Excellent anthology of surprisingly effective older short stories. "Robert" by Stanley Ellin bore a great resemblance to Stephen King's "Suffer the Little Children" while elements of "W.S." by L. P. Hartley wound up in King's "The Road Virus Heads North" and [b:The Dark Half|11597|The Dark Half|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430122353s/11597.jpg|1316297]. All authors re-purpose and recycle, anyone who accuses an author of "ripping off" nine times out of ten are ignorant and superficial readers. There are obvious exceptions, but most of the time books are like children whose "parents" are those works the author has read before; if the author has only read a little then the offspring will be inbred, that is to say derivative. Authors who mix in their brain a great many sources pull off the apparent miracle of originality. I have taken a great joy in tracing back the "parents" of my favorite books, but I came about this collection independently of that search. Yet I am certain that King not only read these short stories but this collection specifically, and it was a pleasure to come to this certainty organically. ( )