The Dark Descent [Paperback]

Winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.
A gigantic, superlatively edited historical overview of horror fiction. Chicago Sun-Times

InThe Dark Descent, hailed as one of the most important anthologies ever to examine horror fiction, editor David G. Hartwell traces the complex history of horror in literature back to the earliest short stories.The Dark Descent showcases the finest of these ever written--from the time-honored classics of masters of the form.

David G. Hartwell,called an editor extraordinaire byPublishers Weekly, is one of science fiction's most experienced and influential editors. As an editor with Berkley Books, Pocket Books, William Morrow, and Tor Books, he has worked with many of the field's best authors and edited many award-winning works. He is the author ofAge of Wonders, a nonfiction study of the science fiction field. Among his many anthologies is the bestsellingWorld Treasury of Science Fiction. He is the holder of a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia University, a winner of the Eaton Award, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award twenty-four times.

A gigantic, superlatively edited historical overview of horror fiction. Chicago Sun-Times

For a sample of the current excellence and variety of horror, one could do no better. New York Newsday

An important work which belongs in every library. The West Coast Review of Books

Introduction

PART I: The Color of Evil

The Reach, by Stephen King

Evening Primrose, by John Collier

The Ash-Tree, by M. R. James

The New Mother, by Lucy Clifford

There's a Long, Long Trail a-Winding, by Russell Kirk

The Call of Cthulhu, by H. P. Lovecraft

The Summer People, by Shirley Jackson

The Whimper of Whipped Dogs, by Harlan Ellison

Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorlãx