The Horror Hall of Fame

This competent collection of 18 horror stories by the standard-bearers of the genre spans 138 years and represents the results of a poll taken of horror fiction readers and writers at the World Fantasy Conventions in 1981 and 1982. Edgar Allan Poe's classic ``The Fall of the House of Usher'' is followed by ``Green Tea,'' authored by his contemporary, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, who is credited with transforming the figure of the ghost from a moral avenger into a malevolent spirit. Stories by Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Fritz Lieber Jr., Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch and Ray Bradbury examine social and individual concerns while tingling the spine. The last piece in the collection is ``The Reach,'' a tingling ghost story by Stephen King, written in 1981. (Aug.)