FFB: BEWARE OF THE CAT edited by Michel Parry (Gollancz 1972; Taplinger 1973)

In the 1970s, if any British anthologist of horror fiction was rivaling Peter Haining and Hugh Lamb in productivity (at least among those whose books were also available in the US), Michel Parry was the one. And this, which really should've been titled Beware the Cat, was his first. Some of his other anthologies were explicitly aimed  at older readers (most famously the two released by UK paperback line Corgi jokingly as if edited by "Linda Lovecraft": The Devil's Kisses and More Devil's Kisses...both featuring one of Chris Miller's intentionally obnoxious National Lampoon stories, the latter volume essentially pulped by Corgi because of complaints about Miller's "The Magic Show"), but Beware of the Cat was usually stacked in the young readers' shelves in my experience.  (Not only his sex-themed anthologies probably not shunted over to YA library shelves, but [given this was the '70s] also his three anthologies devoted to fantasticated drug-experience stories.)

And, aside from horror usually not being taken very seriously in the US (and perhaps held too suspect in the UK), the assumption (not driven by Taplinger's packaging) that the book was meant for young readers might've been driven in part by the proportion of chestnuts included (and that it was illustrated)...though by no means was the book completely devoted to stories Everyone's Read:

•  Beware of the Cat • interior artwork by Nancy Lou Gahan
• 9 • Introduction (Beware of the Cat) • (1972) • essay by Michel Parry
• 13 • Beware the Cat (extract) • (1570) • shortstory by William Baldwin (variant of Beware the Cat) [as by Gulielmus Baldwin ]
• 13 • The Grey Cat • (1901) • shortstory by Barry Pain
• 28 • The King of the Cats • (1929) • shortstory by Stephen Vincent Benét
• 44 • The Vampire Cat • (1972) • shortstory by Traditional
• 53 • The Cat Man • (1960) • shortstory by Byron Liggett
• 69 • The White Cat • (1872) • shortstory by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (variant of The White Cat of Drumgunniol 1870) [as by J. Sheridan Le Fanu ]
• 82 • Ancient Sorceries • [John Silence] • (1908) • novelette by Algernon Blackwood
• 130 • Tobermory • (1909) • shortstory by Saki
• 139 • Fluffy • (1947) • shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
• 148 • Cat and Mouse • (1972) • shortstory by Ramsey Campbell
• 162 • The Cats of Ulthar • [Dream Cycle] • (1920) • shortstory by H. P. Lovecraft
• 166 • Eyes of the Panther • (1897) • shortstory by Ambrose Bierce (variant of The Eyes of the Panther)
• 186 • The Black Cat • (1921) • shortstory by W. J. Wintle [as by William Wintle ]
• 186 • The Child Watcher • (1958) • shortstory by Ernest Harrison
• 189 • Notes (Beware of the Cat) • essay by uncredited

Note also he eschewed the obvious Poe story, even with three other stories perhaps nodding to it with their titles, at least...a solid anthology, with endnotes (I always appreciated these back when; still do)...and while I'd read the Benet, the Saki, the Bierce and perhaps (though probably not) the Sturgeon elsewhere first, the others were new to me.  The small slew of Parry anthologies I'd see afterward were always welcome...

Michel Parry in the Contento anthology index.
A previous citation here.

For more of today's books, please see Patti Abbott's blog...

Addendum: Stephen Jones notes via FaceBook that this anthology led directly to Parry's script for the anthology film The Uncanny (1977):

The Uncanny (1977) by MargaliMorwentari