The Not At Night Omnibus (1937)

[demonik]

There's more, far more to the series than this greatest hits selection, but it's as good a place to start as any. Readers of the early "Pan Horror" books will be familiar with a goodly few of these.

Not at Night Omnibus, ed Christine Campbell Thomson (Selwyn & Blount, 1937)

Zealia B. Bishop - The Curse of Yig
W. J. Stamper - Lips of the Dead
Jessie D. Kerruish - The Wonderful Tune
Michael Gwynn - The Death Plant
R. Anthony - The Witch-Baiter
Hester Holland - The Library
Guy Preston - The Inn
A. W. Kapfer - The Phantom Drug
H. P. Lovecraft - Pickman's Model
Oscar Cook - His Beautiful Hands
Edmond Hamilton - Pigmy Island
Flavia Richardson (Christine Campbell Thomson) - Behind the Yellow Door
Oswell Blakeston - The Crack
J. Joseph Renaud - Suzanne
Mary E. Counselman - The Accursed Isle
Warden Ledge - The Legion of Evil
Seabury Quinn - The House of Horror
Guy Preston - The Way He Died
Hazel Heald - The Horror in the Museum
George Fielding Eliot - The Copper Bowl
Hugh B. Cave - The Watcher in the Green Room
G. Frederick Montefiore - Black Curtains
L. A. Lewis - The Author's Tale
H. Warner Munn - The Chain
Oscar Cook - Piecemeal
Hester Holland - The Scream
Will Smith & R. J. Robbins - Swamp Horror
Jessie D. Kerruish - The Seven Locked Room
Henry S. Whitehead - The Chadbourne Episode
David H. Keller - The Thing in the Cellar
Flavia Richardson - The Black Hare
Anthony Vercoe - Flies
August Derleth - The Tenant
Gordon Chesson - Little Red Shoes
Harold Ward - The Closed Door

[artlongjr]

I just joined the Gruesome Cargoes and British Horror Anthology boards. It's great to see these superb anthologies getting some recognition!

I am 51 years old and American, and have been a lifelong fan of horror fiction...when I was eighteen back in the 70's I found a copy of the Not at Night Omnibus, and I consider it my greatest book find and favorite anthology! I've never seen another actual copy of any other books in the series...they don't seem to be very easy to come by in the States. I am also a fan of the Creeps series, although I haven't seen any copies of these either, except online. Also I am fascinated by the John Gawsworth anthologies, which seem to be even more rare...

I especially like the Guy Preston stories...I haven't been able to get any info on Preston, as well as many other authors in these series. I also have another story of Preston's called
"Thirty" in a paperback anthology, it's excellent. I've heard of one other by him, called "A Lover Came to Sunnamees". Have any of the board members read this one?

[Charles Black]

Welcome Art.

You don't tend to see The Creeps books over here, very often, either.

[demonik]

Hi Art.

Thanks for joining, Art. It's so good to find there are still some of us who hold the Not At Night's in such high esteem. The books aren't easy to come by in England these days either - I think it's taken me twelve years to get as far with my small collection of Not At Night's and Creeps and I'm only about halfway there We really could do with some modern reissues.

There's a synopsis (not a particularly good one) of A Lover Came To Sunnamees on theMonsters thread:
Here

IMO It's of the same standard as Thirty, in fact, I probably prefer it, if not quite as unforgettable as The Inn

The Gawsworth anthologies certainly have their moments. I've three of them, but I've never managed to finish one. Like the Omnibus, they're enormous books but, if I remember correctly, he includes a lot of detective fiction too and one of the books reprints an entire novel!

[artlongjr]

Thanks for the link to the "Sunnamees" synopsis! Sounds interesting.

Do any of your Gawsworth anthologies have a story by M.P. Shiel called "Dark Lot of One Saul"? That story is probably my favorite of
of all of Shiel's stories. I finally tracked it down in a copy of Shiel's stories put out by Arkham House. Some others I've read out of Gawsworth that were outstanding were "X" by Malachi Whitaker and Laurence Durrell's early story "The Cherries". Also "Wound Pie" by Hugh McDiarmid. I've never seen a real Gawsworth anthology, I just found these in other anthologies or author collections.

Another writer who had quite a few stories in Gawsworth was Richard Middleton...unfortunately I wasn't able to track down any of those.

[demonik]

I've given Gawsworth's Thrills collections their own section as it will give me some incentive to add the contents and a few notes on the three volumes I have, but there's a listing of an index to all six books at freepages.pavilion.net/tartarus/g6.htm

Laurence Durrell's The Cherries is in Masterpiece Of Thrills (which I have) and, I think, Peter Haining reprinted it in his The Lucifer Society? I've not read the others you mention but both the Malachi Whitaker and M. P. Shiel stories are included in Full Score (1933) and Wound Pie was published in New Tales Of Horror the following year.

As luck would have it, you can download several Richard Middleton stories from horrormasters!

[artlongjr]

I would love to get more information on the Gawsworth anthologies, although they are not as thoroughly horror-oriented as the "Creeps" and "Not at Night". Gawsworth himself was an interesting character, who obviously had friendships and contacts with a great many writers, including greats like Machen and Shiel. I find it fascinating that he edited these anthologies when he was just in his early twenties. By the way, I remember reading somewhere that H.P. Lovecraft owned a copy of "New Tales of Horror".

Thanks for the link to Horrormasters-it's been more than a year since I looked at the site and there is a lot of new content.