In 1957 Michael Avallone was writing short stories for a syndicated radio program called
The Frightened (which featured the voice of horror actor Boris Karloff) when he was approached by book packager Lyle Kenyon Engel to edit several lines of digest magazines. One of these was
Tales of the Frightened, which Engel envisaged would be a tie-in to the Karloff program. The project only lasted two issues, however. Several years later Karloff's readings were released as a phonograph record and the texts published as a book by Avallone.
In addition to Avallone, other authors whose works were included in the two published issues included
A. Bertram Chandler, John Wyndham, Poul Anderson and Mack Reynolds.
