Graveyard Reader

Richard Powers once expressed a wish to paint a really horrifying cover. The result produced this title, THE GRAVEYARD READER, and inspired Groff Conklin, noted anthologist, to unearth (no pun intended) some of the most frightful, and frightening, stories ever to be put together in one volume.

However, not wishing to completely paralyze the gentle reader, Mr. Conklin has included a leavening of tales of apparitions and ghosts, of weird manifestations, even of humor (although of a distinctly macabre variety). Any normally avid consumer of horror can tackle these without resorting to locked doors and bright lights.

The title also inspired a completely original story from Theodore Sturgeon which appears here for the first time, a story of implied violence, the creeping invasion of a personality after death—which makes for a subtly chilling coda to a violent form of entertainment.

One warning: read these stories in the order in which they appear in the book—and try not to read the whole book at one time… .