Comments on: Help me name that anthology of horror stories!

Question: Help me name that anthology of horror stories!

bijou — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:08:05 -0800

It's time for another round of "Name That Book!" Looking for the title of a compilation of horror stories from the 1980s or 1990s.

This is what I remember:

I read it when I was somewhere between the ages of 11 and 13 (I think; I was a precocious reader, so it could have been earlier), which means it was published by 1998 at the absolute latest. Since the copy I read was fairly old when I read it, I'd guess that more realistically it came out between 1980 and 1995.

I remember several stories: one was about a neverending traffic jam as a metaphor for hell; another was about a man who lived alone and whose apartment was infested by cockroaches; and another was about a man who used a hammer to smash the hands of the old teacher who had hit him with a ruler when he was a child. I think Stephen King wrote at least one of these three stories, or another one of the ones that appeared in the book, but I could be wrong about that.

By: Addlepated

Addlepated — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:59:16 -0800

It's the Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural (pub 1981). I have the tattered copy on my shelves. The stories you describe are:

"The Jam" by Henry Slesar
"The Roaches" by Thomas M. Disch
"A Teacher's Rewards" by Robert Phillips
"The Crate" by Stephen King (plus into by him)

By: Addlepated

Addlepated — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:00:36 -0800

Er, that's "intro," not "into."

By: bijou

bijou — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:04:10 -0800

Thanks, and unbelievably quick, too!

Now off to see if the library has it.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:02:57 -0800

Or you could run to the videostore. "The Roaches" and "The Crate" appeared in Creepshow.

By: Addlepated

Addlepated — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:09:01 -0800

The roach story from Creepshow was written by Stephen King and titled "They're Creeping Up On You." It has a different premise from "The Roaches," which is actually about a lonely young woman in NYC. Both are pretty oogy, tnough.

By: librarina

librarina — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:27:49 -0800

I had this too. It was purple. Did it have "The Mist" in it?

By: Addlepated

Addlepated — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 14:08:51 -0800

The only SK story mine has is "The Crate." There are also stories from the grandmasters, like Poe, Bierce, and Faulkner. It's really an excellent anthology. I need to read it again.