Gordon Laite's Art to Tremble By

"More Tales to Tremble By" from 1968 was Whitman Publishing's second collection of great haunting and suspenseful horror stories (see also "Tales to Tremble By" 1966.) And though the first collection contains a well chosen assortment of classic terrors by the luminary likes of Bierce, Dickens, Irving, Stoker etc., it's actually the second collection that really screams out from beyond the grave with demonic delights by some of my own personal favorites-- Saki, Asquith, Hodgson, Derleth, and the supreme master of all horror, M. R. James! Great writing aside, this collection also rises well above the first with the much more evocative, beautifully eerie, horrifyingly hypnotic illustrations of Gordon Laite. Here now is a small sampling of highlights from this fantastically frightening book, (edited by Stephen P. Sutton.)

...technical difficulties... back in a few...

The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall

Before we get to the Gordon Laite post that I keep yappin' about, I thought I'd share one more rendition of the drippy ghost dame we've seen in the last two posts, aka: The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall, a very funny and even frightening classic ghost story written by John Kendrick Bangs in 1904, and as seen in today's post released in the 1945 illustrated "Quick Reader" from Royce Publishers titled Humorous Ghost Stories. And for something completely different, I've actually included the full text story as well, because yes, there's a reason why this tale appears in so many short story collections over the last century-- it's great! It's also great fun to compare artistic interpretations of The Water Ghost... isn't she lovely?

George Wilde's Ghost Stories

Another fantastic spook book from my childhood (that you will have to pry from my cold, dead fingers before I ever give it up) is the "Arrow Book of Ghost Stories" edited by Nora Kramer (1960.) Nine tales of freaky phantoms, kooky cats, wacky witches, and even a repeat performance from John Kendrick Bangs' "The Water Ghost" as seen in our previous entry on Fred Banbery. In today's post, the illustrated credits go to George Wilde, who like Banbery, creates a wonderfully detailed, scratchy sense of mood and humorous exaggeration in his nice, loose line work. This stuff may not be as technically slick as Banbery, or say Gordon Laite, (who we'll look at in the next post), but it's certainly just as terrific.

Fred Banbery's Haunted Houseful

It's actually Alfred Hitchcock's "Haunted Houseful" (Random House, 1961), featuring nine great, classic ghost stories from the likes of A. Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Manly Wade Wellman, and others. But scattered throughout this 200+ page collection of bone chilling creeps are about two dozen examples of the exceptionally eerie, illustrative genius of Fred Banbery; a guy whose moody, atmospheric visuals provided this blogger many a sleepless night after viewing them as a kid! Amazing stuff, and it's fun to see Fred add Hitchcock's face into the artwork too, just as Hitch had added himself in split-second walk-on rolls into his own films! Don't blink or you might miss him!