Poisoned Pen Press, the Sourcebooks mystery imprint, has announced a new line, the Haunted Library of Horror Classics, which will re-publish classic books in the horror genre. The line will debut in January 2020 with a new edition of Gaston Leroux’s 1911 classic The Phantom of the Opera, to be published on January 7.
The trade paperback series, which will be edited by Eric J. Guignard and Leslie S. Klinger, was conceived by Lisa Morton, a former president of the Horror Writers Association. Each volume in the Haunted Library, Poisoned Pen said, will feature a new introduction written by a horror literature scholar or author, and will include notes and annotations situating the work in its historical context, explanations of any vocabulary unique to its era, and discussion questions for classroom use, in addition to further reading suggestions.
Further titles in the series will include: The Beetle (1897) by Richard Marsh, Vathek (1786) by William Beckford, The House on the Borderland (1908) by William Hodgson Hope, The Parasite (1894) by Arthur Conan Doyle, and The King in Yellow (1895) by Robert W. Chambers, which jumpstarted a small renaissance in interest in classic weird fiction and horror titles when it was prominently included in the first season of HBO's True Detective series.
The introductory essays will be written by contemporary horror fiction writers including Ramsey Campbell, Joe Lansdale, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbrough.
