C. M. Rosens

1833: * “The Mortal Immortal” by Mary Shelley (42:13) – English author. A short story originally published in The Keepsake for 1834 (Dec. 1833), a literary annual. It tells the story of a man named Winzy, who drinks an elixir which makes him immortal. At first, immortality appears to promise him eternal tranquillity. However, it soon becomes apparent that he is cursed to endure eternal psychological torture, as everything he loves dies around him.

1864: The Phantom Coach by Amelia B. Edwards (36:16) – English author. First published in All the Year Round, ed. Charles Dickens, Christmas 1864. A classic ghost story that tells of a young man who becomes lost on the moors during a snowstorm. He seeks shelter with a strange and reclusive scientist, who tells him of a stagecoach that might be able to take him home…

1880: * “The Ensouled Violin” by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (01:07:51) – Russian author. A work of horror fiction published in 1880 by Russian occultist and Theosophy founder, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. In great depth, the story explores the relationship between man and music, and the enduring concept of entering into a bargain with the devil to achieve mastery of a musical instrument.

1891: * “The Ebony Frame” by Edith Nesbit (31:41) – English author. First published in the October 1891 issue of Longman’s magazine. It’s the story of a beautiful and curiously carved picture frame, imbued with a mysterious allure.

1892: * “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (39:10) – (USA). A short story first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women’s health, both physical and mental.

1903: “The Hall Bedroom” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (44:45) – (USA). A short story first published in Collier’s Magazine (March 1903), then collected in Short Story Classics (American) Volume Four (P. F. Collier & Son, New York: 1905). It’s the tale of a peculiar room in a boarding house, told through the journal entries of a missing boarder.

1910: * “Afterward” by Edith Wharton (01:21:01) – (USA). A short story first published in the 1910 edition of The Century Magazine and in her books, The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton and Tales of Men and Ghosts, 1910. It is an ironic ghost story about greed and retribution. The ghost comes for one of the main characters long after a business transgression where the character wronged another.

1917: “The Mark on the Wall” by Virginia Woolf (23:07) – English author. A short story by British author, Virginia Woolf, in which a trivial observation triggers a tidal wave of introspection, and self-reflection. The story first appeared in 1917 as part of the collection, Two Stories.

[TBR] 1917 (Mar): “At the Gate” by Myla Jo Closser (14:27) – (USA). The tale first appeared in the March 1917 edition of CENTURY MAGAZINE. It offers an answer to the long-held question: what happens to our beloved dogs when they (and we) pass on?

1924: * “The Sixth Tree” by Edith L. Stewart (13:38) – ?. First published in the May-June-July 1924 edition of Weird Tales Magazine, and was described as follows: “This is a tale of the weirdest game that ever was played…”

1925: “Candle-Light” by Louise Garwood (19:05) – (USA). A classic ghost story by a little-known author, the work debuted in the November 1925 edition of Weird Tales.

1926: * “The Black Crusader” by Alicia Ramsey (37:16) – English author. This story first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in January 1926. It tells of a furtive thief, who, following his despoiling of a legendary tomb, is about to be appropriately punished for his crimes. [I can’t help but imagine the Benny Hill soundtrack behind the chase scene in the climax…]

1928: “The City of Lost Souls” by Genevieve Larsson (33:14) – (USA). A short story first published in Weird Tales in October 1928. The tale revolves around the strange atmosphere of a man’s hometown, after returning, following a ten-year absence.

[TBR] 1930 (Aug): “The Law of the Hills” by Grace M. Campbell (25:26) – ?. A short story by the one-time Weird Tales author, Grace M. Campbell, first published in the August 1930 edition of the magazine. “A tragic, tender tale of the slim white shape that ran with a wolf-pack over the snow.”

[TBR] 1930 (Sep): The House of the Golden Eyes by Theda Kenyon (33:35) – (USA). A short story by the little-known author, Theda Kenyon (1894-1997), first published in the September 1930 edition of Weird Tales. “There was something bloated, parboiled to a dull red, sliding toward him…”

1930 (Dec): “The Boat on the Beach” by Kadra Maysi (17:19) – (USA). A short story by Kadra Maysi, aka, Katherine Drayton Mayrant Simons, of Charleston, South Carolina. The story first appeared in Weird Tales in December 1930, and was described as follows: “Strange was the woman who came down to the boat at night, and stranger still was the weird event that befell her.”

1931: “Creeping Fingers” by Loretta Burrough (27:49) – (USA). Burrough’s first published story, appearing in Christine Campbell Thomson’s 1931 collection, AT DEAD OF NIGHT. The tale tells of a weary guest, left with no choice but to spend the night in a hotel room with a questionable reputation…

[TBR] 1931 (Sep): “The Dark Castle” by Marion Brandon (35:15) – ?. “The Dark Castle” is one of two short stories penned by the little-known author, Marion Brandon. First appearing in the September 1931 edition of Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, the story was described as follows: “The spirit of Archenfels broods ominously over the two stranded travelers in the deserted castle.”

1933 (Apr): * “The House of Shadows” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (22:48) – (USA). First published in Weird Tales Magazine in April 1933, the story tells of a family whose images would not reflect in the mirror…

1933 (Oct): * “The Cat-Woman” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (13:09) – (USA). A short story first published in Weird Tales in October 1933. The tale involves an unusual case of anthropomorphism in a quiet boarding house. [I think this one is also pretty sapphic…]

[TBR] 1933 (Nov): “The Accursed Isle” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (33:56) – (USA). A short story first published in the November 1933 edition of Weird Tales. “A hideous fear clutched the hearts of the seven castaways on that accursed isle as they were slain, one by one.”

1934: * “The Three Marked Pennies” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (20:44) – (USA). A classic horror story first published in Weird Tales in August 1934. The magazine provided the following synopsis: “A strange destiny awaited the holders of the pennies, with doom for one and wealth for the others.”

1935: “What Waits in Darkness” by Loretta Burrough (17:47) – (USA). This story first appeared in Weird Tales in March 1935. The magazine described the tale as: “A grim story of a woman’s happiness that was menaced by a dreadful recurrent dream.”

1936: “A Visitor from Far Away” by Loretta Burrough (18:52) – (USA). The story was published by Weird Tales in its February 1936 edition. “During a brutal blizzard, a woman alone in her country house senses an intruder stirring in the darkness.”

1937 (Jul): * “The Ocean Ogre” by Dana Carroll (26:04) – English author. Published in Weird Tales, July 1937, and attributed to Dana Carroll, but this story is remarkably close (almost verbatim) to Frank Belnapp Long’s story, “The Sea Thing”, which was published in 1925. HorrorBabble acknowledges that Carroll “borrowed heavily” from Long’s story. [This could have been with permission, but unclear to me!]

1937 (Dec): “The Black Stone Statue” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (32:40) – (USA). It first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in December 1937, described as “An amazing tale of weird sculpture–the story of a weird deception practised on the world by an obscure artist.”

1938: * “The Snowman” by Loretta Burrough (29:33) – (USA). The story was first published in the December 1938 edition of Weird Tales. The magazine provided the following synopsis: “Her first husband lay at the bottom of a deep crevasse in a Swiss glacier—but why should a snow image in his likeness strike her with such eery terror?”

1939: * “Mommy” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (24:20) – (USA). The story tells of a little girl in an orphanage, who claims to have been visited by her dead mother. It first appeared in Weird Tales in April 1939.

[TBR] 1940: “Twister” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (33:32) – (USA). First published in the January 1940 edition of Weird Tales. “Ghostly was the village where the newly wedded couple stopped for gasoline, and weird was their experience there.”

1941: * “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen (19:32) – Irish author. The tale was first published in The Listener, November 1941, and tells of a lady, who, during the Second World War, discovers a letter, reminding her of an appointment she made with a soldier many years earlier.

[TBR] 1943 (Jul): “Lost” by Alice-Mary Schnirring (12:20) – (USA). This story, which first appeared in Weird Tales in July 1943, takes place on the marshes, by the dark and forbidding Atlantic Ocean.

1943 (Sep): “Night Must Not Come” by Allison V. Harding (29:44) – (USA). It was first published in Weird Tales in September 1943, and was given the following description: “Ever since the birth of time, fires have been kept at night, and man has never allowed complete darkness, for evil things are waiting out there beyond the light.”

1944 (Jan): * “House of Hate” by Allison V. Harding (32:34) – (USA). The story first appeared in Weird Tales back in January 1944, and was described as follows: “An evil house begets evil dwellers—and silently revels in the black deeds perpetrated within its walls.”

1944 (Mar): * “The Marmot” by Allison V. Harding (23:38) – (USA). The work was first published in the March 1944 edition of Weird Tales Magazine, and was described as follows: “Such a harmless looking tiny creature—but animals possess strange abilities beyond our ken!”

[TBR] 1944 (Jul): “Guard in the Dark” by Allison V. Harding (40:13) – (USA). A short story first appearing in Weird Tales in its July 1944 edition. “There was a reason why the boy demanded toy soldiers, a reason to be found only in the treacherous dark.”

1944 (Sep): “The Seven Seas are One” by Allison V. Harding (36:46) – (USA). First published in Weird Tales in September 1944. “The Captain knew that somehow, some day his fate was coming—out of the sea and the wind!”

1945 (Jul): * “Fog Country” by Allison V. Harding (36:55) – (USA). The work was first published by Weird Tales in its July 1945 edition, and tells of a peculiar mist that occasionally settles over a small, coastal town.

[TBR] 1949: “The Underbody” by Allison V. Harding (48:06) – (USA). The story first appeared in Weird Tales in November 1949, and was described as follows: “A thing that was not a man, yet could not be anything else…”

1950: “The Tree’s Wife” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (30:28) – (USA). (Weird Tales, March 1950) A curious yarn involving a tryst, and a tree.

[TBR] 1952: “The Artist and the Door” by Dorothy Quick (34:27) – (USA). It was first published in the November 1952 edition of Weird Tales. “The house and contents had been exorcised of evil—but maybe the door had been left open, the holy words lost outside.”

1964: “The Seeking Thing” by Janet Hirsch (13:05) – ?. The story first appeared in the February 1964 edition of Robert A. W. Lowndes’ Magazine of Horror. It relates the tale of a man who runs over something strange in the middle of the road.