Short Story Wednesday: ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: STORIES FOR LATE AT NIGHT Robert Arthur, editor (Random House, 1961); and various paperback abridgments (Dell, Pan)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories for Late at Night "ed. Alfred Hitchcock" (ghost edited by Robert Arthur) (Random House, 1961, $5.95, 469pp, hc)
Derivative anthologies: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories for Late at Night, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories for Late at Night, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories for Late at Night, Part I and Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories for Late at Night, Part II.

3 · Death Is a Dream · Robert Arthur · ss Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Jun 1957
13 · It’s a Good Life-- · Jerome Bixby · ss Star Science Fiction Stories #2, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine 1953
30 · The Whole Town’s Sleeping · Ray Bradbury · ss McCall’s Sep 1950; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jun 1954
45 · Lady’s Man · Ruth Chatterton · ss 1961 (originally published here)
60 · Evening Primrose · John Collier · ss 1940 (Presenting Moonshine, The Viking Press, "officially" published January 1941)
71 · The Sound Machine · Roald Dahl · ss The New Yorker Sep 17 1949
84 · The Cocoon · John B. L. Goodwin · ss Story Sep/Oct 1946
100 · Vintage Season · C. L. Moore · na Astounding Sep 1946, as by Lawrence O’Donnell
141 · Pieces of Silver · Brett Halliday · ss Argosy Jul 30 1938; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Mar 1948
154 · The Whistling Room [Carnacki] · William Hope Hodgson · ss The Idler Mar 1910
170 · Told for the Truth · Cyril Hume · ss Street of the Malcontents and Other Stories, Doran 1927
185 · The Ash-Tree · M. R. James · ss Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Edward Arnold 1904
198 · Side Bet · Will F. Jenkins · ss Collier’s Jul 31 1937
207 · Second Night Out · Frank Belknap Long · ss Weird Tales Oct 1933, as “The Black, Dead Thing”
216 · Our Feathered Friends · Philip MacDonald · ss When Churchyards Yawn, ed. Cynthia Asquith, London: Hutchinson 1931
225 · The Fly · George Langelaan · nv Playboy Jun 1957
256 · Back There in the Grass · Gouverneur Morris · ss Collier’s Dec 16 1911
270 · The Mugging · Edward L. Perry · ss Murder Dec 1956, as “A Mugging at Midnight”
275 · Finger! Finger! · Margaret Ronan · ss Unknown Worlds Oct 1941
283 · A Cry from the Penthouse · Henry Slesar · ss Playboy Nov 1959
293 · The People Next Door · Pauline C. Smith (Robert Arthur) · ss The Mysterious Traveler Magazine Jun 1952
298 · D-Day · Robert Trout · ss Saturday Review of Literature Oct 27 1945
301 · The Man Who Liked Dickens · Evelyn Waugh · ss Hearst’s International Sep 1933
315 · The Iron Gates · Margaret Millar · n. Random House 1945

The degree to which these volumes were Robert Arthur's painless education in the joys of suspense, mystery, horror, fantasy and science fiction would be hard to overestimate, and any time I look upon them it's difficult not to be reminded that these were among the greatest of the "books of gold" writer Gene Wolfe descibes in one of his essays, guideposts into the range of literature available but not always accessible, particularly to young readers who might not have first-rate used bookstores nor large libraries available to them. ...But they might just have a decent-sized public or school library, where the librarians were sensible enough to procure and keep these anthologies on the shelves. Of course, Arthur was kind to his talented friends and old colleagues in the fiction magazines of the 1930s-60s, as well as looking out for #1 (running as he does two of his own stories, one under his Pauline Smith pseudonym--reprinted, as it was, from a magazine he had edited), and there is no lack of chestnuts here--he knew who was likely to be reading these books, young readers (such as myself) or casual ones approaching these fields, or, as the marketing was meant to snare, those who simply enjoyed the television series and hoped for More of Same in prose. Only to be rewarded with a much better selection than even the good choices made for adaptation by producer Joan Harrison and co. And, also to be fair, some of these stories became chestnuts After publication in the various AHP: anthologies...and a few presumably because other editors had them drawn to their attention by Arthur (and his successor in the adult line of Random House anthologies, Harold Q. Masur). And some aren't too well known now, any more than they were then...the Ronan is not the first story one thinks of when one thinks of Unknown: Fantasy Fiction, retitled Unknown Worlds hoping to snag some sf readers as well by the time it published her story. Nor the Long story among Weird Tales reprints, even given he was more a stalwart contributor to that magazine. The Chatterton story being first published in this volume was a rarity in this series--perhaps she was having difficulty placing it elsewhere.

As you glance over the paperback reshuffles of the contents below, you can see how much better the hardcovers were to have--and not solely because the Margaret Miller novel The Iron Garden is missing, presumably because another publisher still had a paperback edition out or at least rights to have one out--often in later volumes, the paperbacks would replace Arthur's novels or long novellas with stories from his YA anthologies from Random House, leading me to wonder if Arthur was given the opportunity to make the reshuffling in the Dell paperbacks himself...or if some functionary at Dell or RH was tasked with this. (Though as noted below, the first edition Dell paperback for the second volume of reprinting Late at Night sports a cover derived from the first RH YA volume in the series, edited by YA specialist Muriel Fuller rather than Arthur, and less successfully than Arthur would approach the same tasks, as a veteran of writing and anthologizing for young readers as well as adults, himself.

The writers this volume would Not have introduced 8- or probably 9yo me to would run only to Arthur himself, Bradbury, Collier, Dahl (running in fine alphabetical sequence--oddly, it seems Arthur was arranging the stories alphabetically by author or pseudonym, except for Millar's novel as last entry as was his custom with the Long Story in his volumes, but for some reason broke his own sequencing with the Moore story), and Bixby and Moore and Jenkins, since I had read their "It's a Good Life--" and "Mimsy were the Borogoves" and "First Contact" in my father's copy of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One a few weeks or months before....the others in earlier-discovered kidlit and/or horror anthologies. One thing these anthologies lacked was headnotes for the stories, or similar addenda, so I would, for example, not learn of Robert Trout's work as as a CBS radio and early tv newsman for a couple of decades.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories for Late at Night
Editor: Robert Arthur
Date: 1962-07-00
Catalog ID: 9178
Publisher: Dell
Price: $0.50
Pages: 223
Format: paperback
9 • Death Is a Dream • (1957) • short story by Robert Arthur
23 • The Whole Town's Sleeping • [Dandelion Wine] • (1950) • short story by Ray Bradbury
43 • Evening Primrose • (1940) • short story by John Collier
57 • The Cocoon • (1946) • short story by John B. L. Goodwin
77 • Vintage Season • (1946) • novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lawrence O'Donnell]--but usually accorded, as here, as primarily by Catherine L. Moore
131 • The Ash-Tree • (1904) • short story by M. R. James
147 • Side Bet • (1937) • short story [originally published as by Murray Leinster] by Will F. Jenkins
159 • Second Night Out • (1933) • short story by Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Black, Dead Thing)
171 • Our Feathered Friends • (1931) • short story by Philip MacDonald
193 • Back There in the Grass • (1911) • short story by Gouverneur Morris
201 • D-Day • (1945) • short story by Robert Trout
205 • The Man Who Liked Dickens • (1933) • short story by Evelyn Waugh

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories for Late at Night
Editor: Robert Arthur
Date: 1962-12-00
Catalog ID: 5815
Publisher: Dell
Price: $0.50
Pages: 207
Format: pb
Cover by or a variation on Fred Banbery's from Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful, edited by Muriel Fuller, Random House Young Readers Books 1961
7 • It's a Good Life-- • (1953) • short story by Jerome Bixby
31 • Lady's Man • (1961) • short story by Ruth Chatterton
51 • The Sound Machine • (1949) • short story by Roald Dahl
69 • Pieces of Silver • (1948) • short story
by Brett Halliday
85 • The Whistling Room • [Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson)] • (1910) • short story by William Hope Hodgson
107 • Told for the Truth • (1927) • short story by Cyril Hume
127 • The Fly • (1957) • novelette by George Langelaan (trans. of La mouche)
169 • The Mugging • (1956) • short story by Edward L. Perry
175 • Finger! Finger! • (1941) • short story by Margaret Ronan
187 • A Cry from the Penthouse • (1959) • short story by Henry Slesar
201 • The People Next Door • (1952) • short story by Pauline C. Smith (I)

published in the UK under the

Max Reinhardt imprint, 1962

Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night: Part I
Editor: Robert Arthur
Date: 1965-00-00
Catalog ID: X344
Publisher: Pan Books
Price: 3/6
Pages: 285
Format: pb
Cover: Glenn Steward
9 • Death Is a Dream • (1957) • short story by Robert Arthur
21 • It's a Good Life • (1953) • short story by Jerome Bixby
41 • The Whole Town's Sleeping • [Dandelion Wine] • (1950) • short story by Ray Bradbury
58 • Lady's Man • (1961) • short story by Ruth Chatterton
75 • Evening Primrose • (1940) • short story by John Collier
88 • The Cocoon • (1946) • short story by John B. L. Goodwin
106 • Vintage Season • (1946) • novella by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by C. L. Moore]
155 • Pieces of Silver • (1948) • short story by Brett Halliday
170 • The Whistling Room • [Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson)] • (1910) • short story by William Hope Hodgson
188 • Told for the Truth • (1927) • short story by Cyril Hume
205 • The Ash Tree • (1904) • short story by M. R. James (variant of The Ash-Tree)
219 • Side Bet • (1937) • short story by Murray Leinster [as by Will F. Jenkins]
229 • Second Night Out • (1933) • short story by Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Black, Dead Thing)
239 • Our Feathered Friends • (1931) • short story by Philip MacDonald
250 • The Fly • (1957) • novelette by George Langelaan (trans. of La mouche)