NY, Viking, 1980. A collection of previously unpublished stories of suspense and horror, edited by Kirby McCauley. A landmark volume in the history of the Modern Horror genre, assembled as Stephen King was just becoming a bestselling author after five novels that would eventually be seen as classics but at the time had sold little and garnered limited serious critical attention. This anthology attempted to put the new horror writers, including King, into a context and tradition that was much broader than the genre, and more readily considered to be "literary." Thus, in addition to King and such upcoming young writers as T.E.D. Klein, Gene Wolfe and Ramsey Campbell, the collection includes such mainstream writers as Joyce Carol Oates, Davis Grubb and Isaac Bashevis Singer, and such well-established genre writers as Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon and Robert Bloch. This copy is signed or inscribed by fifteen writers, including King, Bloch, Richard Matheson, Joe Haldeman, Gahan Wilson, Campbell, Wolfe, Richard Christian Matheson, Dennis Etchison, Karl Edward Wagner, Manly Wade Wellman, Edward Bryant, Charles L. Grant, and the editor, Kirby McCauley. With the ownership signature of fellow horror writer Stanley Wiater, and with Wiater's Gahan Wilson-designed bookplate on the verso of the front flyleaf. Stephen King's contribution is "The Mist," a 130+ page novella that was nominated for a World Fantasy Award and a Locus Award. It was collected five years later in Skeleton Crew. Light ink stains throughout the first several pages of the introduction, not obscuring any text; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light wear to the corners. A unique copy of a seminal collection that helped define the genre. [#032269] SOLD