Do You Remember Your First Time?

[schlieu]

For me it was Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural, a hardcover anthology edited by Marvin Kaye that my grandma picked up for me at a garage sale. I later learned that the fantastic cover illustration was done by none other than Edward Gorey.

Included in the anthology were "The Hospice" by Robert Aickman,
"Graveyard Shift" by Richard Matheson, "The Night Wire" by H.F. Arnold, "Sardonicus" by Ray Russell, and "The Music of Erich Zann" by Lovecraft. Needless to say, my young mind was blown. Around the same time my other grandmother lent me her copy of King's Skeleton Crew. For quite a while I only wanted to read horror anthologies (which, in the late 80s/early 90s were easy to find) or single author collections from Barker and Lovecraft.