“Sorry, Right Number” by Richard Matheson ( Beyond Fantasy Fiction, November 1953) Here’s the complete Table of Contents for Zacherley’s Midnight Snacks: Zacherley managed one additional anthology, Zacherley’s Vulture Stew, released in August the same year, before (presumably) laying down for his eternal rest.
Here’s the blurb on the back of the book:Īs choice a brew of ghouls, vampires, ghosts and creatures of EVEN MORE VARIED TALENTS as you could wish to meet, in stories garnered from precious old mouldering records, and with special cheering notes on each by ZACHERLEY. Authors include Richard Matheson, Theodore Sturgeon, Wallace West, A.
The book collects nine short stories and novelettes from the pulps (“precious old mouldering records”), including Thrilling Wonder, Unknown, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, and Fantastic Universe. Someone must know who compiled this (and subsequent) volumes for Ballantine, but they’re not talking. In keeping with the fiction that these stories were selected by a ghoul, the editor of Zacherly’s Midnight Snacks is uncredited. The cheerful undead storyteller, who delights in a good creepy tale (not to mention the occasional moral fable or two.)
Of course, it’s in the long-standing tradition of the Old Crypt Keeper, who introduced the horror tales in EC Comics, and Cain and Abel, hosts of DC Comics’ long-running House of Mystery and House of Secrets comics, just to name a few. Who comments on each story, with special “cheering notes.” You go, Zacherley. I love the whole goofy premise: a ghoul’s favorite midnight reading.
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