A Bibliography of the Most Useful
Reference Books for Researching
Antiquarian Supernatural Literatures

by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

   

Preface

Scores -- thousands! -- of books have been written on the subject of supernatural literature. Fans, academics, bibliomaniacs, & critics have all had their say. In whittling this vast literature down to those which are most significant as reference books for antiquarian fantasy collectors & booksellers, I've focused on the broadest overviews, meaning those books covering far more than the "top ten" authors & works. I've forsworn listing my favorite single-author bibliographies such as for Machen or Shiel; skipped reference guides to pulp magazines & magazine literature generally as belonging to a different checklist of useful volumes; & avoided books primarily about newer works of fantasy & the supernatural as being beside the point where antiquarian books are concerned, though there is considerable overlap & the following recommended books would not be worthless for researching newer authors & their works.

Many analytical books & overviews seem mainly to be aimed at tenure in publish-or-perish universities; these also are bypassed since most are redundant to one another & of limited reference value per se. Reference tomes that provide the most information about authors, editions, & synopses of plots turn out not to be all that many after all but are an easily managed lot.

I have tried not to go overboard listing everything of interest but listing instead what would be most useful to have at arm's length in researching antiquarian fantasy & supernatural literatures in book form. The list could be further whittled by removing the select reference books on early Gothics (such as those listed here Blakey, Frank, Mehrotra, Moebius, Summers, Tracy & Varma), since circa 1800 gothics have become so extremely rare that "looking them up" is mainly dream exercise except for the small percentage of modern reprint editions of these old books, or visiting rare book rooms of important library collections, or requesting interlibrary loan of microfilmed copies. Titles from the 1850s to the 1930s, however, are still out there in the world where collectors can seriously expect to accumulate many of them often affordably by persistently scouting the hinterlands, & (for mildly to extremely expensive prices) by cultivating relationships with specialty booksellers. So in choosing the creme de la creme among the reference books below, the titles that cover the Victorian & early 20th Century era are the most practical to obtain for bibliographic & biographic sweep of books one might actually encounter, whereas the books on early gothics, early Orientalist fantasies, & Fantastic Voyage literatures of the 1700s, while essential to the intellectual understanding of antiquarian fantasy, must be regarded as much less to do with actually collecting first or early editions.

   

1. Ash, Brian. WHO'S WHO IN SCIENCE FICTION. Ln: Elm Tree/Hamish Hamilton, 1976; NY: Taplinger, 1976. About 400 bio-bibliographies of the early period through the New Wave of the 1960s. Small "Who's Who" volumes by such authors as Ash & Ashley, & even Tuck's large set, are secondary to Clute's two volume Encyclopedia, but nevertheless of some value.
   
   
2. Ashley, Michael. WHO'S WHO IN HORROR & FANTASY LITERATURE. Ln: Elm Tree, 1977; NY: Taplinger, 1978. About 400 thumbnail author profiles including good coverage of the early period. Information generally needs to be crosschecked as secondary sources dominate the entries. For a single example, the entry on Victorian ghost story writer Madeleine Dahlgren asserts she was a feminist writer when in fact she was a rabid anti-feminist & influential Catholic leader struggling to defeat women's suffrage. It would be great to see this volume corrected & greatly expanded as it can be most handy & mine's worn out.
   
   
3. Atkinson, Geoffroy. THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE IN FRENCH LITERATURE Before 1700 [and] THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE IN FRENCH LITERATURE from 1700 to 1720. NY: Columbia University Press, 1920, 1922 respectively. The only good information for this area, though obviously first editions are so rare on the market that most collectors & dealers won't have a practical use for this beyond broadening one's knowledge of antiquarian fantasy, which alas might be said of all the reference books on this list covering pre-1800 eras.
   
   
4. Bailey, James O. PILGRIMS THROUGH SPACE & TIME: Trends & Patterns in Scientific & Utopian Fiction. NY: Argus, 1947. Pioneer study of pre-WW II works, & coverage of many obscure & rare works, with an appendix of recommended titles including plot summaries.
   
   
5. Barron, Neil, editor. ANATOMY OF WONDER: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction. NY: Bowker, 1976; revised 1981; revised 1987. The third edition is what you want; settle for the earlier two editions only if they're cheap as dirt. Chapters on the genre before 1870, from 1870 to 1926, & so on, make this very useful for antiquarian English language titles. Unfortunately chapters on juvenile s-f & the best English language coverage of foreign language s-f do no justice to the antiquarian portion.
   
   
6. Barron, Neil, editor. FANTASY LITERATURE: A Reader's Guide. NY: Garland, 1990. Descriptions of hundreds of books beginning in the Gothics era, followed by descriptions of research aids of various sorts.
   
   
7. Barron, Neil, editor. HORROR LITERATURE: A Reader's Guide. NY: Garland, 1990. Essential matching volume to Fantasy Literature.
   
   
8. Barron, Neil, editor. FANTASY & HORROR. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1999. A critical & historical guide to literature, illustration, film, TV, radio & the Internet.
   
   
9. Becker, Allienne R. THE LOST WORLDS ROMANCE: From Dawn Till Dusk. Greenwood Press, 1992. A (somewhat feminist) study of lost race & lost world fantasy. This study has flaws; it has a great deal about Edgar Rice Burroughs as the author seems to be an ERB-fan of the first order, but almost nothing about H. Rider Haggard (Becker appears to have read only an omnibus of three Haggard novels) which makes virtually all analyses of the genre as a whole suspect & uninformed. Also an attempt to bring the genre "up to date" with a token chapter about the position of the Lost Race formula today turns out to be a discussion of the author's friend Andrew M. Greeley (who provides a preface) & Greeley never wrote any lost race stories! Becker is again unaware of a very broad array of lost race novels of the 1980s & early 90s as juveniles & adult paperback originals & even as exotic love stories that cross-fertilize harlequin romance with fantasy, besides the Lost Races today encountered in fantasy video games & role-playing & card games & comic books & animation -- there is no awareness that the theme of the Lost Race is as vital as ever in various commercial areas & Becker ends up concluding a charming but now-quaint theme is not modernly vital. On the other hand Becker has provided the first serious-minded booklength study of the Lost Race subgenre & goes into considerable detail about plots of some very rare books never analysed by anyone else, & for the most part even the more obscure titles are worthy ones so that the bibliography of books discussed almost works as a "best" list.
   
   
10. Birkhead, Edith. THE TALE OF TERROR: A Study of the Gothic Romance. Ln: Constable, 1921. A detailed study of early works of weird fiction from the Gothic era to the early 20th Century.
    
    
11. Blakey, Dorothy. THE MINERVA PRESS, 1790-1820. Ln: Oxford University Press, 1939. About the premiere publisher of gothic horror, though only the richest book collectors on the planet are ever apt to have a practical need for it.
    
    
12. Bleiler, Everett F. THE CHECKLIST OF FANTASTIC LITERATURE. Chicago: Shasta, 1948; Naperville, Illinois: Fax, 1972. About 5000 titles are listed. In Bleiler's later checklist (immediately below) many titles were dropped from the 1948 version, for reasons not always fathomable, though short story collections with only one or two supernatural inclusions appear to have been among the jettisoned titles, as well as works only marginally fantastic. The 1978 Checklist is the more reliable for strigent definition of genre, but this earlier version of the Checklist has not been completely superseded.
    
    
13. Bleiler, Everett F. THE CHECKLIST OF SCIENCE FICTION & SUPERNATURAL FICTION. Glen Rock, NJ: Firebell, 1978. With nearly 5000 entries the majority coded for themes, this has long remained the single most important checklist of early first edition fantasy & weird fiction book titles. This checklist is indespensible for serious book scouts who're really in the field tracking down odd old titles. The Checklist is not completely redundant to the 1948 version but more narrowly defines what is apropos. The 1978 version is apt to remain the most useful list of its kind for years yet to come, but it would be a mistake to regard it as exhaustive; in an appendix Ev speculates there are another 5,000 titles that would have fit his definition but not everything was available to verify. Somewhere around 1981-82, I avoided using it as it was steering me away from important titles; but I started using it again once I was confident I could judge more for myself without using the Checklist as a bible. And there are a few collectors out there who collect only the Bleiler Checklist as though it's indeed scripture. Ideally absorbing the vast body of information in this checklist will sensitize the questor to recognizing similar titles missed by Bleiler, recognizable by title-type, author name, fantasy-prone imprint, or gut feeling. If I were forced to pick one book in this bibliography of the best for collectors & sellers of antiquarian fantasy, this one would have to be it. It had two substantial printings of this edition; yet its extreme usefulness has driven the price dramatically upward, alas. If you have to, get a library copy, photocopy it as neatly as possible, & put it in a ring binder.
    
    
14. Bleiler, Everett F. THE GUIDE TO SUPERNATURAL FICTION. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1983. Detailed discriptions & synopses for 1,775 books chiefly antiquarian, including novels & collections, & a motif index. Extravagantly useful, I've worn mine to such a frazzle it needs to be rebound.
    
    
15. Bleiler, Everett F. SCIENCE FICTION: The Early Years. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1990. Synopses of more than 3,000 science fiction stories from the earliest speciments to 1930. Extravagantly useful.
    
    
16. Bleiler, Everett F., editor SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day. NY: Scribner, 1982. Seventy-six critical essays by 26 contributors, with good coverage of the antiquarian portion, & the editor's insightful historical overview. A bit less useful than its larger companion Supernatural Fiction Writers.
    
    
17. Bleiler, Everett F., editor SUPERNATURAL FICTION WRITERS: Fantasy & Horror, Two Volumes. NY: Scribner, 1985. Comprehensive coverage of 148 authors with a sizeable proportion of the content dedicated to the antiquarian side.
    
    
18. Briggs, Julia. NIGHT VISITORS: The Rise & Fall of the English Ghost Story. Ln: Faber, 1977. Intelligent, opinionated discussions of the ghost story ancient to early twentieth century.
    
    
19. Carter, Margaret L. VAMPIRISM IN LITERATURE, A Critical Bibliography. UMI Research Press, 1989. Supersedes a 1975 self-published edition. Extensively annotated bibliography of considerable merit though rumor has it that Carter's labor will be vastly superseded by a much more exhaustive & reliable bibliography being prepared by Robert Eighteen-Bisang.
    
    
20. Cawthorn, James, & Michael Moorcock, editors. FANTASY: The 100 Best Books. Ln: Xanadu, 1988; NY: Carroll & Graf, 1988. Companion volume to Stephen Jones' Horror: 100 Best Books. Diverse hands discuss their favorite books. By no means essential but many colleectors & booksellers regard titles in the "100 Best" series to have some extra cache.
    
    
21. Clareson, Thomas D. SCIENCE FICTION IN AMERICA, 1870s-1930s: An Annotated Bibliography of Primary Sources. Greenwood Press, 1984. Thumbnail discriptions of 838 titles. Intended as a companion volume to, but more useful than, SOME KIND OF PARADISE: The Emergence of American Science fiction. Greenwood, 1985.
    
    
22. Clarke, Ignatius F. THE TALE OF THE FUTURE FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE PRESENT DAY: An Annotated Bibliography. Ln: Library Association, 1961; 1972 2nd edition; & preferred 1978 3rd edition. Chronological listing of about 1,000 titles with one-sentence comments or summaries.
    
    
23. Clarke, Ignatius F. VOICES PROPHESYING WAR, 1773-1984. Ln: Oxford University Press, 1966. Chronological listing of about 900 imaginary war titles. For a bit more information on later future-war tales, you will find useful John Newman & Michael Unsworth's FUTURE WAR NOVELS: An Annotated Bibliography of Works in English Published since 1946 (Oryx Press, 1985) detailing 200 postwar titles of this subgenre.
    
    
24. Clute, John & Peter Nicholls, editors. THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION, Second Edition. NY: St Martins Press, 1993; Ln: Orbit, 1993 (supersedes a 1979 edition edited by Peter Nicholls). 4,300 entries. Don't confuse this for John Clute's Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia (1995) which is not extensive.
    
    
25. Clute, John & John Grant. THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY. Ln: Orbit, 1997; NY: St Martins, 1999. Around 4,000 entries.
    
    
26. Conant, Martha B. THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. NY: Columbia University Press, 1908. Early oriental fantasies in England & France.
    
    
27. Crawford, Jr., Joseph H., James J. Donahue, & Donald M. Grant. "333" A Bibliography of the Science-Fantasy Novel. Providence, RI: Grandon, 1953; NY: Arno, 1975. Originally issued as a limited edition pamphlet, this became a famously rare reference work, then Arno's hardcover edition added another thousand copies to the pool making the book more generally accessible. Synopses of 333 weird, lost race, fantasy, & s-f novels from the gothic period to about 1950 -- this is something of a "best of" vintage adventure fantasies & everything synopsized can be counted on as a fine read, in the same way that the Queen's Quorum list can be counted on for best detective tales.
    
    
28. Currey, Lloyd, with assistance from David G. Hartwell. SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY AUTHORS, A Bibliography of First Printings of Their Fiction & Selected Nonfiction. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1979. Best for its postwar coverage so of only slight antiquarian interest, otherwise highly regarded & often cited.
    
    
29. Day, Bradford. THE SUPPLEMENTAL CHECKLIST OF FANTASTIC LITERATURE. Denver: Science & Fantasy Associates, 1961. About 1,750 titles mostly post-1949. Day did a follow-up volume of the fantastic in paperback editions, of even less value to antiquarian collectors per se.
    
    
30. Eichner, Henry M. ATLANTEAN CHRONICLES. Alhambra: Fantasy Publishing, 1971. Extensive survey of Atlantis theme in fiction, including plot synopses.
    
    
31. Frank, Frederick S. GUIDE TO THE GOTHIC, An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1984; & Volume II 1995. Focus is on 19th & 20th century critical works. 2,508 numbered entries, the majority annotated, & should be regarded as extending his Gothic Fiction(1988). I would not stress Frank's books as essential but they do have certain merits & while early gothics is the primary focus his several books on Gothic literature do embrace many later (Victorian) authors.
    
    
32. Frank, Frederick S. THE FIRST GOTHICS, A Critical Guide to the English Gothic Novel. NY: Garland, 1987. Synopses of 500 gothics published before 1820.
    
    
33. Frank, Frederick S. GOTHIC FICTION: A Master List of Twentieth Century Criticism & Research. Westport, Connecticut: Meckler, 1988. A bibliography of modern criticism of mostly older writings, containing 1,497 numbered citations & more or less completing the survey begun in Guide to the Gothic.
    
    
34. Franklin, H. Bruce FUTURE PERFECT: American Science Fiction of the 19th Century, Revised Edition. NY: Oxford University Press, 1978. A combination anthology & study including information on some obscure works. Although the expanded revised edition is preferable, there were sufficient deletion from the 1966 edition that that can be of separate interest.
    
    
35. Gove, Philip Babcock. IMAGINARY VOYAGE IN PROSE FICTION: A Guide for Its Study, with an Annotated Checklist of 215 Imaginary Voyages from 1700 to 1800. NY: Columbia University Press, 1941; NY: Octogon, 1975.
    
    
36. Jones, Stephen & Kim Newman, editors. HORROR: 100 Best Books.Ln: Xanadu, 1988; NY: Carroll & Graf, 1988. The earliest title covered is 1592 & half of the entries are before the 1950s. Short essays mainly by leading authors, editors, & critics in the field each discussing a different favorite book. Though the method is intentionally hit-&-miss this "100 Best" is frequently cited by booksellers as raising the significance of these 100 titles. See also the companion volume Fantasy: 100 Best Books edited by Cawthorne & Moorcock.
    
    
37. King, Stephen. DANSE MACABRE. NY: Everest House, 1981; NY: Berkley, 1981 wraps, with many needed corrections. King is a perceptive observer of the genre & his recommendations have been closely followed by that small percentage of his enormous fandom that is willing to pursue the genre in-depth.
    
    
38. Korshak, Melvin. AN ADVENTURE IN GOOD READING [and] A HANDBOOK FOR BOOK HUNTERS. Chicago: Shasta, 1946, 1947 respectively. Both volumes are lists of fantastic literature including plot summaries.
    
    
39. Lewis, Arthur O. UTOPIAN LITERATURE IN THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Libraries, 1984 wraps. Annotated bibliography of about 500 titles, supplementing Negley's Utopian Literature.
    
    
40. Locke, George, editor. FERRET FANTASY'S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL FOR 1972. Ln: Ferret, 1972 wraps. The main feature is Locke's annotated list of 300 titles missed in Bleiler (1948) & Day (1963). Yes, you can get by without George's sundry pamphlets if you have his two Spectrum of Fantasy volumes, but there's enough unique to each pamphlet that they're sure nice to have.
    
    
41. Locke, George, editor. FERRET FANTASY'S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL FOR 1973. Ln: Ferret, 1974 wraps. The main feature is Locke's annotated list of nearly 200 titles missed by Bleiler & Day.
    
    
42. Locke, George. SCIENCE FICTION FIRST EDITIONS: A Select Bibliography & Notes for the Collector. Ln: Ferret, 1978. Locke's coverage of early works is legendary in the trade.
    
    
43. Locke, George. A SPECTRUM OF FANTASY: The Bibliography & Biography of A Collection of Fantastic Literature. Ln: Ferret, 1980. With emphasis on obscure 19th Century and early 20th Century works, this must be regarded a truly remarkable supplement to Bleiler, riddled with George's personal experiences among books, so that it actually makes grand reading for any fellow bookworm.
    
    
44. Locke, George. A SPECTRUM OF FANTASY II: Acquisitions to A Collection of Fantastic Literature, Together with Additional Notes On Titles Covered in the First Volume. Ln: Ferret, 1994. Continues the bibliographical record of Locke's own remarkable collection, still with the largest emphasis on the antiquarian portion.
    
    
45. Locke, George. VOYAGES IN SPACE, A Bibliography of Interplanetary Fiction 1801-1914. Ln: Ferret, 1975 wraps. Plot summaries & bibliographic information for 282 antiquarian interplanetaries.
    
    
46. Lovecraft, H. P. SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE. NY: Abramson, 1945; reprinted NY: Dover, 1973. A standard overview with few equals. Virtually everything named by Lovecraft is superior, hence quite justifiably every book he mentions is likely to price significantly higher than books he did not discuss.
    
    
47. Lynn, Ruth Nadelman. FANTASY FOR CHILDREN: An Annotated Checklist & Reference Guide. NY: Bowker, 1979; revised 1983. The revised expands the annotated listings by from 1600 entires to 2000, & adds an extensive nonfiction section. Drawback is it covers mainly 20th Century works.
    
    
48. Magill, Frank N., editor. SURVEY OF MODERN SCIENCE FICTION LITERATURE, in Five Volumes. Edgewood Cliffs: Salem Press, 1979. Five hundred 2,000-word articles; 2,500 bibliographical references; beginning in the earliest period up through the 1970s. Well indexed.
    
    
49. Magill, Frank N., editor. SURVEY OF MODERN FANTASY LITERATURE, in Five Volumes. Edgewood Cliffs: Salem Press, 1983. Companion to the 1979 set focusing on s-f. 500 essays cover 341 authors of fantasy & horror, arranged chronologically beginning in 1764. Well indexed.
    
    
50. Mehrotra, Kawal K. HORACE WALPOLE & THE ENGLISH NOVEL. Blackwell: Oxford University Press, 1934. Fine coverage of even the more obscure gothics.
    
    
51. Moebius, Hans. THE GOTHIC ROMANCE. Leipzig: Buchdruckerie, Grimme & Troeme, 1902. On English & German gothic literature.
    
    
52. Negley, Glenn. UTOPIAN LITERATURE: A Bibliography with A Supplementary Listing of Works Influential in Utopian Thought. Lawrence, Kansas: Regents Press of Kansas, 1977.
    
    
53. Nicolson, Marjorie Hope. VOYAGES TO THE MOON. NY: Macmillan, 1948. An important overview of moon voyage literature including an annotated checklist.
    
    
54. Pardoe, Rosemary. THE JAMES GANG: A Bibliography of Wriers in the M. R. James Tradition. Chester: Haunted Library, 1991. This pamphlet is the best resource on specific short stories & authors in the Jamesian tradition, & evidently quite helpful to the choices made for the award-winning Ash Tree Press's selection of authors to reprint.
    
    
55. Penzolt, Peter. THE SUPERNATURAL IN FICTION. Ln: Peter Nevill, 1952. The focus is on short fiction & is superior to similar books by Sullivan & Scarborough, though the lack of index rather demands penciling marginal notes during the first read-through in order to use it for reference.
    
    
56. Pringle, David SCIENCE FICTION: The Hundred Best Novels, An English Language Selection 1949-1984. Ln: Grafton, 1985. Although like other "100 Best" titles this is hit-&-miss & doesn't cover the older materials sufficiently, useful for the detailed mid-century coverage at least.
    
    
57. Pringle, David. MODERN FANTASY: The Hundred Best Novels, an English Language Selection 1946-1987. Ln: Grafton, 1988; NY: Bedrick, 1989. Limited antiquarian value since it's all postwar, but the mid-century coverage that does get some attention is of real value. I include on this list the 100-best series (see entries under Cawthorne, and under Jones) as a condescention to other booksellers who frequently cite these titles as having added significance.
    
    
58. Pringle, David, ed. St. JAMES GUIDE TO HORROR, GHOST & GOTHIC WRITERS. Detroit: St James Press, 1998. Preface by Dennis Etchison. Leading researchers have provided excellent overviews of a great many authors.
    
    
59. Punter, David. THE LITERATURE OF TERROR: A History of Gothic Fiction from 1765 to the Present Day. Ln: Longmans, 1980. A huge chronological overview & analysis.
    
    
60. Reginald, Robert. SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY LITERATURE: A Checklist, 1700-1974, with Volume II: Contemporary Science Fiction Authors. Detroit: Gale Research, 1979. Volume I lists 15,884 books from 1700 to 1974. Though expansive & useful, it includes a great many works that are marginal to say the least -- for example, the Edith Craine's Airplane Boys novels are listed for the whole series without indication which one or two have any actual fantastic content, making two marginally appropriate titles into eight mostly inapplicable listings. Conversely, about a thousand titles from Bleiler's careful 1978 checklist are missing from Reginald. So while this reference book is quite desirable due to the extravagance of its range, many of its listings have to be weighed against a grain of salt. The second volume of this set is useful for later authors but the bibliographic sketches for the antiquarian portion is weak. The supplemental volume covering the years 1975 to 1991 (Gale, 1992) is of no antiquarian interest though with 10,000 author entries it is certainly useful for the period it covers.
    
    
61. Rottensteiner, Franz. THE FANTASY BOOK: An Illustrated History from Dracula to Tolkien. Ln: Thames & Hudson, 1978; NY: Collier, 1978, large wraps. As an Austrian writer Franz's overview is international. Hence, though the book is picture-driven & not intended as a major reference work, there is much about authors outside the English language not easily accessible elsewhere.
    
    
62. Rottensteiner, Franz. THE SCIENCE FICTION BOOK: An Illustrated History. Ln: Thames & Hudson, 1978; NY: Collier, 1978, large wraps. The international perspective lends this a value most picture-books don't possess.
    
    
63. Salmonson, Jessica Amanda. PRELIMINARY CHECKLIST OF LOST RACE LITERATURE. "Published" on-line here at Violet Books Dot Com, this is by far the largest checklist ever compiled of books about survival of lost races & civilizations, & about 85% antiquarian. It should be transferred to your desktop in case I am someday sufficiently satisfied with the list that I have it published as a very expensive book & a publisher asks me to remove the free version from the web. It is updated monthly as I continuously locate more that is apropos, so it should be refreshed to your desktop a couple times a year at least; the more significant updates get noted on the What's New page.
    
    
64. Sargent, Lyman Tower. BRITISH & AMERICAN UTOPIAN LITERATURE 1516-1975, An Annotated Bibliography. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978. Briefly annotated bibliography of utopian fiction & nonfiction.
    
    
65. Scarborough, Dorothy. THE SUPERNATURAL IN MODERN ENGLISH FICTION. NY: Putnam, 1917; NY: Octagon, 1967. An excellent pioneering overview with notable coverage of shorter works & uncollected pre-pulp era magazine stories.
    
    
66. Schlobin, Roger C. THE LITERATURE OF FANTASY: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy. NY: Garland, 1979. The date for "Modern" begins around the 1850s, so much good coverage here, with plot summaries, although roughly similar works by Bleiler blow Schlobin out of the water.
    
    
67. Sullivan, Jack. ELEGANT NIGHTMARES, The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1978. Apart from the obscene impression that there were no women writers of ghost stories in England, this is an interesting study of a few male writers.
    
    
68. Sullivan, Jack, editor. THE PENGUIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HORROR & THE SUPERNATURAL. NY: Viking, 1986. A hit-&-miss compilation that attempts to do everything -- fiction, cinema, art, music -- & so ends up doing none of it in depth. But among the many contributors are some few such as Richard Dalby, E. F. Bleiler & Robert Hadji [Knowlton] who could not help but provide superior entries so that much of value can be found within.
    
    
69. Summers, Montague. A GOTHIC BIBLIOGRAPHY. Ln: Fortune Press, 1941. Additional information on early weird fiction can be found in Reverand Summers' nonfiction works on weird subjects, as he would typically include chapters on fiction.
    
    
70. Summers, Montague. THE GOTHIC QUEST: A History of the Gothic Novel. Ln: Fortune, 1938. Gossipy studies of major & minor gothic novelists some of whom no other Gothic commentator has studied. Covers more ground than later volumes (such as by Tracy & by Frank) but when possible Summers' "facts" should be cross-referenced due to occasional deficiencies.
    
    
71. Tracy, Ann B. THE GOTHIC NOVEL 1790-1830: Plot Summaries & Index to Motifs. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1981. 208 elaborately annotated entries.
    
    
72. Tuck, Donald H. THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY. Chicago: Advent, 1974 volume I; 1978 volume II; 1983 volume III. The first two volumes are a "who's who" of f/sf from the early 1800s to the 1960s. Volume III is a miscellaney on such topics as publishers & bookstores & was outdated even when new. The set overlaps other reference books enough that this is not the most essential, so I would never recommend paying the going price, which is high, but many commentaries on early works do remain informative.
    
    
73. Tymn, Marshal B., Kenneth J. Zahorski, & Robert H. Boyer. FANTASY LITERATURE: A Core Collection & Reference Guide. NY: Bowker, 1979. This & the volume immediately below form a set which are inferior to a similar set by Neil Barron listed above. Lists 200 novels & collections 1858 to 1978 with plot summaries. It can be useful but so random as to not be the first book grabbed for referencing. There's a preference for Heroic Fantasy which does limit its overlap with other works (which prefer s-f or horror) & for that reason I've included it on this list.
    
    
74. Tymn, Marshal, editor. HORROR LITERATURE: A Core Collection & Reference Guide. NY: Bowker, 1981. Surveys well over a thousand titles with much about the earliest gothics arranged in five chronological checklists ending at 1980. Supernatural poetry & pulps receive separate chapters. By no means as useful as Ev Bleiler's key reference volumes, but not entirely redundant either.
    
    
75. Varma, Devendra. THE GOTHIC FLAME, Being a History of the Gothic Novel in England: It's Origins, Efflorescence, Disintegration & Residuary Influence. Ln: Arthur Barker, 1957; NY: Russell & Russell, 1966; Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1987. Professor Varma's love of the literature shines through in this excellent overview of the Gothic. With lengthy bibliography.
    
    
76. Waggoner, Diana. THE HILLS OF FARAWAY, A Guide to Fantasy. NY: Atheneum, 1978. A very useful overview of the field, dominated by a bibliographic guide with 996 numbered entries for adult & children's fantasy, excluding most picture books.
    
    
77. Watt, William Whyte. SHILLING SHOCKERS OF THE GOTHIC SCHOOL, A Study of Chapbook Gothic Romances. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1932. Covers obscure early gothics & makes an interesting companion to Peter Haining's anthology of such material, Shilling Shockers (NY: St Martins, 1979) which though uncredited relied on Watts' footwork.
    
    
78. Wilson, Neil. SHADOWS IN THE ATTIC, A Guide to British Supernatural Fiction 1820-1950. Boston Spa, Wetherby: The British Library, 2000. An ideal reference book for its subject, the meat of the volume is the alphabetically arranged author-biographies followed by select bibliographies of each author's weird writings, biographical or autobiographical resources, & related LitCrit titles. The thumbnail biographies include a great many authors often overlooked, so this is no mere rephrasing of other who's who compilations. The bibliographies are too incomplete & occasionally somewhat random, but the bibliographical annotations for all that is cited are very helpful, identifying, for example, which specific stories in broader collection are supernatural. The introduction by Ramsey Campbell starts right off, "This is an essential book" for any researcher of the field, & he's not just being kind. My copy has a place of honor permanently in hand's reach. Includes author preface, title index, bibliography.
    
    
79. Wright, Lyle H. AMERICAN FICTION A Contribution Toward a Bibliography. Published in three volumes: San Marino: Hunting Library, (1774-1850) revised 1948; (1851-1875) 1957; & (1876-1900) 1978.
    
    
80. Yardley, Edward. THE SUPERNATURAL IN ROMANTIC FICTION. Ln: Longmans Green, 1880.
    
    

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