Famous Ghost Stories was published by the Modern Library in 1944 — one of the anthology volumes that Cerf regularly produced for the series he had purchased from Horace Liveright in 1925. The Modern Library was the foundation of Random House (the name “Random House” was originally coined for the firm’s non-Modern Library publications), and Cerf took a personal interest in its editorial direction, selecting titles and commissioning introductions throughout his career.
The anthology gathers classic supernatural tales from the genre’s golden age: the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the ghost story was a recognized literary form practiced by serious writers. Cerf’s selections include M. R. James’s “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (excerpted), Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows,” W. W. Jacobs’s “The Monkey’s Paw,” Saki’s “The Open Window,” and stories by Ambrose Bierce, F. Marion Crawford, and others who brought literary craftsmanship to the genre.
Cerf’s introduction reveals a genuine enthusiasm for ghost stories — he had read widely in the genre and could discuss the difference between the English tradition (atmospheric, suggestive, dependent on what is not shown) and the American tradition (more direct, often psychological rather than supernatural). His editorial taste was sound: the stories he selected have remained canonical, and most of them appear in subsequent ghost story anthologies compiled by editors with more scholarly credentials.
The Modern Library format — a compact, affordable hardcover with a distinctive colophon — made the book accessible to a mass audience. For many mid-century readers, Famous Ghost Stories was their introduction to the genre, and the book remained in print for decades, going through multiple printings in the Modern Library’s familiar green or red cloth binding.
Collecting Famous Ghost Stories
Modern Library edition (Random House, New York, 1944): Characteristic Modern Library binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- Early printings with jacket: $10–$25
- Later printings: $3–$8
Modern Library editions are collected by a devoted community, and first printings can be identified by the absence of later titles from the interior list. However, this is not a scarce book.