“We tell stories of the dead as a way of making a sense of the living.
More than just simple urban legends and campfire tales,
ghost stories reveal the contours of our anxieties,
the nature of our collective fears and desires,
the things we can’t talk about in any other way. ”
— COLIN DICKEY —
Oldstyle Tales Press is a plucky, family-owned publisher based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, specializing in annotated and illustrated editions of literature from the Classic Era of Horror Fiction. We define this as: critically acclaimed, Western ghost stories, weird fiction, and Gothic horror written between the advents of the French Revolution and the Great Depression (1789 - 1929).
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"Our mission is to make classic horror engrossing and accessible
through thought-provoking analysis and beautiful art;
we make the sorts of books we'd like to own."
Reading the classics should feel like an adventure -- not homework -- and we bring that adventure to your armchair (crackling fire, glass of tawny port, and wind-lashed night not included).
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WHAT WE DO & WHY WE DO IT
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“If I’m not careful, something of this kind may happen to me!”
— M. R. JAMES —
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When I was a grad student nursing a guilty pleasure love for classic horror, I found myself frustrated by the disappointing quality of the vast majority of anthologies in the classic horror genre. I wanted the genre to experience the same care that literary fiction experience in the anthologies I was reading for my classes – richly resourced and annotated critical editions from Norton, Penguin, and Oxford UP.
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Most easy-to-find, mass-produced anthologies of authors like E. Nesbit, W. W. Jacobs, Algernon Blackwood, and Washington Irving come with:
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A bland, brief introduction
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Bad AI cover “art”
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No commentary
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No footnotes
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No illustrations
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No passion​
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Oldstyle Tales’ Annotated and Illustrated editions always come with:
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A large, analytical, informative introduction
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Beautiful cover art selected from period oil paintings
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Introductory and analytical commentary with every story
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Footnotes for every story (currently a work in progress)
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Haunting, chiaroscuro illustrations for every story
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The passion of a nerdy professor obsessed with the genre & era
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​M. GRANT KELLERMEYER
FOUNDER, EDITOR, & ILLUSTRATOR
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“I will tell you what always has frightened me most
In reading or writing the tale of a ghost:
Not details, however gruesome or uncouth,
But the lurking belief that the story’s the truth.”
— W. F. HARVEY —
My name is Michael Grant Kellermeyer (b. 1987), a "retired" English professor and current publisher, writer, and illustrator based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I earned my B.A. in English from Anderson University in 2010 and my M.A. in Literature from Ball State University in 2012.
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I taught writing and literature in Indiana for eight years at a variety of colleges including Ball State University and the Indiana Institute of Technology. Once Oldstyle Tales had grown from a hobby to a business, I left higher education.
Almost nine months later, I had an even better reason to work from home when our first child was born. Today I am a proud stay-at-home dad for my five year old, Charlotte, and her new baby brother, Hugh.
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I founded Oldstyle Tales while bored on winter break from my first teaching job in 2013. Its first title, The Best Victorian Ghost Stories, was published in September 2013, followed shortly by editions of Frankenstein and The Annotated and Illustrated Edgar Allan Poe. Today we have 38 titles in print.
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In my free-time I enjoy playing violin, watching old movies, walking in nature, and swinging on the front porch with my wife, Kierstin, and kids. I find small joys in sandalwood shaving cream, pipe tobacco, and air-dried sheets.
My non-fiction reading list is dominated by stories of man against nature, shipwrecks, natural disasters, and mountaineering; 18th/19th century history, military history, and exploration history; theology, mysticism, and paranormal mysteries; G. K. Chesterton, P. G. Wodehouse, and Washington Irving.
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I also love listening to Classical music, jazz standards, and sea shanties; watching the films of Vincent Price, Alfred Hitchcock, Hayao Miyazaki, and Stanley Kubrick; and sipping gin cocktails, stovetop coffee, and mint tea.
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MY ILLUSTRATIONS
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“GHOST, n. The outward and visible sign of an inward fear.”
— AMBROSE BIERCE —
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Our hallmark chiaroscuro illustrations are pencil sketches done on 6 x 9 paper. The pictures are drawn in negative, and after being scanned, the color is digitally inverted, leaving a composition largely composed of deep shadows (the white paper) interspersed with glowing swathes of light (pencil smudges), and highlights (pencil marks).
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Here's a side-by-side "before and after" of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's haunting masterpiece, "Schalken the Painter". On the left is the pencil drawing I made; on the right it has been inverted and touched up with Pixlr editor.
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