Ross Olney has been mostly a writer of YA materials, and while I'm not sure I ever read any of his books, I'm particularly surprised I didn't come across (if I didn't) either of his two anthologies here, the horror item even moreso than the earlier sf volume...but not too many libraries carried Whitman books, seen as downmarket and disposable (and in severe need of rebinding if they were to survive at all in the circulating environment). I might've not taken too seriously any casual encounter with Shudders, since who expected a Whitman anthology to contain much of compelling interest, not Safe for the Kiddies? But, if so, I was mistaken, as a glance at the Weird Tales-heavy table of contents might suggest:
Ten Tales Calculated To Give You Shudders (Whitman 1972) (indices courtesy ISFDb:)
- 13 • A Forewarning • essay by Ross R. Olney
- 19 • Sweets to the Sweet • (1947) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
- 34 • The Waxwork • (1931) • shortstory by A. M. Burrage
- 56 • Used Car • (1932) • shortstory by H. Russell Wakefield
- 80 • The Ghost of Fear • (1896) • shortstory by H. G. Wells (variant of The Red Room)
- 102 • The Whistling Room • [Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson)] • (1910) • shortstory by William Hope Hodgson
- 132 • The Last Drive • (1933) • shortstory by Carl Jacobi
- 141 • The Monkey's Paw • (1902) • shortstory by W. W. Jacobs
- 160 • Second Night Out • (1933) • shortstory by Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Black, Dead Thing)
- 176 • The Hills Beyond Furcy • (1966) • shortstory by Robert G. Anderson
- 194 • Floral Tribute • (1949) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
Whitman had taken a slightly less impressive, but still good and only slightly idiosyncratic, science fiction anthology from Olney previously, with two from William Campbell Gault in that book...Gault, of course, is best remembered today for his crime fiction, but was a fairly consistent if rarely exceptional contributor to sf magazines, and one of the great stars (if not the greatest) of the sports-fiction magazines (and made much of his money in the 1960s from his YA sports novels), and I suspect Olney was particularly fond of Gault's auto-racing fiction...
Tales of Time and Space (Whitman 1969)
- 10 • Yesterday's Fantasy, Today's Fact-an Introduction • essay by Ross R. Olney
- 15 • All the Time in the World • (1952) • shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
- 34 • Puppet Show • (1962) • shortstory by Fredric Brown
- 50 • Birds of a Feather • (1958) • novelette by Robert Silverberg
- 82 • Clutch of Morpheus • (1946) • shortstory by William Campbell Gault [as by Larry Sternig ]
- 105 • The Last Command • [Bolo] • (1967) • shortstory by Keith Laumer
- 136 • Fog • (1951) • shortstory by William Campbell Gault
- 161 • The Martian Crown Jewels • (1958) • shortstory by Poul Anderson
- 189 • Of Missing Persons • (1955) • shortstory by Jack Finney
This week's FFB list of links is being assembled by Evan Lewis at his Davy Crockett's Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and the Wild West (speaking as we have of personages caught up in the Disney machines), and will be hosted here again next Friday, with one more pass through Evan's and then my blogs before Patti Abbott returns to hosting them.
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