The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixteenth Annual Collection


Ellen DatlowMelissa Hardy - 2003
    Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling continue their critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field, nearly four dozen stories ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, new Year's Best sections on comics, by Charles Vess, and on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.The critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition continues with another stunning collection, including stories by Kelly Link, Kim Newman, Corey Marks, Eric Schaller, M. Shayne Bell, Helga M. Novak, Terry Dowling, Michael Libling, Zoran Zivkovic, Bentley Little, Carlton Mellick III, Brian Hodge, Conrad Williams, Tom Disch, Melissa Hardy, Joel Lane, Nicholas Royle, Tracina Jackson-Adams, Karen Joy Fowler, Jackie Bartley, Peter Dickerman, Ramsey Campbell, Adam Roberts, Robert Phillips, Jay Russell, Luis Alberto Urrea, Margaret Lloyd, Stephen Gallagher, Robin McKinley, Haruki Murakami, Theodora Goss, Kathy Koja, Lucy Taylor, Elizabeth Hand, Kevin Brickmeier, Sharon McCartney, Susan Power, Don Tumasonis, Nan Fry.Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, Year's Best sections on comics, by Charles Vess, and on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

The Mammoth Book of Vampires


Stephen JonesBasil Copper - 1992
    Among them are: Harlan Ellison, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Paul McAuley, Peter Tremayne, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Ramsey Campbell.This anthology collects the very best in vampire fiction which blends sheer horror with dark humor, deadly tenderness with tingling terror. For the classic vampire, as this volume amply shows, the Blood is the Life. From Hugh B. Cave's pulp thriller "Stragella" through to Harold Waldrop's bizarre mix of vampire and Nazis in "Der Untergang Des Abendlandesmenschen" and Christopher Fowler's "The Legend of Dracula Reconsidered as a Primetime TV Special." In between lie artful chillers by the likes of Clive Barker, Brian Lumley, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Robert Bloch and John Burke, along with new and original stories by Niel Gaiman with "Cards from a Vampire Tarot," and Kim Newman with "Andy Warhol's Dracula: anno Dracula 1978-79." You can sink your teeth, too, in F. Paul Wilson's fast-paced thriller "Midnight Mass," Manly Wade Wellman's "Chastel," offering bloody intrigue and adventure with Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant; and Les Daniel's "Yellow Fog," which features his enigmatic vampire-hero Don Sebastian de Villanueva.CONTENTSIntroduction: The Children of the Night by Stephen JonesHuman Remains by Clive BarkerNecros by Brian LumleyThe Man Who Loved The Vampire Lady by Brian StablefordA Place To Stay by Michael Marshall SmithThe Brood by Ramsey CampbellRoot Cellar by Nancy KilpatrickHungarian Rhapsody by Robert BlochThe Legend of Dracula Reconsidered as a Prime-Time TV Special by Christopher FowlerVampire by Richard Christian MathesonStragella by Hugh B. CaveA Week In The Unlife by David J. SchowThe House At Evening by Francis GarfieldVampyrrhic Outcast by Simon ClarkThe Labyrinth by R. Chetwynd-HayesBeyond Any Measure by Karl Edward WagnerDoctor Porthos by Basil CopperStraight To Hell by Paul McAuleyIt Only Comes Out At Night by Dennis EtchisonInvestigating Jericho by Chelsea Quinn YarbroDracula's Chair by Peter TremayneA Taste For Blood by Sydney J. BoundsThe Better Half by Melanie TemThe Devil's Tritone by John BurkeChastel by Manly Wade WellmanDer Untergang Des Abendlandesmenschen by Howard WaldropRed As Blood by Tanith LeeLaird of Dunain by Graham MastersonA Trick of the Dark by Tina RathMidnight Mass by F. Paul WilsonBlood Gothis by Nancy HolderYellow Fog by Les DanielsFifteen Cards From a Vampire Tarot by Neil GaimanVintage Domestic by Steve Rasnic TemTry A Dull Knife by Harlan EllisonAndy Warhol's Dracula: Anno Dracula 1978-1979 by Kim Newman

Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade


Jeff Shesol - 1997
    Their antagonism, propelled by clashing personalities, contrasting views, and a deep, abiding animosity, would drive them to a bitterness so deep that even civil conversation was often impossible. Played out against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s, theirs was a monumental political battle that would shape federal policy, fracture the Democratic party, and have a lasting effect on the politics of our times. Drawing on previously unexamined recordings and documents, as well as memoirs, biographies, and scores of personal interviews, Jeff Shesol weaves the threads of this epic story into a compelling narrative that reflects the impact of LBJ and RFK's tumultuous relationship on politics, civil rights, the war on poverty, and the war in Vietnam. As Publishers Weekly noted, "This is indispensable reading for both experts on the period and newcomers to the history of that decade." "An exhaustive and fascinating history. . . . Shesol's grasp of the era's history is sure, his tale often entertaining, and his research awesome."—Russell Baker, New York Review of Books "Thorough, provocative. . . . The story assumes the dimensions of a great drama played out on a stage too vast to comprehend."—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post (1997 Critic's Choice) "This is the most gripping political book of recent years."—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship


J.M. Coetzee - 1996
    Coetzee presents a coherent, unorthodox analysis of censorship from the perspective of one who has lived and worked under its shadow. The essays collected here attempt to understand the passion that plays itself out in acts of silencing and censoring. He argues that a destructive dynamic of belligerence and escalation tends to overtake the rivals in any field ruled by censorship. From Osip Mandelstam commanded to compose an ode in praise of Stalin, to Breyten Breytenbach writing poems under and for the eyes of his prison guards, to Aleksander Solzhenitsyn engaging in a trial of wits with the organs of the Soviet state, Giving Offense focuses on the ways authors have historically responded to censorship. It also analyzes the arguments of Catharine MacKinnon for the suppression of pornography and traces the operations of the old South African censorship system.

The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever


Richard C. Hoagland - 1987
    Here Hoagland redefines the solar system as a different place than NASA has presented. The book includes a new preface covering the Mars Global Surveyor photos and NASA's reactions.

The Mammoth Book of New Terror


Stephen JonesDavid J. Schow - 2004
    Here are over 20 stories and short novels by the masters of gore, including Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, F. Paul Wilson, Brian Lumley, Tanith Lee and John Kaine. This classic Mammoth title features new and previously uncollected stories from some of the biggest and brightest names on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as classics from acknowledged masters.The contents include:Fruiting Bodies by Brian LumleyNeedle Song by Charles L. GrantTurbo-Satan by Christopher FowlerTalking In The Dark by Dennis EtchisonThe Circus by Sydney J. BoundsFoet by F. Paul WilsonThe Candle In The Skull by Basil CopperThe Chimney by Ramsey CampbellDark Wings by Phyllis EisensteinReflection Of Evil by Graham MastertonMirror Of The Night by E.C. TubbMaypole by Brian MooneyUnder The Crust by Terry LamsleyTir Nan Og by Lisa TuttleA Living Legend by R. Chetwynd-HayesWake-Up Call by David J. SchowThe Fourth Seal by Karl Edward WagnerUnlocked by Tanith Lee & John KaiineClosing Time by Neil GaimanIt Was The Heat by Pat CadiganFodder by Tim Lebbon & Brian KeeneOpen Doors by Michael Marshall SmithAndromeda Among The Stones by Caitlín R. KiernanFlowers On Their Bridles, Hooves In The Air by Glen HirshbergAmerikanski Dead At The Moscow Morgue Or: Children Of Marx And Coca–Cola by Kim NewmanAmong The Wolves by David Case

The Man Who Kept The Secrets: Richard Helms And The CIA


Thomas Powers - 1979
    For 30 years--from the very inception of the Central Intelligence Agency & before--he occupied pivotal positions in that shadowy world: OSS operator, spymaster, planner, plotter, &, finally, for over 6 years, Agency director. No other was so closely & personally involved, over so long a period, with so many CIA activities, successful & otherwise. His story is the story of the CIA. In portraying Helms' extraordinary career, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Powers has in fact written the 1st comprehensive inside history of the CIA itself. It's a history, moreover, that is entirely uncensored. While the information on which it's based has been drawn from intensive interviews with dozens of former key Agency officials, including Helms himself, as well as from exhaustive research thru hundreds of published & unpublished sources, the author isn't subject to the kind of legal restraints that have burdened others writing about the CIA. The result is a picture of the Agency more objective, more complete & more revealing than any hitherto available. Because it's written with an eye for character & anecdote, it's as readable as it's important.

The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories


Peter HainingA.E. Coppard - 2000
    Over 40 tales of visitation by the undead--from vengeful and violent spirits, set on causing harm to innocent people tucked up in their homes, to rarer and more kindly ghosts, returning from the grave to reach out across the other side. Yet others entertain desires of a more sinister bent, including the erotic. This new edition includes a selection of favorite haunted house tales chosen by famous screen stars such as Boris Karloff, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. In addition, a top ranking list of contributors includes Stephen King, Bram Stoker, Ruth Rendell, and James Herbert--all brought together by an anthologist who himself lives in a haunted house.Contents1 • The Haunted House • (2000) • short fiction by Elizabeth Albright and Ray Bradbury3 • Foreword: I Live In A Haunted House • (2000) • essay by Peter Haining9 • The Haunted and the Haunters • (1919) • novelette by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (variant of The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain 1859)39 • Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House • (2000) • short story by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (variant of An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House 1862)53 • A Case of Eavesdropping • [Jim Shorthouse] • (1900) • short story by Algernon Blackwood69 • A Haunted House • (1921) • short story by Virginia Woolf73 • Ghost Hunt • (1948) • short story by H. Russell Wakefield81 • Dark Winner • (1976) • short story by William F. Nolan89 • The Old House in Vauxhall Walk • (1882) • novelette by Mrs. J. H. Riddell [as by Charlotte Riddell]109 • No. 252 Rue M. Le Prince • (1895) • short story by Ralph Adams Cram125 • The Southwest Chamber • (1903) • novelette by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman [as by Mary Eleanor Freeman]145 • The Toll-House • (1907) • short story by W. W. Jacobs157 • Feet Foremost • (1932) • novelette by L. P. Hartley191 • Happy Hour • (1990) • novelette by Ian Watson217 • The Ankardyne Pew • (1979) • short story by William Fryer Harvey [as by W. F. Harvey]231 • The Real and the Counterfeit • (1988) • short story by Mrs. Alfred Baldwin [as by Louisa Baldwin]249 • A Night at a Cottage ... • (1926) • short story by Richard Hughes253 • The Considerate Hosts • (1939) • short story by Thorp McClusky265 • The Grey House • (1967) • short story by Basil Copper309 • Watching Me, Watching You • (1981) • short story by Fay Weldon329 • A Spirit Elopement • (1915) • short story by Richard Dehan339 • The House of Dust • (1920) • short story by Herbert de Hamel357 • The Kisstruck Bogie • (1946) • short story by A. E. Coppard367 • Mr Edward • (2000) • short story by Norah Lofts (variant of Mr. Edward 1947)385 • House of the Hatchet • (1941) • short story by Robert Bloch403 • Napier Court • (1971) • short story by Ramsey Campbell423 • Lost Hearts • (1895) • short story by M. R. James435 • The Shadowy Third • (1916) • novelette by Ellen Glasgow461 • A Little Ghost • (1922) • short story by Hugh Walpole477 • The Patter of Tiny Feet • (1950) • short story by Nigel Kneale489 • Uninvited Ghosts • (1981) • short story by Penelope Lively497 • Playing with Fire • (1900) • short story by Arthur Conan Doyle [as by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]513 • The Whistling Room • [Carnacki (Hodgson)] • (1910) • short story by William Hope Hodgson533 • Bagnell Terrace • (1925) • short story by E. F. Benson547 • The Companion • (1978) • short story by Joan Aiken557 • The Ghost Hunter • (2000) • short fiction by James Herbert563 • Computer Séance • (1997) • short story by Ruth Rendell573 • In Letters of Fire • [L'homme qui a vu le diable] • (1908) • novelette by Gaston Leroux (trans. of L'homme qui a vu le diable)593 • The Judge's House • (1891) • short story by Bram Stoker613 • The Storm • (1944) • short story by McKnight Malmar627 • The Waxwork • (1931) • short story by A. M. Burrage [as by Ex-Private X]641 • The Inexperienced Ghost • (1902) • short story by H. G. Wells655 • Sophy Mason Comes Back • (1930) • short story by E. M. Delafield669 • The Boogeyman • (1973) • short story by Stephen King683 • Appendix: Haunted House Novels: A Listing • (2000) • essay by Peter Haining

New and Collected Poems


Richard Wilbur - 1988
    Winner of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Poetry.

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy


David E. Hoffman - 2009
    In the last half of the twentieth century the two superpowers had perfected the science of mass destruction and possessed nuclear weapons with the combined power of a million Hiroshimas. What’s more, a Soviet biological warfare machine was ready to produce bacteria and viruses to sicken and kill millions. In The Dead Hand, a thrilling narrative history drawing on new archives and original research and interviews, David E. Hoffman reveals how presidents, scientists, diplomats, soldiers, and spies confronted the danger and changed the course of history. The Dead Hand captures the inside story in both the United States and the Soviet Union, giving us an urgent and intimate account of the last decade of the arms race. With access to secret Kremlin documents, Hoffman chronicles Soviet internal deliberations that have long been hidden. He reveals that weapons designers in 1985 laid a massive “Star Wars” program on the desk of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to compete with President Reagan, but Gorbachev refused to build it. He unmasks the cover-up of the Soviet biological weapons program. He tells the exclusive story of one Soviet microbiologist’s quest to build a genetically engineered super-germ—it would cause a mild illness, a deceptive recovery, then a second, fatal attack. And he details the frightening history of the Doomsday Machine, known as the Dead Hand, which would launch a retaliatory nuclear strike if the Soviet leaders were wiped out. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the dangers remained. Soon rickety trains were hauling unsecured nuclear warheads across the Russian steppe; tons of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium lay unguarded in warehouses; and microbiologists and bomb designers were scavenging for food to feed their families. The Dead Hand offers fresh and startling insights into Reagan and Gorbachev, the two key figures of the end of the Cold War, and draws colorful, unforgettable portraits of many others who struggled, often valiantly, to save the world from the most terrifying weapons known to man.

The Psychopathic God


Robert G.L. Waite - 1977
    . . . Even though a thousand books are written on Hitler, this will long remain the best."--H. Stuart Hughes The Psychopathic God is the definitive psychological portrait of Adolph Hitler. By documenting accounts of his behavior, beliefs, tastes, fears, and compulsions, Robert Waite sheds new light on this complex figure. But Waite's ultimate aim is to explain how Hitler's psychopathology changed German--and world--history. With The Psychopathic God we can begin to understand Hitler as never before.

Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity, and American Politics


Gail Collins - 1998
    Complete with wickedly delightful anecdotes of major and minor politicians and entertainers over the last 200 years, Gail Collins examines the evolving relationship between politicians and the press and the blurring of the lines between politicians and celebrities. Supported by extensive research and written with an entertaining flair, she speculates on how gossip reflects the current moral compass of the time, noting how a rumor, like an unpredictable summer tornado, can flatten one reputation while a similar story passes over another with hardly a rustle. "Hilariously readable" (The Economist), Scorpion Tongues offers sinful scandals and mild hearsay for every taste.

Chickenhawk: Back in the World Again: Life After Vietnam


Robert Mason - 1994
    Follow-up to _Chickenhawk_ covers his post-Vietnam struggles with PTSD and civilian life.

Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America


Rick Perlstein - 2008
    Perlstein's account begins with the '65 Watts riots, nine months after Johnson's landslide victory over Goldwater appeared to herald a permanent liberal consensus. Yet the next year, scores of liberals were tossed from Congress, America was more divided than ever & a disgraced politician was on his way to a shocking comeback. Between '65 & '72, America experienced a 2nd civil war. From its ashes, today's political world was born. It was the era not only of Nixon, Johnson, Agnew, Humphrey, McGovern, Daley & Geo Wallace but Abbie Hoffman, Ronald Reagan, Angela Davis, Ted Kennedy, Chas Manson, John Lindsay & Jane Fonda. There are glimpses of Jimmy Carter, Geo H.W. Bush, Jesse Jackson, John Kerry & even of two ambitious young men named Karl Rove & Bill Clinton--& an unambitious young man named Geo W. Bush. Cataclysms tell the story: Blacks trashing their neighborhoods. White suburbanites wielding shotguns. Student insurgency over the Vietnam War. The assassinations of Rbt F. Kennedy & Martin Luther King. The riots at the '68 Democratic Nat'l Convention. The fissuring of the Democrats into warring factions manipulated by the dirty tricks of Nixon & his Committee to ReElect the President. Nixon pledging a dawn of nat'l unity, governing more divisively than any president before him, then directing a criminal conspiracy, the Watergate cover-up, from the Oval Office. Then, in 11/72, Nixon, harvesting the bitterness & resentment born of turmoil, was reelected in a landslide, not only setting the stage for his '74 resignation but defining the terms of the ideological divide characterizing America today. Filled with prodigious research, driven by a powerful narrative, Perlstein's account of how America divided confirms his place as one of our country's most celebrated historians.

The Mammoth Book of Monsters


Stephen JonesRobert Silverberg - 2007
    Bounds, and a reclusive islander shares his world with shape-changing selkies in Robert Holdstock's haunting tale The Silvering.Late-night office workers are menaced by hungry horrors in Ramsey Cambell's claustrophobic Down There, while the monsters of both Brian Lumley's The Thin People and Basil Copper's The Flabby Men share only a semblance of humanity. The King of the Monsters himself turns up in Godzilla's Twelve Step Program by Joe R. Lansdale, R. Chetwynd-Hayes' The Shadmock and Clive Barker's Rawhead Rex are genuinely new monsters, and the last monster-fighter and the last classic monster confront each other in Kim Newman's The Chill Clutch of the Unseen.If you like monsters, then there are plenty to choose from in this creature-filled collection boasting some of the biggest names in horror, fantasy and science fiction.Contents:Introduction: How to Make a Monster by Stephen JonesVisitation by David J. SchowDown There by Ramsey CampbellThe Man He Had Been Before by Scott EdelmanCalling All Monsters by Dennis EtchisonThe Shadmock by R. Chetwynd-HayesThe Spider Kiss by Christopher FowlerCafé Endless: Spring Rain by Nancy HolderThe Medusa by Thomas LigottiIn the Poor Girl Taken by Surprise by Gemma Files Downmarket by Sydney J. BoundsFat Man by Jay LakeThe Thin People by Brian LumleyThe Hill by Tanith LeeGodzilla's Twelve Step Program by Joe R. Lansdale.220 Swift by Karl Edward WagnerOur Lady of the Sauropods by Robert SilverbergThe Flabby Man by Basil CopperThe Silvering by Robert HoldstockSomeone Else's Problem by Michael Marshall SmithRawhead Rex by Clive BarkerThe Chill Clutch of the Unseen by Kim Newman