It is natural, especially at her age, that she should crave, need meat. When I am a little better I will go out and set traps, as I used to doas a boy... We must give her meat; she has done a great deal for us.

Springing forth from the heyday of Weird Tales magazine and its contemporaries comes a new anthology of fifteen uncanny tales—classics and rarities penned by the women writers whose weird imaginings defined the pulp era.

Featuring an introduction and biographical notes by veteran editor Mike Ashley, this collection offers ghostly thrills, shapeshifting horrors and monstrous coming-of-age narratives from Weird Tales stalwarts such as Mary Elizabeth Counsel man alongside more surprising authors such as Lucy M. Montgomery. This new selection also includes a 1990s classic by Tanith Lee, the queen of Weird Tales magazine’s revival era, and a recently rediscovered gem of mythical horror by Evangeline Walton.

Contents

Introduction by [author_link_10623]
1. The Rat Master (1942) by [author_link_5512]
2. The Withered Heart (1939) by [author_link_14458]
3. Leonora (1927) by [author_link_15255]
4. The Ode to Pegasus (1926) by Maria Moravsky
5. Mommy (1939) by [author_link_14462]
6. Daemon (1946) by [author_link_857]
7. More Than Shadow (1954) by [author_link_16790]
8. The House Party at Smoky Island (1935) by [author_link_16788]
9. Forbidden Cupboard (1940) by Frances Garfield
10. The Underbody (1949) by [author_link_14463]
11. Brenda (1954) by [author_link_1126]
12. They That Have Wings (2011) by [author_link_1089]
13. Foxy's Hollow (1953) by [author_link_16791]
14. The Crying Child (1953) by Dorothea Gibbons
15. Mirror, Mirror (1994) by [author_link_268]
Story Sources – Weird Sisters: Tales from the Queens of the Pulp Era

Published
January 16, 2025 (British Library Publishing)
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British Library Tales of the Weird

The series

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The British Library Tales of the Weird series revives and unearths classic strange fiction from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the form of novels, single-author collections and thematic anthologies, complete with new introductions and fascinating notes by expert editors.

#1 · 2018From the Depths #2 · 2018Haunted Houses #3 · 2018Glimpses of the Unknown #4 · 2018Mortal Echoes #5 · 2018Spirits of the Season #6 · 2019The Platform Edge #7 · 2019The Face in the Glass #8 · 2019The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson #9 · 2019Doorway to Dilemma: Bewildering Tales of Dark Fantasy #10 · 2019Evil Roots #11 · 2019Promethean Horrors #12 · 2019Roarings from Further Out #13 · 2019Tales of the Tattooed #14 · 2020The Outcast: and Other Dark Tales by E F Benson #15 · 2020A Phantom Lover #16 · 2020Into the London Fog #17 · 2020Weird Woods #18 · 2020Queens of the Abyss #19 · 2020Chill Tidings #20 · 2021Dangerous Dimensions #21 · 2021Heavy Weather #22 · 2021Minor Hauntings #23 · 2021Crawling Horror #24 · 2021Cornish Horrors #25 · 2021I Am Stone #26 · 2021Randalls Round #27 · 2021Sunless Solstice #28 · 2022Shadows on the Wall #29 · 2022The Ghost Slayers #30 · 2022The Night Wire: and Other Tales of Weird Media #31 · 2022Our Haunted Shores #32 · 2022The Horned God #33 · 2022Spectral Sounds #34 · 2022Haunters at the Hearth #35 · 2022Polar Horrors #36 · 2023The Flaw in the Crystal: And Other Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair #37 · 2023The Ways of Ghosts #38 · 2023Holy Ghosts #39 · 2023The Uncanny Gastronomic #40 · 2023The Lure of Atlantis #41 · 2023Dead Drunk #42 · 1908The House on the Borderland #43 · 2023Roads of Destiny #44 · 2023Circles of Stone #45 · 2024Doomed Romances #46 · 1922The Undying Monster #47 · 2024Fear in the Blood #48 · 2024Out of the Past #49 · 1912The Night Land #50 · 2024Deadly Dolls #51 · 1910The Human Chord #52 · 2024Eerie East Anglia #53 · 2024The Haunted Trail #54 · 2024The Weird Tales of Dorothy K. Haynes #55 · 1921The Haunted Vintage #56 · 2024Summoned to the Séance #57 · 2025Weird Sisters #58 · 2025Julia Roseingrave #59 · 2025Spores of Doom #60 · 2025Medusa #61 · 2025Return of the Ancients #62 · 2025Phantoms of Kernow #63 · 2018The Lost Stradivarius #64 · 2025The Wayfarer's Weird #65 · 2025The Tiger-Skin #66 · 2025All the Fear of the Fair #67 · 2025The Haunted Library #68 · 1927Possessed #69 · 2026Bird of Ill Omen #70 · 1950The Black Fox #71 · 2026The New Flesh #72 · 1922The Luck of the Town #73 · 2026Beasts with Five Fingers #74 · 2026Haunted Yorkshire #75 · 2026Danse Macabre #76 · 1948The Black Mirror #77 · 2026Fiendish Felines #78 · 2026Terror Australis #79 · 2026A Walk on the Weird Side #80 · 1948The Unwelcome
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10/10

Another excellent anthology from the British Library featuring stories from relatively obscure authors who all deserve to be better known.

If I had to pick a favourite it would be "The Underbody" by Alison V. Harding.

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