A collection of short stories "by leading writers that have not been included in their collected works".

Section I, horror: Bram Stoker, 'The dualitists'; Sax Rohmer, 'The mysterious mummy'; Edgar Allen Poe, 'The lighthouse'; Katharine Fullerton Gerould, 'The eighty-third'; William Faulkner, 'The kid learns'; John Collier, 'The monster of the deep'; Robert Bloch, 'The grip of death'; John D. MacDonald, 'The great stone death'; John Wyndham, 'Vengence by proxy'; Stephen King, 'The mangler'.

Section II, supernatural: M. R. James, 'The malice of inanimate objects'; Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 'Borrhomeo the astrologer'; F. Anstey, 'Three wishes'; William Hope Hodgson, 'The haunted Pampero'; Algernon Blackwood, 'The magic mirror'; Upton Sinclair, 'The overman'; L. M. Montgomery, 'The houseparty at Smoky Island'; T. H. White, 'The shining hat at Tarring Neville'; Olaf Stapledon, 'A modern magician'; Fritz Leiber, 'The glove'.

Section III, fantasy: William Morris, 'The hollow land'; Ambrose Bierce, 'The mystery of the ultimate hills'; Lord Dunsany, 'The field where the satyrs danced'; Arthur Ransome, 'The ageing faun'; W. Heath Robinson, 'Biddulph'; James Hilton, 'The bat king'; H. P. Lovecraft, 'The challenge from beyond'; Robert E. Howard, 'People of the black coast'; John Gardner, 'The ravages of spring'; Ray Bradbury, 'Bright phoenix'.