The HorrorBabble Podcast

"Dread Summons" / A Classic Weird Tale by Paul Ernst

"Dread Summons" is a short story by the regular Weird Tales contributor, Paul Ernst. The tale was given the following synopsis back in November 1937: “The old butler heard a scream, muffled by the street noises from outside, and when he investigated he found that a dread summons had been answered.”

"The Creeper in Darkness" by Frank Belknap Long

"The Creeper in Darkness" is a short story by Frank Belknap Long, which first appeared in Strange Stories in April 1939. The tale tells of a disturbing encounter with a witch's familiar.

"Black Bargain" by Robert Bloch

"Black Bargain" first appeared in Weird Tales in May 1942, and tells of a situation involving a man who is quite literally afraid of his own shadow.

"The Imp of the Perverse" by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Imp of the Perverse" is a short story by 19th-century American author and critic Edgar Allan Poe. Beginning as an essay, it discusses the narrator's self-destructive impulses, embodied as the symbolic metaphor of The Imp of the Perverse.

"Nobody's House" / A Classic Ghost Story by A. M. Burrage

"Nobody's House" is a short story by the British writer, A. M. Burrage. In the story, which first appeared in his 1927 collection, SOME GHOST STORIES, a prospective homebuyer visits an old house, eager to hear of its haunted history.

"The Mortal Immortal" by Mary Shelley

"The Mortal Immortal" is a short story from 1833 written by Mary Shelley. It tells the story of a man named Winzy, who drinks an elixir which makes him immortal. At first, immortality appears to promise him eternal tranquility. However, it soon becomes apparent that he is cursed to endure eternal psychological torture, as everything he loves dies around him.

"The Seven Seas Are One" by Allison V. Harding

"The Seven Seas Are One" by American author Allison V. Harding, first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in September 1944. The magazine described the tale as follows: “The Captain knew that somehow, some day his fate was coming—out of the sea and the wind!”

"The Supernumerary Corpse" / A Tale of Weird Science by Clark Ashton Smith

"The Supernumerary Corpse" is a short story by the American author, Clark Ashton Smith. The tale, which first appeared in Weird Tales in November 1932, was described by the magazine as follows: “Jasper Trilt was dead—but what was the thing in his likeness that lay supine on the floor of the laboratory?”

"It All Came True in the Woods" / A Classic Weird Tale by M. W. Wellman

"It All Came True in the Woods" is a short story by American author, Manly Wade Wellman. If first appeared in the July 1941 edition of Weird Tales Magazine... “If you should speak in the woods of Amasookit, your words are clothed with flesh and blood. So the Indians believed…”

"Black Was the Night" / A Rare Haunted House Story by Laurence Bour, Jr.

"Black Was the Night" is a rare weird tale by the little-known author, Laurence Bour, Jr. The story, which first appeared in Weird Tales in May 1940, tells of a long-awaited encounter in a crumbling, haunted house.