Ooze and Others: Best Weird Stories of Anthony M. Rud

Anthony M. Rud (1893–1942) was the prototypical pulp writer. His stories appeared in a wide array of pulp magazines over a period of twenty years; but the work for which he is now best known is in the vein of horror and the supernatural. “Ooze,” appearing in the first issue of Weird Tales (March 1923),is a mesmerizing tale of nebulous horror—it also influenced H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” Rud wrote numerous “lost race” stories, including “The Place of Hairy Death,” set in the Yucatán; “Bellowing Bamboo,” set in British Guiana; and “Bunyips in the Mulga,” an evocative tale evoking the distinctive flora and fauna of Australia. “Waters under the Earth” involves a quest for hidden treasure in Mexico. In all these stories Rud brings a vibrancy of setting and originality in his creation of weird scenarios that lift them far above the common run of pulp fiction. CONTENTS Introduction by S. T. Joshi 1. The Specter at Macey's • (1918) • short story 2. Ooze • (1923) • novelette 3. A Square of Canvas • (1923) • short story 4. The Forty Jars • (1923) • short story 5. The Place of Hairy Death • (1934) • short story 6. Bellowing Bamboo • (1934) • short story 7. Choctaw Rose • (1935) • short story 8. Waters Under the Earth • (1936) • novella 9. Sinister Hollow • (1937) • novella 10. The Molten Bullet • (1937) • short story 11. Visitors from Venus • (1937) • novelette 12. Bunyips in the Mulga • (1938) • novella Bibliography by S. T. Joshi * Cover art by Allen Koszowski