The Year's Best Horror Stories


The Year’s Best Horror Stories was a series of annual anthologies published by DAW Books in the U.S.from 1972 to 1994 under the successive editorships of Richard Davis from 1972 to 1975, and of Gerald W. Page from 1976 to 1979, and Karl Edward Wagner from 1980 to 1994. The series was discontinued after Wagner's death. It was a companion to DAW’s The Annual World’s Best SF and The Year's Best Fantasy Stories, which performed a similar function for the science fiction and fantasy fields.
Each annual volume reprinted what in the opinion of the editor was the best horror short fiction appearing in the previous year. The series also aimed to discover and nurture new talent. It featured both occasionally recurring authors and writers new to the horror genre. Veterans among the contributing authors included Brian Lumley, Eddy C. Bertin, Kit Reed, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, and Tanith Lee; some of the relative newcomers to the field featured were Stephen King, Al Sarrantonio, Lisa Tuttle, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, David Drake, Juleen Brantingham, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.

The series

Volumes edited by Richard Davis

1. The Year’s Best Horror Stories, editor Richard Davis, Sphere Books 1971; DAW Books 1972
2. The Year’s Best Horror Stories II, editor Richard Davis, Sphere Books 1972.
3. The Year’s Best Horror Stories III, editor Richard Davis, Sphere Books 1973.
2. The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series II, editor Richard Davis, DAW Books 1974
3. The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series III, editor Richard Davis, DAW Books 1975; Orbit Books 1976 as The First Orbit Book of Horror Stories
4. The Year’s Best Horror Stories IV, editor Gerald W. Page, 1976.
5. The Year’s Best Horror Stories V, editor Gerald W. Page, 1977.
6. The Year’s Best Horror Stories VI, editor Gerald W. Page, 1978.
7. The Year’s Best Horror Stories VII, editor Gerald W. Page, 1979.
8. The Year’s Best Horror Stories VIII, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1980.
9. The Year’s Best Horror Stories IX, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1981.
10. The Year’s Best Horror Stories X, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1982
11. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XI, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1983.
12. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XII, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1984.
13. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XIII, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1985.
14. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XIV, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1986.
15. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XV, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1987.
16. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XVI, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1988.
17. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XVII, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1989.
18. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XVIII, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1990.
19. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XIX, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1991.
20. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XX, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1992.
21. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXI, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1993.
22. The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1994.