by Matt Cardin
1757
Publication of Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, an essay articulating an aesthetics of death, pain, power, and cosmic immensity that proved hugely influential for subsequent Gothic and horror literature
1764
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
1774
August Bürger, Lenore
1778
Clara Reeve, The Old English Baron
1781
Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare (painting)
1786
William Beckford, Vathek
1787–1789
Friedrich von Schiller, Der Geisterseher (The Ghost-Seer)
1793
Christian Heinrich Spiess, Petermännchen (The Dwarf of Westerbourg)
1794
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho
1796
Matthew Lewis, The Monk
1797
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel; Matthew Lewis, The Castle Spectre; Ann Radcliffe, The Italian
1798
Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland, or The Transformation; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner
1799
Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Huntly
1801
Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer
1816
Lord Byron, John Polidori, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley hold a ghost story contest while staying together for the summer at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva, giving rise to the literary vampire (via Polidori’s “The Vampyre”) and Mary’s Frankenstein
1817
E. T. A. Hoffmann, “The Sand-man”; Lord Byron, Manfred
1818
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
1819
John Polidori, “The Vampyre”
1820
Washington Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”; Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer
1824
James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
1826
Posthumous publication of Ann Radcliffe’s essay “On the Supernatural in Poetry”
1831
Nikolai Gogol, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka; Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame); Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (revised version)
1835
Nikolai Gogol, Mirgorod and Arabesques; Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”
1837
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Twice-Told Tales
1838
Edgar Allan Poe, “Ligeia” and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
1839
J. Sheridan Le Fanu, “Schalken the Painter”; Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”
1840
Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
1842
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni; Edgar Allan Poe, “The Mask of the Red Death” (revised in 1845 as “The Masque of the Red Death”)
1843
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Black Cat,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Conqueror Worm”
1844
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”; Karl Adolf von Wachsmann, “The Mysterious Stranger”
1845
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”
1845–1847
James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, Varney the Vampire (published in installments)
1846
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”
1847
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre; Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights; Thomas Peckett Prest, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber (first published as The String of Pearls); Count Jan Potocki, The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
1848
The young Fox sisters of Hydesville, New York, report hearing “spirit raps,” leading to the explosive birth of Spiritualism, which will play a significant role in much supernatural horror fiction
1851
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables
1855
Elizabeth Gaskell, “The Old Nurse’s Story”
1857
Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil)
1859
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, “The Haunted and the Haunters”; Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White; Fitz-James O’Brien, “What Was It?”
1866
Charles Dickens, “The Signal-man” (first published as “No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal-man”)
1869
Comte de Lautréamont, The Songs of Maldoror; J. Sheridan Le Fanu, “Green Tea”
1872
J. Sheridan Le Fanu, In a Glass Darkly (includes Carmilla)
1881
Robert Louis Stevenson, “Thrawn Janet”
1882
The Society for Psychical Research is founded in London.
1884
J. K. Huysmans, A rebours (Against the Grain); Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Body Snatcher”
1885
Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom ’Rickshaw”; Robert Louis Stevenson, “Olalla”
1886
F. Marion Crawford, “The Upper Berth”; H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure; Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1887
Guy de Maupassant, “The Horla”
1888
Rudyard Kipling, The Phantom ’Rickshaw, and Other Tales
1889
W. C. Morrow, “His Unconquerable Enemy”
1890
Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Ring of Thoth”; Rudyard Kipling, “The Mark of the Beast”; Vernon Lee, Hauntings; Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
1891
Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “The Death of Halpin Frayser”; Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles; J. K. Huysmans, Là-Bas (published in English as Down There or The Damned); Henry James, “Sir Edmund Orme”; Rudyard Kipling, “The Recrudescence of Imray”
1892
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” Arthur Conan Doyle, “Lot No. 249”
1893
Ambrose Bierce, “The Damned Thing” and Can Such Things Be?
1894
George du Maurier, Trilby; Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan and the Inmost Light
1895
Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow; Arthur Machen, The Three Impostors (with “The Novel of the Black Seal”)
1896
H. G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau
1897
Arthur Machen, The Hill of Dreams; Richard Marsh, The Beetle; Bram Stoker, Dracula; H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man
1898
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
1899
Vernon Lee, “The Doll”
1900
Lafcadio Hearn, “Nightmare-Touch”; Robert Hichens, “How Love Came to Professor Guildea”
1901
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles; M. P. Shiel, The Purple Cloud
1902
W. W. Jacobs, “The Monkey’s Paw”
1903
Bram Stoker, The Jewel of Seven Stars
1904
Lafcadio Hearn, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things; M. R. James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (with “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”); Arthur Machen, “The White People”
1905
F. Marion Crawford, “For the Blood Is the Life”
1906
Leonid Andreyev, “Lazarus”; Algernon Blackwood, The Empty House
1907
Algernon Blackwood, The Listener and Other Stories (with “The Willows”)
1908
Algernon Blackwood, John Silence: Physician Extraordinary; F. Marion Crawford, “The Screaming Skull”; Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider”; William Hope Hodgson, The Hou
se on the Borderland
1910
Algernon Blackwood, “The Wendigo”; Walter de la Mare, The Return; Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera; Edith Wharton, “Afterward”
1911
Hanns Heinz Ewers, Alraune; M. R. James, More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (with “Casting the Runes”); Oliver Onions, Widdershins (with “The Beckoning Fair One”); Saki, “Sredni Vashtar”; Bram Stoker, The Lair of the White Worm
1912
E. F. Benson, The Room in the Tower; Walter de la Mare, “The Listeners”; William Hope Hodgson, The Night Land
1913
William Hope Hodgson, Carnacki, the Ghost Finder
1913–1914
Gustav Meyrink, The Golem
1914
Saki, “The Open Window”
1915
Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”
1918
Sax Rohmer, Brood of the Witch Queen
1919
Sigmund Freud, “The Uncanny”; Stefan Grabiński, The Motion Demon; W. F. Harvey, “The Beast with Five Fingers”
1920
Maurice Renard, The Hands of Orlac
1921
A. E. Coppard, “Adam & Eve & Pinch Me”
1922
Walter de la Mare, “Seaton’s Aunt”; H. P. Lovecraft, “The Music of Erich Zann”
1923
Walter de la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories (with “Seaton’s Aunt” and “Out of the Deep”); launch of Weird Tales
1924
H. P. Lovecraft, “The Rats in the Walls”
1925
Franz Kafka, The Trial; Edward Lucas White, “Lukundoo”; Not at Night, edited by Christine Campbell Thomson
1926
Cynthia Asquith, The Ghost Book; D. H. Lawrence, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”; H. P. Lovecraft, “The Outsider”
1927
F. Scott Fitzgerald, “A Short Trip Home”; H. P. Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, “Pickman’s Model,” “The Colour out of Space,” and Supernatural Horror in Literature
1928
Frank Belknap Long, “The Space Eaters”; H. P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”; Montague Summers, The Vampire, His Kith and Kin; H. R. Wakefield, They Return at Evening (with “He Cometh and He Passeth By”); Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery, and Horror, edited by Dorothy Sayers
1929
Frank Belknap Long, “The Hounds of Tindalos”; H. P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror”; Montague Summers, The Vampire in Europe
1930
William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”; H. P. Lovecraft, “The Whisperer in Darkness”
1931
Conrad Aiken, “Mr. Arcularis”; Clark Ashton Smith, “The Return of the Sorcerer”
1932
Conrad Aiken, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow”; Jean Ray, “The Shadowy Street”; launch of Charles Birkin’s Creeps anthology series
1933
Guy Endore, The Werewolf of Paris; H. P. Lovecraft, “The Dreams in the Witch House”; Clark Ashton Smith, “Ubbo-Sathla”
1934
Dennis Wheatley, The Devil Rides Out
1936
H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, “The Shadow over Innsmouth” “The Shadow Out of Time,” and “The Haunter of the Dark”
1937
H. P. Lovecraft, “The Thing on the Doorstep”; Edith Wharton, Ghosts (published posthumously)
1938
John W. Campbell, “Who Goes There?”; Robert E. Howard, “Pigeons from Hell”; Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
1939
H. P. Lovecraft, The Outsider and Others—the first published collection of Lovecraft’s fiction, from the newly founded Arkham House; founding of Unknown magazine
1940
John Collier, “Evening Primrose”; L. Ron Hubbard, Fear; Theodore Sturgeon, “It”; Jack Williamson, Darker Than You Think
1941
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost”; H. P. Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (published posthumously)
1942
Clark Ashton Smith, Out of Space and Time
1943
Robert Bloch, “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper”; Fritz Leiber, Conjure Wife; Jean Ray, Malpertuis
1944
Theodore Sturgeon, “Killdozer”; Jack Williamson, Darker Than You Think: Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Herbert Wise and Phyllis Fraser; Sleep No More, edited by August Derleth
1945
Robert Bloch, The Opener of the Way; Elizabeth Bowen, The Demon Lover; August Derleth (and H. P. Lovecraft), The Lurker at the Threshold
1946
Ray Bradbury, “The Homecoming”
1947
Ray Bradbury, Dark Carnival; rebranding of Educational Comics as Entertaining Comics by William Gaines, soon to publish Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, and Vault of Horror
1948
Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”; Theodore Sturgeon, “The Perfect Host”
1949
Fritz Leiber, “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes”
1950
Richard Matheson, “Born of Man and Woman”
1951
Robert Aickman, We Are for the Dark; Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man; John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids
1952
Daphne du Maurier, “The Birds”
1953
Sarban, The Doll Maker and Other Tales of the Uncanny
1954
Richard Matheson, I Am Legend
1955
Jack Finney, The Body Snatchers; Flannery O’Connor, “Good Country People”
1955
Ray Bradbury, The October Country (revised version of 1947’s Dark Carnival)
1957
John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos
1959
Robert Bloch, Psycho; Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House; the first Pan Book of Horror Stories, edited by Herbert van Thal; The Macabre Reader, edited by Donald A. Wollheim
1961
Richard Matheson, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”; Ray Russell, “Sardonicus”
1962
Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes; Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle; Ray Russell, The Case Against Satan
1963
Manly Wade Wellman, Who Fears the Devil?
1964
Robert Aickman, Dark Entries (with “Ringing the Changes”); Ramsey Campbell, The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants; Creepy #1, from Warren Publishing
1966
Eerie #1, from Warren Publishing
1967
Ira Levin, Rosemary’s Baby; Colin Wilson, The Mind Parasites; Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
1968
Robert Aickman, Sub Rosa (with “The Cicerones”); Fred Chappell, Dagon; launch of the magazine Weirdbook; creation of modern zombie archetype in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead
1971
William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist; T. E. D. Klein, “The Events at Poroth Farm”; Richard Matheson, Hell House; Thomas Tryon, The Other; The Seventh Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, edited by Robert Aickman
1973
J. G. Ballard, Crash; Ramsey Campbell, Demons by Daylight; Harlan Ellison, “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs”; Robert Marasco, Burnt Offerings; Thomas Tryon, Harvest Home
1974
James Herbert, The Rats; Stephen King, Carrie; Brian Lumley, Beneath the Moors and The Burrowers Beneath; Karl Edward Wagner, “Sticks”
1975
J. G. Ballard, High-Rise; Harlan Ellison, Deathbird Stories; James Herbert, The Fog; Stephen King, ’Salem’s Lot; establishment of the World Fantasy Award at the first World Fantasy Convention
1976
Ramsey Campbell, The Doll Who Ate His Mother; John Farris, The Fury; Russell Kirk, “There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Winding”; Ray Russell, Incubus; Frights, edited by Kirby McCauley
1977
Gary Brandner, The Howling; Stephen King, The Shining
; Fritz Leiber, Our Lady of Darkness; Joyce Carol Oates, Night-Side; Whispers, edited by Stuart David Schiff
1978
Stephen King, The Stand and Night Shift; Whitley Strieber, The Wolfen; Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Hotel Transylvania; launch of the Shadows horror anthology series, edited by Charles L. Grant
1979
Ramsey Campbell, The Face That Must Die and “Mackintosh Willie”; Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber; Charles L. Grant, The Hour of the Oxrun Dead; George R. R. Martin, Sandkings; David Morrell, The Totem; Peter Straub, Ghost Story; Thomas Tessier, The Nightwalker
1980
Jonathan Carroll, The Land of Laughs; Suzy McKee Charnas, The Vampire Tapestry; Jack Ketchum, Off Season; Russell Kirk, “The Watchers at the Strait Gate”; Michael Shea, “The Autopsy”; Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauley