Horror Classics

I'm new to this group but have been a longtime admirer of the Easton Press books. My mother has several dozen of the Greatest Books series. I remember growing up around them and always seeing them beautifully displayed on the bookcase. Within the past year she received a catalog with mentioning of a Horror Classics series. I am a huge fan of horror and asked that this be a Christmas present for me for this year. I see now that the Horror Classics is no longer available on the Easton Press site. Does anyone have any information of if this series will be continued? I hope it isn't permanently retired!

Easton Press often brings back old subscriptions, but usually in a slightly different format. For example, years ago there was a 3 volume set of Horror Classics that included, I think, Dracula, Frankenstein and Phantom of the Opera. The set you are referring to was an expansion of that set which included 10 other books. It is very likely they will publish all of these books again but probably not in the same format, and sometimes EP waits years before a new format. By Christmas you could probably get all of them through ebay or abebooks, and if you go that route look for books that are in original shrink wrap. Also, Folio Society currently has an edition out of In a Glass, Darkly, by J.S. LeFanu, which I think is one of the best in the EP series.

Thanks for the tip, natashaslove!

>2 natashaslove:

I have to agree, In a Glass Darkly is one of the best in the Horror series. Also, you should be able to pick up Dracula, Frankenstein, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through the 100 Greatest series.

Does anyone own this set? Wondering if Easton sent out the 100 Greatest version of Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Tales? Does the title page say 100 Greatest or just Collector's Edition?

> 5

My copies of Dracula, Frankenstein, and Jekyll include both phrases on the title page. I sampled a few random volumes of the Horror Classics that weren't part of the 100 Greatest set and they just say Collector's Edition on the title page. I forgot to look at the Poe volume but I'm sure it's just like those first three.

As I enjoy macabre, I subscribed to this set back in the day. Here are the books I have that I have marked as from this series:

https://www.librarything.com/catalog/sdawson&tag=Easton%2BPress%2BHorror%2BC...

>7 sdawson: I believe there were 13 volumes released under this series, the one you're missing is 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' by Poe which I believe is identical to the 100 Greatest volume.

There is one main difference between the books in the Horror Classics series and the ones that are mirrored in the 100 Greatest. A special frontispiece was included in each of the books in the Horror series on the page before the normal author's picture in the 100 Greatest series. I have all of them except for 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' if anyone needs a specific photo. I can confirm that Dracula, Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all still say that they are part of the 100 Greatest Books on the title pages.

I'd love to see a picture of this front piece in Dracula, Frankenstein, Tales of Mystery and Dr. Jekyll. I didn't bother ordering them because I already owned them in th 100 Greatest. If there is a different version I'd really like to see it.

>8 Eastoner:
>9 Arknight:

Thank you for the info. I do have 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' in a Heritage Press edition. I thought I had it as part of the 100 greatest, but am not sure, as it's not cataloged in LT. I'll have to search through the house to see. At this point, as long as I have a decent copy, I'd be fine. I should try and group these all together on a shelf if possible though.

-Shawn

I don't know how it compares to the Eastons, but I have "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" in a really nice leather edition published in 1982 by the Southern Living Gallery for the Southern Classics Library. It contains 32 full-page illustrations by Harry Clarke, the colored ones protected by tissue paper. It measures 10.75" x 8.25" and has attractive red and black marbled endpapers.

Somewhere I saw a list of other Southern Classics Library volumes, but this was the only one that interested me.

The 24 black-and white illustrations are posted here:
http://50watts.com/Harry-Clarke-Illustrations-for-E-A-Poe

>12 jroger1:, Those illustrations are brilliant. I wish Easton would publish more like that.

>13 hamletscamaro:
A search of abe.com reveals that EP did indeed publish the Harry Clarke illustrations in 2003 as part of the Collectors library of Famous Editions. It is probably quite similar to the one I described. A fine copy is available for as little as $75.00.

>10 boddhidharma:
Sorry for my poor photography skills but these were the best I could do. These are the extra frontispieces for Frankenstein, Jekyll & Hyde, and Dracula. I kind of want to kick myself now for not getting the Poe book just because I was going to get it for less from the 100 Greatest series.

Great illustrations! Although I have to say, if you want what may be the best Frankenstein released, go with the Centipede Press edition featuring the immortal wood engravings of Lynd Ward

http://www.centipedepress.com/gothics/frankenstein.html

It's sold out, but you can hopefully find one at a decent price on the second-hand market. Totally worth it! Although keep in mind that numbered editions are far rarer than unnumbered (limited to 300, but only a handful were numbered for some reason?)

Thanks so much for the pictures! Nice to confirm there is a difference. Do these still say 100 Greatest Books Ever Written though?

>17 boddhidharma:, Yes, they are exactly the same as the 100 Greatest except for the extra frontispiece before the author's portrait.

>18 Arknight:, I wish I had known that when I was subscribing to that series. I didn't get the duplicate titles since i thought they were exactly the same. Hindsight...

Me too... I called to check the warehouse at Easton but they didnt have any.

Strange, my three (Drac, Frank, and Phantom) are the large black leather volumes with the stylized bats, arms, and masks. Only Phantom has a frontispiece. All read "Collector's Edition." None of the great artwork above.

I think those three (which I also have) were done as a series of some sort before the Horror Classics. I'd have to go through my receipts to be sure though.

I think you must have the 3 volume Classics of Horror set. There is a 13 volume Horror Classics set we've been discussing. It's discontinued right now. Definitely out of stock. Just called again today.

>23 boddhidharma:

Yes, that must be it. Thanks for the clarification. I do have the 3 volume tall, black, Dracula, Frankenstein, and Phantom set.

Then again I have 12 of the 13 titles of the larger volume in some form of EP (and the 13th in a HP). So I must have subscribed to the 13 volume as well, and had them withhold duplicate titles.

-Shawn

I know this is an old topic, but I’m new to EP and have been eyeing these horror classics.

From what I gather the 3 volume set which I love the look of, these three are all cohesively designed in terms of the spine and covers and the size.

Whereas the titles in the 13 volume are all different in spine, cover and size … probably because they were just duplicated from the 100 greatest series? These differences may really bother my ocd nature, I think.

Lastly, what would be a good price for the 3 volume set second hand now?

>25 j3tang:

Yes, the ancient 3-volume set is uniform and have covers more in tune with their stories. The old 13-volume set was more of the normal EP approach, where the cover design may only loosely connect to the story, or not even at all. As for the 100 Greatest Series connection, only 2-3 of those volumes would have had overlap. There might have been 1-2 sourced from something like the Famous Editions but the rest were new and unique to the Horror Classics series.

I couldn’t guess a price on the 3-volume set. It was already difficult to find when I started buying EP books many years ago. The Horror Classics was disbanded when I was only part way through, so I had to find some of them in the secondary market, which was also rather difficult. Either way, today, I’d expect it to be an expensive endeavor.

Given the number of classic EP mini-series being reprinted lately, I’d say that there’s a good chance of the 13-volume set coming back out within the next couple of years.

>26 treereader:

lol @ "ancient" 3-volume vs. "old" 13-volume, and thanks for the info regarding the sets.

Another newb question, for instance when I'm looking @ "At the Mountains of Madness" from pinned thread below, I can see that it was released as part of the 1574 (Horror Classics series), but also again as part of 2705.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/314818

1) Do these numbers coincide with anything inside/outside the book? How can you tell which version of that title you are looking at?
2) And a follow up question, more specifically in regards to the Horror Classics series, was there anything different between the two releases? i.e. the frontispiece was in both?

>27 j3tang:
I'm a bit baffled as why so many titles associate to 2705 in Wootle's post #50 in your link. It looks like multiple series have been combined into one (2705), which doesn't seem right.

Wootle - can you shed some light on this? I thought each series had its own unique identifier.

Anyway, I wasn't aware of there being two separate versions...but that doesn't mean much. There could very well be two different versions.

2705 is used as a catch all. If a couple books were left over from a series, they were given a new number in 2705 and listed individually.

So it’s EP’s catch all…probably a weird database limitation or maybe just lack of understanding by a newly responsible person charged with creating new titles at EP?

It's just like the Reader's Choice titles. They sell the series first and whatever is leftover get a different number and listed individually. If a person only needed 2 out of 3 books in a set, they would have extras of that unbought title. EP used to put all of those in 2705. They seem to have quit using it now.

2585 is the catch all for the Reader's Choice leftover titles.