The HorrorBabble Podcast

"It Walks by Night" is a classic weird tale by Henry Kuttner. It first appeared in Weird Tales in December 1936, and was described as follows: “A blood-chilling narrative of a ghastly horror that stalked through the crypts beneath the old graveyard.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Ocean Ogre" by American author Dana Carroll, first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in July 1937. The story, told through a series of journal entries, tells of a ship stranded at sea, and of the stranger who came to its aid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Written by American authors, H. P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald, "Out of the Aeons" focuses on a Boston museum that displays an ancient mummy recovered from a sunken island. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Boarded Window: An Incident in the Life of an Ohio Pioneer" is a short story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It was first published in The San Francisco Examiner on April 12, 1891 and was reprinted the same year in Bierce's collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Wood of the Dead" is a short story by British author, Algernon Blackwood, included in the collection "The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories". In the story, a visitor to the West Country comes upon the ghost of an old man, whose appearance is an omen of death, which spells doom for the residents of a small mountain village. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Werewolf Snarls" is a short story by Manly Wade Wellman. The story appeared in Weird Tales in March 1937, with the synopsis: “A brief story, with a breath of icy horror in it.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Outside the Door" is a short story by the British writer, E. F. Benson. The tale first surfaced in Benson’s 1912 collection, THE ROOM IN THE TOWER, and explores the intriguing and often worrying phenomenon of phantom footsteps heard at night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Oblong Box" was first published in the Dollar Newspaper, back in August 1844. Quite simply, the story tells of a sea voyage and a peculiar, pine box. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Black Stone Statue" is a short story by Mary Elizabeth Counselman. It first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in December 1937, described as "An amazing tale of weird sculpture–the story of a weird deception practised on the world by an obscure artist." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Moxon's Master" is a short story by Ambrose Bierce. First published in the San Francisco Examiner in April 1899, the tale is notable in that it contains one of the first descriptions of a robot to be written in English Language literature. The story itself tells of an inventor, whose curious invention could have profound implications for humanity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Challenge from Beyond" is a work of collaborative fiction by C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long. The tale describes the discovery a strange artefact - an unusual stone imbued with the power to transport its possessor to distant worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Shadow from the Steeple" is a short story by American author, Robert Bloch, first published in 1950. It completes a series of tales started by Bloch in 1935 with The Shambler from the Stars, and continued by H. P. Lovecraft in 1936 with The Haunter of the Dark. The story concludes the mystery surrounding the "Shining Trapezohedron". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Jelly-Fish" is a short story by American author, David H. Keller. First appearing in Weird Tales in its January 1929 edition, the story tells of an obnoxious professor and a wild experiment under the microscope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Ghouls of the Sea" is a rare weird tale by the American author, J. B. S. Fullilove. Appearing in the March 1934 edition of Weird Tales, the story asks what it was that came up out of the sea, spreading death aboard the freighter "Kay Marie". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Grotesquerie" is a short story by the little-known author, Harold Lawlor. First appearing in Weird Tales in its November 1950 edition, the story was described by the magazine as follows: “The inmates of the house scuttled away in the purposely kept dimly lighted halls; the latest comer was never seen about at all.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Seedling of Mars", which explores the idea of Martian canals being much more than mere waterways, was first published as THE PLANET ENTITY in the Fall 1931 edition of Wonder Stories Quarterly. The story was the result of an Interplanetary Plot Contest, in which readers of Wonder Stories were invited to outline plots for established authors to develop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Terrible Old Man" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. It was written on January 28, 1920, and first published in the Tryout, an amateur press publication, in July 1921. The tale tells of the fate of three robbers who attempt to burgle an old man's house. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows" is a short story by the poet William Butler Yeats, it is based on the true story of Sir Frederick Hamilton's burning of Sligo Abbey in 1642. Yeats tells a story of the soldiers who participated being hunted by vengeful sidhe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Sleigh Bells" by the mysterious writer, Hasan Vokine, first appeared in the April 1925 edition of Weird Tales Magazine. The story takes place in deepest Siberia, where two men are besieged by wolves in an isolated hut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Earth Draws" by Norwegian author Jonas Lie, first appeared in his 1893 collection, Weird Tales from Northern Seas. The story tells of a series of strange events surrounding a young salesman’s visit to a remote fishing station. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Arctic Death" by American author Wilford Allen, first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in June 1927. Out of the North it came, that dread death that touched every living thing with a killing cold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Paradise of the Ice Wilderness" by Swedish author Jul. Regis, first appeared in Amazing Stories in October 1927. The tale tells of the discovery of a frozen mammoth in Northern Siberia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Third Interne" by Welsh-American author Idwal Jones, first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in January 1938. The story tells of a surgical horror in the Arctic wastes of northern Russia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Death Watch" is a short story by the British born, American author, Hugh B. Cave. The story, which first appeared in Weird Tales in its 1939 June-July edition, was described as follows: “What ghastly thing was it that came clumping into the big house out of that wild night of storm?” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Derelict" is a short story by British writer, William Hope Hodgson, first published in THE RED MAGAZINE in its December 1st edition, 1912. The classic tale tells of the discovery and subsequent investigation of a mysterious, derelict vessel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Willow Landscape" is a short work by Clark Ashton Smith. The story, which debuted in Weird Tales in its June-July 1939 edition, takes place in China, and concerns the curious nature of an ancient painting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Between the Lights" is a Christmas ghost story by the British author, E. F. Benson. It first appeared in his 1912 collection, "The Room in the Tower and Other Stories". What was it that Everard Chandler experienced on the croquet lawn? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Curse of Yig" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop in which Yig, "The Father of Serpents", is first introduced. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Snowman" is a short story by the American author, Loretta Burrough. The story was first published in the December 1938 edition of Weird Tales. The magazine provided the following synopsis: “Her first husband lay at the bottom of a deep crevasse in a Swiss glacier—but why should a snow image in his likeness strike her with such eery terror?” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Red Brain" is a short story by Donald Wandrei, written when he was just 16. It first appeared in the October 1927 edition of Weird Tales Magazine, and tells of a strange, menacing cosmic dust that engulfs the universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Occupant of the Room" is a short story by English writer Algernon Blackwood. The tale tells of a Englishman on vacation in the Swiss Alps, who attempts to reserve a room at a quiet village inn, only to discover there are no vacancies. He is later offered a room that is 'in a sense engaged', and the rumours voiced by the inn's porter regarding the possible fate of the previous occupant excite his imagination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"A Dream of Red Hands" is a short story by British writer, Bram Stoker. The story was first published in the London weekly, THE SKETCH, in 1894, and tells the sad tale of a man plagued by terrible nightmares. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard" is a short story by British author, M. R. James. The tale tells of a man whose wandering gaze often falls upon the nightly funerals that take place next to his lonely house by the cemetery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Opener of the Way" is a work of horror fiction by American writer, Robert Bloch. Originally published in the October 1936 edition of Weird Tales, the magazine described the story as, "A tremendous tale about the dread doom that overtook an archaeologist in that forgotten tomb beneath the desert sands of Egypt…" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Dig Me No Grave" is a horror story by American author, Robert E. Howard. The tale was first published in Weird Tales in February 1937. It is sometimes known by the title, "John Grimlan's Debt". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Black Cat" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. It is a study of the psychology of guilt, often paired in analysis with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Riddle" was written by Walter de la Mare, and was included in his Collected Stories for Children (1947). The story tells of seven children who go to live with their grandmother. They are free to live without rules, as long as they steer clear of a certain chest in the spare bedroom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Night Must Not Come" is a short story by Allison V. Harding. It was first published in Weird Tales in September 1943, and was given the following description: “Ever since the birth of time, fires have been kept at night, and man has never allowed complete darkness, for evil things are waiting out there beyond the light.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Table for Two" is a short story by Arthur Leo Zagat. First appearing in Weird Tales in its January 1941 edition, the story was described as follows: “Thought you heard something? Don’t be silly. It was just the sea you heard—just the foam on the ebb tide…” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Ghost-Writer" first appeared in Weird Tales in May 1940, and tells of an ambitious weird fiction writer, whose insatiable desire for success leads to his doom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Glass Labyrinth" is a short story by the Californian author, Stanton A. Coblentz. It’s a tale of time and dimensions, a true Weird Tale, having appeared in the magazine in its May 1943 edition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"What Waits in Darkness" by Loretta Burrough first appeared in Weird Tales in March 1935. The magazine described the tale as: "A grim story of a woman’s happiness that was menaced by a dreadful recurrent dream.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Outsider" is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between March and August 1921, it was first published in Weird Tales, April 1926. In this work, a mysterious man who has been living alone in a castle for as long as he can remember decides to break free in search of human contact and light. "The Outsider" is one of Lovecraft's most commonly reprinted works and is also one of the most popular stories ever to be published in Weird Tales. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Strange Island of Doctor Nork" first appeared in Weird Tales in March 1949. A parody of H. G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau", the story tells of an eccentric doctor, and his 'comically' odd experiments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Drowned Argosies" by American author and teacher Jay Wilmer Benjamin, first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in July 1934. The magazine described the tale in the following simple terms: “A weird tale of the sea.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Tree's Wife" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (Weird Tales, March 1950). A curious yarn involving a tryst, and a tree. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Ye Goode Olde Ghoste Storie" by William A. P. White first appeared in Weird Tales in January 1927. The magazine described the tale as: "The Chilling Chamber of Fantomheath Fields; or, The Winning of Alicia, the Beautiful." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Mandarin's Canaries" first appeared in Weird Tales in its September 1938 edition. The story tells of a torture-mad Chinese ruler, and his aptly named Garden of Pain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Epiphany of Death" (also known as 'Who Are the Living?') is a short story by Clark Ashton Smith. The tale, which first appeared in The Fantasy Fan in its July 1934 edition, tells of a shocking revelation in the catacombs of Ptolemides. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices