-naked, quickly submitted to any and all male whims while only lightly protesting.

Such a horrible story line could never be popular.

Could it?

Writers, never give up!

Twenty-nine installments have ensued with multi-million dollar paperback sales.  It was later revealed that this was the creation of a Princeton philosophy professor, John Lange (b. 1931) who pulled together every ancient lore and myth to create a panoply of flora, fauna, beasty –  and hot babe – one could imagine.

Three Awesome New Titles Just Announced

Remember that all preorders from Miskatonic Bookstore do not require prepayment. You can always choose “Bill Me” at checkout for “preorders only”. Also with every purchase you will receive points that can be used towards future purchases.  For more information on our points system and methods of payment please see our FAQ section.

MASTERS OF THE WEIRD TALE: Karl Edward Wagner  (Signed Limited Edition)

With over 700 pages, including all of Karl Edward Wagner’s horror fiction, this is one of the best, most impeccably proofed and designed in our Masters of the Weird Tale series. This collection includes “Sticks,” “Where the Summer Ends,” “In the Pines”; in sum, all of the horror fiction. Feel free to email us for a list of the stories as a PDF file, or click here to download it yourself.
This collection has a color cover by J.K. Potter and over ten full-page, full-color interior illustrations by Potter as well. The book is edited and introduced by Stephen Jones, has an additional introduction by Peter Straub, a remembrance by David Drake, and a new afterword by Laird Barron. The introductions are profusely illustrated with pictures of Karl in both black & white and color.
The edition is limited to 200 copies for sale. Each numbered copy is signed by Stephen Jones, J.K. Potter, Peter Straub, Laird Barron, and David Drake.
Each book is fully bound in cloth and comes in a handsome two-tone slipcase to match your other volumes in the Masters of the Weird Tale series.

• Limited to 200 copies.
• Introductions by Stephen Jones and Peter Straub.
• New color illustrations by J.K. Potter.
• Signed by J.K. Potter, Stephen Jones, Peter Straub, Laird Barron and David Drake.
• Slipcase, ribbon marker, head and tail bands, three-piece cloth construction.

THE AGONIZING RESURRECTION OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN by Thomas Ligotti (Signed Limited Edition)

This new edition of Thomas Ligotti’s brilliant vignettes is a cause for celebration. Not only has the text been substantially revised by Thomas Ligotti, but artist Harry O. Morris has created eleven new artworks for the book. The text is gorgeously set and designed. Each copy is signed by Thomas Ligotti and Harry O. Morris.
The book also has a new introduction by Ligotti. It comes bound in printed cloth with a back panel velvet cloth, two ribbon markers, and is housed in a handsome slipcase.
The edition is limited to 500 copies for sale.

• Limited to 500 copies, each signed by Thomas Ligotti and Harry O. Morris.
• New introduction by Thomas Ligotti.
• Substantially revised texts.
• New artwork, all printed in full color.
• Ribbon marker, head and tail bands, three-piece cloth construction.
• Two-color cloth slipcase.

THE GOLEM by Gustav Meyrink (Signed Limited Edition)

In the 1970s, the German psychedelic artist Helmut Wenske completed a cycle of twelve paintings based on Gustav Meyrink’s mystical classic, The Golem. For the first time these paintings are being published with the novel that served as their inspiration. Critic John Clute has written an introduction to the book, which uses Madge Pemberton’s hallucinogenic translation. Includes a photograph of Meyrink and other extras, including a bonus story.
In an oversize 8 × 12 format with printed silk panels on both the front and rear boards, head and tail bands, ribbon marker, and a two-color cloth slipcase. Each book is signed by John Clute and Helmut Wenske. Limited to 200 copies

•     Limited to 200 copies, each signed by John Clute and Helmut Wenske.
•     Introduction by John Clute.
•     Full color artwork.
•     Film stills and movie poster artwork.
•     Two bonus short stories.
•     Ribbon marker, head and tail bands, three-piece cloth construction.

Miskatonic Books Update!

SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT by W. H. Pugmire (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)  is now SOLD OUT. If you would like to get on the wait list for this title click the cover art below.

A few more items of note that just arrived in the store:

IN A LONELY PLACE by Karl Edward Wagner (1st edition inscribed)!

This is the first hardcover collection of the horror stories of Karl Edward Wagner to be published. This 250 page collection of eight of Wagner’s very best stories:

• In the Pines
• Where the Summer Ends
• Sticks
• The Fourth Seal
• More Sinned Against
• .220 Swift
• The River of Night’s Dreaming
• Beyond Any Measure

Book is a first edition hardcover inscribed by the author as follows. “To John, Ottawa World Fantasy Convention 10/12/84   Best wishes Karl Edward Wagner“
Book is in fine condition with a near fine dust jacket with some light rubbing and two small closed tears at the head of jacket else fine.

DEAD BUT DREAMING 2 edited by Kevin Ross is the latest preorder from the great new MISKATONIC RIVER PRESS…(no relation to Miskatonic Bookstore)

The preorder your copy click the cover image below and remember that you are never required to pay for a preorder until the book is ready to ship. Just choose “Bill Me” at check out.

Nowhere to Hide…

No one is safe. You aren’t safe. Ancient and inimical, the alien influences of the Cthulhu Mythos are all around us. In our cities, our nightclubs, our backyards, and heading for our front porches right now. From the dreaming city of Kingsport, Massachusetts, to the lonely northern woods and the barren western deserts. The urban sprawl and the distant lake. The depths of the Pacific and the freezing ruin of a starless Earth. They are here, destroying us, devouring us, shattering our minds with the one truth we cannot bear to admit: that no matter what we do we cannot escape the fact that, deep down, we are very much like them.

Dead But Dreaming 2 is the second volume of the critically-acclaimed anthology series from Miskatonic River Press. Herein are 22 tales of Lovecraftian horror from the modern masters of Cthulhu Mythos fiction:

• Scott David Aniolowski
• David Annandale
• Donald R. Burleson
• Cody Goodfellow
• John Goodrich
• T.E. Grau
• Rick Hautala
• Walt Jarvis
• Erik T. Johnson
• William Meikle
• Will Murray
• Daniel W. Powell
• Wilum Pugmire
• Joseph S. Pulver Sr
• Pete Rawlik
• Kevin Ross
• Brian Sammons
• Darrell Schweitzer
• Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Michael Tice
• Don Webb.

POST OAKS & SAND ROUGHS by Robert E. Howard (Limited Edition)

Post Oaks & Sand Roughs is a semi-autobiographical adventure novel by Robert E. Howard. It was first published in 1990 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 850 copies. The book contains an introduction and appendix by Glenn Lord where Lord identifies the real people who appear as thinly disguised characters in the novel.

Book is in fine condition in a fine dust jacket.