The Avon Fantasy Reader was published in January 1969. The 2nd Avon Fantasy Reader followed close on its heels in February 1969. That was apparently the end of the series. The contents of both books were drawn from the original Avon Fantasy Reader of the 1940s and '50s, edited by Donald A. Wollheim. George Ernsberger was the editor of the new series. In his foreword to the second entry, he wrote: "The job of the present editor was made error-proof by Mr. Wollheim's unfailing acumen: since there were no bad stories in the original Readers, no unforgivable lapse of taste was possible now." A curious statement. In any case, of the nine stories in the book, five were from Weird Tales.
The 2nd Avon Fantasy Reader edited by Donald A. Wollheim and George Ernsberger
(Avon Books, 1969, 173 pp.)
Foreword by George Ernsberger
"The Blonde Goddess of Bal-Sagoth" by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, Oct. 1931 as "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth")
"Shambleau" by C.L. Moore (Weird Tales, Nov. 1933)
"The Curse of Yig" by Zealia Brown Bishop (Weird Tales, Nov. 1929, reprinted Apr. 1939)
"Ubbo-Sathla" by Clark Ashton Smith (Weird Tales, July 1933)
"The Painted Mirror" by Donald Wandrei (The Eye and the Finger, 1944)
"Amina" by Edward Lucas White (Lukundoo and Other Stories, 1927)
"The Black Kiss" by Robert Bloch [and Henry Kuttner] (Weird Tales, June 1937)
"The City of the Living Dead" by Laurence Manning and Fletcher Pratt (Science Wonder Stories, May 1930)
"The Curse of a Thousand Kisses" by Sax Rohmer (The Haunting of Low Fennel, 1920)
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| The 2nd Avon Fantasy Reader (1969) with cover art by Gray Morrow. |
Text copyright 2012, 2023 Terence E. Hanley
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