Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For the subject matter of my original post, I look
> preferably for work written in consummate prose,
> and in settings from the 1920's and onward.
I had somehow got the impression you were looking for something of a more literary source, rather than the more pulpish type of tale. Of the latter, I've no doubt there were quite a few (though memory fails me at this point, as most of those tend to blur into one another after a while, and I've not read many such in decades); but as for something which might fit the "best writers" dealing with such... those are a bit more scarce, in my recollection. I'd have to do some looking through things to refresh my memory on that, I'm afraid.
>
> The 1950's EC horror comics were full of such
> images, and I suppose they must have been tapping
> literary sources.
Not necessarily; and even where they were, they were often doing so from a considerable distance... though their adaptations of some of Bradbury's stories (e.g., "The Handler") were a good deal closer to the source....
However... you might want to look into some of the writings of Hugh B. Cave; particularly that massive collection of his stories,
Murgunstrumm and Others:
[
en.wikipedia.org]
The literary quality there is anything but high, but you might enjoy them, particularly with Coye's illustrations. As Karl Edward Wagner put it, letting Coye loose on those stories by Cave was a bit like letting a psychopath loose with a straight razor.....