SOURCE: A review of Tales of Horror and the Supernatural, in The New York Times Book Review, August 1, 1948, p. 10.

Highly regarded for his mystery novels, Carr was an American editor, biographer, and short story writer. In the following essay, he offers a positive assessment of the short stories collected in Tales of Horror and the Supernatural.

Machen died last December. For most of his long lifetime (he was over 80) his work had been neglected or forgotten. Now honor has been done. His Tales of Horror and the Supernatural, admirably edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, contains the best of his short stories, from "The Novel of the Black Seal" to a brief novel called The Terror. He was, as the editor somewhat diffidently points out, a Victorian romantic. Like so many of this tribe, he could do one thing supremely well: he could tell a story.

As Mr...