Night’s Yawning Peal

A new collection of supernatural tales never before published in book form is a literary event of the first magnitude for those thousands of readers who like an unpleasant turn or two now and then. And, one which brings back into print, the late, great H.P. Lovecraft’s The case of Charles Dexter Ward, that rare novel of New England horror, so little circulated before, is an anthology to be hailed with “Hosannahs” by the elect among the aficionados.

But, Lovecraft — though his chilling novel occupies a large part of this excellent and gruesome collection — is not alone in these pages. Here too is Stephen Grendon (AKA-August Derleth), with Mr. George, a terrifying novelette about a little girl, her special friend and three designing murderers; here is an Algernon Blackwood story never printed in any book before.

Here are tales, in short, of virtually all kinds — tales of a frightened place ghost (The Lonesome Place), of a horrible, evil book (The Suppressed Edition), of a space-war (The La Prello Paper), of a curious literary whimsy (A Damsel with a Dulcimer). Here are stories, and rare stories indeed — by J. Sheridan LaFanu, Manly Wade Wellman, John Beynon Harris, Richard Curle, C.M. Eddy Jr., Carl Jacobi, Lord Dunsany and others.

Horror and terror fill these pages. Unusual ghosts and things that defy description make their brief entrance upon their little stages in this weird company which offers new fillips to jaded appetites, put together by an anthologist whose Sleep No More opened the gates for a flood of collections in the genre.

August Derleth has been a foremost specialist and writer of weird tales for more than a quarter of a century. His first story, written at the age of fourteen, was published in Weird Tales, May 1926; since then he has been published in over 250 publications here and abroad. An incredibly prolific writer, with talents ranging from fiction to criticism to first-rate poetry, he also finds time to head Arkham House, the first publishing firm in the world devoted exclusively to the publication of fantasy in book form.