Ann VanderMeer currently serves as an acquiring editor for Tor.com and Weird Fiction Review and is the editor-in-residence for Shared Worlds. She was the editor-in-chief for Weird Tales for five years, work for which she won a Hugo Award. Fantasy stories have always been with us. They illuminate the odd and the uncanny, the wondrous and the fantastic: all the things we know are lurking just out of sight, other worlds, talking animals, fairies, goblins, demons, tricksters, and mystics. It’s a rich literary tradition that spans the globe. In The Big Book of Classic Fantasy (Vintage) Jeff VanderMeer offers both, careful scholarship and fantastic fun. The book includes classics by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Mary Shelley, and J. R. R. Tolkien; and offerings from literary giants including Edith Wharton, Zora Neale Hurston, Vladimir Nabokov, and W.E.B. Du Bois. But also treasures from Asian, Eastern European, Scandinavian, and Native American traditions. Publishers Weekly called The Big Book of Classic Fantasy “An impressive cross-section of early fantasy in this fascinating anthology of 90 stories. […] a must-have for those interested in the roots of modern fantasy, and it gives a welcome introduction to many unexpected delights.”
