American Midnight

Book excerpt: A chilling collection of classic weird and supernatural tales from the dark heart of American literature A masquerade ball cut short by a mysterious plague; a strange nocturnal ritual in the woods; a black bobcat howling in the night: these ten tales are some of the most strange and unsettling in all of American literature, filled with unforgettable imagery and simmering with tension. From Edgar Allan Poe to Shirley Jackson, Nathaniel Hawthorne to Zora Neale Hurston, the authors of these classics of supernatural suspense have inspired generations of writers to explore the dark heart of the land of the free. The stories in this collection have been selected and introduced by Laird Hunt, an author of seven acclaimed novels which explore the shadowy corners of American history. Contains: 'The Masque of the Red Death', Edgar Allan Poe 'Young Goodman Brown', Nathaniel Hawthorne 'The Eyes', Edith Wharton 'The Mask', Robert Chambers 'Home', Shirley Jackson 'A Ghost Story', Mark Twain 'Spunk', Zora Neale Hurston 'The Yellow Wallpaper', Charlotte Perkins Gilman 'An Itinerant House', Emma Frances Dawson