How to Collect Short Horror Stories by Robert W. Chambers

Robert W. Chambers, 1865-1933

Robert W. Chambers was a prolific writer of many different kinds of stories, including the horror and fantasy stories for which he is remembered today. These are the stories that influenced the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard and Robert Bloch. Collecting these horror stories in all their incarnations is not the easiest hobby, but it is well worth finding them.

Instructions

1. 

   Start with the books. Most of Chambers’ original works appeared in book form first, unlike many of his successors. While you may not be able to find the original editions—or if you do, they may be too expensive—most of his stories have been collected or repackaged many times.

2. 

   Find a copy of “The King in Yellow,” if you can, to really get a feel for the way Chambers originally intended his best stories to appear. The first edition has a dragon in black on a green cloth cover. There are many others, but the most common of the original 1890s editions is black with a red and yellow king on the cover. This volume also has appeared in paperback editions several times over the years. Most of these can be found from dealers such as Ray Bowman or on ABEBooks.com.

3. 

   Try eBay and ABEBooks.com for other Chambers books such as “The Mystery of Choice,” “In Search of the Unknown,” “The Tree of Heaven,” “The Maker of Moons,” “Slayer of Souls” and “Quick Action.” These are the original editions. Later collections include “The Mask and Other Stories” and the recent “The Yellow Sign and Other Stories.”

4. 

   Check out used book stories in the science fiction section. Frequently there will be anthologies there in paperback form that will contain a story here and there by Chambers. Of course, the most common will be “The Yellow Sign,” but there might be others such as “The Harbor Master.”

5. 

   Try the science fiction and fantasy pulps. Chambers stories appear in issues of the "Avon Fantasy Reader, The Magazine of Horror and Famous Fantastic Mysteries." In fact, "Famous Fantastic Mysteries" contains the entirety of “Slayer of Souls” in the May 1951 issue. Other appearances—all reprints—in the fantastic pulps and magazines include: "Famous Fantastic Mysteries": Nov. 1942, “The Demoiselle d’Ys”; Sept. 1943, “The Yellow Sign”; Dec. 1943, “The Mask”; April 1947, “Passeur”; and April 1948, “The Messenger." "Avon Fantasy Reader": No. 02 1947, “The Yellow Sign” and No. 05 1947, “In the Court of the Dragon.” "Magazine of Horror": Aug. 1963, “The Yellow Sign”; Feb 1964, “The Repairer of Reputations”; April 1965, “Passeur” and Aug. 1965, “In the Court of the Dragon.”

6. 

   Seek the "Cthulhu Mythos" cycle books from Chaosium Inc. Because Chambers stories influenced H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard who wrote many stories in what would become known following H.P. Lovecraft’s death as the "Cthulhu Mythos," some of his best stories are put in context with other authors’ work. Chambers stories are included in “The Hastur Cycle” and “The Innsmouth Cycle.” Chaosium also gathered most of Chambers’ horror stories in the aforementioned “The Yellow Sign and Other Stories.”

Tips & Warnings

• Chambers is elusive. Since he predates Lovecraft and the others, his books are harder to come by. If you have a speculative fiction store near you, try there first. Antiquarian bookstores also occasionally have his original books, but mostly will carry his historical romances rather than his infrequent horror.

• If you are interested in collecting first editions of Chambers’ books, keep in mind that most of them were published by Appleton. On the last page of the text will be a number in parenthesis. This number will be the edition.

• “The King in Yellow” originally was published by F.T. Neely. It went through several editions for that publisher. There never was a first edition published by A.L. Burt. That company made reprints and they are the most common to find.

Resources

• Ray Bowman
• ABEBooks.com
• Chaosium.com