Though his art is typically associated with science fiction, such as covers for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, and (but of course…!) Ace Books, and other publications, Edmund Emshwiller’s creativity found a different outlet in Ace Books’ 1959 The Macabre Reader: horror.
Note that all the spaces in the composition that might otherwise be “blank” and “empty” are instead cleverly occupied by elements denoting horror, terror, and fear, such as a spider, a ghost, the figure of a woman-in-peril, and three menacing ghoul-like figures, all within or surrounding a sickly-green skull. And, as per his works of science fiction, Emshwiller signed the composition with his trademark “EMSH” (visible in the lower right).
It’s notable that five of the volume’s thirteen (hmm…was it intentionally thirteen?!) works are either solely by, or by authors in collaboration with, H.P. Lovecraft.
Contents
The Phantom-Wooer, poem from Death’s Jest Book, 1850, poem Thomas Lovell Beddoes
The Crawling Horror, from Weird Tales, November, 1936, by Thorp McClusky
The Opener of the Way, from Weird Tales, October, 1936, by Robert Bloch
Night Gaunts (variant of “Night-Gaunts”, alternative title “Fungi from Yuggoth”), poem from The Phantagraph, Spring, 1936, by H.P. Lovecraft
In Amundsen’s Tent, from Weird Tales, January, 1928, by John Martin Leahy
The Thing on the Doorstep, from Weird Tales, January, 1937, by H.P. Lovecraft
The Hollow Man, from The Evening Standard Book of Strange Stories, 1934, by Thomas Burke
It Will Grow On You, from Esquire, April, 1942, by Donald Wandrei
The Hunters from Beyond, from Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, October, 1932, by Clark Ashton Smith
The Curse of Yig, poem by Zealia Bishop and H.P. Lovecraft (as by Zealia Brown Bishop)
The Cairn on the Headland, from Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, January, 1933, by Robert E. Howard
The Trap, from Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, March, 1932, by H.P. Lovecraft and Henry S. Whitehead (as Henry S. Whitehead)
The Dweller, poem from Weird Tales, March, 1940, by H.P. Lovecraft
Reference
The Macabre Reader, at The Internet Speculative Fiction Database