HWA Announces Haunted Library of Horror Classics

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) and Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, are pleased to announce the “Haunted Library of Horror Classics,” a new series of reprinted horror classics. Now some of the genre’s seminal titles will be easily available to modern readers. The series editors include acclaimed writer and editor Eric J. Guignard, and multiple-award-winning editor and annotator Leslie S. Klinger.

HWA’s President Lisa Morton said, “This is a project we’ve been working on behind the scenes at HWA for years, because keeping the genre’s classics alive is something I consider a key part of HWA’s core mission goals. I can’t imagine better choices to edit this series than Eric and Les, and I’m thrilled to be working with everyone at Poisoned Pen and Sourcebooks.”

Each volume will feature an introduction by a noted horror expert and/or author, and every book will close with a study guide for classroom use. The editions (quality trade paperback) are aimed to be reasonably priced for a mass market. The first release, Gaston LeRoux’s Phantom of the Opera, will be introduced by New York Times-bestselling author and multiple Bram Stoker Award® winner Nancy Holder.

The other initial titles selected are: The Beetle by Richard Marsh; Vathek by William Beckford; House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson; The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror by Arthur Conan Doyle; and The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers.

“When approached by HWA to consider this project, I was intrigued by the opportunity to introduce a new readership to the masterpieces of this much underappreciated genre,” said Robert Rosenwald, Director of Development, Poisoned Pen Press. “And to work with such luminaries as Eric J. Guignard and Leslie Klinger, providing each title with a study guide, and making them available at reasonable prices made the Haunted Library irresistible.”

Eric J. Guignard has won the Bram Stoker Award®, been a finalist for the International Thriller Writers Award, and a multi-nominee of the Pushcart Prize for his works of dark and speculative fiction. He has over 100 stories and non-fiction works appearing in publications around the world, has edited six anthologies, and created an ongoing series of primers exploring modern masters of literary dark short fiction, Exploring Dark Short Fiction.

Leslie S. Klinger is the New York Times-best-selling editor of the Edgar® winning New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, as well as numerous other annotated books, anthologies, and articles on Holmes, Dracula, Lovecraft, Frankenstein, mysteries, horror, and the Victorian age. His work includes the acclaimed New Annotated Dracula and New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft as well as the World Fantasy Award-nominated New Annotated Frankenstein, and several anthologies of classic vampire and horror fiction. He also serves as Director of Marketing – Nonfiction & Poisoned Pen Press, Sourcebooks, 1935 Brookdale Road, Suite 139, Naperville, Illinois 60563.