The Devil's Generation

by Vic Ghidalia (Editor), Frank Frazetta (Cover Artist), Ray Bradbury

Black Ferris • Ray Bradbury
Call Him Demon • (1946) • Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore
Mother by Protest • (1953) • Richard Matheson
Floral Tribute • (1949) • Robert Bloch
The Place in the Woods • (1954) • August Derleth
Hole in the Air • (1956) • Robert Silverberg
Mr. Lupescu • (1945) • Anthony Boucher
Day of Truce • (1963) • Clifford D. Simak
The Other Wing • (1915) • Algernon Blackwood

Genres: Horror, Anthologies

175 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1973

About the author

Victor Simon Ghidalia (1926-2013) was a US publicist for ABC TV. He co-edited eight anthologies with Roger Elwood between 1969 and 1975, and several solo anthologies between 1971 and 1977.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice anthology of creepy tales that concern children which was published in 1973. Ghidalia was the editor (or co-editor, always alongside Roger Elwood) of about twenty such collections in the 1970s. There's one old classic (Algernon Blackwood's The Other Wing), along with more modern stories by Ray Bradbury, August Derleth, Anthony Boucher, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Clifford D. Simak, Henry Kuttner, and Robert Silverberg. They're pretty evenly split between the genre sf magazines and Weird Tales and range from 1946-1963. No real classics, but a fine selection of less-familiar fare.

[Terri LH · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Devil's Generation" also happens to be the title of the cover art by Frank Frazetta, and by no surprise of mine, nothing that awesome happens in the book as depicted in that image.
Once again, the cover art far out ranks the contents of a 70s paperback. But I knew what I was geting into with this one.
It wasn't horrible though. I did enjoy some stories. Ex: Mother by Protest, Hole in the air, and the Algernon Blackwood story at the end.
Not the worst, but not the best.

Happy Friday the 13th...

[Doug Brunell]

There are nearly ten short stories in this anthology, and not a single one of them is a loser. That's a rarity when it comes to collections. Usually there is one or two that just do not connect for one reason or another. That's not the case here.

Oh, and all the tales involve children in one way or another . . . and everyone knows that children are freakin' as evil as they come. This collection proves it.

I don't know how rare this is, but I'd like to find a copy in better shape than my own. It fell apart halfway through thanks to the cardstock cigarette ad in the middle of it, but I finished it anyway. I had to hold it together as I read, being more careful than I usually am (which is pretty damn careful) so that I didn't crack the spine too far. That's a testament to how much I was enjoying it.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of horror stories involving children. The two by Ray Bradbury, "Black Ferris", and Henry Kuttner "Call Him Demon" were the most memorable for me.