SFScope on Terror and the Uncanny

The blog "SFScope" has quite a preview up about Library of America's forthcoming two volume set, Terror and the Uncanny. This latest collection of strange literature from the prestigious book publisher catalogues stories that represent an excellent cross section of the best 20th century horror. The first volume, Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps, runs from well known Victorian and Gothic antecedents of weird fiction such as Poe, past Ambrose Bierce and Lovecraft, and up to Clark Ashton Smith and Robert Bloch. The second volume is titled Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s Until Now, and covers a huge spectrum of contemporary authors from Fritz Leiber and Ray Bradbury, to Thomas Ligotti and Joe Hill.

Library of America's publication of a H.P. Lovecraft volume a couple years seemingly secured the Providence writer's place in American literature permanently. In another way, it's probable this two volume set will rubber stamp the strongest favorites of critics and readers in the genre today, while reinforcing the position of earlier authors in the lineage of weird horror. The set may also open new discussions on what constitutes the terrible and the uncanny, particularly due to their inclusion of writers like Vladimir Nabokov and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who aren't usually identified as horror scribes.

Peter Straub is the editor of both volumes, and introduces each one accordingly. While others may have been involved in the ultimate selection of tales for these books, Straub's lineup is definitely interesting and, in many ways, impeccable. See the SFScope article linked above for a full list of authors and stories appearing in both books.

-Grim Blogger