Literature / Masters of Horror and the Supernatural: The Great Tales

First published in 1981 under the title The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural, this Genre Anthology was edited by Bill Pronzini, Martin H. Greenberg, and Barry N Malzberg. It was republished under several different titles, starting with Great Tales of Horror & the Supernatural in 1985, Classic Tales of Horror and the Supernatural and The Giant Book of Horror Stories in 1991, and Masters of Horror & the Supernatural: The Great Tales in 2010.

---

Forty-one works have been reprinted in Masters of Horror and the Supernatural: The Great Tales:

• Introduction by Stephen King

• "Hop-Frog" by Edgar Allan Poe (1849)
• "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1844)
• "Squire Tobys Will" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1868)
• "The Squaw" by Bram Stoker (1893)
• "The Jolly Corner" by Henry James (1908)
• "Man Overboard!" by Winston Churchill (1899) (can be read here)
• "The Hand" by Theodore Dreiser (1919)
• "The Valley Of Spiders" by H. G. Wells (1903)
• "The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot" by Ambrose Bierce (1890)
• "Pickman's Model" by H. P. Lovecraft (1927)
• "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" by Robert Bloch (1943)
• "The Screaming Laugh" by Cornell Wollrich (1938)
• "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner (1930)
• "Bianca's Hands" by Theodore Sturgeon (1947)
• "The Girl With The Hungry Eyes" by Fritz Leiber (1949)
• "Shut A Final Door" by Truman Capote (1947)
• "Come And Go Mad" by Frederic Brown (1949)
• "The Scarlet King" by Evan Hunter (1954)
• "Sticks" by Karl Edward Wagner (1974)
• "Sardonicus" by Ray Russell (1961)
• "A Teacher's Rewards" by Robert Phillips (1970)
• "The Roaches" by Thomas M. Disch (1965)
• "The Jam" by Henry Slesar (1958)
• "Black Wind" by Bill Pronzini (1979)
• "The Road To Mictlantecutli" by Adobe James (1965)
• "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg (1968)
• "The Road To Mictlantecutli" by Adobe James (1965)
• "The Explosives Expert" by John Lutz (1967)
• "Call First" by Ramsey Campbell (1975)
• "The Fly 1952" by Arthur Porges (1952)
• "Namesake" by Elizabeth Morton (1981)
• "Camps" by Jack Dann (1979)
• "You Know Willie" by Theodore R Cogswell (1957)
• "The Mindworm" by Cyril M. Kornbluth (1950)
• "Warm" by Robert Shckley (1953)
• "Transfer" by Barry N Malzberg (1975)
• "The Doll 1980" by Joyce Carol Oates (1980)
• "If Damon Comes" by Charles L Grant (1978)
• "Mass Without Voices" by Arthur L Samuels (1979)
• "The Oblong Room" by Edward S Hoch (1967)
• "The Party" by William F Nolan (1967)
• "The Crate" by Stephen King (1979)

---

Tropes appearing in this anthology:

• Advertising by Association: Stephen King, one of the biggest names in the Horror genre, wrote the introduction, and this gets advertised on every front cover.
• Doorstopper: This Anthology of Horror and Supernatural Fiction has just under 600 pages, collecting between forty-one and thirty-eight short works, mostly of Short Story length.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: The 1991 Classic Tales of Horror and the Supernatural cover has a large eye (including eyelids and eyelashes) set into in the palm of a human hand.
• Genre Anthology: This anthology is focused on Supernatural Fiction.
• Hollywood Drowning: "Man Overboard!", a Short Story by Winston Churchill, the viewpoint character falls off a large ocean liner and is abandoned in the Red Sea. Exhausted and disheartened by trying to swim for hours, he tries to let himself sink to his death, but instinct takes over and forces him back to the surface.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: The original front cover features a deep red background, grey text for The Arbor House Treasury, bright yellow text for of Horror and the Supernatural, and white text when listing the editor names.
• The Namesake: "Man Overboard!", a Short Story by Winston Churchill, follows the story of a man who falls overboard. But nobody calls out the warning because the music and singing on the ship is too loud to notice his cries for help.
• One-Word Title:
  • "Sticks", a Novelette by Karl Edward Wagner.
  • "Sardonicus", a Novelette by Ray Russell.
  • "Passengers", a Short Story by Robert Silverberg.
  • "Namesake", a Short Story by Elizabeth Morton.
  • "Camps", a Novelette by Jack Dann.
  • "Warm", a Short Story by Robert Shckley.
  • "Transfer", a Short Story by Barry N Malzberg.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Magpie Books cover (titled The Giant Book of Horror Stories) has an image of Cerberus from Classical Mythology.
  • "Man Overboard!", a Short Story by Winston Churchill, name-drops and includes a few lines from "The Rowdy Dowdy Boys".
• Threatening Shark: In "Man Overboard!", a Short Story by Winston Churchill, after trying to drown himself, the main character begs for a way to die. The story ends by implying he will be eaten by a shark.
  "Upright in the water, fifty yards away, was a black triangular object. It was a fin. It approached him slowly. His last appeal had been heard."
• Tagline: "41 Tales of Horror by Classic and Contemporary Masters" from the 1991 Classic Tales of Horror and the Supernatural cover.

---