Thank God I only read one of Peter Haining's anthologies. The mediocre stories here put me off seeking out any more of his editorial efforts.

If this wasn't already enough reason to avoid him, it has come to light in later years that Haining was an unrepentant plagiarizer, fabricator, and just plain liar. He would scavenge obscure pulp fare, rewrite it, and try to pass it off as the product another obscure but more desirable author. He would provide bogus references for the stories that were harder to investigate in the good ol' days. He edited texts without any acknowledgement, "borrowed" stories without attribution (or deliberately incorrect attribution), and generally did what he wanted while compiling his little anthologies.

Wonder why his anthologies are so mediocre? Besides cramming them with second rate real stories, He wasn't a particularly gifted writer even when trying to dress up third class fare. A pig with lipstick still looks like a pig!

Check out Douglas A. Anderson's entries in the "Wormwoodiana" blog for more interesting research about Mr. Haining. ( )

This is one of my favorite collections of stories of this kind. In it is Montague Summers' "The Grimoire", his only piece of fiction, offering delights of bibliomania and demonology; also Ambrose Bierce's piece on dreams, "Visions of the Night", in which he recounts a dream which prefigures Arthur Machen's capture of evil as that which goes against Nature ("evil is when flowers sing"), but also inspires a cynic's amusement. The Crowley story is among the most effective horror tales I have ever read - reminding me of aspects of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. "The Shifting Growth", written by John Gawsworth (Juan I) and Edgar Jepson, shares affinity with Crowley's tale, and is, well, uncommonly disturbing (as well as uncommonly anthologized). Acquire, enjoy, and wind through the labyrinth where you're led (to be lost). ( )