The Opener of the Way is a collection of fantasy and horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 by author 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...

. It was released in 1945

1945 in literature

The year 1945 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 1 - The magazine Ebony is published for the first time.*Noel Coward's short play, Still Life, is adapted to become the film, Brief Encounter....

 and was the author's first book. It was published by Arkham House

Arkham House

Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...

 in an edition of 2,065 copies.

Most of the stories had appeared in the magazine 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....

in the 1930s and 1940s.

Contents

The Opener of the Way contains the following tales:

1. "By Way of Introduction"
2. "The Cloak"
3. "Beetles"
4. "The Fiddler's Fee"
5. "The Mannikin"
6. "The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton"
7. "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper"
8. "The Seal of the Satyr"
9. "The Dark Demon"
10. "The Faceless God"
11. "The House of the Hatchet"
12. "The Opener of the Way"
13. "Return to the Sabbath"
14. "The Mandarin's Canaries"
15. "Waxworks"
16. "The Feast in the Abbey"
17. "Slave of the Flames"
18. "The Shambler from the Stars"
19. "Mother of Serpents"
20. "The Secret of Sebek"
21. "The Eyes of the Mummy"
22. "One Way to Mars"

Trivia

The creators of the game Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...

reference Bloch's work: the central villain, Dr. Wallace Breen refers to the player's character, Gordon Freeman in a televised speech saying "And yet, unsophisticated minds continue to imbue him with romantic power, giving him such dangerous poetic labels as 'the one free man, the opener of the way.'"

The Dungeons and Dragons Role-playing game features (in the third Monster Manual) a creature called Allabar, Opener of the Way. Allabar enables Aberrations to enter the world from the Far Realm by opening the way, as it were.