Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors

By: Dziemianowicz, Stefan R.

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517661233
• ISBN13: 9780517661239
• Release Date: June 1988
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
• Length: 665 Pages
• Weight: 2.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

WEIRD TALES - 32 HORRIFIC STORIES!! WARNING=READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Weird Tales - 32 Unearthed Terrors has a Story from each year the classic horror and fantasy magazine was published; 1923-1954. Introduction by Robert Bloch and Edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz (Try writing that last name on papers your whole life!), Robert Weinberg, and Martin H. Greenberg. The stories can be disturbing as I had a nightmare after day two and halfway through the book. Please be WARNED - READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!! Visit your local mom & pop used book store and you might get lucky like I did and find this book in excellent condition for only $12. If you can find this book anywhere get it! Included is my favorite Robert E. Howard's The Shadow Kingdom 1929. Prior to each story is some interesting information about each author. Example; For sheer storytelling wallop, no one could match Robert E. Howard. His action-packed tales of noble barbarians, savage warriors, and frontier justice propelled him quickly from an inauspicious start in Weird Tales in 1925 to the height of reader popularity. In his time, Howard was the major exponent of the fantasy subgenre now called sword and sorcery. His most famous creation along these lines, Conan the Cimmerian, all but obscures the exploits of his other heroes Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, and Kull, King of Valusia. Kull's first adventure, "The Shadow Kingdom," is a good example of the depth Howard could give a type of story know for its gore. It appeared in 1929, predating Conan by three years. In fact, the first Conan story was a rewrite of a Kull story. The copyright of this book is 1988 and I have to tell you REH's other heroes are making a comeback and people are reading and enjoying them immensely and each and every year there are new fans of REH who is the best of the best in storytelling. Must reads: Rogues in the House, Red Nails, Beyond the Black River, Blood & Thunder, The Life & Art of REH by Mark Finn, The Last of the Trunk and Selected Letters of REH by Paul Herman, The Dark Barbarian by Don Herron, Two-Gun Bob, One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price, Weird Tales & Weird Works of REH, The Beast from the Abyss about Cats (My favorite) and can be found on the internet. Check out the REH Foundation and Forum!

A VERY FINE TRIBUTE TO "THE UNIQUE MAGAZINE"

Though hardly a runaway success in its day, and a publication that faced financial hardships for much of its existence, the pulp magazine known as "Weird Tales" is today revered by fans and collectors alike as one of the most influential and prestigious. Anthologies without number have used stories from its pages, and the roster of authors who got their start therein reads like a "Who's Who" of 20th century horror and fantasy literature. During its 32-year run, from 1923-1954, and in its 279 issues, "Weird Tales" catered to a select readership that could not help but be impressed by early efforts from the likes of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson and dozens of others. "Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors," unlike some of the other books that have cherry picked the best from the magazine's pages, takes a slightly different approach. Its editors have selected one story from each year of the magazine's run; not necessarily the "best" story of that year, but the one that the editors felt has been the most unjustly underappreciated, or too rarely anthologized, or simply most in need of a reappraisal. The result is 655 pages of some of the finest imaginative writing that any reader could ask for. Simply put, this is one helluva collection. Several of the stories here are fairly well known. Lovecraft's complete posthumous novel, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," an offshoot of his "Cthulhu Mythos," has generously been offered as the token tale from 1941. Fredric Brown's "Come and Go Mad," a gripping tale of paranoia; "Dust of Gods," a C.L. Moore story featuring spaceman Northwest Smith; and Robert E. Howard's "The Shadow Kingdom," featuring the first appearance of King Kull, are all here, and are welcome presences, always. But there are also lesser-known works from writers who would one day become quite well known; "Weird Tales" was as much an incubator and proving ground for horror and fantasy writers as "Astounding Science-Fiction" was for the sci-fi author. Thus, we have stories here such as 1946's "Let's Play Poison," an eerie tale of some devilish children, by a bloke named Ray Bradbury. Richard Matheson, in what can almost be seen as a warm-up for his later, terrific novel "Hell House," here gives us "Slaughter House" (one of the scariest stories in the whole collection, I might add). Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl appeared only once in "Weird Tales," in 1950, with their very amusing tale of a ghostly court case, "Legal Rites," and that story is here, too. Other well-known names in this volume include Edmond Hamilton, with a wonderful story of evolution run amok, "Evolution Island"; Jack Williamson, telling the story of a scientist's matter materialization experiments gone horribly wrong, in "The Wand of Doom"; Fritz Leiber, and his very humorous story of a supernatural firearm, "The Automatic Pistol"; and Robert Bloch's hilarious tale of a witch, a mermaid, a werewolf, a tree nymph an

Great Horror

This book has many classics like "The Loved Dead" and "The Parasitic Hand." It has something for every horror fan.

Best werd fantasy anthology ever!

A few years ago a group of my friends and I and discussed what books we would choose to have with us if we were ever marooned on a desert island. This amazing anthology made it to the top of my list. Robert E. Howad, H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Henry S. Witehead, Clark Ashton Smith, and many more. You literally can't open this book to a boring page. An amazing book, edited by Martin Greenberg and Robert Weinberg, the folks that defined the fantasy anthology!

Weird Tales

This book purports to reprint the best story of the year for each year the magazine "Weird Tales" was published, from 1923 through 1954. Not surprisingly, many of these tales range from creepy to truly scary. Two of the stories, C.M. Eddy's "The Loved Dead," and Robert Barbour Johnson's "Far Below," I had actually heard of in urban legends passed around in grade school and middle school myself. The actual stories, dealing with necrophilia and New York's subway system, were much scarier than any rumors. Also included are Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and stories authored by C.L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Henry Kuttner, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov & James MacCreigh, August Derleth, and Richard Matheson, Seabury Quinn, Jack Williamson, H. Warner Munn, Robert E. Howard, and Edmund Hamilton. I first read this book late at night and alone, while ill and unable to sleep. Please do not make my mistake.