First published 1986
This collection gathers fourteen stories that transform Maine into a landscape of mystery and dread. Richard Matheson's "The Children of Noah" opens the volume with its 1957 tale of biblical proportions. Stephen King contributes "One for the Road," where travelers face supernatural dangers in the Maine wilderness. Seabury Quinn's 1923 novelette "The Phantom Farmhouse" presents ghostly encounters in rural settings. Edgar Pangborn's "Longtooth" brings creatures from folklore into modern times. The anthology spans over a century of storytelling, from Harriet Prescott Spofford's 1860 "Circumstance" to Donald Wismer's contemporary "Safe Harbor." Ruth Sawyer explores dreams and premonitions in "Four Dreams of Gram Perkins." Jane Yolen crafts maritime mystery in "One Old Man, With Seals." Fritz Leiber's "Yesterday House" bends time itself. These authors use Maine's isolated towns, dense forests, and rocky coastline as backdrops for tales where the ordinary world cracks open to reveal something darker underneath. Each story captures the state's capacity to harbor secrets in its remote corners.
Genres: anthologies, 20th-century, mystery, fantasy, horror, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, supernatural-elements
Setting: Maine
Period: 1860, 1923, 1957, Contemporary
295 pages · Paperback · L. Tapley, Augusta, Me.