50 Years of Ghost Stories

Dorothy M. Tomlinson was an influential, long-serving editor at the prominent British publishing house Hutchinson & Co. who shaped the landscape of mid-century popular fiction anthology publishing. Working behind the scenes during the interwar period, Tomlinson spearheaded Hutchinson's immensely popular "Century" and thematic omnibus series, which curated massive, thick anthologies of horror, crime, and adventure fiction tailored for a domestic reading public. Rather than selling books based solely on a single author's name, her editorial strategy relied on evoking readers' collective memory of a genre, packaging definitive short stories by legendary masters alongside lesser-known pulp authors. Widely respected for her deep knowledge of supernatural fiction, Tomlinson's behind-the-scenes curation kept the rich, 19th-century Victorian tradition of reading spooky tales around the winter fireside alive well into the modern era. 

First published in October 1935, collection stands as a monument of British interwar supernatural anthology publishing. Comprising a sweeping collection of masterworks from the preceding half-century, the book serves as a historical bridge spanning traditional Victorian Gothic chills down to early 20th-century psychological weird fiction. The star-studded index boasts definitive contributions from the greatest icons of the macabre, including M.R. James, Bram Stoker, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Edith Wharton, Walter de la Mare, and Ambrose Bierce. The true first edition is highly celebrated for its distinctive visual design, bound in classic bright green cloth stamped with an iconic winged skeleton on the front board and a ghostly figure on the spine.

Green canvas binding with black lettering and skeletal illustration to upper cover and reaper to spine. Some creasing to upper edge of spine. Some discoloration along the extremities. Stamp and pen inscription on preliminary endpaper dated 1936. Very good condition.