AMERICAN FANTASTIC TALES TERROR AND THE UNCANNY FROM POE TO THE PULPS Peter Stmub, editor THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA digitalisiert durch: American fantastic tales IDS Luzern 2009 Contents Introduction xi Charles Brockden Brown Somnambulism: A Fragment i Washington Irving The Adventure of the Gerinan Student 21 Edgar Allan Poe Berenice 27 Nathaniel Hawthorne Young Goodman Brown 35 Herman Melville The Tartarus of Maids 49 Fitz-James O'Brien What Was It? 63 Bret Harte The Legend of Monte del Diablo 77 Harriet Prescott Spofford The Moonstone Mass 90 W. C. Morrow His Unconquerable Enemy 102 Sarah Orne Jewett In Dark New England Days 112 Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Yellow Wall Paper 131 Stephen Crane The Black Dog 148 Kate Chopin Ma'a?ne Pelagie 153 John Kendrick Bangs Thurlow's Christmas Story 162 Robert W. Chambers The Repairer of Reputations 177 Ralph Adams Cram The Dead Valley 210 Madeline Yale Wynne The Little Room 219 Gertrude Atherton The Striding Place 232 Vlll CONTENTS Emma Francis Dawson An Itinerant House 238 Mary Wilkins Freeman Luella Miller 255 Frank Norris Grettir at Thoi-hall-stead 269 Lafcadio Hearn Yuki-Onna 282 F. Marion Crawford For the Blood Is the Life 286 Ambrose Bierce The Moonlit Road 302 Edward Lucas White Lukundoo 312 Olivia Howard Dunbar The Shell of Sense 326 Henry James The Jolly Corner 337 Alice Brown Golden Baby 371 Edith Wharton Afterward 386 Willa Catlier Consequences 416 Ellen Glasgow The Shadowy Third 436 Julian Hawthorne Absolute Evil 460 Francis Stevens Unseen—Unfeared 493 F. Scott Fitzgerald The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 510 Seabury Quinn The Curse of Everard Maundy 536 Stephen Vincent Benet The King of the Cats 568 David H. Keller The Jelly-Fish 583 Conrad Aiken Mr. Arcularis 588 Robert E. Howard The Black Stone 607 CONTENTS IX Henry S. Whitehead Passing of a God 625 August Derleth The Panelled Room 644 H. P. Lovecraft The Thing on the Doorstep 654 Clark Ashton Smith Genius Loci 681 Robert Bloch The Cloak 698 Biographical Notes 717 Note on the Texts 736 Notes 740 AMERICAN FANTASTIC TALES TERROR AND THE UNCANNY FROM THE 1940s TO NOW Peter Stmub, editor THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA Contents Introduction xi John Collier Evening Primrose 7 Fritz Leiber Smoke Ghost 12 Tennessee Williams The Mysteries of the Joy Rio 29 Jane Rice The Refugee 41 Anthony Boucher Mr. Lupescu 56 Truman Capote Miriam 61 Jack Snow Midnight 73 John Cheever Torch Song 79 Shirley Jackson The Daemon Lover 96 Paul Bowles The Circular Valley 112 Jack Finney I'm Scared 121 Vladimir Nabokov The Vane Sisters 134 Ray Bradbury The April Witch 148 Charles Beaumont Black Country 158 Jerome Bixby Trace 179 Davis Grubb Where the Woodbine Twineth 183 Donald Wandrei Nightmare 192 Harlan Ellison I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream 197 VU1 CONTENTS Richard Matheson Prey 213 T.E.D. Klein The Events at Poroth Farm 225 Isaac Bashevis Singer Hanka 272 Fred Chappell Linnaeus Forgets 289 John Crowley Novelty 305 Jonathan Carroll Mr Fiddlehead 322 Joyce Carol Oates Family 335 Thomas Ligotti The Last Feast of Harlequin 351 Peter Straub A Short Guide to the City 389 Jeff VanderMeer The General Who Is Dead 401 Stephen King That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French 406 George Saunders Sea Oak 423 Caitlin Kiernan The Long Hall on the Top Floor 447 Thomas Tessier Nocturne 450 Michael Chabon The God of Dark Laughter 463 Joe Hill Pop Art 483 Poppy Z. Brite Pansu 504- Steven Millhauser Dangerous Laughter 512. M. Rickert The Chambered Fruit 528 Brian Evenson The Wavering Knife 563 CONTENTS IX Kelly Link Stone Animals 579 Tim Powers Pat Moore 623 Gene Wolfe The Little Stranger 655 Benjamin Percy Dial Tone 673 Biographical Notes 687 Note on the Texts 703 Notes 708 .