Darkness at Dawn: Early Suspense Classics by Cornell Woolrich

From 1934until his death in 1968, CorÂnell Woolrich wrote dozens of tales of love and despairâ that chill the heart and display his mastery of the genre he all but created. In a title for a story he never wrote, he captured the essence of his tortured world: First you dream, then you die.â

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Introducing these 13 tales, Nevins deÂscribes the dark world Woolrich so vivÂidly creates. The dominant reality in his world is the Depression, and Woolrich has no peers when it comes to describing a frightened little guy in a tiny apartment with no money, no job, a hunÂgry wife and children, and anxiety eating him like a cancer. If a Woolrich protagoÂnist is in love, the beloved is likely to vanish in such a way that he not only canât find her but canât convince anyone she ever existed.â