Gothic Literature in Special Collections

Special Collections also holds works that can be connected to classic Gothic themes that fall outside the established genre. Science Fiction tales and folklore surrounding ghosts and monsters are best represented in science-fiction pulp magazines and regional Maryland folklore and ghost stories. The links to these collections can be found below.

The Howard and Jane Frank Collection of Science Fiction Pulp Magazines contains a variety of science fiction pulp magazines. Pulp magazines were inexpensive popular fiction works published from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s, characteristically printed on cheap wood pulp paper. Pulp magazines initially contained a variety of different genres of fiction, including mystery and adventure genres, but in the 1920s magazines devoted to science fiction began to appear more frequently. Science fiction pulp magazines typically featured colorful cover art, along with short stories that embraced futuristic and fantasy themes, highlighting technology, space travel, otherworldly creatures, scientific innovation, and unexplored environments.