Two pretty cool horror projects kicked off recently that are right up my alley; one by Crystal Lake Publishing called Crystal Classics, and the other by the Horror Writers Association called The Haunted Library of Horror Classics.
From Crystal Lake’s website: ‘We’re re-publishing some of our favorite horror tales from 19th and early 20th century authors, as well inviting authors to write new stories to challenge the classic authors and their stories (by using the same setting or characters). Our current list of classic titles include authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and William Meikle. With artwork by Ben Baldwin and Luke Spooner.’
Crystal Lake produces quality books and I love their novel take on some old classics, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how this series develops (at the moment, they have the 3 books above available).
But adding to this is the HWA’s Haunted Library of Horror Classics. As Sourcebooks says:
‘The Horror Writers Association (HWA) and Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, are pleased to announce the “Haunted Library of Horror Classics,” a new series of reprinted horror classics. Now some of the genre’s seminal titles will be easily available to modern readers. The series editors include acclaimed writer and editor Eric J. Guignard, and multiple-award-winning editor and annotator Leslie S. Klinger.’
The trade paperback series was conceived by former AHWA President Lisa Morton, and each volume will feature an introduction by a horror literature scholar or author (including Ramsey Campbell, Joe Lansdale, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro), and ‘every book will close with a study guide for classroom use. The editions (quality trade paperback) are aimed to be reasonably priced for a mass market.’
The first release, Gaston LeRoux’s Phantom of the Opera, is introduced by New York Times-bestselling author and multiple Bram Stoker Award® winner Nancy Holder, while the second release is The Beetle by Richard Marsh, originally published the same year as Stoker’s Dracula.
‘The other initial titles selected are: Vathek by William Beckford; House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson; The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror by Arthur Conan Doyle; and The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers.’
The titles are available from The Haunted Library of Horror Classics.
I have a bookcase at home filled with horror and sci-fi classics containing some of my all time favourite stories, but clearly I’m going to have to make some more room there…
Fancy more of my mad ramblings?
Enter your email address below to subscribe to this wonky blog and receive notifications of my new posts by email. There won’t be more than two posts a month.