The Early Long is a collection of stories by Frank Belknap Long

Frank Belknap Long

Frank Belknap Long was a prolific American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including early contributions to...

. Released in 1975

1975 in literature

The year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.* Writing under the...

, more than 50 years after the start of Long's career, it contains some of Long's best stories, together with an introduction which casts light on his early life and work. Many of the stories had appeared in Weird Tales

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

 and other pulp magazines and had helped establish Long's reputation as one of the classic writers of the horror and science fiction genres in the early twentieth century.

In the introduction, Long discusses his indebtedness to greats such as H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

, Poe, Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...

, H.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

, Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

, Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...

 & Robert Bloch

Robert Bloch

Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...

. Long also wrote a brief intro to each of the stories.

Contents

The Early Long contains the following:

1. "Introduction"
2. "A Visitor from Egypt"
3. "Dark Vision"
4. "Death-Waters"
5. "Fisherman's Luck"
6. "Grab Bags Are Dangerous"
7. "It Will Come to You"
8. "Second Night Out"
9. "Step Into My Garden"
10. "The Census Taker"
11. "The Dark Beasts"
12. "The Elemental"
13. "The Flame Midget"
14. "The Hounds of Tindalos"
15. "The Ocean Leech"
16. "The Peeper"
17. "The Refugees"
18. "The Space-Eaters"