Originally published in 1997, Screamplays edited by Richard Chizmar and Martin H. Greenberg was reprinted by CD with illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne. It contained seven screenplays by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Laymon and Ed Gordon, with an Introduction by Dean Koontz.
Chiliad: A Meditation from Subterranean Press contained two interrelated stories by Clive Barker set exactly one thousand years apart. A traycased, lettered edition of twenty-six copies was available for $250.00. The publisher also issued a boxed set of Barker’s six Books of Blood collections in a limited edition of 500 copies with the first volume signed by the author ($250.00), along with a traycased twenty-six copy lettered edition ($1,500.00).
Also from Subterranean, The Complete Crow collected eleven reprint stories about Brian Lumley’s psychic investigator with an Introduction by the author, and The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison collected twenty-three stories published over forty years.
For fans of Thomas Ligotti, The Spectral Link was a collection of two new stories that was also available in a 400-copy signed edition, along with Born to Fear: Interviews with Thomas Ligotti, containing seventeen interviews and edited with an Introduction by Matt Cardin. The latter was also available in a leatherbound 250-copy edition signed by both Ligotti and Cardin.
Subterranean reprinted Neil Gaiman’s 1998 collection Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions with new illustrations by the book’s designer, Dave McKean. It was available in a 500-copy slipcased edition and twenty-six lettered copies, signed by both author and artist.
Robert McCammon’s 1981 novel They Thirst was reprinted in an edition of 1,000 signed copies and twenty-six deluxe lettered copies, illustrated with colour paintings by Les Edwards.
Nobody’s Home: An Anubis Gates Ghost Story was a novelette by Tim Powers featuring a disguised Jackie Snapp and a girl trying to escape the spectre of her husband in 19th century London. Illustrated by J.K. Potter, this was also available from Subterranean Press in a signed, leatherbound, slipcased edition of 474 copies ($75.00) and a traycased lettered edition of twenty-six copies ($350.00).
As usual edited by Rosalie Parker, Strange Tales Volume IV from Tartarus Press contained fifteen original stories by, amongst others, Christopher Harman, Rhys Hughes, Rebecca Lloyd, Angela Slatter, Andrew Hook, Richard Hill and John Gaskin. It was limited to 300 copies.
From the same imprint, The Loney was a first novel by Andrew Michael Hurley. A memoir of the 1970s, it was set on the treacherous titular stretch of Cumbrian coastline.
Mercy and Other Stories was a terrific collection of sixteen strange stories (nine original) by British author Rebecca Lloyd, while John Gaskin’s third collection, The Master of the House: Tales of Twilight and Borderlands, contained twelve beautifully written stories (nine original and one extensively re-written) with a Foreword by the author.
The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, also from Tartarus, collected thirteen magical and macabre stories (eight original) by Angela Slatter, along with an Introduction by Stephen Jones, an Afterword by Lisa L. Hannett, and eighty-six pen-and-ink illustrations by Kathleen Jennings. It was limited to 350 copies.
The second collaborative volume of the year from author Slatter and artist Jennings was Black-Winged Angels, a reprint collection of ten stories with an Introduction by Juliet Marillier. It was published in a signed hardcover edition of 250 copies by Australia’s Ticonderoga Publications.
Written in Darkness was a beautifully produced hardcover from Egaeus Press that collected nine stories (five original) by Mark Samuels, along with an Introduction by Reggie Oliver. It was limited to just 275 copies.
From Robert Morgan’s Sarob Press, Summonings collected ten classically-styled ghost stories by Ron Weighell (three original) in a handsome signed and numbered edition, with impressive dust-jacket and signature page art by Santiago Caruso.
Edited and Introduced by Rosemary Pardoe for the same publisher, The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows Volume 2 featured twelve more sequels or prequels to M.R. James stories by Peter Bell, C.E. Ward, John Howard, Reggie Oliver, Christopher Harman, Derek John, Mark Valentine and others. It was limited to 325 numbered hardcovers.
Published by NonStop Press, The Monkey’s Other Paw: Revived Classic Stories of Dread and the Dead edited by Luis Ortiz contained twelve stories by, amongst others, Barry N. Malzberg, Paul Di Filippo and Damien Broderick, based on other authors’ classic stories, along with a reprint of W.W. Jacobs’ ‘The Monkey’s Paw’.
San Francisco’s Tachyon imprint published two mostly reprint anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow. Nicely illustrated by John Coulthart, Lovecraft’s Monsters was yet another HPL-inspired volume, containing eighteen stories (one original) by Neil Gaiman, Laird Barron, Kim Newman, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Thomas Ligotti, Gemma Files, Karl Edward Wagner, Joe R. Lansdale, John Langan and others, along with a Foreword by Stefan Dziemianowicz and a useful ‘Monster Index’. The Cutting Room: Dark Reflections of the Silver Screen showcased twenty-three movie-themed tales (one original) by, amongst others, Dennis Etchison, F. Paul Wilson, Peter Straub, Ian Watson, Howard Waldrop, David Morrell, Robert Shearman, Nicholas Royle, Garry Kilworth, Douglas E. Winter, Joel Lane, Laird Barron and Kim Newman. Genevieve Valentine supplied the Introduction.
Also from Tachyon, Daryl Gregory’s novel We Are All Completely Fine featured a support group for survivors of horrific encounters who teamed up to battle a new evil.
Edited by S.T. Joshi for Fedogan & Bremer, Searchers After Horror: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic was loosely themed around “the Weird Place” and featured twenty-one stories by, amongst others, Hannes Bok, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Gavin, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nancy Kilpatrick, John Shirley, Brian Stableford, Simon Strantzas and Steve Rasnic Tem, along with interior illustrations by Rodger Gerberding.
From the same imprint, Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed contained eight mostly long stories of cosmic horror (four reprints) by Scott Nicolay, along with an Introduction by Laird Barron and an Afterword by John Pelan (whose name was misspelled on the Contents page).
The Cosmic Horror and Others was the third collection from JnJ Publications of the work of early H.P. Lovecraft correspondent Richard F. Searight. The trade paperback, limited to just 100 copies, collected four stories and twelve poems, along with an Introduction by the author’s son, Franklyn Searight, and illustrations by Allen Koszowski.
The Spectral Book of Horror Stories was the first volume in a new anthology series from the British small press imprint, edited by Mark Morris. It featured nineteen original stories from Ramsey Campbell, Alison Littlewood, Helen Marshall, Reggie Oliver, Robert Shearman, Michael Marshall Smith, Angela Slatter, Rio Youers, Lisa Tuttle and Stephen Volk, amongst others.
Edited and introduced by Tony Earnshaw with a Foreword by Mark Gatiss, the Spectral Press softcover edition of The Christmas Ghost Stories of Lawrence Gordon Clark collected seven classic M.R. James stories selected by the veteran TV director for filming. The hardcover edition added some interesting photographs and an interview with Clark, while a deluxe signed slipcased edition limited to 50 copies included all the above, plus an additional story by Charles Dickens, an unfilmed treatment by Basil Copper, a play adaptation, biographies of Copper and James by Johnny Mains, and a section of colour photographs.