Reader, have you ever wondered who struck fear into the heart of H. P. Lovecraft? It was Robert Chambers. Now, the terror visits you.

A wicked link in a terrifying lineage, the tales contained in The King in Yellow have inspired generations of American horror writers. Look toward unspeakable Hastur and tell yourself these are only tales. Behold the Yellow Sign and convince yourself that, after all?it's only a book.

Welcome, dear reader, to Carcosa.

Edited with notes and introduction by John Edgar Browning.

John Edgar Browning (Ph.D., SUNY-Buffalo) is visiting lecturer in writing and communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is internationally recognized for his horror and Gothic scholarship, with over a dozen published or forthcoming books and seventy shorter works.