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When it comes to science fiction, this topic has been researched extensively over the years, but I find little to nothing about it regarding horror fiction.

My search criteria are:

  • It is an anthology (multiple stories by multiple authors), not a collection (multiple stories by one author).
  • Contains original material; stories appearing in print for the first time, not reprints.
  • Meant for adults, not targeted specifically for children or young people.
  • Published in the English language.

My findings are:

Sutton also edited New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural, Volume 2, paperback published by Sphere in 1972, and The Satyr's Head and Other Tales of Terror, paperback published by Corgi in 1975.

That makes three original material horror anthologies published in the UK before the first one published in the US.

Of course, the anthology edited by Grant went on to become a long-running series during the US horror publishing boom of the 1980s/early 1990s along with tons of other anthologies and novels.

Does anyone know of any earlier English language, original material, horror anthologies for adults published in the US or UK?

UPDATE

DavidW's findings are:

Dark Mind, Dark Heart is notable for including the first Cthulhu Mythos story by Ramsey Campbell.

The Arkham House hardcover had a print run of 2493 copies. I'm assuming the Mayflower-Dell paperback was probably a mass-market paperback with a much larger print run.

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    web.archive.org/web/20071222153654/http://contento.best.vwh.net/… might come in handy, although it's explicitly about scif-fi/fantasy instead of horror.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 13:28
  • How much new content is required? Does an anthology with a single original story count? (If so, I have an example from 1944.)
    – DavidW
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 13:57
  • Everything I've looked at so far has been either all reprints or all original. I hadn't even considered a hybrid style since I don't recall ever seeing one like that. Not for horror fiction anyway. If I was uncertain how to classify a particular anthology, I'd check the Anthologies Index linked above. In the Table of Contents for Books Listed by Title, they label them (an) if they consider it a reprint anthology, and (oa) if they consider it an original anthology.
    – David Noble
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 14:55
  • I don't know if Cynthia Asquith's original stories anthology The Ghost Book (1926) is horror (I haven't seen it), but somebody gave it a "horror" tag at ISFDB.
    – user14111
    Commented Mar 3 at 5:33

2 Answers 2

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The earliest one I've been able to find is August Derleth's 1962 anthology Dark Mind, Dark Heart. The cover bills it as

new horror stories by H. P. Lovecraft, H. R. Wakefield, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, William Hope Hodgson, M. P. Shiel, Joseph Payne Brennan, David H. Keller, John Metcalfe, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, Stephen Grendon, Carl Jacobi, and others

If you'll settle for (1) mostly (2) not previously published work (as opposed to works specifically written for the anthology), in 1959 Derleth edited The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces which was a posthumous collection of some previously unpublished Lovecraft stories, some edited/rewritten by Derleth, along with a collection of essays on Lovecraft and his influence from a bunch of writers.

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  • Note: I approached this by assuming that Derleth was simply the most likely anthologist of an early collection of horror works, and working through his anthologies in chronological order.
    – DavidW
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 16:31
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    Oh, and if the requirement is relaxed to include any anthology with even a single original story, Derleth's 1944 anthology Sleep No More: Twenty Masterpieces of Horror for the Connoisseur has an original story contributed by the editor.
    – DavidW
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 16:33
  • The Anthologies Index lists The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces as a collection. I agree. The fiction is essentially a Lovecraft collection. However, they list Dark Mind, Dark Heart as an original anthology. I also agree. It meets all the criteria. It does contain one twelve-page reprint story, but in a 250-page anthology, that's less than 5%. So, still over 95% original material. I guess I overlooked this one because of the low print run, less than 2500 copies, and because I generally associate Arkham House with reprint anthologies and Lovecraft collections. GOOD JOB! We have a NEW champion!
    – David Noble
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 17:40
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    One reprint story in an original anthology, I'd still consider it an original anthology. One original story in a reprint anthology, I'd still consider it a reprint anthology.
    – David Noble
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 17:42
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Rod Serling's Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves was published in 1963.

Rod Serling's Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves is an anthology of fantasy and horror stories edited by Rod Serling and ghost edited by Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published by Bantam Books in 1963. Most of the stories originally appeared in the magazines Fantasy and Science Fiction, Unknown, New England Magazine, Fantastic, The Pioneer and Beyond Fantasy Fiction.

It notes that "most" of the entries are reprints, which suggests that some are not.

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    FWIW the ISFDb entry lists only much older, probably public domain, stories other than the ones previously printed in magazines. (Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rudyard Kipling, that kind of thing.)
    – DavidW
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 13:38
  • Dang. So much for that. :-P
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 13:39

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