In the Dwellings of the Wilderness

I searched for three years before finding a copy of the extremely rare 1904 novel In the Dwellings of the Wilderness by C. Bryson Taylor. Here it is, complete, reprinted in all its glory, etc., etc. A surprisingly good novel with some fine passages and several creepy scenes.

Allen Koszowski did the beautiful cover art.

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Ripening Evil

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Ripening Evil

Contents:
1900: “The Tomb of Sarah” (story) by F. G. Loring
1900: “Marsyas in Flanders” (story) by Vernon Lee
1900: “The Vampire Maid” (story) by Hume Nisbet
1902: “Luella Miller” (story) by Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman

Cover art by Allen Koszowski. Allen signed all the copies of this book. It's the only one he's signed, so far. But that's only because I haven't got around to asking him to sign another. Soon, I promise.

A Consuming Passion

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Consuming Passion
1893: “The Last of the Vampires” (story) by Phil Robinson
1894: “The True Story of a Vampire” (story) by Count Stenbock
1896: “The Vampire of Croglin Grange” (story) by Augustus Hare

1896: “Good Lady Ducayne” (story) by Mary E. Braddon

Batman artist Andy Fish did this cover art for me. I have another piece he did for the series. I'm hoping to use it soon.

Another Phil Robinson story appears in Classic Vampires Revisited: A Botanical Nightmare, an all man-eating, bloodsucking plants volume in the series.

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Growing Fear

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Growing Fear

I loved being able to include Gilbert & Sullivan's contribution to the evolution of the Literary Vampire!

Contents:

1886: “The Vampyre” (poem) by Vasile Alecsandrai
1887: “A Mystery of the Campagna” (novella) by Anne Crawford
1887: “Ruddigore” (storyline) William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan

Cover art by Allen Koszowski

CARMILLA BY JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU

The DLP edition of Carmilla by J. S. Le Fanu included the Introdution "From Folklore to Formula." Interesting to see how many elements in this 1872 novel Stoker used in Dracula, elements which have since become part of the standard vampire novel formula.

Contents: full text of the 1872 novel, plus an
Introdution and a short bio of Le Fanu.

Lords of Gardonal (by William Gilbert)

Another interesting work of vampire fiction, nipping hard at the heels of The Mysterious Stranger, is The Last Lords of Gardonal by William Gilbert

Contents:
1867: “The Last Lords of Gardonal” (story) by William Gilbert
1871: “Vampyres and Ghouls” (article) Anonymous (conducted by Charles Dickens)
Afterword, "The Other Gilbert", by Tom English
Cover by Allen Koszowski

I'll say a bit more about this one later, as well as continue listing the titles in the series. I'm a little weary at the moment. Could be weak from all the blood I gave at the office. What's that? You work for a vampire, too?!

Well, try and get some rest, my friends. Sleep tight and don't let the vampires bite.

The Mysterious Stranger

Again, a couple of future books, now in the planning stage, will fill in the gaps between Poe and Gautier and the novella that I printed in the next chapbook,

The Mysterious Stranger, an anonymous work, probably translated from German, which immediately brings to mind many of the plot elements of Dracula. We could all cry "foul" but, alas, we haven't a leg to stand on, since this work appeared three decades before Stoker even started researching his novel.

Contents:

1860: “The Mysterious Stranger” (novella) by Anonymous

(ahem, and my Introduction, of course)

Fabulous cover art by Allen Koszowski.

Red Scare

Classic Vampires Revisited: Red Scare
is a companion book to Black Sunday.

Contents:
Introduction, "Red Scare" by Tom English
1847: (translation into English in 1884) “The Curse of the Vourdalak” (story) by Aleksey Tolstoy
1906: (English translation, 1907) “Lazarus” (story) by Leonid Andreyev

These two stories are unnerving. As good as anything being done today in the horror genre. No, better!

Another great piece of cover art by Allen Koszowski.

A Beguiling Corruption

Next in line, chronologically moving forward toward the 1897 publication of Stoker's Dracula :

Classic Vampires Revisited:
A Beguiling Corruption
1835: “Berenice” (story) by Edgar Allan Poe
1835: “Morella” (story) by Edgar Allan Poe
1836: “The Dead Lover” (“La Morte Amoureuse”) (novella) by Théophile Gautier

Yes, yes, and with an intro by me.

Poe often explored vampirism in his work. Decades before Le Fanu's Carmilla, Poe and Gautier made the femme fatale a mainstay of vampire literature.

The creepy cover art is by my good friend Allen Koszowski, a World Fantasy Award-winning artist.

Black Sunday

There are a couple books in the series that will cover the years between Polidori's 1819 work "The Vampire" and the appearance in 1928 of "Viy", but these chapbooks are still in pre-production. So, next in line is Classic Vampires Revisited: Black Sunday, which contains my intro on Gogol and the Mario Bava film inspired by his Russian vampire novella

Contents:
Introduction, "Black Sunday" by Tom English
1835: (translation of 1928 novella) “Viy” (novella) by Nikolai Gogol

The striking cover image is by UK writer/editor/illustrator Dave Carson.