Many of Russell Kirk’s books never have gone out of print, but the one that is said to have sold more copies than all of the others combined is an exception: Old House of Fear, a best-selling novel published in 1961. I’d probably still be searching for one if it hadn’t been for the Internet, which I used to track down a secondhand copy a few years ago. Thankfully, Eerdmans, a publisher in Grand Rapids, Mich., has just re-issued the novel. I’m actually quoted on the back cover: “Kirk deserves a place alongside the classic authors of supernatural fiction, such as Algernon Blackwood, H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Edgar Allen Poe.” (The line comes from this article, which is about Kirk’s ghost stories; Old House of Fear is actually less supernatural than Gothic.) As novels go, it’s a pretty quick read; the new edition is 194 pages. I would have welcomed an introduction–there is none–but Kirk’s text is of course the main attraction. Very nice to see this book back in print, and just in time for the beach, or a dark summer night.