A Tale of Three Covers: The Mammoth Book of Dracula / In the Footsteps of Dracula, edited by Stephen Jones

A Tale of Three Covers: The Mammoth Book of Dracula / In the Footsteps of Dracula, edited by Stephen Jones

The Mammoth Book of Dracula 1977-small The Mamoth Book of Dracula-small In the Footsteps of Dracula-small

One of the most interesting books I received in the mail the last few months was In the Footsteps of Dracula: Tales of the Un-dead Count, edited by Stephen Jones, a fat 679-page hardcover from Pegasus Books that contains 33 stories and a poem, all building on the legend of Dracula, whom Stephen King calls “still literature’s greatest villain.” It’s a true feast for vampire lovers of all kinds, with stories by Thomas Ligotti, Manly Wade Wellman, Ramsey Campbell, Paul J. McAuley, Charlaine Harris, Brian Stableford, Michael Marshall Smith, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Basil Copper, Nancy Kilpatrick, and many others.

As I was researching the book for this article, I discovered a brief Facebook post from Stephen Jones that noted that it was a “revised and updated edition of [an] older Mammoth book,” The Mammoth Book of Dracula, originally published in the UK by Robinson in 1997 with a cover by Paul Aston (above left). The book appeared in a revised edition in 2011 with a more modern cover (above middle, uncredited) and containing one additional story, the Sookie Stackhouse tale “Dracula Night.” The new hardcover edition (above right, cover by Derek Thornton) adds a new title, an “About the Editor” page, and Acknowledgement and Credits, but otherwise looks identical to the 2011 edition. It arrived in bookstores on October 3.

The 1997 Mammoth Book of Dracula contained a handful of reprints — from Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell, Many Wade Wellman, and F. Paul Wilson, and Bram Stoker himself — but was otherwise all original, including a new Anno Dracula novella from Kim Newman.

Here’s the desciption for In the Footsteps of Dracula.

More than thirty chilling stories and novellas featuring Bram Stoker’s King of the Vampires: Count Dracula, Prince of Darkness!

Since his creation one hundred and twenty years ago, the name of Dracula has become synonymous with the legend of the vampire and the character is one of the world’s most iconic to appear in fiction and film. Now, this history of the blood-drinking nobleman follows Dracula from his origins in Transylvania, through his travels down the decades, into a dystopian twenty-first century where vampires rule the world.

Is it possible that the Count’s condition can be cured by modern medicine? How does the mythology perpetuated by literature and movies affect the existence of a real bloodsucker? How can an immortal creature adapt to the social and technological changes that have already shaped our modern world? And what happens when Dracula turns up for his own birthday party?

These and many other questions are answered by acclaimed authors such as Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Fowler, Charlaine Harris, Nancy Holder, Nancy Kilpatrick, Brian Lumley, Graham Masterton, Paul McAuley, Kim Newman, Michael Marshall Smith, F. Paul Wilson and many others, including Dracula’s original creator Bram Stoker with a long-lost version of the story first presented in 1897.

And here’s the complete Table of Contents.

Introduction: I Bid You Welcome, by Stephen Jones
“Dracula: or The Un-Dead: Prologue” by Bram Stoker (1897)
“Dracula’s Library” by Christopher Fowler
“The Heart of Count Dracula, Descendant of Attila, Scourge of God” by Thomas Ligotti (Songs of a Dead Dreamer, 1985)
“Daddy’s Little Girl” by Mandy Slater
“Conversion” by Ramsey Campbell (The Rivals of Dracula: A Century of Vampire Fiction, 1977)
“The Devil Is Not Mocked” by Manly Wade Wellman (Unknown Worlds, June 1943)
“Teaserama” by Nancy Kilpatrick
“Blood Freak” by Nancy Holder
“Zack Phalanx Is Vlad the Impaler” by Brian Lumley
“When Greek Meets Greek” by Basil Copper
“Coppola’s Dracula” by Kim Newman
“The Second Time Around” by Hugh B. Cave
“Endangered Species” by Brian Mooney
“Melancholia” by Roberta Lannes
“Children of the Long Nigh” by Lisa Morton
“Mbo” by Nicholas Royle
“The Worst Place in the World” by Paul J. McAuley
“Larry’s Guest” by Guy N. Smith
“A Taste of Culture” by Jan Edwards
“Rudolph” by R. Chetwynd-Hayes
“Roadkill” by Graham Masterton
“Volunteers” by Terry Lamsley
“Black Beads” by John Gordon
“Your European Son” by Joel Lane
“Quality Control” by Brian Stableford
“Dear Alison” by Michael Marshall Smith
“Bloodlines” by Conrad Williams
“Windows of the Soul” by Chris Morgan
“Blood of Eden” by Mike Chinn
“Dracula Night” by Charlaine Harris (Many Bloody Returns, 2007)
“The Last Testament” by Brian Hodge
“The Last Vampire” by Peter Crowther
“The Lord’s Work” by F. Paul Wilson (Dracula: Prince of Darkness, 1992)
Lord of the Undead, by Jo Fletcher –poem
About the Editor
Acknowledgement and Credits

In the Footsteps of Dracula was published by Pegasus Books on October 3. It is 679 pages, priced at $29.95 in hardcover and $26.23 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Derek Thornton/Faceout Studio.

See all of our articles in this series here.

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Damien Moore

I’d definitely be interested in taking these up for review!


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