Weird Sisters: Tales from the Queens of the Pulp Era
It is natural, especially at her age, that she should crave, need meat. When I am a little better I will go out and set traps, as I used to doas a boy... We must give her meat; she has done a great deal for us.
Springing forth from the heyday of Weird Tales magazine and its contemporaries comes a new anthology of fifteen uncanny tales—classics and rarities penned by the women writers whose weird imaginings defined the pulp era.
Featuring an introduction and biographical notes by veteran editor Mike Ashley, this collection offers ghostly thrills, shapeshifting horrors and monstrous coming-of-age narratives from Weird Tales stalwarts such as Mary Elizabeth Counsel man alongside more surprising authors such as Lucy M. Montgomery. This new selection also includes a 1990s classic by Tanith Lee, the queen of Weird Tales magazine’s revival era, and a recently rediscovered gem of mythical horror by Evangeline Walton.
Contents
Introduction by Mike Ashley
1. The Rat Master (1942) by Greye La Spina
2. The Withered Heart (1939) by G. G. Pendarves
3. Leonora (1927) by Everil Worrell
4. The Ode to Pegasus (1926) by Maria Moravsky
5. Mommy (1939) by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
6. Daemon (1946) by C. L. Moore
7. More Than Shadow (1954) by Dorothy Quick
8. The House Party at Smoky Island (1935) by L. M. Montgomery
9. Forbidden Cupboard (1940) by Frances Garfield
10. The Underbody (1949) by Allison V. Harding
11. Brenda (1954) by Margaret St. Clair
12. They That Have Wings (2011) by Evangeline Walton
13. Foxy's Hollow (1953) by Leah Bodine Drake
14. The Crying Child (1953) by Stella Gibbons
15. Mirror, Mirror (1994) by Tanith Lee
Story Sources – Weird Sisters: Tales from the Queens of the Pulp Era
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Mike Ashley
Mike Ashley is the author and editor of more than 100 books, and is one of the foremost historians of popular fiction. His books include Adventures in The Strand (British Library, 2016), Out of This World, a brief illustrated history of science fiction (British Library, 2011), and The Age of Storytellers: British Popular Fiction Magazines 1880-1950 (British Library, 2005). Most recently he is the author of a multi-volume history of science fiction magazines, published by Liverpool University Press.
British Library Tales of the Weird
The British Library Tales of the Weird series revives and unearths classic strange fiction from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the form of novels, single-author collections and thematic anthologies, complete with new introductions and fascinating notes by expert editors.
British Library Tales of the Weird consists of seventy-one books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

