Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown (1993) was the final Marvin Kaye anthology with an Edward Gorey dust jacket. It was a free gift from the Science Fiction Book Club around the time of its publication and it certainly coaxed me to join. It’s the same as the others inside, really. A Winston Churchill story FFS? The inclusion of Ray Russel’s “Sagittarius” makes up for much of the legitimacy baiting, however. A. Merritt’s “The People of the Pit,” Wells’ “In the Avu Observatory” and Lovecraft’s “The Dreams in the Witch-House” are all in here, and they are probably masterpieces. There are many unfamiliar stories by familiar names that leave me wondering what Kaye was thinking. But then, if I were editing a book called Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown, I wouldn’t be so gauche as to include one of my own stories, which Kaye does. I also wouldn’t include Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” either?

Another excellent Edward Gorey cover, though. I love how I have never been able to entirely parse it. Are we in the cave, looking out? Or is the whole world a cave, as in C.L. Moore’s “Black God’s Kiss” (which could easily be included in here instead of “The Necklace,” as it involves both terror and the unknown)? Fossilized human skeletons, furtive figures, flying snakes, a ruined abbey, what’s not to love?