Check It Out: Tales get haunting at the Newport library

The "Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe" and "Poetry and Tales" both offer dozens of frightening stories and prose by perhaps the most renowned writer of American horror. Poe scripted such haunting classics as "The Premature Burial," "The Tell-Tale Heart," The Masque of the Red Death, "The Oblong Box," "The Raven" and so many more.

But, what happened to the man behind the stories? Poe was found wandering the streets of Baltimore, delirious, and wearing clothing not his own. Despite being taken to a hospital, he never become coherent and died just a few days later. What could have happened to Poe? We may never know.

With "Tales, The Dunwich Horror and Others," and "The Haunter of the Dark, and Other Tales of Horror," H.P. Lovecraft offers dozens of terrifying tales and is perhaps the most prolific author of American horror outside of Edgar Allen Poe.

"The Call of Cthulhu" is perhaps Lovecraft's most lasting story of undeniable cosmic horror — an entity born not of this Earth, waiting to awaken and swallow humanity. Other stories such as "The Dunwich Horror," "The Picture in the House," "The Hound," "The Statement of Randolph Carter," and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" will bewilder, amaze, and terrify you.

Lovecraft's writing depicts a reality beyond our own, of which a mere glimpse will petrify you. Did Lovecraft actually see into another world? The reader will have to decide — though, it may be of some importance to note that it is said the Lovecraft's body is not truly buried beneath his own tombstone.