The Year’s Best Horror Stories was a series of annual anthologies published by DAW Books in the U.S. from 1972 to 1994 under the successive editorships of Richard Davis from 1972 to 1975 (after a 1971-1973 series published by Sphere Books in the U.K.; the first volumes had the same contents, the U.S. second volume in 1974 drew stories from the second and third U.K. volumes, and the 1975 U.S. third volume was very different from the U.K's.; the U.S. third volume was published as a one-shot volume in the U.K. by Orbit Books in 1976), and of Gerald W. Page from 1976 to 1979, and Karl Edward Wagner from 1980 to 1994. The series was discontinued after Wagner's death. It was a companion to DAW’s The Annual World’s Best SF and The Year's Best Fantasy Stories, which performed a similar function for the science fiction and fantasy fields.
Each annual volume reprinted what in the opinion of the editor was the best horror short fiction appearing in the previous year. The series also aimed to discover and nurture new talent. It featured both occasionally recurring authors and writers new to the horror genre. Veterans among the contributing authors included Brian Lumley, Eddy C. Bertin, Kit Reed, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, and Tanith Lee; some of the relative newcomers to the field featured were Stephen King, Al Sarrantonio, Lisa Tuttle, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, David Drake, Juleen Brantingham, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
The series
Volumes edited by Richard Davis
1. The Year’s Best Horror Stories, editor Richard Davis, Sphere Books (UK) 1971; DAW Books (US) 1972
Double Lamby (1970), by Robert Bloch
The Sinister City (1969), by Brian Lumley
When Morning Cums (1969), by Elizabeth Fancett
Pray (1969), by Richard Matheson
Winner (1969), by Kit Reed
Lucifer Morningstar (1969), by E. C. Tubb
I Wonder What He Wants Now (1971), by Eddy C. Bertin
Problem Child (1970), by Peter Oldale
The Scarf (1969), by Ramsey Campbell
Time Warp (1968), by Ralph Norton
The Hate (1971), by Terri E. Pinckard
A Quiet Game (1970), by Celia Fremlin
After Nightfall (1970), by David A. Riley
Death's Door (1969), by Robert McNear
2 (UK). The Year’s Best Horror Stories II, editor Richard Davis, Sphere Books (UK) 1972.
Foreword by Christopher Lee
Thirst (1972), by Gerald W. Page
David's Worm (1971), by Brian Lumley
The Price of a Demon (1972), by Gary Brandner
The Knocker at the Portico (1971), by Basil Copper
The Throwaway Man (1970), by Stepan Chapman [as by Steve Chapman ]
The Woman With the Mauve Face (1972), by Rosemary Timperley
The Shadows of the Living (1970), by Ronald Blythe
The Animal Fair (1971), by Robert Bloch
Napier Court (1971), by Ramsey Campbell
Haunts of the Very Rich (1971) by T. K. Brown, III
3 (UK). The Year’s Best Horror Stories III, editor Richard Davis, Sphere Books (UK) 1973.
Pages from a Young Girl's Journal (1973), by Robert Aickman
The Long-Term Residents (1971), by Kit Pedler
The Mirror from Antiquity (1972), by Susanna Bates
Like Two White Spiders (1973), by Eddy C. Bertin (trans. of Als Twee Grote Witte Spinnen 1971) The Old Horns (1973), by Ramsey Campbell Haggopian (1973), by Brian Lumley The Recompensing of Albano Pizar (1973), by Basil Copper Were-Creature (1971), by Kenneth Pemrooke The Events at Poroth Farm (1972), by T. E. D. Klein
2 (US). The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series II, editor Richard Davis, DAW Books (US) 1974
Foreword by Christopher Lee
David's Worm (1971), by Brian Lumley
The Price of a Demon (1972), by Gary Brandner
The Knocker at the Portico (1971), by Basil Copper
The Animal Fair (1971), by Robert Bloch
Napier Court (1971), by Ramsey Campbell
Haunts of the Very Rich (1971) by T. K. Brown, III
The Long-Term Residents (1971), by Kit Pedler
Like Two White Spiders (1973), by Eddy C. Bertin (trans. of Als Twee Grote Witte Spinnen 1971) The Old Horns (1973), by Ramsey Campbell Haggopian (1973), by Brian Lumley The Events at Poroth Farm (1972), by T. E. D. Klein
3 (US). The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series III, editor Richard Davis, DAW Books (US) 1975; Orbit Books (UK) 1976 as The First Orbit Book of Horror Stories