WERE-CREATURES

26 classic stories of lupine creatures, showing the wide range of themes in werewolf literature. Stories include: The Wehr-Wolf: A Legend of the Limousin (Richard Thomson), The Man-Wolf (Leitch Ritchie), The Wer-Wolf: A Kentish Legend (Sutherland Menzies), The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains (Frederick Marryat), A Story of a Weir-Wolf (Mrs. Crowe), The Werewolf (Hans Christian Andersen), The Gray Wolf (George MacDonald), The Man-Wolf (Erckmann and Chatrian), Olalla (Robert Louis Stevenson), The White Wolf of Kostopchin (Sir Gilbert Campbell), The Wolf (Guy de Maupassant), The Mark of the Beast (Rudyard Kipling), The Other Side: A Breton Legend (Count Stenbock), The Werewolf (Eugene Field), The Were-Wolf (Clemence Housman), The Werewolves (Henry Beaugrand), The Sword of Corporal Lacoste (Bernard Capes), The Lame Priest (S. Carleton), The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York (Algernon Blackwood), The Camp of the Dog (Blackwood), The Lay of the Were-Wolf (Marie de France), She-Wolf (Saki), The Thing in the Forest (Bernard Capes), Running Wolf (Algernon Blackwood), The Hidden Beast (J. D. Beresford), The Voice in the Night (W. J. Wintle).

Spectral felines and were-tigers are among the furry (and often deadly) creatures in this anthology. Sometimes the feline is only in the mind, but other tales have a more tangible beast. Horror, humor, and fantasy play out in these strange tales of man vs cat.

The 22 stories are: The King of the Cats (Thomas Lyttelton), Murtough Murphy's Story (Samuel Lover), The Man-Tiger (H. Wellington Vrooman), The Man at the Next Table (Robert W. Chambers), The Eyes of the Panther (Ambrose Bierce), The Were-Tiger (Sir Hugh Charles Clifford), A Vendetta of the Jungle (Arthur Applin and H. Sidney Warwick), The Gray Cat (Barry Pain), A Were-Tiger (Sir William George Maxwell), Ancient Sorceries (Algernon Blackwood), Tobermory (Saki), In the Valley of the Sorceress (Sax Rohmer), The Cats of Ulthar (H. P. Lovecraft), The Black Cat (William J. Wintle), The Empty Sleeve (Algernon Blackwood), The Tiger (A. E. Coppard), The Were-Tiger (Lyman Bryson), The Leopard Woman (Edith Ross), Tiger (Bassett Morgan), Fangs of Vengeance (Nathan Hindin), Toean Matjan (Vennette Herron), Spotted Satan (Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffmann Price).

A Pennsylvania German community is unnerved by attacks on livestock and sightings of a white wolf. But tragedy soon follows and residents are up in arms. Gentleman farmer Pierre de Camp-d’Avesnes is concerned about his beautiful daughter, Sara, who seems to be losing her personality to an animal nature. A family curse collides with Pierre’s comfortable life, and he finds himself in a harrowing fight for Sara’s very soul.

Franklin Long Gregory (1905-1980) was a reporter and columnist for the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger for 25 years. The White Wolf was published in 1941.