Contents for the Creeps Library

   

One of the most famous "sleezy" horror anthology series of all times was the Creeps series edited by Charles Birkin (1907-1985) for the publisher Philip Allan in London. Birkin was not given credit, having remained anonymous as the anthologist. He was himself a master of the contes cruel, & contributed to his own series under the byline Charles Lloyd, his middle name becoming his last.

   

CREEPS (1932)

  1. Silent, White, & Beauutiful, Tod Robbins
  2. The Red Lodge, H. R. Wakefield
  3. The Ghost Table, Elliott O'Donnell
  4. Spurs, Tod Robbins
  5. "He Commeth & He Passeth By," H. R. Wakefield
  6. The Charnel House, Philip Murray
  7. A Wager & a Ghost, Elliott O'Donnell
  8. Cockrow Inn, Tod Robbins

SHUDDERS (1932)

  1. Or Persons Unknown, H. R. Wakefield
  2. Toys, Tod Robbins
  3. Accusing Shadows, Elliott O'Donnell
  4. Professor Pownall's Oversight, H.R. Wakefield
  5. The Harlem Horror, Charles Lloyd
  6. The Trunk, Philip Murray
  7. The Third Coach, H.R. Wakefield
  8. The Crimson Blind, Philip Murray
  9. The Haunted Spinney, Elliott, O'Donnell
  10. The Patch, Philip Murray
  11. That Dieth Not, H.R. Wakefield

SHIVERS (1933, 254pp)

  1. The 17th Hole at Duncaster, H. R. Wakefield
  2. An Eye for an Eye, Charles Lloyd
  3. Wild Wullie the Waster, Tod Robbins
  4. The Death Mask, Mrs. Everett
  5. The Gost in the Ring, Elliott O'Donnell
  6. The Poplar Tree, Philip Murray
  7. "And He Shall Sing...", H. R. Wakefield
  8. Who Wants a Green Bottle, Tod Robbins
  9. The Tank of Death, Elliott O'Donnell

HORRORS (1933, 252pp)

  1. Dr. Browning's Bus, E.S. Knights
  2. The Ever-Turning Dynamos, Allan Govan
  3. The Doll's House, Hester Gorst
  4. Special Diet, Charles Lloyd (Birkin)
  5. Meshes of Doom, Neville Kilvington
  6. Unburied Bane, N. Dennett
  7. The Mystery of the Locked Room, Elliott O'Donnell
  8. Doctor Fawcett's Experiment, Raymond Ferrers Broad
  9. Without a Hitch, Pamela James
  10. Lovers' Meeting, John Ratho
  11. A Poem and a Bunch of Roses, Charles Lloyd (Birkin)
  12. Dark Seance, George Benwood

MONSTERS (1934, 249pp)

  1. The Two Old Women, Vivian Meik
  2. Harvest, Timothy Leaf
  3. The Confession, Kenneth Ingram
  4. The Round Graveyard, E.K. Allan
  5. The Interrupted Honeymoon, George Benwood
  6. Blood for a Tiger, Phyllis Stone
  7. The Caretaker's Story, Edith Olivier
  8. A Lover Came to Sunnamees, Guy Preston
  9. The Haunted Telephone, Elliott O'Donnell
  10. The Yellow Cat, Michael Joseph
  11. The "Locum", Kenneth Ingram
  12. The Cockroach, Charles Lloyd

NIGHTMARES (1933, 255pp)

  1. High Tide, Hester Holland Gaskell
  2. The Escape, John Ratho
  3. "Binkie", A.C.S. Tibbett
  4. Hangman's Cottage, Philip Murray
  5. The Headless Leper, Frederick Cowles
  6. The Happy Dancers, Charles Lloyd
  7. The Haunted Bungalow, B. Lumsden Milne
  8. The End of the Holiday, V.A. Chappell
  9. Is It True?, Sonya Converse
  10. The Curse, Ronald Aggett
  11. The Whimpus, Tod Robbins
  12. The Woolen Helmet, P. Erroll

PANICS (1934, 241pp)

  1. The Night Nurse's Story, Edith Olivier
  2. Aceldama, G.W. Jaggard
  3. Shelter, Charles Lloyd
  4. The Blazing Crystals, Allan Govan
  5. Death in Hyde Park, E.K. Allan
  6. "?", J. Russell Warren
  7. The Psyche, Frederick Graves
  8. Fog, John Ratho
  9. A Very Potent Poison, Hill Johnson
  10. The Menhir, N. Dennett
  11. In the Interests of Science, Elliott O'Donnell
  12. Reprieve, Kenneth Ingram

POWERS OF DARKNESS (1934, 243pp)

  1. Two Bottles of Relish, Lord Dunsany
  2. The Coat, A.E.D. Smith
  3. Obsession, Charles Lloyd
  4. The Third Time, Kenneth Ingram
  5. The Guillotine, J.H. Turner
  6. The Mutineers, Cicely Fox-Smith
  7. November the Thirteenth, Russell Thorndike
  8. The Miniature in Black, L.A. Westney
  9. The Temple Servant, E.R. Morrough
  10. A Nice Cup of Tea, Maureen E. Shaw

QUAKES (1933, 253pp)

  1. The Incredible, Mirabel Cobbold
  2. B72, Phyllis Stone
  3. The Man in the Mirror, P. Beaufoy Barry
  4. Old Mrs. Strathers, Charles Lloyd
  5. The Spirit of Higgins, H. Glyn-Ward
  6. Littlesmith, Hester Gorst
  7. The Terror by Night, Ismay Trimble
  8. The People of Darkness, Douglas Newton
  9. Death Is Avenged, A.J. Woodgate
  10. The Actor's Story, Charles Lloyd
  11. Dead Men's Bones, Edith Olivier
  12. The Cupboard of Dread, Elliott O'Donnell
  13. Queer, Charles Cullum

THE CREEPS OMNIBUS (1935, 638pp)
An omibus of three earlier anthologies:

  1. CREEPS
  2. SHIVERS
  3. SHUDDERS

TALES OF DEATH (1936, 254pp)

  1. Kismet, Clifford Knight
  2. Down-Draught to Hell, H. Boswell Lancaster
  3. The Hut, Oswell Blakeston
  4. Lion of Bengal, Hope Wilson
  5. The Devil-Plant, Malcolm Ellison
  6. Swift Death, Sydney Darcy
  7. The Cottage, W.J. Pollock
  8. Lost With All Hands, R.P. Morrison
  9. The Return, Malcolm Critchley
  10. An Appointment with Death, Esme H. Bidlake
  11. The Graverhouse Affair, S.G. MacDonnell

TALES OF DREAD (1936, 248pp)

  1. Bathysphere Number 7, Francis H. Sibson
  2. Angela, Charles Lloyd
  3. The Green Taxi, Anne Edgar
  4. The Secret of the Graves, Oswell Blakeston
  5. The Silver Lady, Sidney Denham
  6. The Dead Watch, David Lord
  7. Dispossessed, Harold Markham
  8. The Tiger, Francis Bruguiere
  9. The False Trail, Kenneth Ingram

TALES OF FEAR (1935, 243pp)

  1. The Road, Vera A. Gadd
  2. Bitten by a Spider, Patrick Clark
  3. The Silent Inn, Geoffrey Wyndham Lewis
  4. Many Cats and One Tale, W.A.C. Chadwick
  5. The Horror in the Pond, A.D. Avison
  6. Adventure Without Asking, Oswell Blakeston
  7. The Thing from the Pit, Arthur Stafford Aylmer
  8. Lone Cottage, Tilly Scard
  9. The Figure at the Window, Ada Helen
  10. A Journey by Train, Henry L. Lawrence
  11. Hillmount, Vera A. Gadd
  12. The Snake, Chrystabel Earle

TERRORS (1933, 252pp)

  1. The Terror on Tobit, Charles Lloyd
  2. Thirty, Guy Preston
  3. The "Westerdale's" Tow, Francis Sibson
  4. Waxworks, Andre de Lorde
  5. The Man With the Flayed Face, Phyllis Stone
  6. The Muffler, Ursula Gwynne
  7. The Terror of Stranger Island, Marjory Lawrence
  8. Blue-Black Hair, Pamela James
  9. Arabella Goes North, John Ratho
  10. Spider's Web, Phyllis Stone
  11. The Mystery of Beechcroft Farm, Elliott O'Donnell

THRILLS (1935, 249pp)

  1. The Confession, Tod Robbins
  2. The Kosso, William F. Temple
  3. A Fishing Story, H. Russell Wakefield
  4. Henri Larne, Charles Lloyd
  5. They Come for Their Own, A.H. Claxton
  6. I Am Smith, E.F. Henry
  7. The House With No Road, John Ashcroft Hopson
  8. The Queer People, Ellis Reed
  9. The Divine Spark, Catherine Clark
  10. Ashes and Ashes, Richard Anthony Parker Crawshay
  11. Death of a Poacher, H. Russell Wakefield
  12. A Bed For the Night, Godfrey Archard
  13. Passing of the Terror, Kenneth Ingram
  14. Doctor Horder's Room, Patrick Carleton

   

Single-author books in the Creeps Library:

   

MYSTERIES OF ASIA by Achmed Abdullah (1934)
Rohmeresque weird tales.

  1. The Dark Bungalow Ghost
  2. The Death Beam
  3. The Ebon Well
  4. Ghostly Inheritance
  5. The Ghosts of Rau Samandar
  6. The Haunted Carpet
  7. Her Blood for Hindu Goddess
  8. The Human Oil Curse
  9. The Krait
  10. The Magic Horse of Afghan Glens
  11. The Magic of the Cannibal
  12. Mermen of Sulaiman
  13. The Mystery & the Mannikin
  14. Sacrifice to the Black One
  15. Serpent Gold

THE AIR DEVIL
by Barrington Beverley (1934)
Science fiction horror; probably not really intended as part of the Creeps Library but contemporary with it.

THE SPACE RAIDERS
by Barrington Beverley (1936)
Space opera & alien invasion, at least contemporary with the Creeps Library.

THE STRANGE PAPERS OF DR BLAYRE,
by Christopher Blayre (1932)
An expansion of The Purple Sapphire & Other Posthumous Papers issued by Philip Alan in 1921, & which, if regarded also part of the Creeps line, moves the starting date back a decade. Tartarus Press has done a fine limited edition of the Complete Strange Papers.

  1. The Purple Sapphire
  2. The House on the Way to Hell
  3. Aalila
  4. The Mirror that Remembered
  5. Purpura Lapillus
  6. Mano Pantea
  7. The Thing that Smelt
  8. The Bue Cockroach
  9. The Man Who Killed the Jew
  10. The Demon
  11. The Book
  12. The Cosmic Dust

THE DEATH-MASK & Other Ghost Stories
by Mrs. H(enrietta) D. Everett (1920)
Although the first edition predates the Creeps series, it is usually regarded as one in the series, & had in fact a second printing to take advantage of the contemporary popularity of Birkin's anthologies. It was reissued in a Fine Edition by the Ghost Story Press, 1995, with new introduction by Richard Dalby, & adding the story "The Crimson Blind" from one of the Creeps anthologies, plus two other tales ("The Whispering Wall" & "The Pipers of Mallory") which Mrs. Everett had published under her often-used pseudonym Theo Gift.

  1. The Death Mask
  2. Parson Clench
  3. The Wind of Dunowe
  4. Nevill Nugent's Legacy
  5. Fingers of a Hand
  6. The Next Heir
  7. Anne's Little Ghost
  8. Over the Wires
  9. A Water Witch
  10. The Lonely Road
  11. A Girl in White
  12. A Perplexing Case
  13. Beyond the Pale

THE HORROR ON THE ASTEROID & Other Tales of Planetary Horror
by Edmond Hamilton (1936)
A collection made up of tales from Weird Tales. Reprinted in the US by Gregg Press, 1975), adding an introduction by Gerry de la Ree.

  1. Horror on the Asteroid
  2. The Accursed Galaxy
  3. The Man Who Saw Everything
  4. The Earth-Brain
  5. The Monster-God of Mamurth
  6. The Man Who Evolved

TALES OF THE GROTESQUE: Uneasy Tales
by L. A. Lewis (1934)
An edition edited with an Introduction by Richard Dalby, for The Ghost Story Press, 1994, includes one extra story ("The Author's Tale") from a Christine Campbell Thomson anthology.

  1. Lost Keep
  2. Hybrid
  3. The Tower of Moab
  4. The Child
  5. The Dirk
  6. The Chords of Chaos
  7. The Meerschaum Pipe
  8. Haunted Air
  9. The Iron Swine
  10. Animate in Death

DEVIL OF THE DEPTHS: A Strange Story of the South Seas
by Jack McLaren (1935)
A Lost Race novel.

DEVIL'S DRUMS
by Vivian Meik (1933)

  1. Devil Drums
  2. White Zombie
  3. An Acre in Hell
  4. The Doll of Death
  5. L'Amitie Reste
  6. The Man Who Sold His Shadow
  7. Ra
  8. Honeymoon in Hate
  9. Domira's Drum

VEILS OF FEAR
by Vivian Meik (1934)
Novel, sequel to Devil's Drums.

THE THREE FREAKS
by Tod Robbins (1934)
Novel originally issued as The Unholy Three (1928). The Creeps Library is advertised in the back of the book, & Robbins was a Creeps anthology contributor. Other books he did for Philip Allan are The Master of Murder (1933) more a mystery novel than Creeps style of horror, & Who Wants a Green Bottle? & Other Uneasy Tales (1926) which is too early to be regarded as part of the Creeps Library not founded until 1932. Still, for completeness sake, the tales from Who Wants a Green Bottle? are given immediately below.

WHO WANTS A GREEN BOTTLE? & Other Uneasy Tales
by Tod Robbins (1926)
Too early to be officially part of the Creeps series, still, because Robbins was a significant contributor to the anthologies, his collection is properly included.

  1. White & Beautiful
  2. Who Wants a Green Bottle?
  3. Wild wullie
  4. The Waster
  5. Toys
  6. A Bit of Banshee
  7. The Son of Shaemas O'Shea
  8. Cockcrow Inn
  9. Spurs

See also rbadac's article:
The Creeps Series





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