My favorite horror story

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is the name of a new book, edited by Mike Baker and Martin H. Greenberg (Daw, $6.99).

Some of today’s top horror writers chose their favorite horror short stories and explained why they were favorites, and the stories are in this book. (This has been done for SF and fantasy too.)

This is a great collection – some of these stories will be familiar to everyone, but most of them haven’t been reprinted much – I’m excited.

Laymon picking Lovecraft is a surprise. You’d think the writers would choose someone that they emulate. Laymon is a very basic, simple, spare writer, and for him to pick someone as wordy and descriptive as HPL is unexpected.

My favorite horror short story is “The Small Assassin” by Ray Bradbury.

What’s yours?

The horror writers’ favorites are:

“Sweets to the Sweet” by Robert Bloch, chosen by Stephen King

“The Father-Thing” by Philip K. Dick, chosen by Ed Gorman

“The Distributor” by Richard Matheson, chosen by F. Paul Wilson

“A Warning to the Curious” by M. R. James, chosen by Ramsey Campbell

“Opening the Door” by Arthur Machen, chosen by Peter Atkins

“The Colour Out of Space” by H. P. Lovecraft, chosen by Richard Laymon

“The Inner Room” by Robert Aickman, chosen by Peter Straub

“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, chosen by Rick Hautala

“The Rats in the Walls” by H. P. Lovecraft, chosen by Michael Slade (wonder who Michael Slade is these days?)

“The Dog Park” by Dennis Etchison, chosen by Richard Christian Matheson

“The Animal Fair” by Robert Bloch, chosen by My Main Man Joe Lansdale

“The Pattern” by Ramsey Campbell, chosen by Poppy Z. Brite

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Poe, chosen by Joyce Carol Oates

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, chosen by Dennis Etchison

“The Human Chair” by Edogawa Rampo, chosen by Harlan Ellison

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Sounds like a good anthology…there are several in there I don’t know (although I better check my Etchison and Bloch collections before I run out and buy it).

Gotta post before the Stephen King fans get here and ruin the thread…shit, what to choose, what to choose…got to do five.

“A Visitor from Down Under” by L.P. Hartley (and his “The Travelling Grave” is another favorite)

“It” by Theodore Sturgeon

(The above two have two of the creepiest closing lines in weird fiction)

“The Dead Wife” by David M. Keller

“The Cicerones” by Robert Aickman

(What Ramsey Campbell was TRYING to do in “The Hands,” Aickman pulled off brilliantly in that one)

“Count Magnus” by M.R. James

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Depends on the definition of “horror” but a story that scared and depressed me was “Absalom” by Henry Kuttner.

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SK fans will NOT ruin this thread. Besides, I really prefer his longer works. :slight_smile:

Robert Bloch is a great horror writer but I can’t think of anything he’s written at the moment.

I like Roald Dahl-
“The Landlady”
“Parson’s Pleasure”
“Royal Jelly”
Many others.

And The Lottery- very good one.

5

LOL at Ike – I would have said the same thing about the HPL fans, but I’m actually afraid to.

::frustrated sigh in Ike’s direction:: I finally managed to score a copy of a Campbell collection with “The Hands”, and now you tell me Aickman did it better. (And you mention four stories I’ve never heard of.)

Baker - where could we find “Absalom”? Is Kuttner one of those Cthulhu mythos guys?

Zoggie – did you get “Stinger” yet? I’m waiting for your book report. :slight_smile:

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Auntie Pam, my copy of Absaom comes from “The Best of Henry Kuttner”, published by Ballantine Books, New York, 1975. Ray Bradbury wrote an introduction to this collection of short stories, which range widely in tone, from humorous to the eerie tenor of Absalom itself. For humor my favorit in the book is"The Proud Robot". Maybe it can be found on one of the out-of-print book sites.

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Oops, made a spelling error there. But I DID check, and The Best of Henry Kuttner can be found at http://www.abebooks.com

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Thanks, Baker. I’m starting a list, and when this thread dies, I’m going shopping. :slight_smile:

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::scream:: That was a bit scary. I felt stalked for a moment. :slight_smile: Muhahahaha…

But yes, I’m reading it and am up to the part where they are hunting down Daufin. Jessie doesn’t want them to because she feels if they do, they’re losing Stevie, but most everyone (i.e., Vance) are most assuredly willing to sacrifice Daufin/Stevie to Stinger, mainly due to extreme terror…When I finish, I’ll type up that book report, ma’am.

Oh, thought of another good horror story writer…

Daphne Du Maurier has a lot, these are some of her stories, though obviously she is known for her longer works-
The Birds; No Motive; Kiss me Again, Stranger- and many others…

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I used to have an anthology of Gothic tales with a wonderful story about Elizabeth Bathory – I think it was called “Blood Countess.” The author was, IIRC, a South American woman who died young; I haven’t been able to track down any of her other works, in Spanish or in English, and now that I’ve lost the book I can’t remember her name either. Pity.

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Henry Kuttner is GOD! Completely forgotten now, but GOD nonetheless!

Okay…calm down…
Pam, darlin’, you GOT to get yourself some Kuttner! The collection Baker mentioned is worth any price. “Mimsey Were the Borogroves”…JESUS, what a magnificent SF/Fantasy tale!

Fascinating fact: Kuttner was the husband of C.L. Moore, author of the classic “Shambleau”…also “The Refugee,” my personal favorite werewolf story EVER. (She wrote that one under the pseudonym “Jane Rice.”)

BTW, which were the four you didn’t know?

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Neil Gaiman’s horror work can be quite chilling. “Baby Cakes” is enough to give you nightmares if you hear him reading it.

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The Sturgeon was the only story I’ve read, Ike.

I have a bunch of Weird Tales laying around – bet there’s some Kuttner in there somewhere.

Now you’ve gone and added two more to my list, the Moore stories. And I didn’t know C.L. Moore was a woman. I know very little about the writers I like – I know who’s dead and who’s not, that’s about it.

My list is going to a really nice woman who buys and sells on-line, through abe and alibris, etc. – she searches for me if she doesn’t have what I’m looking for. She found all the Lieber Gray Mouser stories, and the Campbell collection with “The Hands”, and Nicholas Seare’s “1339 or So”. Is that great or what!?

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We don’t have a Shamless Coworker-Promotion area do we? :slight_smile:

My coworker just had his first novel published. I unfortunately haven’t seen it yet, but it’s horror, and has so far gotten one excellent review on Amazon. So next time you’re at the bookshop, look for The Hunting Sorrow by Chris Treagus.

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Neil Gaiman’s Murder Mysteries totally engrossed me, though it didn’t creep me out until the end.

Steven R. Boyett melds horror with fantasy with science fiction, the end result being superb stories which are both at once enchanting and gritty. Pity I can’t remember the titles of anything he’s written.

I THINK that Bradbury is responsible for one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. Again, the name escapes me, but it involves two young brothers who practice medicine on a third child…the younger brother is rather confused about the word bacteria. I don’t want to give much of the plot away, but if anyone knows the name of it, I’d appreciate the info.

-David

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Ike, I’m glad to hear someone else besides myself remembers Kuttner. “Mimsy” was a great story wasn’t it? But I LOVED “The Proud Robot” and why he was created. Makes you wonder about scientists.

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Kyla - I’m a sucker for first novels. Interesting premise on this one too. Earthquake in Egypt resurrects mummy who’s going to raise the dead. Does your friend have a home page, maybe with a sample of his writing?

Fretful - Amazon lists “Blood Countess” by Andrei Codrescu. Surprising that more books haven’t been written about this nasty broad. (That’s the only one listed on a Bathory website.)

SoulFrost - I just recently re-read Boyett’s “Emerald City Blues” and liked it very much. My son has most of my Bradbury stuff – I’ll check with him and see if he can come up with the name of that story.

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Ah yes…from Midnight Graffiti magazine, IIRC. Man, I miss that rag.

Thanks!
David

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Yeah, MG was great. There was a lot of good magazine style stuff published in the 80’s. Twilight Zone, Whispers, The Horror Show.

Cemetery Dance is picking up some of the slack, but I miss the irreverent wit of MG. Do you have the issue with the Mad Libs version of a horror story? I think Dean Koontz saw that and didn’t realize it was satire.

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Just in case there are some neophytes reading this, Kuttner wrote several very good works under the pseudonym Lewis Padgett (including the aforementioned “Proud Robot” and several others stories that appear to be more lighthearted than Horror). Kuttner also wrote “The Graveyard Rats” which I emphatically place on this list.

Read Kuttner/Padgett. You will not be disappointed.

Hmmmm. I’ve read several mentioned and concur with “The Rats in the Walls” and “The Father-Thing,” especially. Two stories that left me with great unease because of the implications are “Adam and No Eve” and “Quietus.”

I bet Ike and Pam have already guessed what my favorite anthology is, based on this post. Interesting that some of the best “horror” is found in the Sci-fi genre.

I’ll be back with more additions!

(And, Hey, I like King! Especially the older stuff.)