Andrew Barger

Over a decade ago I became frustrated at how difficult it was to find early horror short stories on the Web. I am talking very early, 19th century or earlier. Sure, I found plenty of Edgar Allan Poe and similar popular horror writers, yet the one hit wonders were hard to find. Because the horror short story mostly began in the 19th century, I decided to break these 100 years into two 50 year periods and collect the very best in the genre for these important periods. After reading hundreds of short stories from obscure magazines and journals, I collected what I viewed as the very best horror stories, including each main horror subgenre (Ghost, Vampire, Werewolf and Witch). For transparency, at the end of each I include a list of every short story considered. Readers often ask where they can read the horror stories that did not make the (bloody) cut. That's why I am providing this free horror short stories website for everyone to read these stories and decide for themselves if a rejected story should have actually made it into one of the horror anthologies. If you feel strongly, I would love to hear from you. Please follow me on X @ or on Amazon.

As for the image on the left, that's me after writing all night. Enjoy the site!