Ruthven's Attic

This page updated on 12/29/22

Creeps Library
This entry is taken from the Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997) edited by John Clute and John Grant. It is provided as a reference and resource for users of the SF Encyclopedia which I use as a framework for this page. I've made many additions and added commentary (shown in Yellow) to fill-in gaps and missing information.

UK book series published by Philip Allan (1884-1973) and edited by Charles Birkin, who remained uncredited throughout. The series began in 1932, though its roots can be traced to a privately printed annual, The Green Book (4 issues 1919-1922), issued by a disbanded group of Military Intelligence propaganda veterans, including Allan himself and Edward Heron-Allen (> Christopher Blayre). Several stories from The Green Book later appeared in the CL, which consisted primarily of a thrice-yearly Anthology and a series of single-author collections.

Images provided by Mark Terry at Facsimile Dust Jackets

The anthology series ran to 14 titles. These books are the start and the core of the Creeps Library:

I have all of these core editions in my collection, but only ONE - HORRORS - without DJ. If you happen to have a copy, I'd be more than happy to hear from you and make a trade or buy!

Creeps (anth 1932)

Contents Tod Robbins – Silent, White, & Beautiful
H. R. Wakefield – The Red Lodge
Elliott O’Donnell – The Ghost Table
Tod Robbins – Spurs
H. R. Wakefield – “He Cometh And He Passeth By”
Philip Murray – The Charnel House
Elliott O’Donnell – A Wager And A Ghost
Charles Lloyd – The Last Night
Tod Robbins – Cockrow Inn

Shivers (anth 1932)

Contents H. R. Wakefield – The 17th Hole at Duncaster
Charles Lloyd – An Eye for an Eye
Tod Robbins – Wild Wullie the Waster
Mrs. Everett – The Death Mask
Elliott O’Donnell – The Ghost in the Ring
Philip Murray – The Poplar Tree
H. R. Wakefield – “And He Shall Sing…”
Tod Robbins – Who Wants a Green Bottle?
Elliott O’Donnell – The Tank of Death

Shudders (anth 1932)

Contents H. R. Wakefield – Or Persons Unknown
Tod Robbins – Toys
Elliott O’Donnell – Accusing Shadows
H. R. Wakefield – Professor Pownall’s Oversight
Charles Lloyd – The Harlem Horror
Philip Murray – The Trunk
H. R. Wakefield – The Third Coach
Philip Murray – The Crimson Blind
Elliott O’Donnell – The Haunted Spinney
Philip Murray – The Patch
H. R. Wakefield – That Dieth Not

Nightmares (anth 1933)

Contents Hester Holland Gaskell – High Tide
John Ratho – The Escape
Aldwyn Tibbett – “Binkie”
Philip Murray – Hangman’s Cottage
Frederick Cowles – The Headless Leper
Charles Lloyd – “The Happy Dancers”
B. Lumsden Milne – The Haunted Bungalow
V.A. Chappell – The End of the Holiday
Sonya Converse – “Is It True?”
Ronald Aggett – The Curse
Tod Robbins – The Whimpus
Paul Erroll – The Woolen Helmet

Quakes (anth 1933)

Contents Mirabel Cobbold – The Incredible
Phyllis Stone – B72
P. Beaufoy Barry – The Man In The Mirror
Charles Lloyd – Old Mrs. Strathers
H. Glyn-Ward – The Spirit Of Higgins
Hester Gorst – Littlesmith
Ismay Trimble – The Terror By Night
Douglas Newton – The People Of Darkness
A.J. Woodgate – Death Is Avenged
Charles Lloyd – The Actor’s Story
Edith Olivier – Dead Men’s Bones
Elliott O’Donnell – The Cupboard Of Dread
Charles Cullum – Queer

Terrors (anth 1933)

Contents

Charles Lloyd – The Terror On Tobit
Guy Preston – Thirty
Francis Sibson – The “Westerdale’s” Tow
Andre de Lorde – Waxworks
Phyllis Stone – The Man With The Flayed Face
Ursula Gwynne – The Muffler
Marjory Lawrence – The Terror Of Stranger Island
Pamela James – Blue-Black Hair
John Ratho – Arabella Goes North
Phyllis Stone – Spider’s Web
Elliott O’Donnell – The Mystery Of Beechcroft Farm

Monsters (anth 1934)

Contents Vivian Meik – The Two Old Women
Timothy Leaf – Harvest
Kenneth Ingram – The Confession
E.K. Allan – The Round Graveyard
George Benwood – The Interrupted Honeymoon
Phyllis Stone – Blood for a Tiger
Edith Olivier – The Caretaker’s Story
Guy Preston – A Lover Came to Sunnamees
Elliott O’Donnell – The Haunted Telephone
Michael Joseph – The Yellow Cat
Kenneth Ingram – The “Locum”
Charles Lloyd (Charles Birkin) – The Cockroach

Panics (anth 1934)

Contents Edith Olivier – The Night Nurse’s Story
G.W. Jaggard – Aceldama
Charles Lloyd – Shelter
Allan Govan – The Blazing Crystals
E.K. Allan – Death In Hyde Park
J. Russell Warren – “?”
Frederick Graves – The Psyche
John Ratho – Fog
Hill Johnson – A Very Potent Poison
N. Dennett – The Menhir
Elliott O’Donnell – In the Interests of Science
Kenneth Ingram – Reprieve

Powers of Darkness (anth 1934)

Contents Lord Dunsany – The Two Bottles Of Relish
A.E.D. Smith – The Coat
Charles Lloyd – Obsession
Kenneth Ingram – The Third Time
J.H. Turner – The Guillotine
Cicely Fox-Smith – The Mutineers
Russell Thorndike – November The Thirteenth
L.A. Westney – The Miniature In Black
E.R. Morrough – The Temple Servant
Maureen E. Shaw – A Nice Cup Of Tea

Thrills (anth 1935)

Contents Tod Robbins – The Confession
William F. Temple – The Kosso
H. Russell Wakefield – A Fishing Story
Charles Lloyd – Henri Larne
A. H. Claxton – They Come For Their Own
E. F. Henry – I Am Smith
John Ashcroft Hopson – The House With No Road
Ellis Reed – The Queer People
Catherine Clark – The Divine Spark
Richard Anthony Parker Crawshay – Ashes And Ashes
H. Russell Wakefield – Death Of A Poacher
Godfrey Archard – A Bed For the Night
Kenneth Ingram – Passing of the Terror
Patrick Carleton – Doctor Horder’s Room

Tales of Fear (anth 1935)

Contents Vera A. Gadd – The Road
Patrick Clark – Bitten By A Spider
Geoffrey Wyndham – Lewis – The Silent Inn
W.A.C. Chadwick – Many Cats And One Tale
A.D. Avison – The Horror In The Pond
Oswell Blakeston – Adventure Without Asking
Arthur Stafford Aylmer – The Thing From The Pit
Tilly Scard – Lone Cottage
Ada Helen – The Figure At The Window
Henry L. Lawrence – A Journey By Train
Vera A. Gadd – Hillmount
Chrystabel Earle – The Snake

Tales of Death (anth 1936)

Contents Clifford Knight – Kismet
H. Boswell Lancaster – Down-Draught To Hell
Oswell Blakeston – The Hut
Hope Wilson – Lion Of Bengal
Malcolm Ellison – The Devil-Plant
Sydney Darcy – Swift Death
W.J. Pollock – The Cottage
R. P. Morrison – Lost With All Hands
Malcolm Critchley – The Return
Esme H. Bidlake – An Appointment With Death
S.G. MacDonnell – The Graverhouse Affair

Tales of Dread (anth 1936)

Contents Francis H. Sibson – Bathysphere Number 7
Charles Lloyd – Angela
Anne Edgar – The Green Taxi
Oswell Blakeston – The Secret Of The Graves
Sidney Denham -The Silver Lady
David Lord – The Dead Watch
Harold Markham – Dispossessed
Francis Bruguiere – The Tiger
Kenneth Ingram – The False Trail

Left off this original list is:

Horrors (anth 1933)

Contents E. S. Knights – Dr. Browning’s Bus
Allan Govan – The Ever-Turning Dynamos
Hester Gorst – The Doll’s House
Charles Lloyd (Charles Birkin) – Special Diet
Neville Kilvington – Meshes Of Doom
N. Dennett – Unburied Bane
Elliott O’Donnell – The Mystery of the Locked Room
R. F. Broad – Doctor Fawcett’s Experiment
Pamela James – Without A Hitch
John Ratho – Lover’s Meeting
Charles Lloyd (Birkin) – A Poem And A Bunch of Roses
George Benwood – Dark Seance

The first three volumes were assembled as The Creeps Omnibus (omni 1935). Although initial volumes printed a number of Ghost Stories – by Elliott O'Donnell (1872-1965), Tod Robbins and H Russell Wakefield, among others – the later ones focused increasingly on the Conte Cruel, and ran mostly original material rather than reprints. CL was, though, the weakest of the notable series of this period, which included Not at Night and The Ghost Book.

Before beginning Creeps Library, Philip Allan had published volumes of Weird Fiction:These next 4 books where all published before the start of the Creeps Library and are NOT part of it. Some collectors consider these books a part only because they have the same theme as Creeps Library books and if published later would be included into the library:

From this section of earlier Creeps editions, I have all of these 4 editions in my collection, 1 without DJ - The Death Mask. If you happen to have a copy, I'd be more than happy to hear from you and make a trade or buy!

The Death-Mask 1920
by Henrrietta D. Everett

Contents The Death-Mask
Parson Clench
The Wind of Denowe
Nevill Nugent's Legacy
The Crimon Blind
Fingers of a Hand
The Next Heir
Anne's Little Ghost
Over the Wires
A Water-Witch
The Lonely Road
A Girl in White
A Perplexing Case
Beyond the Pale

Who Wants a Green Bottle? 1926
by Tod Robbins

Contents Stories

They Return at Evening 1928
by H. R. Wakefield

Contents That Dieth Not
Or Persons Unkown
"He Cometh and He Passeth By"
Professor Pownall's Oversight
The Third Coach
The Red Lodge
"And He Shall Sing"
The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster
A Peg on which to Hang
An Echo

it was the publication of the next Wakefield volume,

Imagine a Man in a Box (1931)
by H. R. Wakefield

Contents Stories

that sowed the idea for the series in Allan's mind.

Of this next section of titles, all but The Curse of the Red Shiva, The Undying Monster, The Devil of the Depths, and The Monster of the MU I consider to be an associated part of the Creeps Library. When Philip Allan specifically advertised "The Creeps Library" titles on the Dust Jackets of their books, The Red Shiva and The Undying Monster where NOT included- they were only grouped together in the Philip Allan 2/6 Library. And, on some Philip Allan Dust Jackets advertising the "Creeps Library" titles, The Monster of the MU, The Curse of Red Shiva, and The Undying Monster are also advertised but NOT included in the "Creeps Library" (see The Crimson Claw Dust Jacket). Horror on the Asteroid The Creeps Library is advertised and so is The Devil of the Depth- which is seperate from, and not included in, the Creeps Library ad. Why these books were advertised seperately from the Creeps Library is anyone's guess.

From this section of 17, I have all of these editions in my collection, 1 without DJ - Devil's Spawn. If you happen to have a copy, I'd be more than happy to hear from you and make a trade or buy!

The Strange Papers of Dr Blayre(1932) by Christopher Blayre

Contents The Purple Sapphire
The House on the Way to Hell
Aalila
The Mirror that Remembered
Purpura Lapillus
Mano Pantea
The Thing that Smelt
The Blue Cockroach
The Man Who Killed the Jew
The Demon
The Book
The Cosmic Dust

Devil Drums (1933) by Vivian Meik

Contents Full Length Novel

Veils of Fear (1934) by Vivian Meik

Contents Full Length Novel

The Curse of Red Shiva (1936) by Vivian Meik

Contents Full Length Novel

The Three Freaks (1934) by Tod Robbins

Contents Full Length Novel

Mysteries of Asia (1935) by Achmed Abdullah

Contents The Magic of the Cannibal
Sacrifice to the Black One
Serpent Gold
Mystery and a Mannikin
The Death-Beam
Merman of Sulaiman
The Dak Bungalow Ghost
The Kraft
Her Blood for Hindu Goddess
The Haunted Carpet
The Ghosts of Rau Samandar
The Magic House in Afgan Glens
The Human Oil Cure
The Ebon Well
Ghostly Inheritance

Horror on the Asteroid (1936) by Edmond Hamilton

Contents Full Length Novel

Tales of the Grotesque (1936) by L A Lewis

Contents Lost Keep
Hybrid
The Tower of Moab
The Child
The Dirk
The Chords of Chaos
The Meerschaum Pipe
Haunted Air
The Iron Swine
Animath in Death

Devil's Spawn (1936) by Charles Birkin

Contents Stories

The Master of Murder by Tod Robbins (1933)

Contents Full Length Novel

The Air Devil by Barrington Beverley (1934)

Contents Full Length Novel

Devil of the Depths by Jack McLaren (1935)

Contents Full Length Novel

Vampires Overhead by Alan Hyder (1935)

Contents Full Length Novel

The Undying Monster by Jessie Douglas Kerruish (1936)

Contents Full Length Novel

The Space Raiders by Barrington Beverley (1936)

Contents Full Length Novel

The Green Man of Kilsona by Festus Pragnell (1937)

Contents Full Length Novel

Left off all lists but always included in the Philip Allan Creeps Library Ads is:

The Butterfly Murder by Charlton Andrews

Contents Full Length Novel

The Blayre and Lewis volumes are the most interesting in terms of original ideas. The series has served as a source for several later anthologies, especially those assembled by Richard Dalby and Herbert van Thal.

Although these titles have NO concrete link to the Creeps Library, they are still considered to be an associated part of it:

From this section of Associated editions, I have all of these 7 editions in my collection, 2 without DJ - The Monkey God- I have in a Sears edition with DJ not Philip Allan, Daughter of Egypt. If you happen to have a copy, I'd be more than happy to hear from you and make a trade or buy!

The Crystal Skull by Jack McLaren