While the nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley may be hailed as the first modern writer of
horror, the success of her immortal Frankenstein undoubtedly inspired dozens of female authors
who wrote their own evocative, chilling tales.
Weird Women, edited by award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S.
Klinger, collects some of the finest tales of terror by authors as legendary as Louisa May
Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Charlotte Gilman-Perkins, alongside works of writers who
were the bestsellers and critical favorites of their time—Marie Corelli, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte
Riddell—and lesser known authors who are deserving of contemporary recognition.
As railroads, industry, cities, and technology flourished in the mid-nineteenth century, so
did stories exploring the horrors they unleashed. This anthology includes ghost stories and tales
of haunted houses, as well as mad scientists, werewolves, ancient curses, mummies,
psychological terrors, demonic dimensions, and even weird westerns. Curated by Lisa Morton
and Leslie Klinger with an aim to presentimg work that has languished in the shadows, all of
these exceptional supernatural stories are sure to surprise, delight, and frighten today’s readers.
Praise for Lisa Morton and Leslie Klinger’s Ghost Stories:
“Odds are better you’ll find yourself spooked to the core by one of the chilling stories compiled
by Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger. Some of my favorite 19th-and-early-20th-century writers are
found in this collection. But the real fun of reading this book was in discovering writers I had not
known before”— Danielle Trussoni, The New York Times Book Review
“Morton and Klinger combine brilliant stories by obscure writers with obscure stories by famous
writers to create an outstanding work that serves equally as scholarship and entertainment. This
is a work of art, a pleasure to read, and a serious and welcome contribution to the study of the
ghost story in English.” —The Publishers Weekly (starred)
