Dark Forces (book)
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| Author | Kirby McCauley (editor) |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror short stories |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Released | 1980 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror is an anthology of 23 original horror stories, first published by The Viking Press in 1980 and as a paperback by Bantam Books in 1981. It was edited by New York City literary agent Kirby McCauley. Dark Forces won the World Fantasy award for best anthology/collection in 1981 and is celebrated in an essay by Christopher Golden in Horror: Another 100 Best Books, edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. In 2006, a 25th anniversary edition was published by Lonely Road books, signed and with a new afterword by McCauley and a new cover by Bernie Wrightson as well as inside illustrations by eight other artists.
[edit] Background
The idea for an ambitious new collection of horror and supernatural stories was suggested to Kirby McCauley by British publisher Anthony Cheetham. As he started planning it, McCauley was partly inspired by the editorial work of August Derleth in his search for top-quality horror fiction, and partly by Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions in his aim to get new and established writers to submit previously unpublished stories without any editorial demands or narrow theme.
McCauley writes in his original introduction, "I set out to offer as many of the subjects and moods and general directions the fantastic tale has tended traditionally to take as I could, but hopefully in imaginative, fresh ways." About his method of finding material, he writes: "I approached by letter or telephone nearly every writer living who had tried his or her hand at this type of story and whose writing I like personally. Predictably enough, some were able to respond with stories, some were not."
[edit] Contents
- Introduction by Kirby McCauley
- "The Mist" by Stephen King
- "The Late Shift" by Dennis Etchison
- "The Enemy" by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- "Dark Angel" by Edward Bryant
- "The Crest of Thirty-six" by Davis Grubb
- "Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale" by Robert Aickman
- "Where the Summer Ends" by Karl Edward Wagner
- "The Bingo Master" by Joyce Carol Oates,
- "Children of the Kingdom" by T. E. D. Klein
- "The Detective of Dreams" by Gene Wolfe
- "Vengeance Is." by Theodore Sturgeon
- "The Brood" by Ramsey Campbell
- "The Whistling Well" by Clifford D. Simak
- "The Peculiar Demesne" by Russell Kirk
- "Where the Stones Grow" by Lisa Tuttle
- "The Night Before Christmas" by Robert Bloch
- "The Stupid Joke" by Edward Gorey
- "A Touch of Petulance" by Ray Bradbury
- "Lindsay and the Red City Blues" by Joe Haldeman
- "A Garden of Blackred Roses" by Charles L. Grant
- "Owls Hoot in the Daytime" by Manly Wade Wellman
- "Where There´s a Will" by Richard Matheson and Richard Christian Matheson
- "Traps" by Gahan Wilson
[edit] Influence
Clive Barker has stated in Faces of Fear that reading the great variation of horror stories in Dark Forces encouraged him to start writing his own stories without limitations for The Books of Blood.
